Find out which companies have landed the 2018 Leading Lights Awards.

May 15, 2018

9 Min Read
Leading Lights 2018: The Winners

AUSTIN, Texas -- The 2018 Leading Lights Awards winners have been announced at a gala dinner attended by hundreds of communications industry executives at Brazos Hall here in Austin. The awards were handed out on the eve of the Big Communications Event (BCE) and 5G North America, which are being held at the Austin Convention Center May 15-16.

The winners were chosen following the judging of hundreds of submissions in 24 categories, which this year included recognition for those companies making progress in automation, SD-WAN and edge computing as well as NFV, 5G, security and all of the traditional Leading Lights categories. The finalists were announced in April. (See Leading Lights 2018: The Finalists.)

The latest additions to Light Reading's Hall of Fame and this year's Women in Comms (WiC) awards were also announced at the dinner. You can find out who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year by watching our video, Light Reading Hall of Fame 2018 . To see who won this year's WiC awards, see Announcing...WiC's 2018 Leading Lights Winners.

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There are a lot of winners to announce in this year's Leading Lights: Check out the first tranche of winners below and the remainder on the following page.

Most Innovative Cable/Video Product or Service
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product, application or strategy that has enabled the launch, deployment or creation of innovative, profitable cable, video, TV or multimedia services during the past year.

Winner: Nokia
Nokia wins the award for its virtualized Distributed Access Architecture (vDAA), which has been winning business and attracting attention for its broad range of next-generation and practical capabilities.

Most Innovative Mobile/Wireless Product or Service
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product, application or strategy that has enabled the launch, deployment or creation of innovative, profitable mobile/wireless services (4G/WiFi/unlicensed) during the past year.

Winner: CommScope
CommScope wins for its Era product, which brings digitized Centralized-RAN (C-RAN) concepts to the distributed antenna (DAS) market.

Most Innovative Telecoms Product (Optical/IP/Carrier Ethernet/FTTH)
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading optical/IP/Ethernet/FTTH product that, through engineering and technical excellence, enables the deployment of profitable next-generation telecom services.

Winner: Sedona Systems
Sedona Systems wins for the latest iteration of its multi-domain, multi-layer, multi-vendor NetFusion network controller.

Most Innovative Gigabit/FTTx Service
Awarded to the communications service provider that has launched the most innovative fiber-to-the-home/building/cabinet service during the past year.

Winner: CityFibre FTTP partnership with Vodafone
UK wholesale broadband altnet CityFibre wins for its major rollout project with Vodafone that will see CityFibre deploy an open access, GPON-based network in 12 UK cities covering a minimum of 1 million homes.

Most Innovative Business Cloud Service
Awarded to the communications service provider that has launched the most innovative business cloud service for enterprise and/or small or midsized corporate users during the past year.

Winner: Comcast Business
Comcast Business wins for the workflow integration enhancements it has made to its Business VoiceEdge service.

Most Innovative SD-WAN Service
Awarded to the company that has launched the most innovative SD-WAN service for enterprise and/or small or midsized corporate users during the past year.

Winner: Comcast Business
Comcast Business wins for its SD-WAN powered by ActiveCore, its software-defined platform that includes orchestration capabilities and support for multiple virtual network functions (VNFs).

Most Innovative SD-WAN Product Strategy (Vendor)
Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) product/platform strategy during the past year.

Winner: VeloCloud by VMware
VeloCloud by VMware wins for its Outcome-Driven Networking strategy to advance automation in the SD-WAN space.

Most Innovative NFV Deployment Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator)
Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative network functions virtualization (NFV) strategy during the past year.

Winner: Comcast Business
Comcast Business wins for its ActiveCore platform that is designed to support multiple virtual network functions (VNFs).

Most Innovative NFV Product Strategy (Vendor)
Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative network functions virtualization (NFV) product strategy during the past year.

Winner: EnterpriseWeb
EnterpriseWeb wins for its CloudNFV platform that enables VNF onboarding and lifecycle management without the need for additional hard code or VNF modification.

Most Innovative Automation Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator)
Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative automation strategy during the past year.

Winner: Reliance Jio Infocomm
Indian operator Reliance Jio Infocomm wins for the work carried out by its "Foresight" team on automating software management processes and improving the speed and accuracy of supporting systems. Special mention should be made also for the work RJio has done with Cisco Systems on the automated processes introduced to manage its IP network.

