Network as a Service (NaaS) in the cloud

First there was IT as a service (IaaS), then Software as a Service (SaaS), then Platform as a Service (PaaS) and now Network as a Service (NaaS)?   A startup called CloudFlare is offering a next-gen Content Delivery Network (CDN) which accelerates 235,000 websites  but more specifically offers networking-as-a-service in the cloud using open source networking hardware and software from startup Pluribus Networks which replaced existing Juniper EX-series switches.  Pluribus offers its own network switch running a distributed network hypervisor on its own hardware (featuring Intel Xeon processors and Broadcom switch chips) or on a Supermicro MicroBlade platform.  Pluribus aims for the Top of Rack (ToR) use-case where many servers need to be networked together in a corporate datacenter.    However with Facebook open-sourcing “Wedge” (Linux based software stack in a ToR switch comprising 16 x 40GbE ports, merchant 40 Gb switching ASIC in a 1U rack space – and with no proprietary software) there is bound to be a move towards white-box switches from large datacenters like that of Facebook or Google down to smaller corporate datacenters.  The fact that Cisco and Juniper vehemently claim that Wedge is no threat to them reminds me of the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”.

It is difficult to pigeonhole CloudFlare into any one bucket – as they offer a next gen CDN, handle 5% of the internet’s traffic using equipment located in 25 data centers worldwide, offer routing, switching, load balancing, firewall services, DDOS mitigation, performance acceleration – all as a cloud service.  Just as Amazon Web Services (AWS) made compute services in the cloud a concept we accept unquestioningly today, I think the time is right for Network as a Service.  Customers of CloudFlare include Reddit (which is sometimes described as a market-place of ideas impervious to marketers), eHarmony,  Franklin Mint and the site metallica.com.

Why do I think startups like CloudFlare will make a lasting impression on the internet?  For one it fascinated me to learn that CloudFlare got its datacenter in Seoul up and running without a single employee setting foot in Seoul.  A 6 page how-to-guide walked the equipment suppliers into what they needed to do to get the datacenter up and running to support the CDN and security services that CloudFlare offers its customer.  This gives new meaning to the term “remote controlled datacenter”.  The future is all about plug-and-play, low-touch and remote control.  The old world of buying high end hardware routers & switches, deploying them in a corporate data center, worrying about heat, floor-space and cooling  will all seem archaic some years from now.  CloudFlare will be one of the many innovators in this emerging area of Network as a Service and enterprise IT budgets will reap the resulting gains.