Innovation Awards

We are delighted to announce the Innovation Awards 2013

May 22nd 6.30pm – 11.15pm Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California, USA

These prestigious awards recognise the very best in the Technology industry and reward the leading individuals and organisations for innovation and performance in the networking and telecommunications sector.

An independent panel of highly respected judges includes IT industry gurus and professionals from the leading technology press and industry analysts from around the globe.

Whether you are a network vendor or a service provider these awards offer you the chance to gain industry-wide recognition for your endeavours and achievements.

Innovation 2013 Award Categories include:

• Carrier Ethernet Business Services
• Telecoms Product
• Enterprise Wireless Solutions
• Cloud/Datacenter Solution
• Security Solution
• SDN Solution
• Hottest ‘NEW’ Networking Company
• ‘Ethernet Idol’

Carrier Ethernet Business Services
As Carrier Ethernet continues on its inexorable march to ubiquity, the recent launch of CE2.0 with its support for multiple classes of service and manageability across inter-connected provider networks, has provided additional opportunity for forward-thinking Service Providers to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This award will be presented to the provider, who in the opinion of the judging panel, has introduced the most innovative new business service to its enterprise clients within the past 18 months.

Telecoms Product
The telecoms industry is facing enormous challenges – from exploding customer demands, through price competition and disruptive technologies, to extreme pressure on long term investment strategy. It’s a complex landscape these days, so as well as ”best in class” infrastructure equipment the judges will be looking for highly innovative solutions that are really helping Service Providers solve their numerous challenges.

Enterprise Wireless Solutions
The accelerating adoption of smartphones and tablets as productivity devices is placing ever-increasing strains on enterprise IT departments as they cope with managing a fourfold growth in multi-vendor endpoints, greater network permeability and new security risks.
BYOD is growing fast . . . and it’s here to stay! The judging panel for this award will be looking for the most innovative solution introduced over the past 18 months, which in their opinion, has made the greatest contribution in helping CTO’s manage the BYOD challenge.

Cloud/Datacenter Solution
Virtualization has transformed the IT landscape over the past decade and coupled with the additional benefits of cost savings, dynamic provisioning and centralised management, is encouraging an increasing number of enterprises and government organisations to migrate to the “Cloud”. A host of new data centre start-ups along with some longer term players are endeavouring to help IT departments handle the challenges posed by virtualized infrastructures and cloud computing. Our judges are looking for the most innovative Cloud/Datacenter solution, providing major business benefits, to have been introduced to the market over the past 18 months.

Security Solution
Security issues have now moved well beyond the enterprise data centre with individual countries now accusing each other of organised and officially sanctioned hacking and cyber attacks. It’s a dangerous game, with experts now predicting that malware will be increasingly used to wage warfare by crippling an opposing countries infrastructure. The judges will be looking to recognize the most innovative contribution to countering these threats.

SDN Solution
Within just two short years, SDN has become recognised as the networking technology of the future, largely due to the efforts of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). Conceived in academia, SDN and the OpenFlow protocol are now being deployed in some of the world’s largest data centres in what is perceived as the first steps in transforming next generation networks. Is your SDN solution worthy of being crowned winner of the SDN Solution Award for 2013?

Hottest ‘NEW’ Networking Company
Go on – surprise us! If we could specify in advance what it takes to make you “The Hottest “NEW” Networking Company”, then you haven’t been innovative enough. Mind you, we’re talking technology, not fine art, so it had better be useful as well as clever in the eyes of our judges.

‘Ethernet Idol’
Some of us are old enough to remember the battle between Ethernet, Token Ring, VGAny-LAN and AppleTalk for supremacy in the LAN. Ethernet has not only won the battle for the LAN, it has also now dominated the WAN. But who has successfully picked up the mantle from the original Ethernet inventors and contributed most to the on-going Innovation of Ethernet over the past 15 years? Why not nominate your “Ethernet Idol”?

Entry is open to:
All suppliers of technology products and services launched in 2012/2013 – up to and including The Ethernet Innovation Summit – May 22, 2013.

Entry is now open – please enter online; contact us for an entry form; or download an entry form from our website: www. NetEvents.org. All award entry submission materials (including supporting information to be uploaded with the online entry forms) must be completed & returned to NetEvents as either MSWord or Adobe Acrobat (pdf) documents. The deadline for entry is May 9th 2013. Please note, you must stipulate if any information pertaining to the award entry material is under NDA on you award entry submission.

IN AID OF STEM Education . . .

All profit from the awards dinner & auction will be donated to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education.

This is a unique opportunity to help educate tomorrow’s innovators.

The awards will be presented at Ethernet’s 40th Birthday Party on Wednesday 22nd May 2013 at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California, USA. Tables of 8 are now available – please contact us for a booking form or download a booking form from our website: www.NetEvents.org

If you or indeed your company feel you have what it takes to win the Innovation Awards 2013 please complete and return your online entry by the deadline of May 9th 2013 together with your payment.

We need more students that excel in science, math, technology and engineering to become a contributor to the global technology marketplace. High tech companies have vacancies due to a lack of qualified candidates, and the demand for scientists and mathematicians is projected to grow dramatically. Over 50% of US 8th graders receive instruction from a science and math teacher without a relevant degree or real world experience to inspire their students.The Computer History Museum, as a 2012 STEM Innovation Award Winner, and HP Catalyst Initiative participant, is proud to raise money for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education by hosting the Ethernet Celebrity Auction.