Most Innovative Edge Computing Strategy
Awarded to the network operator or technology developer that has devised the most innovative edge computing strategy during the past year.

Winner: Vapor IO
Vapor IO wins for its Project Volutus, which aims to embed thousands of tiny data centers into existing wireless infrastructure.

Most Innovative Security Strategy
Awarded to the communications service provider, systems integrator or technology developer that has unveiled the most innovative security strategy during the past year.

Winner: Equinix
Equinix wins the award for SmartKey, its global key management and encryption Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering that protects data across any cloud.

Next page: More winners.

Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Service Provider)
Awarded to the communications service provider that has unveiled the most innovative Internet of Things/Machine to Machine (IoT/M2M) strategy during the past year.

Winner: Cubic Telecom
Cubic Telecom wins for the international P.180 Connectivity platform it developed for Panasonic and the enterprises that use its mobility devices.

Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Vendor)
Awarded to the vendor that has unveiled the most innovative Internet of Things/Machine to Machine (IoT/M2M) strategy during the past year.

Winner: Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services wins for its AWS Greengrass, AWS FreeRTOS and AWS IoT Analytics developments that, in turn, enable its customers to easily connect and manage millions of devices.

Most Innovative 5G Technology
Awarded to the company that, during the past year, has developed a potentially market-leading product that will enable the launch, deployment or creation of 5G services.

Winner: Movandi
Movandi wins for its BeamX technology that integrates RF, antenna, beamforming and control algorithms into a modular 5G millimeter wave solution for CPE, small cell and base station applications.

Most Innovative 5G Strategy
Awarded to the company that has outlined and clearly communicated an innovative, market-leading 5G networking technology or service development strategy during the past year.

Winner: Sprint
Sprint wins for its 5G Massive MIMO strategy that will enable it to upgrade its radios to 5G but still be able to deliver 4G LTE services as well as 5G using the same radio.

Outstanding Transformation Strategy (Service Provider)
Awarded to the communications service provider that has devised and implemented a transformation strategy of any kind (business, technical, cultural) that will improve its business potential and competitiveness and help its customers transform.

Winner: Colt Technology Services
Colt Technology Services wins the awards for its strategic transformation and deployment of the Colt IQ Network that supports on-demand services.

Outstanding Components Vendor
Awarded to the components vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

Winner: Microsemi
Microsemi wins the award for its product developments, including its DIGI-G5 OTN processor and its business success that led to its ongoing acquisition by Microchip.

Outstanding Test & Measurement Vendor
Awarded to the communications networking test and measurement, monitoring or assurance systems vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

Winner: Spirent
Spirent wins the award for the development of its Lifecycle Service Assurance strategy that aims to bring greater automation to network operators, its improved financials and its rising share price.

Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor
Awarded to the next-generation OSS/BSS/analytics/digital commerce systems vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

Winner: Sigma Systems
Sigma Systems wins the award for its ongoing portfolio development, including the launch of its Insights platform, its business growth and its continued focus on the needs of its customers and employees.

Outstanding Communications Technology Vision
Awarded to the company with the most innovative, transformative strategic vision for the global communications sector that harnesses next-generation technologies including (but not limited to) artificial intelligence/machine learning, fog networking, robotics, drones, virtual or augmented reality and any other developments that will shape a 5G world.

Winner: Apstra
Apstra wins the award for the development of its intent-based networking technology coupled with its ability to work across major vendors and open alternatives, a strategic plus that helps its customers to avoid vendor lock-in.

Company of the Year (Private)
Awarded to the privately held firm that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

Winner: Aryaka Networks
Aryaka Networks wins the award for the evolution of its multi-application SD-WAN platform, its continuing business success and the vote of confidence it gets from customers.

Company of the Year (Public)
Awarded to the publicly listed firm that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

Winner: Amdocs
Amdocs wins the award for its growth and expansion strategy, that includes a variety of acquisitions, its role in industry developments such as ONAP and its relentless financial success.

Best Deal Maker
Awarded to the company that has consistently demonstrated good timing, judgment and execution in high-profile acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures and other multi-company financial arrangements.

Winner: GTT Communications
GTT Communications wins the award for its ongoing, bold acquisition-led growth strategy that has hit a peak with the operator's bid to acquire innovative fiber network and cloud platform operator Interoute.

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