Thanks for dropping by the Interop Blog - we have some news for you. We’re hard at work getting ready for the upcoming Vegas show in April, and as part of our new focus on community building, we’ve launched a new site called MyInterop. Among other features, MyInterop lets you interact with speakers, exhibitors, and other Interop attendees, construct a conference schedule for yourself, watch event videos, post/view jobs, and more. Some content is for conference attendees only, but there is much to see for everyone.

Of particular relevance here, it is also where we are now blogging!

Please bookmark http://my.interop.com and see what’s going on.

Over 6,500 active IT buyers from every industry and across all sizes of companies attended Interop last month to experience innovation coming out of the IT industry. We would like to thank the exhibitors for showcasing their company’s solutions to attendees actively investing in technology solutions — creating excitement on the show floor and accelerating the buying process.

Over 20,000 leads were generated on the expo floor from business technology decision makers from organizations like Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Oracle, US Navy, State Farm, WebMd, Northrop Grumman, ABC Television, JCPenney Co., General Dynamics, C-SPAN, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Kaiser Permanente, Nike, Tyco Electronics, Pfizer, NBA, New York Life Insurance Company, Visa, Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment, Bloomberg LP, REI, JPMorganChase, KPMG, TIME Inc., WPP Group, ESPN, BAYER Corporation, ADP, Cablevision and Wells Fargo.

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Tags: community, Interop, interop new york, interop_ny, New York 2009

So I always learn a lot at Interop (whichever edition of the show I’m attending), and I’ll be sharing news and wrap-up info for the next few days. This morning, though, a quick look back from gate A-22 at Newark International Airport…

1. JetBlue is a good airline

Yeah, I know that they kept passengers locked on a plane for six weeks last winter (maybe it was a little less time, but the passengers were really upset), but they seem to have their act together now. The planes are nice (plenty of leg room), the first bag is free (as are the snacks and satellite TV), and the people are friendly. To top it all off, the fares are low. Put it all together and it’s a darned nice package for an airline today.

2. Ink48 is a great little hotel

It’s not in the fashionable part of Manhattan (way over on the west side between 47th and 48th), but it’s high-fashion on the inside of this brand-new hotel. The room was extremely nice, the Internet access (for Kimpton frequent sleepers) was free, and the staff was simply great. It’s just a few blocks to Times Square and the Theater District, a pleasant walk to Javits, and you get to see (and smell) horses in the evening. It’s my new favorite hotel in New York (even if the cabbies don’t know where it is, yet).

3. There is decent barbecue in Manhattan

As a child of the South, I can get pretty religious about good ‘cue. Daisy May’s (on 11th at 46th) isn’t “authentic” Southern (or Texas) barbecue, but it’s darned good stuff, nonetheless. The ribs were tasty and tender, the dirty rice and beans were good, the collard greens were wonderful, and bourbon peaches were simply divine. Carol reports that the red velvet cake was great, as well, so this is a hit in every direction. In something that’s becoming a theme, the staff was friendly (the manager came out and talked with us for a while), and the country music wasn’t too modern for my tastes. Highly recommended.

4. The reputation of New Yorkers is a lie

OK, I’ve been to New York when it seemed like every encounter with a doorman or waiter was a variation on hand-to-hand combat. On this visit, though, every person I dealt with in the Tri-State area was helpful, friendly, and a joy to deal with. How complete was the friendliness? The TSA agents at Newark this morning were pleasant, helpful and (I don’t want to get them in trouble) actually friendly as they helped me and others get through the lines. It’s like someone exploded a “nice bomb” over Manhattan and the fallout has hit a lot of people. It may have been the good weather that put folks in a great mood, but this has been one of the most pleasant business trips I’ve had in years.

5. There’s no substitute for getting out of the office

I love webcasts, video conferencing, and email. I spend too much time on Instant Messaging and texts through my cell phone. With all the contact those technologies allow, there’s still no substitute for getting out, meeting people, and allowing for the chance encounters that enrich business and personal life. Go to a show, eat lunch with a stranger, shake hands at a booth you’ve never seen before. Get out there and make things happen. You’ll be glad you did.

They’re calling my plane, but I’ll have more later. Thanks for all the comments — I’ll look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Tags: New York 2009

I’m not finished with my Interop New York blog posts, though things are winding down a bit. I’ve had enough interesting things happen here, though, that I’d like to keep some conversations going until the next Interop in Las Vegas. If only there were a way…

OK, so there is a way. head over to MyInterop and sign up if you haven’t already. It’s a good site to use when you’re preparing to come to one of the shows, but it’s also a great place to keep conversations going and stay in touch with vendors, conference speakers, and other attendees. We’re going to be continuing to blog there and you’ll find other interesting content on the site as we work to make Interop a 365-day-a-year place to meet, rather than just a great event that happens a couple of times a year.

