A new perspective on IT infrastructure

SwiftWorks breaks down why combining a smarter underlay with intelligent overlays is the key to simpler, more resilient enterprise networks.

Introduction: The network landscape is shifting—finally

For over a decade, the IT infrastructure landscape has been wrestling with a fundamental shift. Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) rolled out and threw a spotlight on how clunky legacy networks were. To say the least, they were old and a bit rigid, hardware-centric, and stuck in a syntax that felt like it belonged in the ‘90s, especially in comparison to these cool new user interfaces that cloud offered. Spin up a VM (Virtual Machine), the network, and even some basic security all with a few clicks. The big traditional vendors (we won’t name names, but you know who they are) fumbled to adapt. I recall about ten years back, some sharp minds discussing their ideas “Edge compute is the future”. Then things shifted to network overlays in the compute virtualization world, but it never solved the fact that the underlay still had to exist and needed to be purchased, engineered, licensed, and supported.

Then came Software-Defined Networking (SDN), strutting in like the cool kid with promises of flexibility and cloud-like vibes. Too often, though, it just piled on complexity without delivering that effortless simplicity we envied in virtualized systems. A lot of those SDN solutions fizzled out or never clicked with us because, honestly, the fundamentals—those trusty, battle-tested underlays—still got the job done.

Here’s the kicker: both sides were right all along. The endpoint visionaries had a point—software at the edge is powerful. But we were right too—the underlay’s not some relic to toss out; it just needed a rethink. Enter Network as a Service (NaaS) with players like Meter, flipping the underlay into a managed, subscription-based utility that aligns with how modern IT works. Pair that with smart overlays similar to SwiftWorks’ solution that offers an agent-based platform, and you’ve got the best of both worlds: endpoint intelligence and a rock-solid underlay, reimagined. This isn’t just a tweak to the old playbook—it’s the resolution we’ve been waiting for.

Legacy challenges: The heavy weight of hardware

Traditional IT infrastructure is a hardware jungle—a chaotic mess of routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers that scream complexity at every turn. These setups demand massive capital expenditure (CAPEX) upfront for procurement, plus relentless operational expenditure (OPEX) to keep them alive with maintenance, licensing, and upgrades. Picture those end-of-life switches you can’t even patch anymore—textbook technical debt that keeps IT teams up at night¹. Connectivity leans on rigid, pricey solutions like VPNs, MPLS circuits, or—worse—point-to-point (P2P) links sprawling everywhere. And security? It’s a fragmented nightmare of appliances and software stacks, each with its own quirky interface and zero teamwork, often bought just to gather dust while another duplicate tool gets added to the pile.

The vendor sprawl is a beast all its own. Even in a "clean" network infrastructure design, you’re juggling countless players just to get basic management. Firewalls? One vendor, one pane—maybe Cisco or Palo Alto. Network devices? Another vendor, another pane—could be Aruba for switches, Juniper for routers, each with its own quirks. Need Network Access Control (NAC) for network security? That’s a third vendor—say, Fortinet or Forescout—with yet another dashboard. Management plane access is a whole other circus: SSH, web browsers, whatever—every device needs a TACACS or RADIUS intermediary for secure access, piling on more complexity and cost. Logging for security and compliance is just as bad—syslog for network traffic, separate endpoint logging, and endpoint security tools, each from a different vendor like Splunk, CrowdStrike, or Trend Micro. You could easily end up with a dozen vendors, even if you stick with one for firewalls, routers, and switches—or more if you mix and match².

Legacy thinking didn’t help. To save costs in this CAPEX-heavy world, folks centralized everything in the data center—consolidating firewalls, controllers, and security tools to cut hardware spend. But that meant inefficiently backhauling all traffic through the data center just to inspect and apply controls. Remote branches, small offices, even mobile workers got stuck schlepping data over MPLS or VPNs to the mothership, racking up latency and costs while creating a single choke point for failure. It’s a brittle foundation—prone to breakdowns and misconfigurations—familiar to anyone who’s troubleshot a downed VPN at midnight.

Key pain points:

• High CAPEX: Upfront costs for hardware purchases
• Persistent OPEX: Maintenance, support contracts, and refresh cycles
• Connectivity Overhead: Complex VPNs or expensive MPLS deployments
• Security & Vendor Fragmentation: Multiple tools, vendors, and interfaces with no integration.

