Mplify Honors 2026 NaaS Excellence Award Winners, Spotlighting…

Event summary

Mplify Alliance announced the winners of the 2026 NaaS Excellence Awards on September 24, 2026, recognizing organizations and individuals advancing Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) for AI and AI-ready digital infrastructure.
The awards highlighted automation expanding into multi-provider service delivery, AI moving toward workflow and lifecycle execution, and convergence between AI for NaaS and NaaS for AI.
Winners were selected by a panel of senior analysts and industry experts from various research firms.
PCCW Global was named NaaS Service Provider of the Year in both the Global and Asia Pacific regions.
The awards were presented during the NaaS Excellence Awards Gala at the Mplify Member Summit – Americas in Boston.

The big picture

The 2026 NaaS Excellence Awards underscore the rapid evolution of NaaS from vision to execution, with a focus on automation, standardized APIs, secure connectivity, and high-performance infrastructure. The awards reflect the growing operational demands associated with distributed AI and the importance of standards-based interoperability, assurance, security, governance, and trust in supporting AI-ready infrastructure. The recognition of organizations like PCCW Global and Lumen Technologies highlights the strategic shift toward AI-driven networking and digital infrastructure.

What we're watching

Execution Risk: How quickly the winning organizations can scale their NaaS solutions to meet the growing demands of distributed AI.
Industry Collaboration: Whether the convergence between AI for NaaS and NaaS for AI will lead to more standardized interoperability and trust frameworks.
Technological Advancement: The pace at which automation and AI-driven orchestration platforms will evolve to support multi-provider service delivery.