# What is Network as a Service (NaaS)?

> Network as a service (NaaS) is a service-delivery label for network capabilities consumed from a provider instead of wholly customer-operated infrastructure.

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## Content

Depending on the offering, it can include site connectivity, virtual networks, cloud interconnection, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), remote access, performance controls, or security functions, ordered through a contract, portal, or application programming interface (API).

There is no industry-wide NaaS feature set. Some services primarily lease managed connectivity; others expose on-demand configuration, consumption billing, lifecycle automation, and service-level objectives across providers or clouds. Buyers should examine the service boundary, control model, data handling, interoperability, and responsibilities rather than infer them from the label.

### Key points

- **Service boundary:** Identify which physical infrastructure, virtual functions, orchestration, monitoring, and support the provider operates.
- **Customer duties:** The customer still governs users, applications, data, requested policy, and controls that remain on its side of the demarcation.
- **Assurance:** Contracts should define service levels, security evidence, change control, incident coordination, data location, portability, and termination arrangements.
- **Important limitation:** Outsourcing operation does not outsource accountability. Provider outages, lock-in, opaque routing, jurisdiction, telemetry gaps, API security, and unclear incident duties can introduce risk, while advertised elasticity or automation may apply only to a subset of the service.

### Related terms

[Software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/software-defined-wide-area-network/>) · [Network automation](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/network-automation/>) · [Secure access service edge (SASE)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/secure-access-service-edge/>) · [Wide area network (WAN)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/wide-area-network/>) · [Cloud service models: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-service-models-iaas-paas-and-saas/>)

### Sources

[NIST SP 800-215: Guide to a Secure Enterprise Network Landscape](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/215/final) · [Mplify Alliance (formerly MEF): Network-as-a-Service](https://www.mplify.net/network-as-a-service/)

## Attribution and scope

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