Meter ups its NaaS portfolio with new hardware, autonomous operations

The basic promise from network-as-a-service (NaaS) providers is to make networking easier. It’s a need that is becoming increasingly relevant as modern networks pivot to AI and network engineers are a tough job to fill. While all NaaS vendors provide a service, San Francisco-based startup Meter is looking to differentiate with purpose-built hardware, a custom operating system, and a vision for enabling truly autonomous networks.

In a bid to fulfill that vision, Meter announced nine hardware platforms and plans for autonomous network operations at its MeterUp 2025 conference in San Francisco on Nov. 18. The company designs its own access points, switches, firewalls and gateways. All hardware runs a single firmware image and operating system. Meter also announced a partnership with Lumen to integrate WAN circuit provisioning into its platform and showed updates to its Command AI system that now automates network design and troubleshooting.

“Networking is going through actually a bigger change than people realize, because of many factors, including what’s possible in protocols, what’s possible in hardware and software, but also because fewer network engineers are actually coming into the industry compared to what’s needed,” Anil Varanasi, Meter co-founder and CEO, told Network World.

Nine hardware platforms span networking needs

While many NaaS providers work with commodity hardware, that’s not the approach that Meter is taking. “We don’t think hardware should be commoditized, and this is probably the biggest area we disagree with the rest of the networking industry,” Varanasi said.

Meter’s new hardware lineup covers wireless access, switching, security and cellular connectivity. All devices run the same firmware and operating system.

• A-Series Wi-Fi 7 access points: The A1 and A2 are tri-band access points supporting 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. 
• S-Series multi-gig switches: Three switch models handle different deployment sizes, including S1: 24-port PoE++ switch with 2.5GbE access ports, S2: 48-port switch with 2.5GbE access ports and S3: 12-port core switch with six SFP28 25Gbps ports and six SFP+ 10Gbps ports
• F-Series: Redundant firewalls that support automatic failover and different port configurations.
• G-Series: 5G Gateway that provides ISP failover and cellular connectivity with up to 1200Mbps throughput over 5G.

Command AI automates design and troubleshooting

Multi-vendor networks require engineers who know vendor-specific CLI syntax, API implementations and hardware quirks. A network running Cisco switches, Arista routers and Juniper firewalls needs expertise in three different operating systems and management paradigms.

Meter’s approach is different. All hardware runs identical firmware. Telemetry data has the same structure whether it comes from an access point, switch or firewall. This consistency lets Meter train its Command AI model on a clean dataset.

Command now operates in two areas: support and operations. For support tickets, Command analyzes real-time telemetry, runs model jobs and recommends actions. The system currently handles 85% of tickets with model-generated insights. Meter reserves 15% for control group testing.

For operations, Command automates network design. After sales calls where customers describe their setup, Command reads transcripts and generates complete network configurations. This includes topology, architecture, required hardware, VLAN assignments, IP addressing and security policies.

Desired state configuration takes flight

Traditional network configuration is generally imperative. Engineers log into switches and routers to run commands that change device state. Each configuration change requires CLI access or API calls to individual devices. Configuration drift happens when devices get out of sync.

“All of the source of truth and intelligence actually lies in the back end, and this is what we call desired state networking,” Varanasi said. 

The architecture builds on software-defined networking (SDN) concepts that have been in the market for over a decade and abstracts them out further. The source of truth lives in the cloud, not on individual devices. Engineers define what the network should do. Meter’s system figures out how to configure hardware to achieve that state.

When new hardware boots, it pulls its configuration from the cloud. The device doesn’t need pre-configuration. It authenticates to Meter’s platform and downloads its role, addressing, VLANs and policies. Configuration changes propagate the same way. Engineers update the desired state in the dashboard. Devices pull the new configuration.

This architecture enables configuration “as fast as a Google search,” according to Varanasi. The time from sales conversation to configured network drops from weeks to hours. Command generates the desired state from customer requirements. Engineers review the virtual network. Once approved, shipping labels generate automatically. Hardware arrives pre-authenticated and pulls its configuration on first boot.

Lumen partnership integrates WAN circuit provisioning

While Meter builds its own hardware and control system, the company doesn’t have its own bandwidth connectivity.

To that end, Meter is now partnering with Lumen to add WAN circuit ordering and management to its platform. Enterprises can now order LAN hardware and WAN circuits through a single interface.

The integration has three components. First, Meter customers get volume pricing on Lumen fiber circuits. Second, Lumen’s provisioning APIs feed circuit status and installation timelines into Meter’s dashboard. Third, WAN circuit health metrics appear alongside LAN telemetry in the same management interface.

The combined offering will be available through Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. Enterprises can buy Meter and Lumen services against existing Azure spend commitments. The partnership is not exclusive. Meter said it will add other ISP integrations.

What’s next for Meter

Looking forward, Varanasi said that future development is focused on getting networking fundamentals right. Meter also plans on scaling the platform from 1 gigabit to 1 terabit as well as further work advancing autonomous networking.

Fundamentally, the goal is to provide organizations with the networking services they need, without putting further burden on staffing. Varanasi noted that approximately  25% of network engineers will retire by 2030. Universities aren’t producing replacement candidates at the same rate. Meanwhile, networks are growing more complex. More devices, more applications, more data traversing the infrastructure.

Meter’s bet is that vertically integrated hardware and software, combined with AI-driven automation, addresses both problems. 

“Everything is in data packets, and progress only happens if networking is great,” Varanasi said. “But fewer and fewer people are studying networking.”

Meter