2018 MEF Awards are Open for Entries

More than 40 prestigious awards will recognize service, application, technology, and professional excellence

Los Angeles, 7 June 2018 – MEF, the driving force enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated MEF 3.0 services, today announced its 2018 MEF Awards program is open for entries. Now in its 13^th year, this annual awards program recognizes service, application, technology, and professional excellence and innovation. MEF’s awards program is the largest in the world focused on emerging dynamic network services powered by LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), SDN, NFV, SD-WAN, and Carrier Ethernet technologies. Award winners will be recognized at the MEF18 global networking event, held 29 October – 2 November 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

“We are seeing amazing, widespread efforts to accelerate the industry transition to agile, assured, and orchestrated services delivered across a global ecosystem of automated networks,” said Kevin Vachon, COO, MEF. “MEF is eager to celebrate the leading innovators who are helping define and progress the transformational approach to networking envisioned in the MEF 3.0 framework. We’re excited to open this entry process and applaud our community for its successes.”

The 2018 MEF Awards program features 44 awards in five major categories. All entries must be submitted by 7 September. Winners will be voted by top industry analysts and other qualified independent judges. Winners will be announced on 30 October at MEF18, except for PoC winners who will be announced on 31 October at the event. To view the full listing of award options and to submit an entry, please visit the awards’ website ( https://www.mef.net/for-members/2018-annual-awards/ ).

Enterprise Application Awards: recognize the most innovative use of MEF 3.0 / Carrier Ethernet services to meet application requirements of industry verticals, including finance, health, education, government, sports and entertainment, media, and retail.
Service Provider Awards: recognize leadership in the development and delivery of global, regional, retail, and wholesale services, as well as excellence in network and service innovation, LSO leadership, and marketing. This year’s program includes two distinct Best SD-WAN Managed Service Awards – one for a leading network-based provider and one for an over-the-top / managed service provider without network facilities.
Proof of Concept Awards: recognize innovation in the 5th Annual Proof of Concept Service & Technology Showcase at MEF18. All companies selected to participate in one of the 13 planned PoC Showcase demonstrations are automatically eligible to compete for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze PoC Awards that will be judged at the event (no awards submission is required). This year, we have introduced a new MEF 3.0 Implementation Project Award; groups of companies participating in one of the three planned MEF 3.0 implementation demonstrations are eligible to compete for this award (no awards submission is required).
Technology Solutions Awards: recognize leadership in LSO, service automation, service assurance, service analytics, SD-WAN, CE/IP, NFV, optical, and multi-vendor technology solutions. This year, we also will recognize a technology provider of the year that offers industry-leading solutions based on LSO, SDN, NFV, SD-WAN, CE, and/or optical technologies.
Professional Awards: recognize individuals who have exhibited professional excellence and advanced the work of MEF and the development of MEF 3.0 solutions.

For more information on the 2018 MEF Awards, please contact Stan Hubbard, MEF18 Program Director and Director of Communications & Research, MEF, at stan@mef.net.

The submission deadline for PoC Showcase proposals is 29 June 2018. See the submission form: MEF18 PoC Call for Proposals.docx. For questions about the PoC Showcase, contact Tom Dickson, MEF, at tom@mef.net.

See the MEF18 video to learn more about this popular event.

About MEF

An industry association of 200+ member companies, MEF recently introduced the MEF 3.0 transformational global services framework for defining, delivering, and certifying agile, assured, and orchestrated services over a global ecosystem of automated networks. MEF 3.0 services are designed to provide an on-demand, cloud-centric experience with user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities. MEF 3.0 services are delivered over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV. MEF produces service specifications, LSO frameworks, open LSO APIs, software-driven reference implementations, and certification programs. MEF 3.0 work will enable automated delivery of standardized Ethernet, IP, SD-WAN, Layer 1, and Layer 4-7 services across multiple provider networks. For more information: https://www.mef.net.

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Media Contact:
Ashley Schulte
Witz Communications for MEF
ashley@witzcommunications.com