Awards programs are usually a lot of work and a lot of fun. More importantly though, you can gain a lot of insight looking over dozens of awards entries.

Yesterday, the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) announced the finalists for its Ethernet Excellence Awards (I served as a judge on the panel). The winners will be announced at a dinner on November 18 at the Gaylord National in Washington, D.C. Some big networking themes run deep in the awards, which name the top technologies, companies, and people forging tomorrow's networks with Ethernet technology.

First up: Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are breaking into the mainstream, as we start to see the first real-world implementations of these technologies in service provdier networks. This is a wide technology bucket, but the most relevant applications are orchestration, provisioning and “service chaining,” all use cases for SDN and NFV to allow service providers and network operators to more quickly deliver services to customers, with less manual interaction.

The best way to think of this is doing for service-provider technology what cloud tools did for allowing enterprises to more quickly order cloud services. It's clear that customers want a quicker way to order up services such as Gigabit Ethernet, and better service orchestration tools do this, by either allowing customers to self-provision a service or service providers to more quickly order a service without having to manually configure lots of pieces of hardware equipment.

Many of the top awards in the technology category, whether they be from technology vendors or service providers, introduce a new way to provision or orchestrate network services.

Second trend: Gigabit Ethernet services are here. Whether it's services from Comcast Business Services, Verizon, AT&T and others, it's clear that business are seeking big, secure, and flexible pipes. Ethernet, because of its wide availability and standardization, is becoming the gold standard. Whether it's high-hegabit or Gigabit Ethernet, a simple, secure, switched service is possible. A number of customers in the entry materials cited the need to replace their legacy leased lines and MPLS circuits with more affordable and flexible Ethernet services. The era of cheap, secure bandwidth, using Ethernet private lines, is here.

Third trend: Scale. Many of the top technologies introduced new ways to scale bigger and faster, in more economical ways. This continues to be the strongest case for Ethernet itself, which is penetrating more deeply into the network and replacing older, less economical networking protocols. Ethernet has won in business services as well as consumer services because wide standardization has led to economical chips, hardware and software.

So, onto the finalists. This year, the MEF had a record number of entries, according to Nan Chen, President of the MEF.

Here is a list of the finalists, as named by the MEF.

Applications

• Best Application of the Year - Education: Comcast Business, Cox Business, Verizon
• Best Application of the Year - Financial: Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business, Indosat
• Best Application of the Year - Government: AT&T, Comcast Business, PLDT
• Best Application of the Year - Health: Comcast Business, Indosat
• Best Application of the Year - Media/Sports/Entertainment: Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business, Tata Communications
• Best Application of the Year - Other Applications: Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business, Tata Communications

Services

• Best Service of the Year - APAC: KVH, PLDT, Telstra
• Best Service of the Year - CALA: INTERNEXA, Level 3 Communications, Colt Technology Services
• Best Service of the Year - EMEA: Colt Technology Services, GTS Central Europe, Verizon
• Best Service of the Year - Global: Tata Communications, Telstra, Verizon
• Best Service of the Year - North America: Bell Canada, Comcast Business, Verizon
• Retail Service Provider of the Year - APAC: PLDT, Tata Communications, Verizon
• Retail Service Provider of the Year - CALA: Level 3 Communications, Verizon
• Retail Service Provider of the Year - EMEA: Colt Technology Services, GTS Central Europe, Verizon
• Retail Service Provider of the Year - Global: Level 3 Communications, Verizon
• Retail Service Provider of the Year - North America: Comcast Business, tw telecom
• Wholesale Service Provider of the Year - APAC: PCCW Global, PLDT, Telstra
• Wholesale Service Provider of the Year - CALA: INTERNEXA, Level 3 Communications
• Wholesale Service Provider of the Year - EMEA: Colt Technology Services, Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS), Verizon Global Wholesale
• Wholesale Service Provider of the Year - Global: Level 3 Communications, SingTel, Telstra
• Wholesale Service Provider of the Year - North America: Comcast Business, tw telecom, Verizon Global Wholesale

Network Technologies

• Network Technology Provider of the Year - Network Technology Provider of the Year: Alcatel-Lucent, Colt Technology Services, Cyan
• Best Network Technology of the Year - Multi-Vendor Innovation: Colt Technology Services, Overture, Verizon
• Best Network Technology of the Year - Scalability: Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Verizon
• Best Network Technology of the Year - Service Management/Orchestration: Cyan, Overture, Verizon
• Best Network Technology of the Year - Technology Innovation: Alcatel-Lucent, Colt Technology Services, RAD

Professionals

• Professionals of the Year - Ethernet Industry Person of the Year: Ali Sajassi, Cisco; Bill Stemper, Comcast Business; Vincent Alesi, Verizon
• Professionals of the Year - MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional of the Year: Marjory Sy, PLDT; Sendang Praptomo, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International; Simi Babbar, Time Warner Cable

As mentioned, the winners will be announced on Nov. 18th in D.C. I will be there, if anybody would like to meet up or discuss.