MEF has made its MEF enterprise business and operational Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) API portfolio available, enabling enterprises to perform automated business and operations with their service providers.
Aligned with MEF’s NaaS Industry Blueprint, the comprehensive enterprise portfolio features a range of new and existing MEF assets to fuel the advancement of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) for enterprises.
Large enterprises undergoing digital transformation and cloud migration can leverage APIs to connect their internal automation systems and applications seamlessly with service provider networks. This enables frictionless experiences, a core principle of digital transformation. Ideally, enterprises seek a comprehensive set of automation APIs that span the entire lifecycle of business and operational processes.
Debika Bhattacharya, Chair of the MEF Board of Directors and Chief Technology Solutions Officer of Verizon Business, said that MEF’s enterprise business and operational LSO API portfolio could be a helpful tool for enterprise customers transforming their technology platforms.
“These APIs allow for seamless automation of managed services between businesses and their technology partners, giving enterprises greater control, flexibility and visibility over their NaaS environments and eliminating the need for proprietary APIs,” she said. “This translates to improved operational efficiency and a stronger foundation for innovation.”
Focus on operations and automation
The MEF enterprise business and operational LSO API portfolio enables service providers to use the same APIs that automate business and operational functions between service providers to automate similar tasks between service providers and enterprises for subscriber services, allowing them to streamline enterprise digital transformation.
MEF business LSO APIs address validation, site query, product catalog, product offering qualification, availability discovery, quote, price discovery, product order, product inventory, trouble ticketing and incidents, appointment, work order, and billing and settlement.
Current and planned MEF operational LSO APIs include service function testing, service performance monitoring, and fault management.
The new LSO API portfolio also addresses the need to automate many subscriber services.
MEF enterprise business and operational LSO APIs are available for Carrier Ethernet (E-Line, E-LAN and E-Tree) and traditional IP Broadband and Direct Internet Access network services. New services to be added in the coming months include dark fiber, wavelengths, edge computing, cross-connects, cloud connects, and satellite, followed by SD-WAN, SASE, Zero Trust, and SSE.
Identifying pain points
MEF’s Enterprise Leadership Council (ELC), formed late last year, comprises senior enterprise executives with mission-critical network infrastructures. ELC members have defined enterprise pain points and provided actionable insight to guide the development of the enterprise portfolio.
Initial use cases of the enterprise portfolio include:
· Buying and managing enterprise services such as network services, cloud connectivity, low latency edge computing for AI, cybersecurity, IoT, and more
· Incident reporting for rapid enterprise response to service changes and cybersecurity threats
· Automated buying and managing of network services, cybersecurity, and incident reporting will enable enterprises to be tremendously observable and controllable when cybersecurity, outage, and maintenance events happen.
Over 155 service providers worldwide are adopting the lifecycle for MEF business and operational LSO APIs. MEF said at least 35 service providers are already in production with these APIs to automate business and operational functions with their service provider partners, and this number is forecasted to surpass 100 by the end of 2025. These service providers can now use the same APIs to extend automation to enterprises for retail services.
Additionally, a growing ecosystem of LSO Solution Providers will help operators harness the power of MEF business and operational APIs and seamlessly automate with any partner.
Looking forward, MEF’s roadmap for automation in the enterprise includes optimizing its business and operational capabilities for mobility and developer/application use cases. It emphasizes interacting with service provider networks for both wireless and wired services using lightweight intent-driven automation processes.
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