10 Network-As-A-Service Companies To Watch In 2026
Here are 10 Network-as-a-Service players that consider NaaS essential infrastructure for AI‑era workloads rather than just a cost‑saving alternative.
Across vendors such as Alkira, Meter, Nile and Join Digital, a common theme is rapid deployment, simplified operations and flexible pricing designed for distributed, multi‑cloud environments. It’s companies like these that emphasize the ability to design, provision and manage networks in minutes rather than months, often bundling networking, security and observability into a single as‑a‑service platform. AI, meanwhile, is becoming a core differentiator, with many providers embedding machine learning for proactive optimization, threat detection and autonomous remediation as enterprises grapple with supporting cloud, remote work and AI workloads with legacy networks.
At the same time, established networking players like HPE, Extreme Networks and even telecom-turned-technology-service-provider Lumen Technologies are expanding or reframing their offerings to compete more directly in the NaaS market. HPE is infusing GreenLake with agentic AI to automate hybrid cloud and networking operations, while Extreme is pushing its Network-Infrastructure-as-a- Service model to help customers and partners avoid unpredictable CapEx costs and prepare networks for AI. Lumen and Megaport are leveraging large‑scale backbone and cloud interconnect assets to deliver on‑demand, usage‑based connectivity, often through channel‑friendly models.
One unifying theme across many of the providers in this space, however, is the growing role of AI. Nearly all of these providers are embedding AI‑driven optimization, monitoring, security and remediation into their platforms, framing NaaS as essential infrastructure for AI‑era workloads rather than just a cost‑saving alternative.
With that in mind, here are 10 NaaS companies to keep an eye on this year.
Alkira
Upstart Alkira specializes in Network Infrastructure as a Service (NIaaS). The San Jose, Calif.-based company was founded in 2018 with its consumption-based Cloud Services Exchange (CSX), a unified, on-demand offering that lets cloud architects and network engineers build and deploy a multi-cloud network in minutes. The company has since revealed a collaboration with the Microsoft for Startups program as well as a deeper relationship with Amazon Web Services, whose Marketplace includes Alkira CSX.
Alkira’s director of channels, Doug Houghton, told CRN last year that as business has grown, the company’s channel ecosystem has been a driving force as businesses turn to their trusted advisers for agile, AI-powered networking solutions. Alkira in 2024 announced the closing of a $100 million Series C funding round, the company’s most recent round, which brought total funding raised to date to $176 million.
Aryaka
Converged networking and security specialist Aryaka in 2025 aimed to simplify its packaging and pricing model of its offerings with the intention of helping partners boost the as-a-service sales model. Now enterprises are charged based on the number of sites and end users, granting them more flexibility with their distributed, multi-cloud environments.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company last year also added more AI into its flagship networking and SASE-as-a-Service platform. Aryaka’s Unified SASE as a Service offering combines the company’s own global private network backbone, security, observability and application performance capabilities, delivered as a service. The AI Observe capability, the second product in Aryaka’s AI portfolio alongside AI Perform, applies AI and machine learning to user and application data to detect early network threats and anomalies such as ransomware and is now part of the platform.
CloudBrink
Founded in 2019, Cloudbrink comes to market with its Hybrid Access as a Service offering that the upstart said “instantly transforms any home internet or cellular connection to deliver business-grade in-office performance” via personal SASE. The offering is built on an AI-based protocol and thousands of points of presence. Last month, the company said that it has expanded security and performance benefits for AI agents and online AI services on its connectivity platform with the addition of unified policy and visibility, among other security capabilities.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cloudbrink’s competitors include Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler.
Cloudbrink’s most recent Series A funding round pulled in $25 million, led by Highland Capital Partners and The Fabric, which helps entrepreneurs incubate ideas and develop technologies.
Extreme Networks
Extreme Networks has been vocal about its plan to become the fastest-growing player in the networking space over the last couple of years and it shows as the company’s track record includes nabbing customers from the market heavyweights, as well as executives, too.
The wireless specialist offers Network Infrastructure as a Service, or NIaaS. It’s a cloud-based consumption model that offers networking hardware, software and management tools via a subscription. Extreme said that its NIaaS offering removes surprising variable CapEx. It’s also allowing channel partners to help their end clients optimize their networks for future needs, such as AI, according to Morrisville, N.C.-based Extreme.
