MEF announces 2017 award winners

MEF, the driving force enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated services, has announced winners for the MEF 2017 Awards, which recognise service, application, technology, and professional excellence and innovation. 

The MEF’s awards programme is the largest in the world focused on emerging dynamic network services powered by lifecycle service orchestration (LSO), network function virtualisation (NFV), software-defined networking (SDN), and Carrier Ethernet.

Award Winners were recognized during an Awards Party at the MEF17 (www.MEF17.com) networking event taking place this week in Orlando, Florida at the Loews Sapphire Falls Resort.

“We continue to see amazing service and technology innovations year-over-year in the MEF Awards programme, and are thrilled to witness the advances being made to accelerate development and delivery of agile, assured, and orchestrated services,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF. 

Global, Asia Pacific and Middle East winners include: 

· Best SD-WAN Managed Service – CenturyLink

· LSO Leadership – AT&T, Colt, Orange Business Services, CenturyLink / Level 3

· Best Marketing – Colt

Network and Service Innovation
· Global – AT&T

· Asia Pacific – SK Telecom

Wholesale Service Provider of the Year
· Global – PCCW Global

· Asia Pacific – PLDT

· Middle East & Africa – Liquid Telecom

Retail Service Provider of the Year
· Global – CenturyLink / Level 3

· Asia Pacific – PLDT

Enterprise Application of the Year
· Business Process Services – PLDT

· Cloud Connectivity – Tata Communications

· Education – Colt

· Finance – Tata Communications

· Government - Verizon

· Health – Comcast Business

· IT Services – Colt

· Media – Sparkle and Vertical Telecoms (Vertel), a tie

· Sports & Entertainment – Comcast Business

· Government Demonstration – CenturyLink/Level 3

Third Network Technology Solutions Award Winners
· Carrier Ethernet – ADVA Optical Networking

· Service Analytics – Ciena

· Service Assurance – CENX

· Service Orchestration – Ciena

· Service Virtualization – Accedian Networks

· Multi-Vendor – NoviFlow and Lumina Networks

· SD-WAN – Nokia/Nuage

Industry Executive of the Year – Hans Vestberg, Executive VP and President of Global Networks and CTO, Verizon

MEF Distinguished Fellow – Scott Mansfield, Standardization Researcher, Development Unit Network Products, Ericsson

MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP) of the Year – Bartosz Michalik, Technical Architect, Amartus

The Proof of Concept Award recognises the MEF17 Proof of Concept Showcase demonstration that best showcases the ability to deliver agile, assured, and orchestrated services over automated, virtualised, and interconnected networks. Twenty-five companies in 11 participant groups have been selected to participate in this year’s PoC Showcase. The PoC Winner will be announced during the MEF17 evening reception on Wednesday, 15 November.

MEF is an industry association of 210+ member companies, that enables service providers to create a global ecosystem of networks that deliver agile, assured, and orchestrated services for the digital economy and hyperconnected world. These services provide an on-demand, cloudcentric experience with user and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities.