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In a year filled with many challenges, it may have slid under the radar that the MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Certification Program turned one in November 2020! The pandemic accelerated trends well underway as enterprises continued to migrate applications and data to the cloud and scrambled to enable work from home (WFH) for employees. To achieve those goals, they increasingly leaned on service providers for the reliable, secure connectivity that SD-WAN-managed services enable.
SD-WAN certification enables service and technology providers to demonstrate conformity with the industry’s only SD-WAN service standards. As the ACTP, Spirent collaborated with MEF on a rigorous testing program that verifies service attributes and policy-based forwarding for the standard SD-WAN overlay service, independent of WAN underlay connectivity services.
In my recent blog on AvidThink, I reflected on the evolution of the MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Certification Program. As the program’s lead at Spirent—the SD-WAN Authorized Certification and Test Partner (ACTP)—I shared lessons learned along the way. For example, initial certifications provided a feedback loop to refine the MEF SD-WAN Certification Test Requirements.
In addition to highlighting the certification program’s evolution, the blog also highlights the program’s successes.
- Each SD-WAN certification performed in 2020 was successful!
- By year’s end, many of the world’s leading operators completed certifications, including AT&T, Comcast, PCCW Global, Telia, Verizon, and Vodafone.
Lastly, in the blog, I look ahead at what’s in store for 2021: All indications point to the SD-WAN market heating up, MEF will continue to play an important role in evolving its SD-WAN and security services standards work, and certification will play an important role in driving adoption.
Learn More
For additional insights on the evolution of SD-WAN, and emergence of SASE, listen to my Deep Dive discussion “From SD-WAN to SASE: Assure Me, Secure Me” in Episode 2 of the MEF Infinite Edge Series and again on 10 March for the Episode 3 Deep Dive: “Addressing Customer Needs: It’s Time to Align on SASE.”
Related Articles:
- MEF SD-WAN Certification Turns 1: Lessons Learned from the Industry’s First SD-WAN Standard, by Marc Cohn, February 1, 2021, on AvidThink
