Interop kicks off in less than a week, and WAN optimization and application acceleration technologies promise to be well represented at the flagship trade show for the networking industry. There's even a conference track devoted to application delivery that's designed to help IT teams identify what they need to do to ensure performance is acceptable.

If you’re headed for the Las Vegas event and application delivery is a priority, here are some sessions to check out:

Managing and controlling application performance
Tuesday, April 29
10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Led by analyst Jim Metzler of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, this session aims to describe some of the techniques IT organizations can use to better manage and control application usage. The panelists come from management players including Xangati, NetScout Systems and NetQoS

Optimizing the performance of enterprise applications
Tuesday, April 29
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
This session promises to describe the data flow of key enterprise applications from companies such as SAP and Oracle; identify the performance roadblocks associated with those applications; and explain which optimization techniques are effective at improving performance (and which ones are not). Gerry Coady, CIO of Frontier Airlines, joins speakers from F5 Networks, Juniper Networks and Shunra. Jim Metzler is the moderator.

What SOA and Web 2.0 means to the network
Wednesday, April 30
10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
SOA and Web 2.0 “are in the early stages of influencing how applications are developed, and applications using either are likely to run poorly and be difficult to manage,” according to show organizers. This session will detail management and performance issues associated with SOA and Web 2.0, as well as address what IT pros can do to avoid them. Nagesh Anupindi, chief architect and director of architecture at Xcel Energy, will share the stage with speakers from Gomez and Sonoa Systems, as well as moderator Jim Metzler.

Branch office optimization
Wednesday, April 30
2:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
A question-and-answer format is planned to help IT executives distinguish among the many products and services available to improve application performance over the WAN. Jim Metzler is moderating the panel, which includes representation from vendors including Cisco, Citrix Systems, Ipanema, Packeteer and Riverbed Technology.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.