The communications industry is transitioning to Third Network Services, which combine the performance and security assurances of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) with the agility and ubiquity of the internet. At the heart of this shift is MEF, which is the driving force enabling agile, assured and orchestrated Third Network Services powered by LSO, SDNFV and CE 2.0.

Just recently, MEF reinforced its commitment to accelerating the industry’s transition to Third Network Services by naming Dr. Dan Pitt as Senior Vice President. Dr. Pitt is the former executive director of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), as well as a software-defined networking (SDN) visionary. He will be tasked with evangelizing the MEF Third Network Vision and technical program. Dr. Pitt will also work to harness open APIs and SDNFV in the Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) framework, and expand the MEF community and ecosystem.

“Dan is a pioneer of the software-defined networking industry and has played a pivotal role in the evolution of SDN from concept to adoption,” explained Nan Chen, President of MEF.  “We are honored to welcome Dan to the MEF leadership team as we lead the transformation to agile, assured, and orchestrated network services on a global scale.”

Dr. Pitt shared his excitement about joining MEF.

“MEF has a critical mass of more than 200 members, including 130+ service providers, and an astonishing track record of spearheading the creation of an $80+ billion market of new services and technologies,” stated Dr. Pitt. “Significantly, MEF members’ core competency of services, operations, and orchestration makes the organization the ideal vehicle to deliver real-world, global deployment of SDNFV and LSO. I am thrilled to be part of the innovative team MEF continues to build.”

Here’s what others are saying about Dr. Pitts’s appointment:

“Dan’s joining MEF reinforces the strength of MEF’s vision and strategy,” commented Axel Clauberg, Vice President, Aggregation, Transport, IP, at Deutsche Telekom, who served on the board of ONF during Dr. Pitt’s tenure there.  “Dan has been the voice and the face of SDN since the movement’s inception. His decades of comprehensive networking industry experience complement MEF’s LSO and Third Network vision with both technical skills and extensive relationships around the world.”

Rohit Mehra, Vice President of Network Infrastructure at IDC, also endorsed Dr. Pitt for the position.

“Dan’s extensive industry background puts him in an ideal position to help expand awareness of MEF’s vision of the Third Network and implement the advances being made in SDN/NFV into LSO’s framework and open APIs,” Mehra explained. “In addition, Dan’s experience with open protocols and projects will also be beneficial as these get inducted into commercial platforms across operator networks in the coming years.“

For more information about Dr. Pitt’s new role at MEF click here. To learn more about MEF, visit www.mef.net.