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Tags: MyInterop, New York 2009

As much as I like to think of myself as the big Interop blogger, the fact is that there are a bunch of folks blogging about the show. Yesterday, Marie Hattar of Cisco was one of the keynote speakers and she talked about the “borderless network.” It’s an intriguing concept, and one that has gotten a bit more explanation in a Cisco blog post on borderless networks. My favorite part of the post is the quotes from folks who aren’t part of Cisco, but then again, I like hearing the people who actually use technology talk about it. Take a look, and let me know if you’re doing some great blogging about Interop New York!

Tags: networking, New York 2009

A nice break for caffeine replenishment, and we’re into the next set of sessions. This one is already filling up, and the reason is fairly obvious: everyone wants to know just how cloud computing is going to hit their network. I’ve seen models and heard theories but I think that I, along with everyone in the room, would like to hear some facts to go along with all the theories.

Jim Metzler starts off saying that network performance monitoring is hard now, and will be an order of magnitude harder with cloud computing. This is especially true with public clouds, and that’s made more difficult because there are so many different definitions of cloud computing.

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Tags: cloud, cloud computing, cloud troubleshooting, clouds, Conference, network analysis, network operations center, New York 2009

Ahh, mobile devices for enterprise applications. I came in a little late on this one, but got here in time to hear Craig Mathias say that the iPhone isn’t going away as a platform. Since I like my iPhone a lot, I’m hooked. This is already a great session.

We hear about different operating systems (including a pitch for us to try Ubuntu — I’ve got to load that onto one of my spare laptops when I get back home), and different hardware platforms. He then goes on to say that one of the models we’ve been using for mobile computing — the “take it all with you” model — is inherently broken. We’ll be hearing about alternatives for the rest of the session.

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Tags: Conference, mobile, mobile business, Mobile Computing, mobility in the enterprise, my phone, New York 2009

Here we are at the first session of the morning, talking about an ever-so cheerful subject, mobile security. A quick survey of the room shows that everyone has either an iPhone or a Blackberry, and that most of us are using them for business.

The speakers take us through the major trends in computing and security and there’s really nothing surprising here, but it’s interesting to hear new confirmation of the things I’ve written about for the last couple of years. The biggest issues they cover are that mobility and social networking are increasing, that rapidly-evolving threats using social networking are increasing, and that regulatory compliance is an ever-greater driver of security spending.

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Tags: Conference, mobile business, Mobile Computing, New York 2009, security

Sitting in the media center looking out over the Interop New York exhibit floor, it’s apparent that there are a lot of folks here looking for answers to their business and technology questions. I haven’t spent the entire day on the floor (you can see my conference posts for evidence of that) but I do have a few impressions after walking around and talking to people for a while.

First, while there is a mobile networking section of the exhibit floor, it’s not as large as I would have imagined. That’s not because there aren’t mobile apps and services here, but because mobility is increasingly a function within larger applications and technologies — a feature rather than a category. That’s an interesting evolution, with some fairly significant ramifications for companies. It’s also a sign, I think, that “mobile” is become the accepted way of doing business rather than an exception to the rule. As one of the speakers pointed out today, “Business is becoming some thing you do, rather than someplace you go.”

Next, security remains huge. A piece of that is companies trying to figure out how to secure all those mobile users, but there are other things at work, too.

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Tags: cloud, cloud computing, clouds, Conference, confererence, enterprise, Expo, mobile, mobile business, New York 2009, security

OK, so here’s a “high class” problem. I’ve been jumping around the conference a bit and decided I really wanted to look in on this session. I got there, and it was too crowded for me to stay. I mean, every seat was filled and people were standing two-deep around half the room. People were still coming in when I left, too.

I’d love to tell you what the panel was discussing, but I can absolutely tell you that people are serious about cloud computing at Interop. We can debate questions like the one asked in the session title, and we can even ask whether cloud computing is “real”, but regardless of our answer the attendees are certain: cloud computing is real, and they want to know more about it.

In a very real way, this ties back to the first couple of speeches in the keynote this morning. Cloud computing is an extension of virtualization, and a serious continuation of the software-as-a-service model. It’s new enough that many of its applications have hit consumers first, but the enterprise customers are coming because the model just makes too much sense.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t significant questions to be answered, especially around security and regulatory compliance issues. The key, though, is that there is enough entry to force the questions to be answered, and answered sooner rather than later. This won’t be the last time we see standing-room only crowds for cloud sessions at Interop, and I see things only getting stronger from here.

Tags: cloud, cloud computing, clouds, Conference, New York 2009