2019 MEF Awards Open for Entries

More than 50 prestigious awards will highlight service, application, technology, and professional excellence, with honorees recognized during MEF19 event

Los Angeles, 17 July 2019 – MEF today announced its 2019 MEF Awards program is open for entries. Now in its 14th year, this annual awards program recognizes service, application, technology, and professional excellence in the global community committed to delivering innovative communications solutions for the digital economy. MEF’s awards program is the largest in the world focused on emerging dynamic network services powered by LSO, SDN, NFV, SD-WAN, and Carrier Ethernet technologies. Award winners will be recognized at the MEF19 global networking event, held 18-22 November 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

“This past year has been a tremendous period of innovation as service providers and technology vendors worldwide have stepped up efforts to accelerate the industry transformation to dynamic and assured services across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks,” said Kevin Vachon, COO, MEF. “We look forward to spotlighting market leaders who are delivering game-changing networking solutions aligned with the MEF 3.0 framework that ultimately will empower users with the dynamic performance, assurance, and security required to thrive in the digital economy.”

Award Categories Expanded

The 2019 MEF Awards program features 52 awards across six major categories. All entries must be submitted via the Awards Submission Portal by 13 September. After judging by top industry analysts and other qualified independent judges, winners will be recognized on 19 November at MEF19, except for MEF 3.0 PoC honorees who will be announced on 20 November. For a full listing of award options and to submit an entry, please visit the 2019 MEF Awards site.

Enterprise Application Awards : recognize the most innovative use of MEF 3.0 / Carrier Ethernet / SD-WAN services to meet application requirements of industry verticals, including finance, health, education, government, sports and entertainment, media, and retail. These awards are given to service providers.
Service Provider Awards : recognize leadership in the development and delivery of global, regional, retail, and wholesale connectivity services, as well as excellence in network and service innovation, SD-WAN leadership, LSO strategy, and marketing. This year’s program introduces SD-WAN provider of the year awards for Global, APAC, Europe, and North America. Service providers must be based in the region or generate more than half of their revenue from the region when competing for Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East & Africa, and Caribbean & Latin America awards.
MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Awards : recognize leadership and innovation in the MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Showcase at MEF19. All companies selected to participate in one of the 20 planned PoC demonstrations are automatically eligible to compete for the MEF 3.0 PoC Awards, which will be judged at the event (no awards submission required). MEF expects to have 7 MEF 3.0 PoC Awards based on the topical focus of the demonstrations.
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. These awards are only given to technology vendors.
Professional Awards : recognize individuals who have exhibited professional excellence and advanced the work of MEF and the development and implementation of MEF 3.0 solutions. MEF will be announcing two professional awards at MEF19: Industry Executive of the Year and MEF Distinguished Fellow. MEF also will be honoring winners of the following awards at the MEF Annual Meeting at the end of July 2019: MEF Leadership Team, MEF Editors, MEF Outstanding Contributors, and MEF Top Contributors.
MEF Accredited Training Provider Award : New in 2019, recognizes a MEF Accredited Training Provider (MEF-ATP) that has demonstrated outstanding leadership in training associated with MEF’s professional certification programs: MEF-Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP), MEF-SDN/NFV, and MEF Network Foundations (MEF-NF).

Awards will be presented during the 2019 MEF Awards Dinner Gala , 7:30pm – 10:00pm, 19 November. Join industry peers and colleagues for a spectacular evening during which the global community will celebrate the leading innovators reshaping the industry landscape.

For more information on the 2019 MEF Awards, please contact Stan Hubbard, MEF19 Program Director and Director of Communications & Research, MEF, at stan@mef.net.

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.

About MEF19

MEF19 is the global event showcasing network services for the digital economy, where transformation leaders converge and innovate. MEF19 focuses on accelerating the industry transition to dynamic, assured, and certified services across a global federation of automated networks. Emerging cloud-centric “MEF 3.0” services provide an on-demand experience with user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities. These services are orchestrated across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV.

MEF19 has a target audience exceeding 1,000 professionals from 270+ organizations and 35+ countries. MEF19’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.

Interested in sponsoring MEF19? Please see the MEF19 Sponsor Price List and contact Alysia Bennett, alysia@mef.net for more information.

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Media Contact:
Gennifer Biggs
Witz Communications for MEF
MEF@witzcommunications.com