MEF Announces Winners for 2016 Excellence Awards Presented at MEF16

BALTIMORE, MD--(Marketwired - Nov 9, 2016) - MEF (www.MEF.net), the driving force enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated Third Network services, this week announced the winners for the MEF 2016 Excellence Awards, which recognize service, application, technology, and professional excellence and innovation in the global Third Network community. The Awards program is the largest in the world focused on advanced Carrier Ethernet services and emerging Third Network services powered by CE 2.0, LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), NFV, and SDN networking technologies.

The 2016 Awards were presented at the MEF Excellence Awards Dinner as part of the MEF16 (www.MEF16.com) global networking conference taking place at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel, Baltimore, MD, USA.

"MEF congratulates the 2016 Award winners for the outstanding work they are doing to advance service and technology innovation," said Kevin Vachon, Chief Operating Officer, MEF. "Judging was highly competitive this year, with 36 companies -- including 19 service providers and 17 technology vendors -- competing as Finalists for this year's awards."
The judging panel for the MEF Excellence Awards was comprised of global and regional senior analysts from ATLANTIC-ACM, Current Analysis, Frost & Sullivan, IHS Markit, Metanoia, Ovum, SDxCentral, and Vertical Systems, in addition to independent judges. 
The 2016 Excellence Awards winners are listed below

Service Provider and Enterprise Application Award Winners
Worldwide Awards

• Service Provider of the Year - AT&T
• Innovative Service of the Year - AT&T
• Best Service Provider Marketing - Colt Technology Services
• LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) Service Provider Leadership - Level 3 Communications, AT&T, and Sparkle
• Best Network Innovation - AT&T

Wholesale Service Provider of the Year

• Asia Pacific (APAC) - Tata Communications
• Caribbean & Latin America (CALA) - C&W Networks
• Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) - Colt Technology Services
• North America - Level 3 Communications
• Global - Verizon Partner Solutions and PCCW Global (tie)

Retail Service Provider of the Year

• APAC - PLDT
• EMEA - Colt Technology Services
• North America - Level 3 Communications
• Global - Level 3 Communications

Best Service Innovation of the Year

• APAC - PLDT
• CALA - C&W Networks
• EMEA - Colt Technology Services
• North America - Global Capacity & AT&T (tie)
• Global - AT&T

Best Enterprise Application of the Year

• Education - Vertical Telecoms Pty Limited (Vertel)
• Financial - Colt Technology Services
• Government - Comcast Business
• Health - AT&T
• Manufacturing - Colt Technology Services
• Media - Tata Communications
• Retail - Level 3 Communications
• Sports and Entertainment - Comcast Business

Third Network Technology Award Winners

• Third Network Technology Vendor of the Year - Amdocs
• CE 2.0 Technology of the Year - Accedian Networks
• LSO Technology of the Year - Amdocs and CENX (tie)
• NFV Technology of the Year - ADVA Optical Networking
• SDN Technology of the Year - VeloCloud
• Multi-Vendor Innovation of the Year - Oracle Communications, InfoVista, Juniper Networks, and ADVA Optical Networking
• Third Network Thought Leadership - ECI
• LSO, NFV, and SDN Consulting - Fujitsu Network Communications

Professional Award Winners

• Industry Executive of the Year - John Donovan, AT&T
• MEF Distinguished Fellow - Steve Haddock
• MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP) of the Year - Dan Blemings, Director of Ethernet Product Management, AT&T

About MEF
MEF is the driving force enabling Third Network services for the digital economy and the hyper-connected world. The Third Network concept combines the agility and ubiquity of the internet with the assurance and security of CE 2.0. Third Network services provide an on-demand, orchestrated, and assured experience with user-directed control over network resources and cloud connectivity. Third Network services are delivered over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, NFV, and CE 2.0.

MEF leverages its global 210+ network operator and technology vendor community, builds upon the robust $80 billion Carrier Ethernet market, and provides a practical evolution to the Third Network with LSO, SDN, and NFV implementations that build upon a CE 2.0 foundation. See www.MEF.net for more information.

About MEF16
MEF is the host of the MEF16 (www.MEF16.com) global networking event taking place 7-10 November 2016 at the Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore/Washington D.C., USA. This year's event expands popular elements of last year's program, including the MEF Excellence Awards Dinner, Proof of Concept Service & Technology Showcase, LSO Hackathon, and Global Media Hub. MEF16 features new Workshops on LSO, Open Initiatives, MEF Certification Programs (services, technology, professionals), and Wholesale Services & Interconnection. Also new for 2016 are the UNITE Partners Summit focusing on standards and open source solutions for Third Network orchestrated services and the OPEN-O Mini-Summit. 

Register here for MEF16. Attendance is free for qualified service end-user professionals from enterprises, businesses, government, defense, educational, or non-profit organizations.

For sponsorship information, please contact Alysia Bennett at alysia@MEF.net.