Business focus on prioritising resiliency and agility as crucial parts of their IT strategy has grown. To enable this, organisations require greater visibility, cross-platform control, and improved data management and protection that spans edge-to-core.
At the same time, connectivity and business networking have grown more critical and complex to maintain as the network’s edge continues to spread. As a result, flexible consumption models have evolved to alleviate managerial challenges and digital and network revolutions.
Recently, there has been an increase in awareness and use of flexible consumption models, especially for edge connectivity, notably network-as-a-service (NaaS). These services give cloud-like flexibility of IT resources to reduce network operational administration but also help accelerate new deployments.
Deploying NaaS facilitates the financial flexibility necessary for shorter planning cycle times while providing an agile infrastructure to manage changing business conditions. Businesses may also seek strategies to enhance network performance and automate networking tasks. NaaS facilitates these improvements by providing a cloud-based platform with analytics to enable automation and improved reaction to networking changes.
The Challenge
Investments in technology may not always produce the desired results for the business. For example, resource constraints may cause essential projects to be postponed. It may take too long for full implementation. Infrastructure teams may become overburdened by day-to-day operations.
Recent global events like the pandemic have heightened the need for improved financial and technical agility and flexibility to meet rapidly changing scenarios. This problem is addressed with the as-a-service model. This enables businesses to acquire, deploy, manage, and optimise their information technology resources quickly and efficiently and make modifications when their requirements shift. Until recently, a consumer experience for corporate networking comparable to that of cloud computing has trailed behind other categories of IT infrastructure, such as compute and storage.
The benefits of ‘as-a-service’
Network as a Service, or NaaS, is a flexible way to consume enterprise network infrastructure that enables businesses to keep up with the pace of innovation, adapt to rapidly shifting business needs, and optimise network performance and user experiences using a subscription model similar to that of the cloud.
Businesses have typically consumed network infrastructure as a one-time capital investment consisting of purchasing individual pieces of hardware, software, licenses, and services that can often be bundled together. NaaS enables businesses to consume and optionally outsource the full lifecycle of their network deployment. This entails all hardware, software, licenses, and services being delivered in a flexible consumption or subscription-based offering, which can be accounted for as an operational expense.
NaaS allows businesses to contract out their networks’ planning, implementation, and day-to-day operational administration. This can include decommissioning and end-of-life maintenance, software upgrades, monitoring, and troubleshooting. By using this method, businesses have access to the latest technology while reducing the workload of their internal IT departments.
GreenLake for Aruba
NaaS is a new way of consuming network infrastructure that is designed to stimulate efficiencies while minimising risk, accelerating ROI, and allowing businesses to accomplish desired results while maintaining financial flexibility.
HPE GreenLake for Aruba is a comprehensive NaaS service that enables businesses to use Aruba’s Edge Services Platform in a cloud-like way, with a single monthly subscription payment and flexible consumption options. HPE’s GreenLake for Aruba solution is provided where and how businesses need it by leveraging HPE’s massive financial resources and the geographic reach of Aruba’s channel partner network.
HPE GreenLake for Aruba “service packs” are created around common working use cases to ease procurement and delivery while accelerating time-to-value. Each service pack contains all necessary Aruba hardware, software, support services, and access to the Aruba Central cloud management platform and Customer Experience Management. All are available on a subscription model with flexible consumption choices.
Three standard service packs include wireless, wired and SD-Branch as-a-service:
- HPE GreenLake for Aruba Wireless as-a-service services are designed to enable major wireless use cases such as hybrid work/learning, connected retail, IoT and hyperaware facilities, among others.
- Aruba HPE GreenLake Wired as-a-Service products deliver the performance, scalability, and automation needed to service IoT, mobile, and cloud applications on the campus wired network.
- HPE GreenLake for Aruba integrates wireless, wired, WAN, and security technologies into a single platform with unified administration, allowing businesses to improve performance and security while minimising expenses at branch locations.
As businesses continue to seek methods to boost productivity, models such as NaaS provide a future-proof solution for IT departments to meet new workloads and business requirements. HPE GreenLake for Aruba is a comprehensive NaaS offering that streamlines network resource procurement and deployment, decreases time-to-value and ensures your network is always available to serve ever-changing business objectives. Aruba Central is an AI-powered network management system that simplifies IT operations, increases agility, and lowers costs by consolidating network infrastructure management.
We, as your IT partner, can help your business take advantage of the GreenLake for Aruba offering.