Diagram 1: Legacy IT infrastructure

Network as a Service (NaaS): Meter’s full-stack underlay solution

Network as a Service (NaaS) transforms the underlay network—the physical connectivity layer—into a streamlined, subscription-based utility. Companies like Meter are leading this shift by manufacturing their own high-quality networking hardware—think switches, wireless access points, and controllers—and bundling it with software, licensing, and support into a single, low-cost operational expenditure (OPEX) model. This approach essentially commoditizes the network market, making enterprise-grade connectivity accessible without the traditional baggage of legacy systems. With the NaaS market projected to hit $285.9 billion by 2032, it’s clear this model is catching fire¹.

Technical benefits

• Integrated Hardware and Software: Meter designs and builds its own equipment, ensuring tight integration with its software stack, including a centralized dashboard for management. This eliminates compatibility headaches and delivers a cohesive underlay².
• All-Inclusive OPEX Model: By combining hardware, licensing, and support into a monthly subscription, Meter eliminates capital expenditure (CAPEX) and stabilizes costs, aligning with the broader shift from CAPEX to OPEX across IT sectors³.
• Rock-Solid Underlay: Meter focuses on delivering a reliable, high-quality transport layer without additional complexity. It meets essential connectivity needs—bandwidth, uptime, and basic routing—perfectly suited for enterprises looking to take a strategic design approach⁴.
• Scalability with Simplicity: The model scales effortlessly, supporting multi-site deployments without requiring IT teams to wrestle with hardware procurement or upgrades.

Meter operates like a utility provider for networking: you pay a subscription based on the square footage of your building—literal cents on the square foot—and that cost covers all the gear (controllers, switches, wireless access points, PDU and rack) needed to blanket the space with reliable connectivity, plus any unique business requirements like redundant edge setups or multi-tenant physical separation. Meter handles everything—hardware provisioning, software updates, and ongoing support—working through partners who provide onsite assistance and manage customer relationships. This frees IT teams from the grind of managing physical infrastructure, letting them tackle higher-value tasks. While Meter plans to roll out BGP soon to enhance routing options, it’s not critical for the strategy we’re discussing here. The emphasis stays on a straightforward, dependable underlay with high-quality equipment, sidestepping complexity and perfectly complementing overlay solutions like SwiftWorks for a modern IT approach.

Diagram 2: NaaS architecture

Okay, I know what you’re thinking—where’s the logging, Network Access Control, or the data center in this diagram? We’re reimagining enterprise architecture with a fresh perspective. The network is just an underlay—a foundation to carry secure, isolated traffic. Some call this "Coffee Shop office networking," but don’t get it twisted—we’re not talking flaky café Wi-Fi. This is enterprise-grade, with blazing speeds, dedicated internet access circuits, redundancy, and SLAs to back it up. The magic of this solution lies in how it ditches the old game of 5-year hardware lifecycles, high CAPEX costs, and constant management or monitoring. Most offices don’t monitor their power (unless you’re a colocation facility or data center, of course)—you pay the electric bill, and the power just works. That’s how we want you to think of the underlay network with NaaS. From a feature and tech standpoint, Meter’s NaaS has you covered—when it’s time to upgrade or swap gear for the latest, there’s no extra cost beyond your NaaS utility bill. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it model that lets you focus on what matters.

Intelligent overlays: SwiftWorks Cybersecurity Solutions

While Network as a Service (NaaS) optimizes the underlay, intelligent overlays bring the real magic through software. Here at SwiftWorks, We leverage a single-agent platform deployed on endpoints to deliver a comprehensive suite of security and access features: Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and a full Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution that includes Next-Gen Cloud Firewall, Full SSL Inspection, and Secure DNS, ensuring secure connectivity across networks, clouds, and SaaS applications. Our LAN Zero Trust module adds micro-segmentation strategies within local networks, locking down internal access with deny-by-default policies. This overlay sits atop the underlay, needing no extra hardware—just a lightweight agent.

Technical highlights:

• Unified Agent: Packs EDR, NGAV, ZTNA, SASE, and LAN Zero Trust into one efficient agent, slashing complexity and overhead.
• Real-Time Protection: EDR and NGAV tackle threats fast with live analytics, neutralizing risks at the endpoint.
• Software-Defined Access: ZTNA and LAN Zero Trust enforce granular, identity-based policies with role-based access control (RBAC), fully integrated with Microsoft Entra ID for seamless authentication and authorization—no matter where users are¹.
• Centralized Management: One dashboard gives you full visibility and control—SASE, micro-segmentation, endpoint security—across sprawled environments.

