SD-WAN FEATURED ARTICLE

Microsoft Joins MEF

October 27, 2020

By Maurice Nagle, Web Editor

Seeking a standard for SD-WAN has been no small feat for MEF (News - Alert). In recent months SASE, the convergence of network and security functions, is stealing the spotlight as what appears to be the future of enterprise operations. July brought MEF SASE standards, now October is introducing a pretty powerful partner.




Today, MEF announced Microsoft (News - Alert) as its newest member, and Partner at Microsoft Azure Shawn Haki will join the MEF Board of Directors as Advisory Director.

Microsoft will play the role of key contributor in expanding development of SASE and MEF 3.0 SD-WAN standards. In addition, the cloud titan will be central to working toward the Universal SD-WAN Edge, and Azure plans to contribute to furthering the recently announced SASE services and attributes.

SASE Summit Summer Series speaker, Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF explained “Azure and service provider members of the MEF community share a common vision of delivering a seamless, cloud-like customer experience with near-real time provisioning, visibility, and control end-to-end, across an ecosystem of interconnected partners and automated networks. We look forward to Microsoft providing valuable contributions to standardization of SD-WAN and SASE services and engaging in other projects aimed to deliver compelling value to service end users.”

Haki brings expertise in enterprise SaaS (News - Alert), NFV, SDN, 5G, security, edge computing, product management and development as well as innovation with a track record of delivering robust B2B solutions on a global scale.

Shawn Hakl, Partner, 5G Strategy at Microsoft,.”Microsoft’s decision to join MEF aligns with key goals of our Microsoft Azure for Operators initiative to bring the power of the cloud to the network, unlock the potential of 5G, and drive down costs and create new services and business models. I look forward to engaging again with the MEF community, including the notable team of executives on the MEF Board of Directors.”

MEF is not an organization to sit on laurels. The coming months should prove busy. A global pandemic and the growing popularity of WFH are moving the needle on network innovation.

What’s in your WAN?




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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