Interop 2010 - Video Conferencing and Blazing Fast Switches

It’s that time of year again. I’m in Vegas for Interop reviewing all the new technology and emerging trends. Thought I’d share a few insights from the show.


This year, I’m struck by the number of video conferencing vendors that are at the show. The quality of the technology is incredible and both the service and the equipment are getting more cost-effective. If your company has multiple offices it’s definitely worth considering. On the tech side, there are new blazing fast switches that have been built to keep up with the increased load from the usage of video on networks. Very impressive stuff.

The best booth so far has to be Xirrus, primarly because of the live boxing (picture below). They did a great job getting me to pay attention to their pitch and not mind it one bit. Huge crowds and well it was fun. Kudos to that marketing team!

Interop Las Vegas in Review

I spent last week in Las Vegas at Interop and thought I’d share my experience with you. Attendance was definitely down this year, but exhibitor attendance was about the same and booth extravagance seemed to be at an all time high. The exhibitor floor was much smaller and orange seemed to be the color of choice. However, it was easier to spend quality time with attendees that stopped by the booth. I had many great conversations with folks about their network management challenges and the need for enhanced visualization, alarm and bandwidth management and the benefits of all-in-one tools. The conference sessions were worth attending and covered the hottest topics including cloud computing, virtualization, green IT, SOA and web 2.0. I was tweeting live from some of the conference sessions – take a look at the trail of tweets, if you’re interested in some details about each session. All-in-all it was a great trip – got some good leads from the show and came home without losing too much face at the blackjack table.

A Shot of Caffeine While on the Go…

I found a great cure to satisfy my caffeine addiction while on the go! I was hunting down some registration information on the Interop site for my annual trip when I came across the Handpresso - a small gadget that delivers an espresso wherever you go, whenever you want. Sounds like heaven doesn’t it? On the last day of the show when everyone is starting to drag - an energy boost could be a life saver and make this gadget worth the $100 price tag. Something to think about…