The theme of the recent Ethernet Europe 2013 - held in Frankfurt, Germany - was “SDN, CE2.0 and Cloud Convergence.” In our busy, multi-tasking world, it seems the trend is to extend that frenzy to industry conferences as well. This annual Light Reading conference was co-located with the MEF's quarterly face-to-face meeting. Holding conference sessions on cloud convergence and CE2.0 in one session while right next door, the MEF technologists were hammering out the latest details of the next generation of specifications created an energetic vibe and opportunities to network during the breaks. Nan Chen from the MEF provided good-natured jabs aimed at the hype surrounding Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) before hinting at a forthcoming announcement from the MEF around cloud services. In hallway discussions between sessions, the audiences seemed to agree that Chen's foreshadowing was focused on the MEF work on new Carrier Ethernet features designed to make it easier to implement and manage dynamic capacity services.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are hot topics. They are clearly related, but how exactly are they similar? How are they different? How do they complement each other?
Note: this article was adapted from one originally published in 
I always look forward to the Light Reading Ethernet Expo in New York. The city and the staff of Light Reading deserve a lot of credit for pulling off this event a week after super storm Sandy. And people were excited to be at the event because there was a lot to discuss and debate. There has been a lot of change since last November, with the introduction of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and the rise of Software Defined Networking (SDN), and the most interesting ideas centered on their relevance to the cloud.