Multicloud Networking (MCN) and NaaS Survey Report 2024

It's become an annual tradition—when we publish the results of our annual end-user survey on multicloud networking (MCN) and network-as-a-service (NaaS) technology and services. Futuriom was one of the first analyst firms to identify MCN as a growing trend, years before a large research provider beginning with the letter "G" put out their first market guide.

This year’s survey has reinforced the view that networking will come to be regarded as the linchpin to multicloud and hybrid cloud strategies—as all distributed applications and data must be connected by secure, intelligent networks.

For those of you not yet familiar with the MCN trend, it’s a new requirement among network and cloud architects to be able to securely connect multiple network domains—enterprise, datacenter, cloud, and communications provider— with a more integrated networking platform. The needs of these cloud networking platforms vary widely (we’ll get into that later), but they range from application visibility to network security and policy.

What’s changed in the past year? Interest and activity around AI, AI, and AI has, of course, accelerated. But be careful how you discuss AI with your chief technology officer, or he/she is likely to roll their eyes. The truth in the trenches of IT and cloud infrastructure is that the return on investment (ROI) remains unknown.

What's In the Report

In this report we take a look at what respondents said about the key challenges and drivers behind MCN, as well as general hybrid cloud and multicloud strategies.

Some of the topics addressed in the report include:

Top Drivers
Top Use Cases Include Integration and Consistent Policy
Connecting the Clouds: Approaches to MCN and NaaS
Security, Visibility, and Cost Control
MCN as a Key Enabler of Edge Applications, AI, and 5G
ROI Goals for MCN

The report also presents a detailed look at the MCN ecosystem, which consists of many complex and important partnerships among MCN services, cloud providers, and colocation providers.

In the report, we also take a look at the key stakeholders in the MCN ecosystem, including some of the recent M&A activity as well as partnership activities. We dive into the dynamic startup market to tell you who's doing what and which startups might be the next acquisition or IPO. Finally, we tell you what likely lies ahead for MCN and cloud networking. You can see the TOC below.

Background on the Survey and Report

For this year’s survey, we reached out to networking, security, and operations teams using a targeted survey. The annual survey included responses from a total of 131 qualified IT and network managers (numbers vary by question because not everyone responded to all the questions). We filtered the responses by only examining responses from those that affirmed they worked in DevOps, IT, networking, or security.

All of the respondents were anonymous and based in the United States. Some of the respondents voluntarily supplied job titles. Some of the titles of the end users that filled out the survey included: CEO, CIO, DevOps Engineer, Network Engineer, Network Analyst, Manager, IT Manager, IT Business Analyst, Operations Manager, Senior Software Engineer, Architect, Telecommunications Engineer, and Senior Manager.

Total Pages: 32

Companies mentioned in the report: Arrcus, Aviatrix, Amazon
(AMZN), Cloudflare (NET), Cisco (CSCO), Digital Realty (DLR), Equinix (EQIX), F5 Networks (FFIV), Google (Alphabet - GOOGL), IBM (IBM), Itential, Juniper Networks (JNPR), Megaport, Microsoft (MSFT), PacketFabric, Prosimo, Versa Networks, VMware (VMW).

Special thanks to our sponsors: Alkira, Arrcus, Aviatrix, Equinix, F5, Itential, and Prosimo!