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How to get better business outcomes with NaaS
Fri, 9th Dec 2022
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Making critical decisions to safeguard against rapidly changing conditions is a top priority for businesses moving into 2023. 

Fixed assets, or legacy systems, are no longer the ideal approach for businesses as demand to cater to hybrid, global workforces drive a new approach to network management. 

Network as a Service (NaaS) is fast becoming a top priority for organisations, with 94% of companies in Australia currently discussing NaaS implementation, and 68% believing the flexibility to scale their network based on needs is in their best interest, given rising business challenges in an ever-increasing digital world. 

HPE Greenlake for Aruba, a part of the open and secure edge-to-cloud HPE Greenlake platform, is the NaaS solution keeping pace with the speed of business by ensuring the network is always ready to support business needs, and to quickly and efficiently deploy critical use cases.

Harnessing business capabilities through NaaS

Businesses have debated over the ‘build or buy’ approach, and for a time, many placed value on the build approach, viewing this as a long-term investment. However, with rapid digitisation, businesses need to consider how a build approach could limit their capabilities to cater to a digital-first world. 

1. Financial flexibility

Traditional financial obstacles are a main driver for NaaS uptake, providing businesses with financial flexibility to pay as you grow. NaaS combines hardware, software, services and support in a single monthly subscription, meaning less time in stringent approval processes and more time getting on with business.

In the dynamic business climate we’re facing, having options to scale services as needed without compromise on quality of service delivery eliminates the guesswork and potential bottlenecks that come with the build approach. 

2. Enhanced security

NaaS implementation allows more ready access to the latest technology, optimising network performance and enhancing security by providing deep insight into the network environment, and leveraging AI and machine learning capabilities to mitigate security risks and act on network issues before the end user is impacted. 

3. Sustainability goals

Creating sustainable workplaces is a high priority for businesses globally. IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) management can be quite costly, placing mounting pressure on businesses environmental impact. Effective NaaS programs roll out a sustainable reuse and retirement approach supporting and enabling corporate sustainability goals. 

4. Full-service management options

Full network management alleviates the skills gap many businesses are battling with. Through Aruba’s trusted channel partners, the complete management of the network can be outsourced, extending organisational flexibility by meeting businesses where they are in their network journey and tailoring the service to their needs.

NaaS as the future of infrastructure modernisation

Businesses tend to shy away from infrastructure modernisation due to the perceived short-term disruption it can cause, and the financial ramifications of overhauling heavily invested infrastructure and legacy systems. However, the pressure to accelerate digital transformation strategies in business is mounting, and solutions need to be deployed to keep up.

NaaS relieves the burden IT leaders and teams face when encountering daily considerations to network deployment, such as budget challenges delaying critical projects, daily operations adding to the network teams load, and equipment not performing to its peak, to name a few. 

NaaS provides higher-quality network and IT services that are critical to business operation and resiliency, as it constantly monitors and optimises the network, allowing IT resources to focus on business-enabling tasks rather than just ‘keeping the lights on’. 

Bolstering business capacity

With IT skills being listed on Australia’s official skills shortage list, certified IT professionals are in high demand. Aruba has a pool of trusted partners with in-depth NaaS expertise to help businesses harness NaaS potential, focusing internal teams on more valuable, proactive and meaningful work that contributes to greater business outcomes, alleviating the pressure on IT teams bridging the skills gap.

Having the right people and infrastructure in place allows a business to be innovative, agile, scalable, and access to new technology for peak optimised performance. The flow-on effect of this is reduced operational risk, as IT teams are able to perform more critical work without undertaking the management of network infrastructure deployment. 

NaaS simplifies technology management, challenging traditional infrastructure models and paving a flexible future for businesses. This new approach provides a new affordable framework that will prove to aid in driving business transformation, while bolstering business resiliency, enabling agility and innovation.