With the MEF set to approve several new Carrier Ethernet specs next month – including updates for CoS and mobile backhaul, and the new E-Access spec for interconnecting wholesale Ethernet access services – the industry group is turning its attention to the cloud.
At last week’s Carrier Ethernet World Congress Asia in Singapore, MEF COO Kevin Vachon said the MEF aims to define what an Ethernet cloud carrier does by approaching it from three perspectives: (1) the technology requirements to enable cloud from data centers to enterprises, (2) leveraging current Carrier Ethernet specifications as much as possible to achieve that, and (3) education.
The last aspect is key, Vachon said, because the chase for the cloud is taking the MEF into relatively uncharted territory.
“The biggest issue we face is that we need to understand the landscape better,” Vachon said during his CEWC Asia keynote speech. “We’re not used to dealing with the data center guys and the software guys in that space. We have to get used to the lay of the land so we can determine what’s the right role for us to play, and what definitions are already established that we can build from.”