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MEF’s vision for Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is a cloud-like way for enterprises to request, change, and monitor network services—including connectivity, application assurance, security, and multi-cloud networking. Standard service definitions and Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs are intended to automate those tasks across participating providers. That is a target model, not evidence that every provider can deliver seamless cross-provider automation today.
What MEF means by Network-as-a-Service
MEF defines NaaS as an automated, standards-based ecosystem combining on-demand connectivity, application assurance, cybersecurity, and multi-cloud networking. The aim is to let an enterprise consume network capabilities as services rather than manage every network connection and provider interaction through separate manual processes. MEF describes this vision in its NaaS overview.
The cloud comparison describes the intended customer experience: services that can be requested and adjusted more readily, with less operational friction. It is an analogy and ambition, not a claim that network services already behave like cloud compute across the industry. In an October 2024 Network World report, MEF CTO Pascal Menezes called it “a cloud-like offering” for enterprises to consume networks as a service. He also acknowledged the central challenge: “Automation is the hardest part to get, so that it looks like a cloud experience across the ecosystem.”
Four use cases in MEF’s NaaS Blueprint
MEF’s NaaS Industry Blueprint identifies four core use cases. They describe service areas that can contribute to a NaaS offering; they do not mean every provider bundles them together.
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| Use case | What it covers |
|---|---|
| On-demand connectivity | Network connectivity requested or adjusted as a service. |
| SD-WAN | Software-defined wide-area networking delivered and managed as a service. |
| SASE | Secure Access Service Edge, bringing networking and security capabilities into a service framework. |
| Multi-cloud connectivity | Connectivity between enterprise networks and multiple cloud environments. |
The Blueprint resource page identifies the document as October 2024 and describes 36 key features, including 20 essential customer-facing features. Those are Blueprint feature counts, not a count of functions implemented by every supplier. See MEF’s NaaS Industry Blueprint and NaaS overview.
How federation and LSO APIs are meant to work
A service used by an enterprise may cross provider boundaries. Federation is MEF’s approach to coordinating those separate participants so the customer can interact with a more unified service instead of navigating unrelated processes for each network segment.
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MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs are intended to automate business and operational functions between customers, providers, and partners. The October 2024 report describes functions including ordering, billing, service testing, monitoring, fault management, and settlement. Common service definitions and APIs can provide the shared structure for these interactions, but the degree of automation depends on which providers have implemented and connected the relevant interfaces. MEF outlines the framework in its service standards overview.
That distinction matters in practice: an API-supported order at one provider does not by itself establish end-to-end provisioning, monitoring, or fault resolution across every partner in a service chain. Menezes’s observation about the difficulty of achieving an ecosystem-wide cloud experience is a reminder that standards and operational integration both matter.
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What “integrated security” does—and does not—promise
Security is part of MEF’s NaaS service vision, and SASE is one of the four Blueprint use cases. In the Network World report, MEF’s CTO described the components of its certification program as SD-WAN, Security Service Edge (SSE), and Zero Trust. These are framework and certification references; they do not establish that every NaaS connection automatically includes every security function, or that security policies are integrated across all providers by default.
Enterprises should establish which protections a particular service includes, which are optional, where policies are configured, and how security events or service faults are handled when multiple providers are involved. Ask for the actual service description and operational responsibilities rather than relying on the NaaS or SASE label alone.
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Customer experience attributes to look for
MEF’s customer experience framework describes seven attributes for NaaS offerings. Treat them as criteria for evaluating a product, not as guarantees attached to every service:
- On demand: The ability to request service or changes when needed.
- Observable: Visibility into service status and performance.
- Manageable: Practical ways to administer the service.
- Programmable: Interfaces or controls that support automation.
- Secure: Security capabilities appropriate to the service and its policies.
- Flexible: Options to adapt service to changing requirements.
- Modular: The ability to select components rather than accept only a fixed bundle.
These attributes are set out in MEF’s May 2025 Release 2 Customer Experience paper and its NaaS overview.
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What the adoption figures say—and what they do not
Historical figures show activity around MEF’s programs, but they should not be read as evidence of universal federation or current market coverage:
- MEF said in October 2024 that 15 technology and service providers had achieved MEF 3.0 certification for SASE and SD-WAN. This is a combined SASE-and-SD-WAN certification figure.
- The October 30, 2024 Network World report said 160 providers were adopting the LSO framework. That is the report’s adoption figure, not a current count or a figure attributed there to MEF.
- The same report referred to 15 providers and vendors certified by MEF’s SASE program. That is a different scope from the combined SASE-and-SD-WAN figure.
The figures are dated and use different scopes. Neither certification nor framework adoption, by itself, proves that a particular enterprise can order and operate an end-to-end service seamlessly across those organizations. The relevant sources are MEF’s October 29, 2024 Blueprint announcement and the October 30, 2024 Network World report.
How enterprise buyers can evaluate a NaaS offer
Compare the provider’s live service and operational evidence against the experience MEF’s framework describes. Ask the provider and any partners to identify what is automated today, not merely what standards they intend to support.
- Provisioning and changes: Can you request a new service or change capacity through a portal or API? Which steps still require manual approval or coordination?
- Visibility and assurance: What performance and status information can customers see? Can the provider test service and share results across partner boundaries?
- Control and programmability: Which customer-facing APIs are available, and which lifecycle functions do they actually support?
- Security scope: Which SD-WAN, SSE, Zero Trust, or other capabilities are included, optional, or supplied by a partner? Where are policies managed?
- Service composition: Can you select modular components, or must connectivity and security be bought as a fixed bundle?
- Multi-cloud support: Which cloud environments and connection patterns are supported, and who handles changes or faults?
- Federation and handoffs: Which providers participate in the service, what standards or API implementations connect them, and who owns fault resolution and customer communication?
MEF’s October 2024 announcement quotes Blueprint author Stan Hubbard describing it as a shared vision and a guide for providers to develop, deliver, and manage NaaS offerings in a standards-based automated ecosystem. For a buyer, the useful test is whether a provider can show how that vision maps to its actual ordering, monitoring, security, and partner operations.
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