/EINPresswire.com/ -- LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 6, 2017) - MEF, the driving force enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated Third Network services, today announced its MEF 2017 Awards program is open for entries. Now in its 12th year, the annual awards program recognizes service, application, technology, and professional excellence in the Third Network and Carrier Ethernet community that creates innovative solutions optimized for the digital economy and hyper-connected world. It is the largest awards program focused on emerging Third Network services powered by LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), NFV, SDN, and CE 2.0 (Carrier Ethernet 2.0) technologies.

"MEF is working with leading service providers, technology vendors, open source projects, and standards organizations to accelerate the industry transition to orchestrated on-demand services featuring user-directed service control," said Kevin Vachon, COO, MEF. "Our 2017 Awards program will recognize the key players in these efforts, awarding the top innovators who are pioneering a new generation of productivity-enhancing services delivered over more automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks."

The MEF 2017 Awards program includes 40 awards over five major categories. Winners will be selected through voting by groups of top industry analysts and other qualified independent judges. To view the full list of MEF 2017 Award options, please visit the awards' website.

• Enterprise Application Awards: Recognize service end users and their service providers for the most innovative use of Third Network / Carrier Ethernet services to meet application requirements of particular industry verticals, including finance, health, education, government, sports and entertainment, media, and retailers.
  
  
• Service Provider Awards: Recognize leadership in the development and delivery of global, regional, retail, and wholesale Third Network / Carrier Ethernet services, as well as excellence in network and service innovation, LSO strategy, marketing, and SD-WAN managed services.
  
  
• Third Network Proof of Concept Awards: Recognize the MEF17 Proof of Concept Showcase demonstration that best showcases the ability to deliver agile, assured, and orchestrated services over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks. 
  
  
• Third Network Technology Solutions Awards: Recognize leadership in Service Orchestration, Service Assurance, Service Virtualization, Service Analytics, SD-WAN, CE 2.0, and multi-vendor technology solutions based on combinations of LSO, NFV, SDN, and CE 2.0 technologies.
  
  
• Professional Awards: Recognize individuals who exhibit professional excellence and advance the work of MEF and the development of Third Network solutions.
  
  

MEF 2017 Award entries must be submitted by September 13, 2017, and winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at the MEF17 event in Orlando, Florida.

MEF and Vertical Systems Group will be hosting a webinar on Winning Strategies for Preparing MEF 2017 Award Submissions at 11:00 am US ET on June 27, 2017. Register here for the webinar. 

For more information, please contact Stan Hubbard, MEF17 Program Director and MEF Director of Communications & Research, at stan@mef.net.

About MEF
MEF is the driving force enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated 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 performance and security of CE 2.0 networks. Third Network services provide an on-demand experience with user-directed control over service capabilities and cloud connectivity. These new 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 services and technology market, and provides a practical evolution to the Third Network with LSO, SDN, and NFV implementations that build upon a CE 2.0 foundation.

Additional resources:

• MEF's Third Network Vision & Work
• Third Network Services Overview
• LSO (Lifecycle Services Orchestration) Overview
• Third Network White Paper

See www.MEF.net for more information.