Analyst Insights from GNE 2024: Carrier NaaS in 2025

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Spotlight: Roy Chua, Founder & Principal, AvidThink

2024 ended with a flurry of NaaS-related (Network-as-a-Service) announcements across the networking industry, from enterprises to carriers. There was confusion around what NaaS meant, and definitions and redefinitions were abundant. For those of us who are still confused, as we define it at AvidThink, NaaS is a business model.

Avid Think

We anticipate that NaaS fever will continue into 2025. In particular, one aspect of NaaS—Carrier NaaS—will garner interest from carriers and enterprises as AI workloads and data center buildouts continue. To anticipate what 2025 holds for Carrier NaaS, we thought we’d revisit our takeaways from MEF’s latest Global NaaS Event, GNE 2024.

AvidThink’s GNE Takeaways 

NaaS is Gaining Momentum

There was consensus at GNE 2024 that NaaS is rapidly gaining traction. Enterprises are recognizing the benefits of NaaS, such as agility, efficiency, and scalability. This is evident in the growing number of enterprises adopting Carrier NaaS solutions to meet their connectivity needs. GNE also highlighted MEF members’ efforts in NaaS standardization and the growing ecosystem of providers and technology vendors. 

Automation is Key (Not Surprising, but Important)

Automation was a central theme throughout the event. Speakers emphasized the importance of automation in enabling NaaS to be agile, scalable, and cost-effective. MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs are recognized as a key enabler of automation in the NaaS ecosystem. Over 160 service providers are at various stages of adopting LSO APIs, demonstrating recognition of their importance in automating service delivery and management. 

Focus on Customer Experience

GNE 2024 highlighted the importance of the customer experience. Many speakers discussed why NaaS providers need to offer a seamless and intuitive customer journey, from ordering and provisioning to managing and monitoring services. This includes providing clear service descriptions, simplified ordering processes, and robust customer support channels. 

Security Should be Paramount

With the increasing number of cyber threats, carriers need to focus on security. Sparkle’s introduction of a Quantum-Safe over Internet (QSI) service, combining NaaS with post-quantum encryption, was a notable development in this area. In a related announcement, MEF announced that 15 technology and service providers have achieved MEF SASE Certification for Secure Access Service Edge, validating carriers’ interest in offering security with connectivity solutions. 

Growing Interest Across Industries

The expansion of MEF’s Enterprise Leadership Council (ELC) from 4 to 14 members, representing diverse industries (entertainment, financial services, banking, retail, technology, healthcare, and consulting), underscores the growing interest in NaaS across various sectors. NaaS is not just limited to select industries, it is becoming increasingly relevant for businesses of all types and sizes. 

MEF’s 2025 NaaS Industry Blueprint

At GNE 2024, MEF unveiled the latest edition of its massive NaaS Industry Blueprint, providing technology and business leaders with MEF’s roadmap for the future of NaaS. This blueprint aims to guide enterprises on engaging with NaaS providers, navigating the ecosystem, and leveraging emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning, to optimize network operations. 

Shift Towards a Federated Model

NaaS is moving towards a federated model with automated and connected global underlays to support overlay models (e.g., SD-WAN). This model enables greater interoperability in NaaS offerings, allowing enterprises to seamlessly connect to different networks and services. There’s much work to be done, but we’re glad that the discussions and efforts have started. 

In conjunction with the takeaways from MEF GNE above, there are parallel trends that will continue to influence the evolution of NaaS this year: 

Advanced Observability

Enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting are critical in any type of network service—overlay and underlay. Full-stack observability, as promulgated by the major networking vendors (and carriers), needs to be available to support seamless NaaS, particularly for services that span multiple operators. 

AI’s Transformative Role

AI plays an increasingly important role in NaaS, enabling automation, optimization, and enhanced security. AI-powered solutions can analyze network traffic, predict potential issues, and adjust network configurations to optimize performance and security. We’re not concerned about underinvestment here (it’s the shiniest new object) but worry about an over-pivot that distracts from critical investments in increasing the agility of carriers’ underlying infrastructure (data modernization, cloud transformation, agile processes, smart orchestration, and automation). 

Customer Journey Optimization

NaaS providers will want to combine strong customer support with seamless digital engagement, blending online interactions with API-enabled integrations to create a frictionless experience. This includes providing self-service portals, personalized recommendations, and intelligent support. As agentic AI becomes feasible and deployable in 2025, carriers might want to treat these agents as another type of customer. 

Cloud Security Integration

Integrating cloud interconnectivity with security capabilities (SSE, ZTNA), and enhancing Multi-Cloud Networking (MCN) offerings reflects the growing importance of security in cloud environments. 

Influence of CloudOps and DevOps

CloudOps and DevOps teams will influence NaaS adoption as enterprises increasingly rely on cloud-based applications and services. This drives the demand for programmable, on-demand, secure, and SLA-driven connectivity solutions that these teams can integrate into their platforms. 

Many of these aren’t net new but need continued efforts by carriers—transformation and improvement are multi-year investments. While a few of the trends risk bordering on the mundane—how many times can we say “data modernization” or “cloud transformation”?—many carriers are plodding on that journey, making limited progress. Thankfully, there are shining lights who’ve pushed ahead—you know who you are!

NaaS Traction in 2025 

MEF’s GNE 2024 provided a forum to examine and discuss the current state and future direction of NaaS. With the industry continuing to evolve, events like GNE play a crucial role in bringing together stakeholders to collaborate and drive innovation in the NaaS ecosystem—I feel that’s one of the key roles that MEF and GNE play.

While complete enterprise adoption of NaaS may take time, the vision is clear: agile, efficient, innovative, and customer-focused networking has to be part of carriers’ futures. NaaS capabilities, APIs that allow ISVs and enterprises to access and control these NaaS functions, and an agile business framework that governs NaaS will be the key to unlocking more value for carriers in 2025 and beyond. Onwards to MEF’s GNE 2025, November 10-12 in Dallas, Texas.

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Roy Chua

Founder & Principal | AvidThink

Roy Chua is founder and principal at AvidThink, an independent research and advisory service formed in 2018 out of SDxCentral’s research arm. Roy was previously co-founder at SDxCentral where he was responsible for both the research and product team. Roy was formerly a management consultant working with both Fortune 500 and Start-up Technology companies on go-to-market and product consulting.

As an early proponent of the software-defined infrastructure movement, Roy is a frequent speaker at events in the telco and cloud space and a regular contributor to leading technology publications. A graduate of UC Berkeley’s electrical engineering and computer science program and MIT’s Sloan School of Business, Chua has 20+ years of experience in telco and enterprise cloud computing, networking and security, including founding several Silicon Valley startups.


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