Unlike the siloed appliances of legacy security solutions, SwiftWorks’ overlay is cohesive and adaptive—a software-driven layer that maxes out efficiency on the underlay. It enforces consistent global policies, ensuring the same RBAC rules apply whether users are at HQ, satellite offices, or working remotely—protecting data in transit across public Wi-Fi, SaaS apps, and cloud infrastructure². It’s true cloud-first or hybrid cloud-ready, seamlessly integrating with AWS, Google Cloud, or on-prem setups via SwiftWorks’ SGN Cloud Platform, delivering high-performance connectivity (up to 1 Gb/s per endpoint) with rapid deployment³. Legacy data centers? They don’t have to be traffic backhaul bottlenecks anymore. With SwiftWorks, you can turn them into service hubs—providing resources like file shares or app hosting without forcing all traffic through for inspection, fully integrating into this solution The High Cost of Network Backhaul. It’s a robust complement to NaaS solutions like Meter, aligning perfectly with SwiftWorks Technology’s vision for a secure, scalable future.

Diagram 3: Overlay architecture

Integration: Meter + SwiftWorks = IT harmony

The magic happens when Meter and SwiftWorks join forces, forming the backbone of this game-changing IT strategy. Meter’s Network as a Service (NaaS) underlay delivers hassle-free, enterprise-grade connectivity across sites, while SwiftWorks’ intelligent overlay piles on a full stack of security and access controls. Together, they ditch clunky VPNs, streamline operations, and scale like a dream—Meter keeps the network humming with the latest tech (WiFi 6, 5G, even WiFi 7 when it drops) at a fixed, affordable OPEX, while SwiftWorks locks it down with precision.

• Eliminated Technical Debt: Meter’s subscription-based hardware and SwiftWorks’ agent-based software sweep away legacy gear, killing off those 3-to-7-year lifecycle CAPEX headaches and maintenance burdens¹.
• Zero-Trust Security: SwiftWorks’s ZTNA and EDR secure endpoints worldwide, enforcing consistent global policies with role-based access control (RBAC)—same rules whether users are in the office, at a conference in LA today, or back in Atlanta tomorrow².
• Cost Predictability and Savings: Meter’s square-footage-based OPEX (literal cents on the square foot) and SwiftWorks’ single-agent subscription swap erratic CAPEX for stable costs. Say goodbye to the sprawl of a million security tools—firewalls, endpoint protection, VPNs—and endless network licenses from vendors you can’t even name.
• Distributed Workforce Ready: This combo scales effortlessly for remote and hybrid setups, delivering secure access and connectivity anywhere, backed by SwiftWorks’ SGN Cloud Platform³.

This is a modular setup done right: Meter lays a rock-solid underlay foundation, and SwiftWorks builds the security fortress (your enterprise secure network)—an agile, clutter-free IT environment that’s cloud-first or hybrid cloud-ready, seamlessly integrating with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or on-prem setups. Legacy data centers don’t have to be traffic bottlenecks anymore; they can become service hubs for apps or file shares, fully integrated without forcing backhaul for inspection The High Cost of Network Backhaul. SwiftWorks’s full Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and LAN Zero Trust capabilities enforce micro-segmentation, never trusting the underlay—just riding over it with encrypted tunnels. It’s what some call "Coffee Shop office networking"—not the flaky café Wi-Fi, but a simplified, enterprise-grade underlay with blazing speeds, redundancy, and dedicated circuits for proper SLAs, all wrapped in SwiftWorks’s defense-in-depth overlay.

Economically, this Meter-SwiftWorks combo slashes the chaos of managing multiple vendors—no more annual calls from account managers you can’t name, hawking renewals for a patchwork of solutions. It consolidates network and security into two streamlined subscriptions, cutting overhead and vendor sprawl. For edge cases like printers, SwiftWorks’ overlay enforces secure policies, but cloud-first options like PrintiX or Microsoft Universal Print keep things seamless, bypassing underlay hassles entirely Microsoft Universal Print Documentation. It's the scalable, secure, and cost-efficient future that enterprises will adopt to drive success.