Verizon Business folds multicloud management into NaaS framework

Verizon Business has launched a Network as a Service (NaaS) Cloud Management service for enterprises operating their networks in multicloud environments.  

Many of Verizon's enterprise customers use multiple cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Oracle and IBM, Debika Bhattacharya, Chief Product Officer for Verizon Business, told Light Reading. However, the use of private, public and hybrid clouds has "become very complex as developers build applications on different clouds," she said in an email.

"The combinations of endpoint-to-cloud, cloud-to-cloud, data center-to-cloud, etc., has made the whole networking environment extremely complex," Bhattacharya added. "Users typically don't have strong visibility across these instances and environments."

Verizon's NaaS Cloud Management service provides visibility into multicloud environments via a customer portal. It can be used as a standalone service or together with Verizon Business' broader NaaS offering. By using it together with the larger NaaS framework, enterprises can "connect all sites, devices, etc., with simplified connectivity across multiple cloud providers. All the major cloud providers are supported," said Bhattacharya.

Related:Looking ahead: Nascent NaaS industry needs strong service provider buy-in

Automation to come

Instead of building network configurations whenever an application is added to a cloud instance, customers can perform this process through a centralized managed service. They can also utilize Verizon's NaaS Cloud Management portal to move cloud workloads, and gain visibility into capabilities such as load balancing, network traffic and performance, and firewalls within their cloud infrastructure. The service currently includes automation capabilities and will have machine learning (ML) features in the future, said Bhattacharya.

"The automation tools we use provide point-and-click capability for on-demand deployment," she said. "In the next phase, we will add integrated ML tools for management."

The NaaS Cloud Management service also provides customers with the ability to establish connectivity between public, private and hybrid clouds, as well as connectivity between clouds and their network edge infrastructure. This capability ensures a secure interconnection of cloud providers, data centers and end users, said Verizon.

North America is predicted to bring in the largest NaaS revenue opportunity over the next four years, and campus NaaS is forecasted to reach global revenue of $609 million by 2027, according to analysts at Dell'Oro Group.