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

  • By
  • 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.

Featured

  • Allegion, Comfort Technologies Implement Mobile Credentials at the Artisan Apartment Homes in Florida

    Artisan Apartment Homes, a luxury apartment complex in Dunedin, Florida, recently transitioned from mechanical keys to electronic locks and centralized system software with support from Allegion US, a leading provider of security solutions, technology and services, and Florida-based Comfort Technologies, which specializes in deploying multifamily access control, IoT devices and software management solutions. Read Now

  • Mall of America Deploys AI-Powered Analytics to Enhance Parking Intelligence

    Mall of America®, the largest shopping and entertainment complex in North America, announced an expansion of its ongoing partnership with Axis Communications to deploy cutting-edge car-counting video analytics across more than a dozen locations. With this expansion, Mall of America (MOA) has boosted operational efficiency, improved safety and security, and enabled more informed decision-making around employee scheduling and streamlining transportation for large events. Read Now

  • Security Industry Association Launches New “askSIA” AI Tool

    The Security Industry Association (SIA) has unveiled a brand-new SIA member benefit – askSIA, a conversational AI agent designed to help users get the most out of their SIA membership, easily access SIA resources and find the latest information on SIA’s training and courses, reports and publications, events, certification offerings and more. SIA members can easily find askSIA by visiting the SIA homepage or looking for the askSIA icon in the top left of webpages. Read Now

    • Industry Events

  • Industry Embraces Mobile Access, Biometrics and AI

    A combination of evolving workplace dynamics, technology innovation and new user expectations is changing how people enter and interact with physical spaces. Access control is at the heart of these changes. Combined with biometrics and AI, mobile access control has become increasingly crucial for deploying entry solutions that are seamless, secure and adaptive to user needs. Read Now

  • Sustainable Video Solution Delivered for Landmark City of London Office Development

    An advanced, end-to-end video solution from IDIS, with a focus on reducing waste and costs, has helped a major office development in the City of London align its security with sustainability objectives. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • 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.

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

  • Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems, an industry-leading manufacturer of pedestrian and vehicle secure entrance control access systems, is pleased to announce the release of its groundbreaking V07 software. The V07 software update is designed specifically to address cybersecurity concerns and will ensure the integrity and confidentiality of Automatic Systems applications. With the new V07 software, updates will be delivered by means of an encrypted file.