Move over Beyonce and AC/DC – NaaS is the hottest ticket this summer

This year’s live music scene is set to be one of the best on record. You might be lucky enough to catch artists and bands from AC/DC to Beyonce, Sam Fender, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, Kendrick Lamar and Sza to Dua Lipa and Oasis performing live. Behind the starry line-up of incredible touring artists, there are millions of fans clamouring for tickets.I’m sure I’m not alone in frantically running between every screen in the house, waiting in line for my turn on the ticketing platform to secure the golden ticket; all while  desperately hoping my mobile or tablet battery doesn’t die, or the site crash, at the crucial moment. The concert performance itself is as much a celebration of the weary faithfuls that have truly committed to securing tickets, as it is to the artists themselves. 

Anyone who’s tried unsuccessfully to secure tickets for these events , I hear you. I can’t be alone in thinking there must be a better way. The good news? There is a better way: it’s NaaS, or Network as a Service. 

Crowd control 

Major ticketing events need powerful, high-performing infrastructure behind their platforms, but despite investing in the skills and technology to keep up with the pace of change, venue websites and ticketing platforms are at risk of being outsmarted at every turn. 

Despite companies offering early access fan ticketing events and pre-sales, restricting ticket numbers per buyer and trying all manner of different techniques to make tickets accessible, it’s still a feat of endurance to try to secure seats at big ticket events. 14 million fans tried to buy tickets for the Taylor Swift Eras tour, with just 1.5 million accessing the pre-sale. For the UK’s famous Glastonbury festival which takes place in the south west of England in June, 2.5 million people attempted to get one of the 135,000 tickets available for the 2024 event. 

Ticket buyers cause huge spikes in network traffic and bandwidth demand, which continues to overload servers, slowing response times and even crashing sites, resulting in frustration for a huge number of music fans. Networks without low latency built-in - or with legacy hardware - are often just not powerful enough,  hindering application performance and leading to network interruptions and connectivity issues. 

Site security

Ticketing platforms and event sites are also vulnerable to DDOS attacks which threaten site security. These attacks can overwhelm networks, make sites inaccessible and leave customer data open to risk. Then there are the bots: AI bots secure vast quantities of tickets in an automated purchasing practice that leaves genuine fans frustrated, and risks reputational damage to ticket sellers and artists. Ticketing firms are turning to a variety of deterrents, from robust authentication technologies, CAPTCHA systems and bot detection to verified fan programmes, but bot ticket purchasing remains a major challenge. 

Cloud computing is helping with some of these issues, boosting efficiency, enhancing security and improving the buyer experience – Eventbrite and Ticketmaster are two companies which were early adopters of cloud – and ticketing firms continue to explore technologies like AI and APIs to create enhanced user journeys. Queue systems and load balancing on the network helps, but the digital infrastructure on which these systems are built has to be reimagined. And for the scalability, reliability and performance event venues and ticketing firms need today, Network as a Service is the perfect fit. 

NaaS is the golden ticket

High demand events need reliable, low latency digital infrastructure for a seamless user experience, and NaaS delivers this with a flexible, scalable purchasing model. Companies can quickly adjust their network capacity – often in real-time -  to cope with surges in demand, and self-serve platforms make this interaction effortless. 

Because NaaS is consumption-based, businesses pay only for what they need. This means costs are transparent, predictable and subscription-based, so organisations are not faced with fees for excessive bandwidth usage which they only need during periods of peak demand. On-demand services can also contribute to net zero goals, reducing power consumption and the resulting carbon emissions.

Crucially for ticketing firms, NaaS can guarantee high levels of service around network reliability, stability and performance, with robust Service Level Agreements in place for peace of mind. NaaS providers, like Colt, are making investments in advanced technologies and intelligent networking with new features and capabilities which offer next-level performance and security. Some of these features integrate AI to provide deeper levels of automation – for example, identifying issues and ‘self healing’, so any issues are resolved often before they’re even noticed. 

This is where NaaS becomes a gamechanger: working hand in hand with software-defined networks such as SD WAN, NaaS provides the intelligent, dynamic, scalable service which optmises traffic routing and network performance. Ticketing CIOs can rest easy when big event tickets are released rather than remain on high alert,  while fans experience the benefits of robust ticketing platforms without the frustration. 

NaaS might not be able to guarantee stadium seats for every Olivia Rodrigo fan, or access-all-area tickets to AC/DC on tour, but it can make life a little easier; and for that reason, it’s the hottest ticket in town.