Mplify Sets Pace for the AI-Powered Network Economy at GNE 2025
How Mplify Is Directing the Rules of Connectivity
At this year’s Global NaaS Event (GNE) in Dallas, Mplify — the global alliance formerly known as MEF — made one thing unmistakably clear. Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is no longer an industry aspiration. It is the operating model of the AI era. The organization, which recently rebranded from MEF to reflect its broadened mission across network, cloud, cybersecurity and enterprise ecosystems, used its platform to unveil five major announcements shaping the future of automated, AI-ready connectivity.
The event keynote opened with several important announcements, including Mplify’s new market brief: NaaS: The Automated Network Supply Chain for Agentic AI. This brief frames AI’s evolution from generative responses to continuous, agentic reasoning as a once-in-a-generation infrastructure shift.
As Mplify CTO Pascal Menezes stated, “If you’re a provider and not enabling NaaS, you risk being left behind in the AI era.” He added, “Agentic AI is redefining how networks are built and operated. We’re moving into a phase where connectivity, compute, and intelligence must operate as one system.”
The brief underscores why standardized automation, certified connectivity and interoperable APIs are becoming foundational to digital infrastructure. With trillions in AI-related investment forecasted, networks must evolve from transport utilities into programmable, deterministic coordination layers capable of orchestrating real-time intelligence across domains.
Principal Analyst Stan Hubbard emphasized this point by saying, “Agentic AI is driving the most significant transformation in network architecture we’ve seen in decades.”
Standardized LSO APIs
The next announcement amplified this message through a call-to-action from Mplify’s Enterprise Leadership Council. Their new LSO automation manifesto asks global service providers to adopt Mplify’s standardized business and operational APIs, which would mark a significant step toward closing long-standing gaps between enterprise IT systems and provider networks. With enterprises operating increasingly distributed, cloud-centric environments, the manifesto states plainly, “Fragmented, manual processes are no longer sustainable.”
This call coincided with the fastest standard approval in Mplify’s history — the Circuit Impairment & Maintenance (CIM) Service API, which enables real-time visibility and fault isolation across multi-provider environments. It’s a milestone that signals accelerating alignment around open automation and transparent performance.
A New Leadership Era at Mplify
Perhaps the most symbolic announcement was the appointment of founder Nan Chen as Chairman Emeritus, and the naming of Daniele Mancuso of Sparkle and Franck Morales of Orange Wholesale International as volunteer Co-CEOs. This refreshed governance model looks to strengthen executive-board alignment while keeping continuity through existing leaders.
Board Chair Debika Bhattacharya shared, “Nan guided Mplify’s evolution into the collaborative force it is today.” The Co-CEOs will now lead the organization into its next phase, which is one that looks to be defined by rapid automation, cross-domain interoperability, and a unified global approach to network APIs.
Carrier Ethernet Certification Reimagined
Mplify also modernized one of its most influential industry contributions: Carrier Ethernet certification. A new two-profile model now includes Carrier Ethernet for Business and Carrier Ethernet for AI, the latter validating deterministic performance for AI-intensive workloads such as data-center-to-data-center transport and edge-to-GPU cluster connectivity. CPO Daniel Bar Lev noted, “AI is redefining what networks must deliver.”
The extension of Carrier Ethernet into the AI era gives providers a measurable way to demonstrate readiness for high-demand, real-time applications.
GSMA Open Gateway to Unify Global Network APIs
In the fifth announcement, Mplify confirmed its participation in GSMA’s Open Gateway framework. This is a major step toward aligning wired and wireless API ecosystems. By pairing Mplify’s LSO APIs with GSMA’s CAMARA APIs, the initiative promises unified, on-demand connectivity across domains. Menezes captured the significance by stating, “In an AI-powered world, no one wants to think about the network – they just expect it to perform.”
Insights From Kevin Vachon
Following the keynote, I sat down with Mplify COO Kevin Vachon to unpack the strategy behind these announcements. Vachon emphasized that the Co-CEO model reflects “a very dynamically changing fast forwarding environment,” noting that Mplify’s goal is to ensure “a much more tighter company and executive team to make sure we’re working on the right stuff.”
He also spoke passionately about the modernization of Carrier Ethernet certification. Having been involved since the early days, he explained that the new program resonates because its technical rigor and “high quality certification program” continue to solve real-world problems for providers seeking to demonstrate AI-ready infrastructure. As he put it, companies want to “prove internally and externally that you are AI ready in this ecosystem.”
And on the rising enterprise demand for automation Vachon confirmed that what the ELC raised in its manifesto is already happening. “They are marketing on their own digital transformation initiatives to automate… the service provider is just the network,” he explained.
Looking Ahead: A Connected Future Built on NaaS
GNE 2025 made one thing clear: NaaS has become the fabric enabling AI to operate at scale. From multi-provider automation to unified global APIs, the industry is moving toward intelligent, federated, autonomous networks that deliver outcomes, not just connectivity.
My key takeaway? Mplify isn’t just adapting to the AI era. It is looking to define it. And as Kevin Vachon noted, the industry is reacting fast, because it must.