What does 'network on demand' mean for enterprises?

Network on-demand models

Network on demand -- or on-demand networking -- can be delivered as either a managed network service or as cloud-based networking. In a managed network service model, a third party manages, meters and bills the infrastructure. In a cloud-based networking model, a business contracts directly with the cloud provider and makes all the decisions about its network.

In either model, on-demand networking changes the dynamics from a Capex model in which customers pay upfront and amortize to a consumption-based model where users pay monthly for what they consume. Network on-demand options can be more flexible, enabling businesses to scale their network bandwidth and provision up and down to match business needs. In the on-demand world, burdens shift toward more planning and monitoring of service-level agreements and consumption versus hardware and traffic.

Target customers for network on demand

Network on demand can be delivered as either a managed network service or as cloud-based networking.

The most logical customers for on-demand managed networking services are smaller businesses that don't have the internal resources to adequately handle networking. The most logical customers for on-demand cloud-based networking are larger businesses that have moved much of their infrastructure to cloud-based services models.

For businesses in the middle that haven't made the leap to cloud and are still deploying on-premises or virtual servers and storage, the best option for now is to keep the network on-site and manage it in line with other IT components.