MEF Announces SD-WAN Certified Professional Program

 

TyN Magazine from MEF2019, Los Angeles – MEF is pleased to announce the SD-WAN Certified Professional (MEF-SDCP) program, the newest in a series of professional certifications that validate workforce skills necessary for successful digital transformation. The SD-WAN professional certification is the industry’s only exam verifying knowledge, skills, and abilities in the domains of SD-WAN based on the MEF SD-WAN Service Attributes and Services (MEF 70) standard as well as other fundamentals of SD-WAN solutions. This exam is designed for technically-oriented SD-WAN professionals ranging from pre-sales to network/service engineering and operational personnel in the service provider, technology vendor, and enterprise communities.

A record number of more than 200 professionals employed by 80 companies worldwide participated in the MEF-SDCP beta test phase that recently ended. Successful beta participants will receive their certification credentials in December.

“Today’s SD-WAN market shares similarities to the early days of the $85+ billion Carrier Ethernet market before standardization and services, technology, and professional certification took hold,” said Kevin Vachon, Chief Operating Officer, MEF. “Having skilled professionals who are well-versed in the emerging common language for SD-WAN will be key to enabling ecosystem stakeholders to capitalize on market opportunities.”

Recent research findings from Heavy Reading indicate that 94% of surveyed service provider professionals worldwide believe their employer will offer an SD-WAN service by the end of 2021 if they do not already. Seventy-three percent believe that SD-WAN professional certification will be “critical” or “important” for accelerating SD-WAN service sales. Heavy Reading’s SD-WAN Services Strategies survey included responses from 125 service provider professionals representing companies based in every major geographic region.

MEF-SDCP Exam & Training

The MEF-SDCP exam is scheduled to be generally available by mid-December 2019. Individuals interested in taking the exam should click here to register and learn more information.

To ensure key core competencies, the MEF-SDCP test covers:

  • Assessing, planning and designing: scenarios of size and scale, implementations, applications, strategy, and business requirements.
  • Implementation: MEF 70 related to business requirements, application flow, policy, underlay services, characteristics, and migration strategy.
  • Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO): service impacting issues, diagnostics, performance metrics, and troubleshooting.
  • Components and Features: fundamentals and characteristics of SD-WAN solutions, service components, and service attributes.

Three MEF accredited training partners are now offering training programs for the MEF SD-WAN professional certification:Perpetual Solutions,SD-WAN Academy, and Tech 2000. Others are expected to follow.

Related SD-WAN Announcements

MEF issued press releases on two related SD-WAN topics today:

  • MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Services Certification Program . MEF today formally introduced the MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Services certification program to accelerate implementation of standardized SD-WAN services worldwide. Seven service and technology providers are participating in the pilot phase of the program, with the first certified companies expected to be announced in Q1 2020.
  • MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Services White Paper . MEF today released a new MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Services White Paper exploring the definition of a standardized managed SD-WAN service, use cases, service requirements for various industry verticals, and an overview of MEF’s expanding SD-WAN-related initiatives.

“Carrier Managed SD-WAN is one of the fastest growing markets for service providers, MSPs, and enterprises – projected to reach $4.5B in the U.S. alone by 2023 based on our latest research,” said Erin Dunne, Director of Research Services, Vertical Systems Group. “MEF’s standards development and professional certification program will go a long way toward ensuring that the service providers, vendors, and enterprises can best monetize the benefits of SD-WAN to move their businesses forward.”