Interop

Interop attendees upbeat, but focused

While walking the expo floor at Interop Las Vegas this week, I was pleasantly relieved to see that the gloomy economy has not dampened the spirits of the networking industry. Although I have heard rumors that show traffic is down, it looks pretty healthy to me (certainly a far cry better than any of the New York events). And the mood is upbeat. In fact, several conference attendees have expressed to me their belief that the economy has “turned the corner” and they are thinking about what comes next.

A survey conducted by vendor Network Instruments at the show seemed to validate that. Of 100 network engineers and IT executives interviewed, the survey found that 67% of respondents had not experienced layoffs in their IT departments in the past year, and 31% are continuing to roll out new technologies.

Of course, you have to assume that in a down economy, the attendees that make it to a conference are the lucky ones working in IT departments that can still afford to send their staff to events and investigate new products. But I was heartened to see that there were a significant number of these folks in attendance, and they were very interested in up-and-coming technologies, not just the tried-and-true stuff.

The bottom line has changed, however. While 10 and even five years ago, IT pros might have delved into a technology for technology’s sake, that’s unspeakable today. I would hazard to guess that every Interop attendee had the same ultimate goal in mind: saving money via technology and achieving ROI for their IT investments.

That’s driving a lot of what networking pros have come to Vegas to learn about: virtualization, unified communications, cloud computing, 10 Gigabit Ethernet. These technologies are new ways to collapse more services onto one infrastructure, doing as much as possible with fewer devices and fewer people. While there may be an investment up-front, the long-term savings can be monumental if you plan correctly.

Attendees told me they are re-architecting their data centers, building out telepresence to cut back on travel budgets, and installing only wireless connectivity in branch offices, among other innovative ideas. The IT pros here are learning to think in whole new ways, and that makes them doubly lucky. Maybe we’ll hit the craps table this afternoon.

Tweeting Las Vegas: Interop in 140 characters

Mobile access is spotty. Booths are pretty empty, except where there’s beer or boxing. People are talking about NAC, IT management, and cloud computing. They’re cautiously optimistic about the economy. Vendors show off nifty devices and hawk T-shirts. Bottled water costs $3. And the booth babes are nearly naked.

No, I’m not in Vegas for Interop this week. I’m sitting at my computer in Massachusetts, where — thanks to social networking — I feel like I’m almost not missing out on the conference.

Journalists from my own team and rival publications have posted more content than I can read in one day. With the addition of Twitter, real-time updates with an off-the-cuff candor help create the same kind of ordered chaos, the hubbub and camaraderie, that exists at a real world trade show.

Meanwhile, voyeuristic Interop Webcams offer a live view of the show floor (yesterday, I watched a man wandering between booths while typing on his Blackberry).

Among their more serious (and frequent) tweets reporting on the sessions, IDC analyst Abner Germanow posted an amusing Twitpic of women boxing, while Network World editor Denise Dubie discussed the aforementioned scantily clad booth babes.

Information sharing, with a high dose of frivolity: Behold the power of Twitter. Analysts, journalists, vendors, and a few actual IT guys posted pictures, shared stories, and hashed out everything from beer to the businsess case for IT. In fact, just by chatting and “retweeting”posts with the “#Interop” tag on them, I unintentionally created the illusion that I was actually in Vegas! (Sorry to disappoint, but our other editors, Shamus, Rivka, Tim and Sue, are there.)

I am missing out on the vendor swag, though, and those experiences that only happen at a conference, especially in Vegas: Poolside vendor briefings, or chatting about open source routers until 2am on some roof deck. (Sigh.) So I am missing out, a little.

I’m also missing out on the whopping travel expense.

As fate would have it, yesterday I received an invitation to Cisco’s upcoming Cisco Live (formerly Networkers) conference:

We would like to invite you to join us virtually for Cisco Live 2009 from June 30 to July 1.

Press and analysts will participate in an exciting and interactive virtual environment where they will have the opportunity to hear John Chambers, Padmasree Warrior and other senior executives outline Cisco’s vision for the IT industry and the actions Cisco is taking to help our customers innovate.

