Interop NYC 2008: Bright lights, big networking

From the “it’s all about the network” files:

Interop NYC 2008 gets underway this week with vendors big and small showing off and talking up their networking wares. Today is NAC day where it’ll be information overload on network access control and by extension network security. Wednesday is the big keynote day with IBM, Novell, RIM and Cisco headlining – each outling their vision of where the networking world is going.

Of the keynoters I’ve seen two of them before – Cisco’s Marie Hattar whom I spoke with back at Interop Las Vegas in May. Hattar is an engaging person and I fully expect that her keynote will better than the last time a Cisco person delivered a keynote at an Interop show. 

Then there is Novell’s CEO Ron Hovsepian – last time I saw him was at LinuxWorld in 2007. While I tend to cover Novell mostly for its Linux content, Novell of course has a broader business and recently rolled out new virtualization and network admission/policy solutions which will likely make up alot of Hovspian’s address. Whether or not he decides to use the Interop platform as a vehicle to push Linux (and maybe even open source?) remains to be seen.

Then there are the panel sessions – for which Interop NYC is legendary. In my line of work I get to talk to competing vendors all the time, but it’s at Interop NYC typically where I’ll see vendors that sometimes really dislike each sharing a panel openly dis-agreeing about big networking trends and concepts. Of course, the New York audience has never been shy about voicing their objections to vendor claims either. All in all it should be a fine time for big networking in the big apple..