MEF, ONUG Collaborate to Advance SD-WAN Managed Services

ONUG enterprise use case requirements to accelerate development of MEF 3.0 SD-WAN managed services standards and certifications

MEF and ONUG are collaborating to ensure that enterprises are provided with communications services optimized for digital transformation in the multi-cloud era.

MEF will leverage ONUG’s hybrid multi-cloud enterprise end user requirements to accelerate development of MEF 3.0 SD-WAN managed services standards and related certification programs for services, technologies, and professionals. Technology vendors and service providers that are MEF members and interested in helping shape what SD-WAN services will be offered to enterprises can participate and gain complete visibility into the development of SD-WAN requirements and standards.

“ONUG is playing a vital role in determining the requirements for key enterprise SD-WAN use cases. This is a major step in ensuring that enterprise end users are provided with the services needed to enable digital transformation in the hybrid multi-cloud era,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF. “Together, our communities can create a lasting impact in the industry and shape how innovative software-defined WAN services are developed, designed, and delivered.”

MEF recently published the industry’s first global SD-WAN managed services standard in order drive SD-WAN adoption and improve overall customer experience with hybrid networking solutions. MEF’s SD-WAN Service Attributes and Services (MEF 70) standard describes requirements for an application-aware, over-the-top WAN connectivity service that uses policies to determine how application flows are directed over multiple underlay networks irrespective of the underlay technologies or service providers who deliver them.

ONUG’s SD-WAN 2.0 Working Group is focused on addressing specific challenges in integrating SD-WAN connectivity into enterprise hybrid multi-cloud environments. As part of its work, the working group developed an impressive reference architecture to define use case requirements for typical deployment scenarios, including multiple cloud provider connections, application performance assurance, scaling, security policy enforcement, hybrid environment security integration, and multi-domain connectivity orchestration.

As part of this collaboration, ONUG’s enterprise use case requirements will directly influence MEF’s ongoing SD-WAN projects so that the appropriate service specifications and certifications can be further matured. ONUG and MEF will collaborate on the joint definition of common service models and APIs for automating SD-WAN services, with initial areas of focus including:

· ONUG SD-WAN 1.0 service models and API specifications

· ONUG SD-WAN 2.0 multi-cloud integration use cases

· Application security for SD-WANs

· Intent-based networking and service automation for SD-WANs

“ONUG is eager to help define MEF 3.0 SD-WAN managed services standards by ensuring that they address the critical enterprise requirements of the Global 2000 on their journey to hybrid multi-cloud adoption,” said Nick Lippis, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, ONUG. “ONUG looks forward to seeing these new standards reflected in the development of future SD-WAN reference solutions and proof-of-concept demonstrations for the benefit of the entire ONUG Community.”