HPE
The creator of GreenLake has injected a great deal of AI into its popular platform over the last year. HPE GreenLake is a hybrid cloud offering that lets businesses run IT workloads and infrastructure with public cloud flexibility, pay-per-use billing and 24x7 management by HPE and its channel partners. GreenLake provides a unified, self-service experience across data centers, edge locations and colocation facilities, according to the company.
HPE GreenLake in 2025 got smarter with the introduction of the GreenLake Intelligence Agentic AI Framework, or AI-powered agentic assistants that can help “fix” IT issues faster across the full multi-cloud, multi-vendor hybrid cloud stack. HPE also injected more security into the GreenLake Cloud platform last year for connectivity and hybrid cloud operations in the form of HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise, the Spring, Texas-based company told CRN.
Join Digital
NaaS specialist Join Digital caters largely to enterprises in commercial real estate, high-tech and financial services. The company comes to market with several offerings for corporate offices, remote offices and flexible working spaces. The one thing its offerings have in common is consistent and proactive AI networking optimization and upgrade cycles, according to the Campbell, Calif.-based company, which goes to market through channel partners.
Join Digital entered the 2025 Wired, WLAN Gartner Magic Quadrant as a Niche player thanks to its NaaS model that includes LAN networking hardware, software, internet connectivity and security via its cloud platform. Its Workplace Analytics offering addresses complex enterprise networking needs, and the company serves enterprises in commercial real estate, high-tech and financial services, Gartner said in July.
Lumen Technologies
While not typically thought of as a NaaS player, the telecom-turned-network-service-provider has doubled down on NaaS as a path to growth. Lumen’s NaaS platform is the company’s digitalized collection of networking services with usage-based pricing. Among the most sought-after services include Internet on Demand and Ethernet on Demand. The consumption-based Lumen NaaS platform, which became available in July 2023, reached a milestone of more than 1,000 customers last summer as a result of new enterprise AI infrastructure demands, the Monroe, La.-based company said.
NaaS Specialist Meter and Lumen in November announced that they have teamed up to offer a unified WAN and LAN connectivity offering called Lumen x Meter in a convenient “click-to-buy” model for enterprises, the companies said at the MeterUp 2025 event in San Francisco.
Megaport
Megaport specializes in NaaS, data center and cloud services and is known for its scalable bandwidth for public and private cloud connections, metro ethernet, data center backhaul, and Internet Exchange Services. The company goes to market through channel partners, including agents and referral partners, resellers, and technology partners and data center operators.
The Australian company, founded in 2013, earlier this month upgraded its backbone network in Tokyo from 100 Gbps to 400 Gbps. Late in 2025, the company revealed it would become a provider for AWS Interconnect.
Meter
NaaS specialist Meter jumped onto the scene 10 years ago with plans to disrupt the networking industry. Today, the San Francisco-based company comes to market with a unique NaaS business model in which channel partners generate high-value recurring revenue without having to shoulder up-front CapEx expenses associated with traditional networking, allowing them to build profitable, high-growth practices alongside Meter, the company said. In fact, Meter has attracted the attention of Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, just to name one tech innovator interested in what Meter is bringing to the table.
The rapidly growing company earlier this month revealed that it was adding two former Cisco Meraki sales executives to its ranks—Pete Atkin to lead global channels and TJ Michie to drive strategic enterprise accounts.
Nile
Nile, the next-gen networking services platform provider backed by former Cisco CEO John Chambers and led by Cisco’s former chief development officer, Pankaj Patel, exited stealth mode three years ago with its “reimagined” wired and wireless service that is delivered entirely as a service. The company’s differentiated enterprise NaaS offering gives enterprises another option that’s different than what many of the market heavyweights are bringing to market, according to the company.
The San Jose, Calif.-based startup in 2025 introduced an application for iOS and Android called Nile Nav.
AI-powered Nile Nav lets qualified partners and end customers design, deploy and manage its Campus Network-as-a-Service offering, Nile Access Service, with more precision, more quickly, taking the deployment time from weeks or months for traditional network architectures to days with improved accuracy, the startup told CRN at the time. Nile raised $175 million in its most recent Series C funding round in 2023, bringing its total funding to $300 million, according to Crunchbase.