Europe’s ETSI has transformed itself in recent years from a sleepy organization to a genuine trailblazer in defining new network architectures. Its NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) project has created a widely accepted basis for carrier-grade virtualization and accelerated adoption to a surprising degree; its related MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) initiative is a key element in harnessing the convergence of telecoms and IT, and enabling new operator models based on the distributed cloud. The group is not standing still either. Both NFV and MEC prefigure key concepts which will underpin 5G, and the organization sees itself having a part to play in pushing the discussion on from academic R&D to deployable commercial solutions. It has helped to do that in NFV…