What is Network-as-a-Service (NaaS)?

NaaS and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

The Role of SASE

While SASE focuses on enforcing consistent security and access policies across an organisation’s digital estate, Network as a Service (NaaS) delivers the flexible, cloud-based network foundation that underpins it. NaaS provides the underlying transport – the means by which data moves – while SASE adds a layer of intelligence and protection on top. Together, they enable secure, seamless connectivity for users, applications, and devices, regardless of location. This removes reliance on traditional hardware and fixed infrastructure, making it far easier to scale, adapt, and respond to changing business needs.

The real benefit of combining SASE and NaaS lies in the outcomes. Users experience faster, more reliable access to the tools and systems they need, whether they’re working remotely, on-site, or at the edge. IT teams benefit from a centralised view of both network performance and security posture, reducing complexity and making it easier to manage policy and performance in one place. Most importantly, organisations gain the ability to deliver a consistent and secure digital experience everywhere – supporting hybrid work, protecting data, and enabling innovation without compromising on control or user experience.

Cloud Gateway and NaaS

At Cloud Gateway, our journey began as a managed service provider (MSP), but one uniquely enabled by a platform-first approach. This wasn’t just about managing services on behalf of customers — it was about creating the tools and capabilities to deliver them more flexibly, transparently, and with a level of control and insight that few others could offer.

Our NaaS offering builds on this foundation by combining the agility of a self-serve platform with the reassurance of a deeply embedded managed service model. Unlike many providers who lean heavily towards either DIY tooling or a traditional managed service structure, we offer both — allowing organisations to choose the level of control and support that best fits their operating model.

As the industry shifted, so did the terminology. We embraced Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) because it aligned with our approach: bringing together networking and security as a unified, cloud-native service, built to support the distributed, digital-first nature of modern enterprises.

As we worked with customers navigating complex IT estates, legacy infrastructure, multi-cloud strategies, hybrid working — it became clear that neither traditional networking models nor textbook definitions of SASE fully addressed the challenges they faced. What was missing was a way to bridge the gap between the old and the new — seamlessly integrating legacy systems with cloud-native environments, without locking customers into rigid architectures or narrow vendor ecosystems.

This is where Cloud Gateway stands out. Our platform is technology-agnostic and vendor-neutral, meaning we don’t force-fit customers into specific tools or providers. Instead, we help them leverage the best combination of technologies for their needs, whether that’s connecting on-premise infrastructure to public cloud, enabling secure remote access, or scaling networks to support M&A activity.

Businesses didn’t need more components; they needed integrated outcomes. That’s where our thinking evolved, and where we began carving out our role in a new category: Network as a Service (NaaS). We see NaaS not as a replacement for SASE, but as an evolution of it — a broader, outcome-driven model that merges the best of SASE’s integrated approach with the flexibility and scalability of cloud-native networking.

With Cloud Gateway, customers don’t just get connectivity, they get a strategic network partner. Our ability to interoperate across environments, provide deep visibility, and deliver policy-driven networking with enterprise-grade security baked in is what makes our NaaS offering more than just another platform. It’s a complete, future-proofed networking solution.