Rakuten Symphony, Lightstorm team on sovereign NaaS

Rakuten Symphony and Lightstorm have formed a strategic partnership to develop a sovereign Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform for enterprises, telecom operators and sovereign cloud providers across India, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The agreement links Lightstorm's Polarin NaaS platform with Rakuten Symphony's cloud-native platform and orchestration products. The companies are positioning the combined offering as a single, integrated approach to cloud and network automation, with an emphasis on in-country deployments and local compliance.

Sovereign cloud is becoming a priority for governments, regulated industries and critical infrastructure operators. Data residency rules and sector-specific obligations are driving demand for local control of data, infrastructure and operations. Telecom and data centre providers are also seeking network services that can be provisioned and managed with the same automation model as cloud workloads as they work to shorten delivery cycles.

Lightstorm describes Polarin as a NaaS fabric platform built around a self-service portal. It covers onboarding, product catalog publishing, network service provisioning, performance monitoring and billing management. Under the partnership, Polarin will be distributed through Rakuten Symphony channels, expanding Lightstorm's route to market.

Product Scope

Rakuten Symphony is contributing the Rakuten Cloud-Native Platform and Rakuten Cloud-Native Orchestrator. The release describes the Kubernetes-based solutions as designed for automation at scale, targeting sovereign data centres, telecom operators and AI-driven workloads.

Together, the companies say the combined solution will provide network services such as Layer 2, Layer 3 and internet access as part of a unified, automated infrastructure. This reflects a broader shift toward programmable networks and software-driven control planes, with growing expectations that network changes can be executed with minimal manual intervention.

Amajit Gupta, Group CEO and Managing Director of Lightstorm, said self-service is central to the proposition. "With Polarin, our customers gain true self-service capabilities-from service provisioning to billing-which not only accelerates revenue realization but also enhances overall network management," Gupta said. "Now, by integrating with Rakuten Cloud solutions, this experience will extend to sovereign in-country deployments, ensuring compliance while delivering agility."

Rakuten Symphony President Sharad Sriwastawa said the partnership aims to speed deployments through end-to-end integration across cloud and networking layers. "This collaboration provides enterprises and service providers with an end-to-end solution that integrates cloud and network automation, cutting deployment times from days to minutes," Sriwastawa said. "By combining Polarin's programmable network fabric with our orchestration and cloud-native capabilities, we're empowering customers to deliver robust, compliant services from core to edge."

Regional Focus

The collaboration targets customers across MEA, India and APAC, focusing on data centres, telecom network service providers and sovereign cloud operators. The partners also cite demand for private AI-driven deployments alongside broader cloud modernisation initiatives.

For telecom operators and wholesale network providers, a NaaS model can package connectivity as catalogued products rather than bespoke projects. For data centre operators, it can also reshape how interconnection, customer onboarding and network services are delivered across facilities. In sovereign cloud environments, operational controls and the ability to keep management functions within national borders are often decisive buying criteria.

Lightstorm operates across Asia-Pacific, selling digital network infrastructure and connectivity services to hyperscalers, cloud-native companies and large enterprises. Rakuten Symphony operates in Japan, the US, Singapore, India, South Korea, the UK, Europe and the Middle East and Africa, and markets open-interface platforms and cloud-native telecom systems.

Implementation details-including availability by market, commercial packaging and deployment prerequisites-were not disclosed. The companies said the combined offering is aimed at organisations seeking faster service delivery and greater operational control across cloud and network environments.

The partnership will roll out across India, MEA and APAC through Lightstorm and Rakuten Symphony sales channels, with Polarin also available through Rakuten Symphony's distribution network.