Building the NaaS Experience: Connect, Innovate, Transform at MEF’s Global Event

  • By Kevin Vachon
  • Sep 03, 2024

MEF’s Global Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) event (GNE) in Dallas, Texas 28-30 October brings together the entire NaaS ecosystem to discuss the vision of a new generation of NaaS and provide a snapshot of the industry for service providers, technology vendors, wholesale providers, retail providers, hyperscalers, system integrators and of course, the end-user enterprise community. The event lays out how MEF’s high value open standards for connectivity, cybersecurity, and business automation together with assets such as Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs and blockchain and smart contracts will transform the digital economy. This year’s event will focus on evaluating the NaaS advancements that have occurred over the past year, identifying current challenges in the market, and forecasting future developments.

In the lead up to the event, the MEF membership has evolved its NaaS vision beyond that of individual NaaS providers utilizing the capabilities of cloud and connectivity partners in single ecosystem for a cloudified user experience. MEF will present a vision of evolving NaaS federations with participation and onboarding requirements defined by the MEF membership and based on open standards and assets from across the digital transformation industry. The roadmap for NaaS federations will enable enterprises, NaaS providers, cloud, data center and connectivity providers, security providers, solution providers and system integrators and many new entrants to the digital service economy to converge and collaborate on high value solutions for current and emerging NaaS use cases that use MEF’s LSO APIs, MEF standardized product models, cybersecurity standards, multi-party ERP solutions and certification.

In addition, the MEF membership is setting out a framework of common requirements of a NaaS user experience that defines the customer-facing aspects of NaaS offerings to provide enterprises and application developers a baseline to understand NaaS provider offerings. Enhancing this will be an update to MEF’s NaaS Industry Blueprint that is important to both the NaaS providers and the increasing number of system integrators working with them to implement their NaaS solutions.

MEF will kick off GNE 2024 with a half-day LSO Automation Summit where the participants will hear practical insights from industry experts across the entire automation ecosystem, including buyer to seller journeys to core processes and cutting-edge applications like blockchain-enabled billing. Sessions will cover business cases for LSO API automation, innovative concepts like product payloads and partner matchmaking, and address challenges such as global address validation. The next two days will cover the critical areas shaping the future of NaaS, including enterprise needs, service evolution, and the importance of automation in a global context.

Sessions and panels will revolve around key themes including:

  • Enterprise-Driven NaaS: Led by MEF’s Enterprise Leadership Council (ELC), enterprise executives will share their expectations and needs regarding NaaS, including consumption models and service provider roles. The event will explore forward-looking use cases and NaaS strategy from industry pioneers. Sessions will highlight executive perspectives on digital transformation drivers, cloud-first strategies, AI-enhanced networking, cyber threats, SD-WAN, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and NaaS adoption.
  • NaaS Offerings: There will be numerous sessions exploring the development and variety of NaaS offerings, including retail and wholesale services, and service demand and bundling innovations. Security will also be an important focus highlighting MEF’s new State of the Industry Report on SASE, the challenges in the cybersecurity landscape, including the increased risk of major cyberattacks and steps the industry needs to take to contain these attacks.
  • NaaS Ecosystem and Automation: GNE will explore the comprehensive view of global NaaS ecosystem evolution and its key players, including service providers, wholesale providers, data center operators, and technology vendors. With a focus on automation, sessions will delve into how automation and standardization are reshaping the landscape and provide strategies to excel in the evolving automated NaaS ecosystem.
  • NaaS in Action: Over a dozen live demos of the latest NaaS innovations and technologies in action will be on display at GNE. Demos will include service and technology provider organizations from across the NaaS ecosystem to showcase the power of automation and explore the industry collaborations shaping the NaaS landscape. Information about GNE 2024 happening 28-30 October in Dallas, Texas, including how to register can be found here.

About the Author

Kevin Vachon, COO, MEF. As MEF COO since 2006, Kevin leads a team that builds, supports and scales the MEF’s ever-increasing mix of global programs activities. He is actively engaged with MEF’s global member and partner community and has a broad perspective on the important role that MEF plays in the industry and how to deliver results.

Featured

  • Gaining a Competitive Edge

    Ask most companies about their future technology plans and the answers will most likely include AI. Then ask how they plan to deploy it, and that is where the responses may start to vary. Every company has unique surveillance requirements that are based on market focus, scale, scope, risk tolerance, geographic area and, of course, budget. Those factors all play a role in deciding how to configure a surveillance system, and how to effectively implement technologies like AI. Read Now

  • 6 Ways Security Awareness Training Empowers Human Risk Management

    Organizations are realizing that their greatest vulnerability often comes from within – their own people. Human error remains a significant factor in cybersecurity breaches, making it imperative for organizations to address human risk effectively. As a result, security awareness training (SAT) has emerged as a cornerstone in this endeavor because it offers a multifaceted approach to managing human risk. Read Now

  • The Stage is Set

    The security industry spans the entire globe, with manufacturers, developers and suppliers on every continent (well, almost—sorry, Antarctica). That means when regulations pop up in one area, they often have a ripple effect that impacts the entire supply chain. Recent data privacy regulations like GDPR in Europe and CPRA in California made waves when they first went into effect, forcing businesses to change the way they approach data collection and storage to continue operating in those markets. Even highly specific regulations like the U.S.’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) can have international reverberations – and this growing volume of legislation has continued to affect global supply chains in a variety of different ways. Read Now

  • Access Control Technology

    As we move swiftly toward the end of 2024, the security industry is looking at the trends in play, what might be on the horizon, and how they will impact business opportunities and projections. Read Now

Most   Popular

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge. 3

  • Compact IP Video Intercom

    Viking’s X-205 Series of intercoms provide HD IP video and two-way voice communication - all wrapped up in an attractive compact chassis. 3

  • A8V MIND

    A8V MIND

    Hexagon’s Geosystems presents a portable version of its Accur8vision detection system. A rugged all-in-one solution, the A8V MIND (Mobile Intrusion Detection) is designed to provide flexible protection of critical outdoor infrastructure and objects. Hexagon’s Accur8vision is a volumetric detection system that employs LiDAR technology to safeguard entire areas. Whenever it detects movement in a specified zone, it automatically differentiates a threat from a nonthreat, and immediately notifies security staff if necessary. Person detection is carried out within a radius of 80 meters from this device. Connected remotely via a portable computer device, it enables remote surveillance and does not depend on security staff patrolling the area. 3