By Rameesh Kailasam and Shivam Tandon
India’s internet economy is rapidly advancing as more and more people jump on the digital bandwagon. In the last 20 years, and especially in the last decade, we have seen the birth of many internet-based tech startups which can be called “children of the internet” as these unicorns and consumer companies will not exist without the internet.
India is going digital, with government support as well. The consumer userbase is rapidly expanding to access services from e-commerce, mobility, pre-owned cars, food delivery, home, edutech, finance, insurance, gaming, entertainment and so on in addition to availing services from the government. India’s internet economy is most likely to meet its target of $1 trillion by 2030. India has over 850 million active internet users, and the digital economy will contribute about 20% to the GDP by 2026.
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As cloud-based services have become the norm, the need for enterprises to invest in building physical infrastructure and on-premise applications is decreasing rapidly. As a testament to the emergence and unprecedented growth of cloud-based services, there has been increasing investment in data centres. The value of India’s data centre market is expected to increase from $4.35 billion in 2021 to $10.09 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.07%, according to a Arizton Advisory and Intelligence research report in 2022. The popularity of SaaS (software as a service), a cloud-based software distribution model, is another testament to the growing demand for cloud services. In 2022, investors deployed almost $6 billion into Indian SaaS firms, up nearly 3.5x from 2020 according to a BVP Atlas report. According to IDC, the Indian public cloud services market is expected to reach $17.8 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 22.9% during 2022-27. Today, given the way enterprises are able to use cloud services seamlessly and scale their operations on the go, there is a white space in the network infrastructure meeting this cloud ecosystem expectation. This led to the birth of NaaS (network as a service), where the features of software automation and smart network infrastructure are delivered through a cloud-like experience of being flexible and on-demand.
NaaS is a cloud-like networking model where network resources are provided to the customer on demand. Similar to other “as-a-service” models (like SaaS, platform as a service or PaaS, etc.), NaaS offers networking functionality without the need for the customer to invest in hardware or manage the infrastructure directly. Through simple subscription and options like pay-as-you-go, organisations can scale their network infrastructure more flexibly and efficiently according to their needs. For the uninitiated, network infrastructure is the basic framework of a network consisting of hardware and software resources that enable communication paths between users. The status quo primarily lies in NaaS solutions being hardware-based. Such physical systems have limitations in terms of flexibility, agility, and cost-effectiveness. With the increased use of hybrid and multi-clouds by businesses for security and control, the software layer over the network infrastructure allows optimal utilisation of resources. It enables instantaneous connections in any combination between two or more public clouds, data centres, internet exchanges, and content delivery networks. This breaks away from the traditional telco approach of manually stitching each connection across weeks and even months at times. It allows organisations to have scalable networks that can take care of sudden spikes in traffic or eliminate underutilisation.
According to a Research and Markets report, the market for NaaS in India is expected to expand at a CAGR of 35.6% from $1.18 billion in 2024 to $7.32 billion by 2029. User experiences are dependent on networks delivering their data instantly. If a simple online search takes too long, a transaction takes time to load, or a video buffers for even a few seconds, the end user is left disheartened and with a poor experience of the application. A few seconds of delay, or god forbid downtime, can cause a huge loss of business. Therefore, a software-defined networking platform delivering secure and reliable network infrastructure is a great use case for the banking, financial services and insurance industry. Similarly, the media and over-the-top industries require high-speed, low-latency networks with the ability to manage demand fluctuations as seen, for instance, during peak seasons like the Indian Premier League. Other industries using cloud-based solutions such as fintech, gaming, and e-commerce find network infrastructure to be an essential piece of the ecosystem to take full advantage of what the cloud offers. Today, NaaS platforms offer enhanced network performance at lightning speeds, delighting consumers with a frictionless and seamless browsing experience while ensuring high security.
As is the case with any innovation, the inertia to change from legacy solutions hinders its adoption. While network security and bandwidth-on-demand are lucrative features of NaaS, enterprises may also be hesitant to migrate. However, in a world of hyper-connectivity, NaaS promises to deliver a better day-to-day user experience. As 5G access increases, so will data consumption. The rising demand and investments in building data centres, and increased focus of enterprises in cloud computing have presented an opportunity for India to be a trailblazer. Innovation in global connectivity has the potential to form the cornerstone of India’s digital stride alongside its commendable work in digital public infrastructure. The demand for NaaS is inevitable and it is pertinent that enterprises explore this path on their digital journey.
Authors Rameesh Kailasam and Shivam Tandon, respectively, are CEO and manager-public policy & research at Indiatech.org (TSIA)
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of Financial Express Online. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited.
