How On-Demand Network Services Can Boost Your Business Agility

In today’s dynamic and competitive market, businesses need to be able to adapt quickly and efficiently to changing customer demands, new opportunities and unforeseen challenges. One of the key factors that can affect a business’s agility is its network infrastructure, which enables data and applications to flow across different locations, devices and cloud platforms.

That’s why we’ve seen on-demand network services trending in the IT space. But what is network on-demand? It’s a flexible, scalable networking solution that allows businesses to create and adjust their network resources dynamically based on current needs. This means that a business can fine-tune its internet connection and settings based on demand at a particular time, meaning you don’t pay for unused bandwidth and aren’t locked into long-term contracts.

7 Key Benefits Of On-Demand Networking

Traditional networking services are often rigid, complex and costly to manage, requiring long-term contracts, fixed bandwidth allocations and manual provisioning. These limitations can hamper a business’s ability to scale up or down, optimize performance and control costs.

With on-demand networking, you’re in control of the variables affecting your connectivity. These include cost, speed, cloud compatibility and more. There are many benefits of on-demand services, such as:

• Scalability: Adjust your network capacity up or down in minutes, and extend your connectivity to new sites or locations without the need for additional hardware.
• Speed: Take advantage of blazing fast, modern internet connections when your operations require it.
• Customization: Adjust your network configuration and routing to optimize your application performance and user experience.
• Security: Enhance your network security and resilience with built-in encryption, redundancy and backup options.
• Access to partners: Work with a vast network of high-performance and secure data centers and internet exchanges.
• Simplicity: Streamline your network control with a single point of management and support using a self-service portal or API.
• Cost savings: Buy only the bandwidth you need, when you need it.

Types Of On-Demand Services

On-demand service offers scalability and flexibility, but what IT solutions allow for this level of control? Here are a few examples.

You may have recently heard of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS). This is classic network connectivity redesigned and upgraded to be fast, customizable and even more secure. It’s a cloud-based connectivity model that allows your organization to operate your network without owning or maintaining physical infrastructure.

A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) also uses the principles of customizable connectivity to address the challenges of traditional WANs, including high complexity, low performance and poor security. SD-WAN uses dynamic path selection to improve the security and reliability of your network to deliver a safer, more versatile user experience.

Additionally, secure access service edge (SASE) combines the dynamic capabilities of SD-WAN with cloud-native security functions to provide secure access to apps and data from any location. This approach enhances your existing infrastructure while uniting networking and security in a single solution.

Discover The Lumen Advantage

Lumen is a leading provider of on-demand solutions, with a global network spanning approximately 350,000 route miles, 170,000 on-net locations, and over 2,200 third-party public and private data centers.

We offer a range of advanced on-demand services to help you provide better outcomes for your customers with reliable, secure internet services.

• Lumen^® Internet On-Demand: Rapidly deploy dedicated internet connections up to 10 Gbps over multi‑service ports for fast, reliable direct internet access by the hour, without paying standard monthly rates, regardless of how you use the service.
• Lumen^® Ethernet On-Demand: Quickly establish secure, private NaaS connections between locations, data centers and cloud providers—and pay only for what you use.
• Lumen^® IP VPN On-Demand: Turn up new cloud‑based applications and services in real time with private data connections for Network‑as‑a‑Service that help shift workloads to when and where they’re needed most, all with predictable costs.

Lastly, Lumen provides support to aid in your on-demand service deployment and operations. We offer expert professional services—such as network design, migration, optimization and testing—to help you with your network modernization journey. Plus, a dedicated team of engineers, architects and consultants are available 24/7/365 for guidance.

With on-demand network access, you can boost your business agility and gain a competitive edge in the market. Whether you need to launch a new service, expand to a new region or respond to a sudden spike in demand, you can rely on on-demand network services to provide you with the network flexibility, security and efficiency you need.

Ready to learn more about on-demand services? Check out our complete portfolio of flexible networking solutions.

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