Wait a second … Does that mean that press and analysts aren’t invited to the “live” part of Cisco Live? I’m not sure how I feel about that. Padmasree Warrior has been touting Twitter as a collaboration tool — and my Interop experience this week has certainly proven that there’s a lot to gain from a conference experienced virtually. We’ve held some very successful virtual conferences at TechTarget, as well. But I’ve also found that it’s hard to immerse yourself in a virtual conference. You keep multitasking, getting pulled back to your “real” work. Or you spend half the day updating your version of Flash and just trying to get the darned thing to play on your computer!

Also, even in this economic climate, even with all I’ve said above, that doesn’t mean that the virtual experience can ever compare with the real, live, one. Because at the end of the day, I’m missing out on really meeting the conference attendees, the network pros who read our site and are our reason for being. They’re a little shyer on Twitter than press and analysts (and a lot shyer than vendor PR folks!) for some reason.

So if you’re out there, in Vegas or cyberspace, send me a tweet and let me know your thoughts on Interop and our Interop coverage. I look forward to virtually meeting you.

Overheard @ Interop NYC 2008: When high fashion and high tech collide

Vendor A: “Busy enough for you?”
Vendor B: “Packed in here.”
–Two empty vendor booths

There’s nothing quite like Vegas, I was told, right before tromping off to Interop New York, and boy were they right. No MacGyver. No high-stakes (or low-stakes, for that matter) poker with the stars. And really, not many announcements. As Rivka Little blogged, going there made you wonder if trade shows are dead, although the Fashion Coterie trade show right next door seemed to be booming (with better swag, too!).

Strangely, one of the biggest presences was RIM, pushing their PBX interoperability as well as showing off some shiny new Bolds. I have to admit, seeing them In Real Life really made me appreciate the upgrade in screen quality over their predecessors. We watched some movie trailers, and I was surprised that they were actually watchable as opposed to the almost farcical activity of watching video on a Curve.

RIM also had David Yach, their CTO of software, give an Interop keynote and lined him up for a series of interviews about the future and philosophy of BlackBerry software.

Cisco, it seems, isn’t quite so enthusiastic, as Rivka quoted one Cisco exec: “We don’t do these tradeshows the way we used to. Cisco does a lot of it virtually now. And we use our own technology like telepresence to meet with people. Folks are crunched to travel.”

And the ones that do make it there? Occasionally sidelined.

Security: What does your company make?
Cisco Executive: EVERYTHING.
–Outside Fashion Coterie trade show floor

The feelings, alas, were not mutual.

Clacker: Oh my God, we missed it!
Fashionista: What are you talking about?
Clacker (with growing horror): We missed the show! These guys are definitely not in fashion!
–Outside of Interop trade show floor

Further Reading:

• Interop Las Vegas 2008 Coverage, to remember the Interop that was.
• Telepresence vendors tout bigger, faster, better at Interop NYC, but is it worth it yet?
• Overheard in New York, the original and still the best.

Thanks to Rivka Little for the overheard tips! Got more? Send them in to mmorisy at techtarget

FastSoft demonstrates fast data transmission

After struggling for several hours to upload the first of my Interop videos to YouTube, I ran across FastSoft’s video demonstration of their accelerated file transfer appliance, which struck me pretty compelling. In this video, Dan Henderson, VP of Marketing, explains and demonstrates how FastSoft can accelerate data transmission over the Web at Interop Las Vegas 2008.

AdRem’s international approach to network monitoring

AdRem Sales and Marketing Director Jarek Jerzakowski gives a tour of the company’s brand new network management and monitoring product, NetCrunch 5, at Interop Las Vegas 2008. The product, sold around the world by AdRem and its resellers, automatically draws routing maps and physical maps of the network and allows you to create geographical custom maps to graphically monitor and manage your network.

Vyatta more than just open source routing

Since I first encountered Vyatta two years ago, they have grown beyond merely being an open source software router. These days, Vyatta is calling itself an “open-source networking” company, and their router is now a router/firewall/VPN.

