This post was originally published on Network Computing
Enterprises are on the cusp of having several new choices in global connectivity services, including enhanced SD-WAN, SASE, and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) offerings. MEF, the international organization that was instrumental in driving the success of carrier Ethernet, is mimicking that effort by working on certifications and specifications for these new services.
MEF’s approach goes beyond ensuring bare-bones interoperable connectivity. It’s going deeper into the back offices, into the provisioning, into the automation of services. Carriers and service providers who become certified using MEF’s frameworks and specifications will be able to provide enterprises with a powerful way to connect offices and workers around the globe.
So, if a company headquartered in the U.S. wants to order services to connect a branch office in Zaire, Bangalore, South America, or any place, it can order from one provider, who then may use the services of a second provider to support and deploy the services in that region. MEF tries to smooth out the interactions between all three entities through automation, lifecycle service orchestration (LSO), and more. Again, this goes beyond interoperability, coordinating provisioning and billing, and addressing problem resolution.
See also: Global NaaS Event Roundup: Taking NaaS and SASE Forward
Focus on the Enterprise
Most of MEF’s efforts are
— Read the rest of this post, which was originally published on Network Computing.
