MEF Announces Winners of 2018 Awards

| Source: MEF MEF

39 awards recognize the best service, application, technology, and professional excellence and innovation

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 31, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEF is pleased to announce the winners for the MEF 2018 Awards, the largest awards program in the world focusing on emerging dynamic network services powered by LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), SDN, NFV, SD-WAN, and Carrier Ethernet technologies. This year’s MEF awards recognized 21 companies for service, application, technology, and professional excellence and innovation. Winners were recognized during the MEF Awards Gala Dinner at MEF18 this week in Los Angeles, California.

“MEF received countless submissions this year from innovative companies showcasing transformative services and technologies,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF. “We are thrilled to see all of the excellent work from dozens of companies and thought leaders who are helping accelerate the industry transition to assured services orchestrated across automated networks. We are pleased to congratulate this year’s award winners.”

Service Provider and Enterprise Application Award Winners

Network & Service Innovation:

  • Global – AT&T
  • APAC – PLDT
  • Europe – Colt
  • North America – AT&T

Retail Service Provider of the Year:

  • Global – Verizon
  • APAC – PLDT
  • Europe – Colt
  • North America – CenturyLink & Spectrum Enterprise (tie)

Wholesale Service Provider of the Year:

  • Global – PCCW Global
  • APAC – Tata Communications
  • Europe – Colt
  • North America – CenturyLink

Africa Service Provider of the Year – Liquid Telecom

CALA Service Provider of the Year – Ufinet

Special Awards

  • Best SD-WAN Managed Service, Network-Based – AT&T
  • Best SD-WAN Managed Service, OTT – AT&T
  • LSO Leadership – CenturyLink
  • Best Marketing – Verizon

Enterprise Application of the Year

  • Education – Colt
  • Financial – Tata Communications
  • Health – Spectrum Enterprise
  • Government – Spectrum Enterprise
  • Hospitality – Comcast Business
  • Media – CenturyLink
  • Retail – Tata Communications
  • Sports & Entertainment – Colt

Technology Solutions Award Winners

  • Technology Provider of the Year – Ciena
  • Carrier Ethernet & IP – Nokia
  • LSO Leadership – Ciena
  • NFV – RAD
  • Optical – Ciena
  • SD-WAN – Nuage
  • Service Analytics – Accedian
  • Service Assurance – Ciena & EXFO (tie)
  • Service Automation – Amdocs & NEC/Netcracker (tie)
  • Multi-Vendor Solution – Infinera and NEC/Netcracker

Professional Award Winners

  • Industry Executive of the Year – Marc Halbfinger, CEO, PCCW Global
  • MEF Distinguished Fellow – Jack Pugaczewski, Distinguished Architect, CenturyLink
  • Accredited Training Partner of the Year – Carrier Ethernet Academy

Proof of Concept Awards recognize the MEF18 Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations that best showcase the ability to orchestrate dynamic and assured services across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks in accordance with the MEF 3.0 framework. More than 50 companies are participating in 19 PoCs this year. A special PoC Awards ceremony in the MEF18 Networking Hall during the evening of 31 October will recognize Gold, Silver, and Bronze PoC Award Winners as well as the Winner of the 2018 MEF 3.0 Implementation Project Award.

The judging panel for the MEF Awards was comprised of global and regional senior analysts from ACG Research, ATLANTIC-ACM, Dell’Oro, Frost & Sullivan, Futuriom, IHS Markit, Ovum, and Vertical Systems Research, in addition to independent judges.

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 assured services orchestrated across 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 Carrier Ethernet, Optical Transport, IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 4-7 services across multiple provider networks. For more information: https://www.mef.net.

About MEF18
MEF18 focuses on enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated communications services for the digital economy. MEF18’s content, networking, and special activities are designed to appeal to executives and other senior experts from communication and cloud service providers; enterprises; government organizations; network technology suppliers; systems integrators, open source projects, standards organizations; industry and financial analysts; investors; the press; and others. For more information: http://www.MEF18event.com.

Additional News at MEF18

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