As the year comes to a close, it’s a good moment to pause and take stock of the year. 2025 was a year of real momentum. Across standards, certifications, APIs, and global collaboration, Mplify members advanced important work to support AI-driven, automated, and secure networks.
At the same time, the industry is entering a new phase. As AI moves from experimentation into operational dependence, expectations are rising, and the focus is shifting toward execution, interoperability, and trust.
In this final issue of The Mplifier for 2025, we look back at the progress members made together and share a clear view of what turning that progress into adoption will require in the year ahead.
We wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season and look forward to continuing the work together in 2026.
LOOKING BACK: 2025 BY THE NUMBERS
30
Standards approved
60+
Member orgs contributing to Mplify work
95+
Providers active with LSO APIs
19
Industry events hosted or attended
20
New Mplify members
3
Certification programs expanded
4.3K
Mplify mentions in media articles
~14k
Social media followers
1
Exciting rebrand from MEF to Mplify
“The progress made in 2025 reflects real implementation — not theoretical alignment.” — Mplify
Why it matters
These milestones represent tangible progress toward interoperable standards, automated operations, and trusted infrastructure, built collaboratively by the ecosystem and deployed in real-world environments.
LOOKING AHEAD: WHAT 2026 WILL DEMAND
AI is moving rapidly from experimentation to operational dependency. As agentic systems become always-on and distributed, expectations for the networks that support them are rising just as fast.
The next phase of industry change will not be shaped by vision alone, but by the ability to translate ideas into interoperable, automated, and trusted implementations that scale across domains and organizations.
“The next phase of change will not be defined by new ideas, but by the ability to operationalize them.”— Mplify
WHAT WILL IT TAKE IN 2026
These priorities reflect the operational realities organizations must address to compete in an AI-driven environment.
NaaS as an operational supply chain for AI NaaS is evolving beyond a connectivity model into an operational supply chain, integrating performance, automation, security, and lifecycle control to support AI systems that operate continuously across environments.
Deterministic networks as a business requirement Predictable performance is no longer a technical preference. It is a commercial and operational necessity for AI workloads that expose latency, jitter, and failure instantly.
Closed-loop operations, not isolated AIOps AI-powered operations must mature from analytics and recommendations into closed-loop execution, enabling intent-driven changes, automated remediation, and coordinated action across domains.
Programmable AI fabrics at scale Carrier Ethernet and high-capacity wavelength services are becoming the foundation for AI connectivity, requiring programmability, assured performance, and seamless integration across clouds, data centers, and edge environments.
Standards, APIs, and agents working together LSO APIs, aligned payloads, and emerging agent integration models are converging to allow software and AI agents to interact directly with network services but only where interoperability is implemented, not just specified.
Certification as an adoption accelerator As ecosystems scale, certification moves from signaling capability to enabling trust, shortening sales cycles, reducing integration risk, and validating AI-ready infrastructure in real deployments.
FROM THE CTO:
TURNING MOMENTUM INTO ADOPTION
The industry is moving decisively from exploration to operational dependence.
One message became increasingly clear. Agentic AI changes the role of the network. Continuous reasoning, always-on intelligence, and distributed decision-making demand deterministic performance, deep automation, and seamless interoperability in production.
Standards, APIs, and certifications only deliver value when they are implemented at scale, embedded into operating models, and trusted across organizational and ecosystem boundaries. Partial automation and isolated implementations will not support AI systems that operate continuously and autonomously.
In the year ahead, leadership will be defined less by vision statements and more by follow-through.
Meet with Mplify at PTC'26in beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii, from 18-21 January 2026 to explore the convergence of digital infrastructure, telecommunications, and Mplify's goals for 2026.
Join us in London for our first Member Workdays, 27-28 January at the Stratford Hotel located in downtown London. Members will work with peers, project leads, and Mplify staff to advance key deliverables across automation, cybersecurity, NaaS, AI, and service evolution. Learn more →
A proud NaaS Partner of Capacity Middle East 2026, we're thrilled to share a 10% off discount code with you — MPLIFY10! At MENA's largest digital infrastructure and connectivity event, on 11 February, Mplify COO Kevin Vachon will chair a session on how network automation and standardized APIs are accelerating NaaS adoption, and why industry collaboration is critical to scaling automation across the Middle East.
QUICK TAKE | What makes an industry event most valuable?
Click an answer below — your response is recorded instantly. Thank you for participating!
.png?upscale=true&width=518&upscale=true&name=PTC%20Event%20(2).png)
