As the newly appointed Director of Ecosystem Strategy and Enabling for Network Platforms Group at Intel, I feel privileged to be leading a vibrant and thriving Intel Network Builders program. The success of this program is a great testament to the entire community, including Communication Service Providers, coming together and embracing a common vision for the industry.

Intel Network Builders Growth
Since its inception a little over three years ago, thanks to the contributions of 210+ (and growing) active independent software vendor (ISV), system integrator (SI), original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and Communication Service Provider (Comm SP) members, the program has delivered 100+ commercial products optimized with Intel’s open source contributions, 37+ end-user solution proof of concepts (POCs), trials and deployments, tens of summits, podcasts and webinars. In the last 6 months, we’ve delivered training and education to over 1,500+ registrants via Intel Network Builders University – including to 200+ professionals from Comm SPs around the world. The program is rapidly driving compelling innovation across all the major network transformation vectors. The most recent Verizon and Intel Network Builders Innovation Challenge is a great example of how this program is helping accelerate network transformation.

Verizon & Intel Network Builders Innovation Challenge
Intel and Verizon recently announced a collaboration between the Verizon Network Visionaries Program and Intel’s Network Builders Program to accelerate innovation using Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technologies. This collaboration was kicked off with an exciting Innovation challenge for the Intel Network Builders partner ecosystem to deliver enhanced experiences on Verizon’s network via SDN and NFV running on Intel’s ingredient technologies.

Thanks to an overwhelming response with cutting edge solutions from
our partner community the judges had a tough time picking the finalists. Verizon & Intel Network Builders announced the top three finalists in each category at the Intel Network Builders summit in The Hague, Netherlands on October 10. Finalists were announced across two major categories:

• Analytics in a virtualized network infrastructure: Genband, Netrounds & WiPro


• Low latency in a virtualized network infrastructure: Artesyn, Brain4Net & Spidercloud

The finalists will now enter phase two of the challenge where they will have the opportunity to demonstrate their solution in the Verizon Network Visionaries Lab in Waltham, MA in their bid for the grand prize. Congratulations to the finalists and good luck on the next phase of the challenge! The winner in each category will be announced in December 2016. You can find more information about this on the contest program website.

These are exciting times for the industry and together, we can touch and positively impact lives like never before. With our partner community, we will continue to focus and drive our effort towards a greater impetus to our common industry vision for an end-end transformed network equipped for 5G. Stay tuned for an exciting journey together.