Modern business relies on network and cloud infrastructure, and hybrid and multi-cloud architectures are now the norm. Demand for connectivity continues to rise, and key trends such as AI adoption, cloud migrations, and moving workloads to the edge are accelerating that demand. As businesses become increasingly reliant on complex, multi-vendor infrastructure, the ability to consume infrastructure as a service has become a key differentiator in terms of efficiency.
Last month, Futuriom released its 2024 Multi-Cloud Networking (MCN) and Network as a Service (NaaS) Survey Report (see the full report here), highlighting “a critical need for MCN and NaaS technology” across the companies surveyed. With 82% of respondents citing AI as a driver for MCN and NaaS demand, and 78% believing efficient network solutions and multi-cloud networking will be crucial to enable hybrid cloud adoption, it’s clear that finding the best way to efficiently consume infrastructure in a multi-cloud environment is a top priority.
MCN & NaaS Have Quickly Become Top Priorities
In Futuriom’s survey data, 95% of respondents identified MCN connectivity and NaaS as critical or very important to their organizations. As businesses adopt hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, the complexity of managing diverse networks grows exponentially. Simply put, multi-cloud connectivity and network as a service capabilities are no longer luxuries — they’re a necessity for modern IT organizations.
As a result, over the next five years, Futuriom expects major investments in MCN and NaaS solutions — especially driven by the explosive growth of AI. This means a greater focus on integration between infrastructure domains and their automation stacks — 5G services, data lakes, IoT connectivity, cloud providers, all of these elements must be connected so that infrastructure services can be orchestrated and productized.
Futuriom’s report found that the vast majority of organizations are pursuing multi-cloud and/or hybrid cloud strategies. “What we are finding,” the report states, “is the need for a more flexible and diverse ecosystem for connecting things on-demand — in short, multi-cloud networks.” In addition, the percentage of respondents who say seamless multi-cloud networking connectivity is very important jumped from 59% last year to 71% this year. The industry is developing quickly, and infrastructure is evolving. The multi-cloud, multi-domain integration required to enable the delivery of cloud and network as a service is critical to how businesses operate today.
The report also gets into the details on AI as a major driver for the need for multi-cloud connectivity and network as a service capabilities. “The data that will be used for AI will be everywhere, including multiple clouds and private datacenters,” the report states. As a result, 82% of respondents say AI services will significantly increase their need for solutions that can connect multiple clouds and drive efficient outcomes across complex infrastructure.
What’s Holding MCN & NaaS Adoption Back?
While the benefits are clear, the path to adoption isn’t without hurdles. Futuriom’s report describes several key challenges facing teams looking to adopt efficient MCN and NaaS solutions:
Infrastructure Complexity
The number of public clouds, AI-driven workloads, and edge deployments continues to grow, leading to higher operational overhead and fragmented systems. Managing this complexity requires not just tools, but a strategic approach to orchestration and automation. Teams must juggle the capabilities of the platforms they adopt with the skillsets required to learn how to use them, and must find the most efficient solutions for coordinating workflows across complex and distributed infrastructure.
An Evolving Landscape
AI, cloud migration, and other key initiatives introduce new levels of connectivity challenges. It’s not just about managing more data — it’s about navigating the nuances of distributed workloads, real-time demands, and heightened security requirements across a more distributed network.
Multi-Vendor, Multi-Domain Integration
The more vendors can support an integration-focused ecosystem, the easier it will be for teams to manage complex infrastructure architectures. Futuriom’s report highlights the importance of leveraging APIs, and Itential’s view is that any network or infrastructure vendor should strive to provide a public API in a standard format so automation solutions can easily interact with their tools and systems. The report also discusses multi-cloud connectivity solutions like cloud NaaS onramps. “As cloud infrastructure expands, NaaS implementations will grow in importance to connect infrastructure,” the report states.
How Itential Supports NaaS for Hybrid Multi-Cloud Networks
Our API orchestration platform is built to streamline integration across any API-enabled system, across all cloud environments, network domains, and IT systems. Each domain and cloud team can build their own domain-specific automations according to their needs, and then Itential can call those automations as part of an orchestrated workflow — think of Itential as sitting a layer above the individual cloud environments and network domains, coordinating automated tasks via API calls to turn a complex process into a consistent, end-to-end outcome.
Our approach gives our platform a few key advantages when looking at MCN and NaaS needs today.
- First, Itential users aren’t tied to any specific networking or infrastructure vendors. Not only can our platform integrate with any vendor — it’s also a quick process, and workflows are modular, meaning switching vendors for any solution is straightforward.
- Second, our platform offers a layer of abstraction while delivering powerful automation and orchestration capabilities, allowing users to easily build workflows without learning new skillsets and tools for each underlying domain — without sacrificing on capabilities.
- Third, Itential is built to make consuming infrastructure services as streamlined as possible. Any published workflow can be exposed via an API endpoint and delivered through an IDP or ServiceNow, called by a pipeline, run via a GUI in Itential Cloud, etc.
These innovative capabilities directly translate to business value by enabling a product-driven approach to infrastructure. Consistent, standardized, orchestrated services across multi-vendor, multi-domain infrastructure accelerate key business processes, reduce risk of security incidents and network downtime, and enable innovation at scale. Productization of infrastructure across the complex landscapes most organizations are facing can transform the way businesses adopt new technologies and deliver innovative products to their customers.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Network & Cloud Infrastructure
The insights from this report make one thing clear: multi-cloud networking and network as a service are at the core of the future of IT infrastructure. As AI, hybrid, and multi-cloud strategies continue to evolve, the need for scalable, automated, and integrated solutions will only grow.
Itential is proud to lead the way, offering the tools and expertise organizations need to navigate this transformation. To learn more about the key trends shaping the evolution of multi-cloud networking and network service delivery, download the full Futuriom report here.
Kristen H. Rachels
Chief Marketing Officer ‐ Itential
Kristen serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Itential, leading their go-to-market strategy and execution to accelerate the adoption and expansion of the company’s products and services.