Dave Roberts, Vyatta’s VP of Strategy, spoke on a panel session called “Open source networking: An insanely smart idea?” at Interop Las Vegas 2008. I asked Dave whether open source networking was making any progress against the common arguments against its use in businesses, such as companies wanting the assurance of “one (vendor’s) throat to choke” should they have problems with the technology. Dave says that issue is “exactly the problem Vyatta was created to solve,” and said that they wanted to bring together all the disparate open source parts to become the “Red Hat of the networking industry.”

In this video, Dave talks a little bit about where Vyatta is now, some of the company’s recent price/performance successes, and new features they’re offering.

Mushroom demonstrates organic growth at Interop

In this video, Cahit Akin, PhD and CEO of Mushroom Networks tells me about Mushroom’s broadband bonding device, the “Truffle,” and explains the significance of the company’s name.

Interop Poker Extravaganza

When I flew to Las Vegas last week for Interop 2008, I never imagined that I’d be wearing one of the most coveted pieces of bling in the poker-playing world. But here I am, wearing one of the two bracelets poker pro Mark Seif. won at the 2005 World Series of Poker. (That’s Mark on the right)

Usually when I go to a conference, all I do is work, work and work. I spend all day holding meetings and attending sessions and I spend all night writing. But every once in awhile I manage to mix in some fun.

Naturally I was excited when the PR firm Voce Communications invited me to a Texas hold ‘em poker tournament at Interop in Las Vegas. The tournament, sponsored by Barracuda Networks and NetIQ, was set up to give the two vendors a chance to schmooze with a bunch of analysts and journalists over a friendly game of cards.

The tournament prize (an iPhone) didn’t excite me as much as the opportunity to play a meaningful game of cards without any money on the line. I love playing poker, but I always seem to lose money when I play in Vegas. So this was a nice alternative. And since I’m a fan of poker on television, I was also thrilled to meet Mark Seif, a poker pro who you’ll see on ESPN’s World Series coverage and on the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour. Mark was there to give the 30 or so players in the room a tutorial on how to play no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em. Then he was available to offer tips to players in crucial situations throughout the night.

I figured I had a good chance to win because I do pretty well when I play poker with friends. Yeah, I was feeling pretty good about my chances. And early on I felt like I was make the right moves. In one of my first hands, I was dealt a 9 and a 7. A few players limped into the pot by calling. I was the big blind so I just checked with my weak hand. When the flop came down 4-9-4, I decided to bet with my top pair. Two players (both NetIQ employees, I believe), raised me big time. I was left sitting there, wondering what they could have. Mark asked me if I wanted his advice. Since players could only ask him for advice once during the tournament, I told him I’d save his advice for later in the evening. I eventually folded. Mark grabbed my cards and looked at them. “Good fold,” he whispered from across the table. It was a thrill to get the thumbs up on a fold from such a great poker player. And he was right. My opponents turned over pocket queens and pocket tens. They both would have obliterated me.

Despite that smart laydown, I struggled to stay alive throughout the rest of the night. I won a couple hands to build up my chip stack early, but the rapid escalation of the blinds really cut into my money. When I was dealt an Ace-Queen of hearts late in the evening I decided to move all-in with my dwindling stack of chips. Larry Howard, vice president of Infonetics Research called me. He was holding an Ace, too, with a lower kicker (an eight, if I recall correctly). Although an Ace came down on the flop, Larry paired his kicker on the river to knock me out. I finished in ninth place. Larry went on to win the tournament so I can at least seek solace in the fact that I was knocked out by the champion.

I must say it was a thrill to meet Mark Seif, who was a very friendly guy. As a pro, he’s used to playing cards with millions on the line. One would think spending the evening with a bunch of IT journalists and analysts would be a bore for him. But he was having a good time. He even let me and my SearchNetworking.com colleagues Amy Kucharik and Sue Fogarty wear his priceless World Series of Poker bracelets.

Here are Amy and Sue with Mark. Amy lasted the longest out of all the TechTarget/SearchNetworking folks.

And here we all are, joined by Dana Brundage of SearchWindowsSecurity.com. Dana and I were knocked out in the same hand by Larry Howard. That guy is a shark!

PacketTrap shares vision of integrated network management, monitoring tools

At Interop, I sat down with PacketTrap CEO Steve Goodman, who showed me PacketTrap’s network management console and talked about the company’s philosophy of integrating disparate tools.

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