Interop Las Vegas 2007 planning guide

Whether you own a five-employee business or are CIO of a Fortune 500 company, almost everything you need to know about running your network can be learned at Interop.

From wireless optimization, storage and service-oriented architecture (SOA) to collaboration, VoIP and something called “enterprise 2.0,” Interop, with its top analysts and vendors, should have your interests covered. There are too many sessions for one person to attend, but this planning guide will tell you about some of the most important themes and sessions to expect at Interop Las Vegas 2007.

As the network goes, so goes Interop

Two decades after the birth of Interop, the network’s importance is growing each day and, as Lenny Heymann, the event’s general manager, says, “is becoming the de facto platform for how people do business.”

With Interop Las Vegas on tap for May 20-25 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Heymann notes that Interop’s effort to attract bigger audiences and educate them about a broader range of markets reflects the network’s growing influence.

Showgoers will learn about security of all types, because at least 25% of the more than 400 exhibitors expected are in the security space, Heymann says. VoIP and collaboration, not surprisingly, will be front and center, and “this year there are other additions. Virtualization and optimization are technology areas that are more and more critical [and] have to be looked at in terms of how you build out the network, he says.

Delivering and deploying applications is an emerging focus of Interop and has been for several years, Heymann says. “It really gets to the heart of the network as a platform where the application has to be much better integrated into the network,” he says. “There is a growing dialogue between application providers and network providers in how well the network provides intelligence to the application.”

Naturally, one of Interop’s major themes is interoperability. The ability of sections of the network to interact with each other has improved considerably during Interop’s life span. “It took some years for the network to talk to itself, and that’s assumed now,” Heymann says. Barriers still exist, nevertheless, and they must be removed to ensure quick access to network services.

Interoperability in wireless networks will be examined in the Broadband Wireless track on Tuesday and Wednesday (May 22-23) of show week, and there will be an entire exhibit area dedicated to broadband wireless.

“People call that a show within a show,” Heymann says. “We’ve covered this quite richly over a number of years. . . . One of the things we are highlighting this year beyond enterprise wireless is the fixed-mobile convergence area. This is all about how you can use one phone over your internal office network and the cellular network as well, and how those two networks are being integrated.”

Interop’s security programs will include a full-day seminar on Monday, May 21, about network access control called “NAC Day.”

NAC is “changing the way people look at security and being able to customize access to resources based on identity,” Heymann explains. “NAC can help identify whether you and your computer are safe to be on the network, and once you are, can direct you to specific resources based on who you are and what you need to do.”