By Rameesh Kailasam and Shivam Tandon
India’s internet economy is rapidly advancing as more and more people jump on the digital bandwagon. In the last 20 years, and especially in the last decade, we have seen the birth of many internet-based tech startups which can be called “children of the internet” as these unicorns and consumer companies will not exist without the internet.
India is going digital, with government support as well. The consumer userbase is rapidly expanding to access services from e-commerce, mobility, pre-owned cars, food delivery, home, edutech, finance, insurance, gaming, entertainment and so on in addition to availing services from the government. India’s internet economy is most likely to meet its target of $1 trillion by 2030. India has over 850 million active internet users, and the digital economy will contribute about 20% to the GDP by 2026.
As cloud-based services have become the norm, the need for enterprises to invest in building physical infrastructure and on-premise applications is decreasing rapidly. As a testament to the emergence and unprecedented growth of cloud-based services, there has been increasing investment in data centres. The value of India’s data centre market is expected to increase from $4.35 billion in 2021 to $10.09 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.07%, according to a Arizton Advisory and Intelligence research report in 2022. The popularity of SaaS (software as a service), a cloud-based software distribution model, is another testament to the growing demand for cloud services. In 2022, investors deployed almost $6 billion into Indian SaaS firms, up nearly 3.5x from 2020 according to a BVP Atlas report. According to IDC, the Indian public cloud services market is expected to reach $17.8 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 22.9% during 2022-27. Today, given the way enterprises are able to use cloud services seamlessly and scale their operations on the go, there is a white space in the network infrastructure meeting this cloud ecosystem expectation. This led to the birth of NaaS (network as a service), where the features of software automation and smart network infrastructure are delivered through a cloud-like experience of being flexible and on-demand.
NaaS is a cloud-like networking model where network resources are provided to the customer on demand. Similar to other “as-a-service” models (like SaaS, platform as a service or PaaS, etc.), NaaS offers networking functionality without the need for the customer to invest in hardware or manage the infrastructure directly. Through simple subscription and options like pay-as-you-go, organisations can scale their network infrastructure more flexibly and efficiently according to their needs. For the uninitiated, network infrastructure is the basic framework of a network consisting of hardware and software resources that enable communication paths between users. The status quo primarily lies in NaaS solutions being hardware-based. Such physical systems have limitations in terms of flexibility, agility, and cost-effectiveness. With the increased use of hybrid and multi-clouds by businesses for security and control, the software layer over the network infrastructure allows optimal utilisation of resources. It enables instantaneous connections in any combination between two or more public clouds, data centres, internet exchanges, and content delivery networks. This breaks away from the traditional telco approach of manually stitching each connection across weeks and even months at times. It allows organisations to have scalable networks that can take care of sudden spikes in traffic or eliminate underutilisation.
According to a Research and Markets report, the market for NaaS in India is expected to expand at a CAGR of 35.6% from $1.18 billion in 2024 to $7.32 billion by 2029. User experiences are dependent on networks delivering their data instantly. If a simple online search takes too long, a transaction takes time to load, or a video buffers for even a few seconds, the end user is left disheartened and with a poor experience of the application. A few seconds of delay, or god forbid downtime, can cause a huge loss of business. Therefore, a software-defined networking platform delivering secure and reliable network infrastructure is a great use case for the banking, financial services and insurance industry. Similarly, the media and over-the-top industries require high-speed, low-latency networks with the ability to manage demand fluctuations as seen, for instance, during peak seasons like the Indian Premier League. Other industries using cloud-based solutions such as fintech, gaming, and e-commerce find network infrastructure to be an essential piece of the ecosystem to take full advantage of what the cloud offers. Today, NaaS platforms offer enhanced network performance at lightning speeds, delighting consumers with a frictionless and seamless browsing experience while ensuring high security.
As is the case with any innovation, the inertia to change from legacy solutions hinders its adoption. While network security and bandwidth-on-demand are lucrative features of NaaS, enterprises may also be hesitant to migrate. However, in a world of hyper-connectivity, NaaS promises to deliver a better day-to-day user experience. As 5G access increases, so will data consumption. The rising demand and investments in building data centres, and increased focus of enterprises in cloud computing have presented an opportunity for India to be a trailblazer. Innovation in global connectivity has the potential to form the cornerstone of India’s digital stride alongside its commendable work in digital public infrastructure. The demand for NaaS is inevitable and it is pertinent that enterprises explore this path on their digital journey.
Authors Rameesh Kailasam and Shivam Tandon, respectively, are CEO and manager-public policy & research at Indiatech.org (TSIA)
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of Financial Express Online. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited.
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The Jan Shatabdi Express, which runs from Una in Himachal Pradesh to Delhi, has resumed its service after a three-day suspension due to the farmers’ protest in Punjab and Haryana. However, three passenger trains starting from Una have been cancelled. The resumption of the Jan Shatabdi Express has brought relief to affected passengers.
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