In Cisco’s vision, Network as a Service (NaaS) is a way for organizations to consume networking capabilities as an on-demand service rather than owning and managing all the underlying infrastructure themselves. Instead of buying hardware and software outright and running everything in-house, IT teams can subscribe to networking outcomes—such as secure connectivity, performance, and policy enforcement—delivered through a service model. This approach helps organizations: - Adapt more quickly to changing workforce needs, especially in a digital‑first world accelerated by the pandemic. - Shift some of the operational burden of deployment, management, and updates to a trusted provider. - Align network spending more closely with usage and business priorities. Cisco’s NaaS vision is about reimagining the network as a flexible, consumption-based platform that can evolve as business requirements change, rather than a static set of devices that must be refreshed and reconfigured manually over time.

NaaS sits within a broader shift toward flexible, subscription-based IT consumption, but it focuses specifically on networking. Many organizations already use models like Software as a Service (SaaS) or infrastructure subscriptions. NaaS extends this thinking to the network itself. Instead of treating switches, routers, and security appliances as one‑time capital purchases, NaaS lets you consume networking capabilities in a more agile, service‑oriented way. In practice, this means: - You pay for network services and outcomes, not just equipment. - You can scale services up or down as business needs change. - You can integrate NaaS with existing on‑premises, cloud, and hybrid environments rather than replacing everything at once. Survey data from the 2022 Global Networking Trends Report shows that IT professionals are actively exploring where to start with NaaS, often beginning with specific use cases—such as remote work support or branch connectivity—before expanding to broader network domains.

SASE and NaaS are related but distinct concepts. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a security and networking framework that combines wide-area networking with cloud-delivered security services. It focuses on providing secure access for users, devices, and applications, regardless of location. NaaS, on the other hand, is a consumption model for networking. It’s about how you acquire and operate network capabilities—through a service-based, often subscription approach—rather than about a specific security architecture. In other words: - SASE defines *what* kind of secure, cloud-enabled access architecture you deploy. - NaaS defines *how* you consume and manage the networking capabilities that support that architecture. A common misconception is that NaaS is just cloud-based network management. The 2022 Global Networking Trends conversation makes it clear that NaaS is broader than that. It includes: - Flexible consumption and subscription models. - Outcome-focused services, not just tools. - The ability to support a digital‑first workforce and distributed environments. Many IT professionals are starting their NaaS and SASE journeys in parallel—using NaaS to simplify how they consume networking, while using SASE principles to strengthen and streamline secure access across the organization.