The week-long Cisco Networkers extravaganza draws to a close. Network World Managing Editor Jim Duffy recounts his past 2 days at the event, where disco dancers, Gene Simmons and an IT traffic cop rubbed shoulders with network execs who design, build and operate some of the world’s most sophisticated and mission-critical networks.
The week-long Cisco Networkers extravaganza in Anaheim, Calif., draws to a close. Network World Managing Editor Jim Duffy recounts his past 2 days at the event, where disco dancers, Gene Simmons and an IT traffic cop rubbed shoulders with network execs who design, build and operate some of the world’s most sophisticated and mission-critical networks.
Day 1
Cisco Inferno
You could sense early on that the week would be interesting. Tuesday’s keynote by CEO John Chambers was preceded by chiseled young men and women in tight fitting red and black garb rollerblading, hula hooping and gyrating to pounding rock music while attendees made their way to their seats.
These greeters then made their way to the stage for one final synchronized rollerblading group gyration while “Cisco Inferno” – yep, that same disco tune cleverly adapted for the host company’s conference – blared from the loudspeakers.
An important day for Cisco
The glitz of the keynote was followed by a down-to-business press conference on Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 strategy. Called Data Center 3.0, the plan is intended to enable customers to better utilize their data center resources, build less expensive storage-area networks and enhance data security. Among other features, it involves melding disparate data center networking technologies – Ethernet, Fibre Channel and Infiniband – into a single fabric for connecting and virtualization network elements.
The fabric – embodied in a new appliance called VFrame Data Center — is intended to provide real-time, dynamic orchestration of infrastructure services from shared pools of virtualized server, storage and network resources, Cisco says.
Where Cisco’s Data Center 1.0 and 2.0 strategies focused on data center consolidation, 3.0 targets virtualization and automation, says Jayshree Ullal, Cisco senior vice president of the Datacenter, Switching and Security Technology Group. With it, Cisco’s data center strategy is revealed, she says.
“This is an important day for Cisco,” Ullal says of the Data Center 3.0 launch.
Not breaking IOS into segments
John Chambers met with the media in a roundtable session. Among other topics, the Cisco CEO attempted to clarify Cisco’s software strategy.
Instead of deconstructing its traditional IOS operating software and selling specific features as individual packages, as was understood from last year’s Networkers conference roundtable, Chambers said Cisco simply wants to begin to develop software as a business. It has the ingredients with its unified communications, collaboration and Web 2.0 portfolio, bolstered most recently by the $3.2 billion acquisition of conferencing specialist WebEx.
“We have the view that we have to become a software company,” Chambers said during a wide ranging roundtable session with reporters at the Networkers conference here. “But we’re not breaking IOS into segments.”
Day 2
What on earth were they thinking?
* Another amusing prelude to the day’s keynote address, though much more subdue than yesterday’s flashy rollerblading gyrations… A character calling himself Sergeant Sweeney and dressed as a highway patrolman said he was sent to deputize the crowd as an IT traffic cop. But first, the crowd had to play ping pong by leaning left and right to “hit” a flaming ping pong ball with a Cisco 7921 IP wireless phone showing on the video screens on the stage. After that, they had to lean left and right to manipulate a flaming vortex on a California freeway to swallow vehicles representing spam and hackers and send them to a goopy doom in the La Brea tar pits. Who at Cisco thinks of this stuff?
First American Corp. takes on virtualization
Media were treated to a tour of the First American Corp. data center in Santa Ana. FAC, which stores and provides information to the top 10 banking and mortgage companies in the country, is on an ambitious data center virtualization and consolidation mission to not only save money, but also change business processes. The data center building itself is built on 30 columns of concrete and vulcanized rubber layers that allow it to stretch and sway two feet in any direction during an earthquake. The systems inside store petabytes of information from 75 business units. This data center and another one in Dallas serve 2,100 FAC locations worldwide. The virtualization projects will help FAC institute “self-managed” offices, eliminate disaster recovery and replace it with “global high availability,” said CTO Evan Jafa. “We’re looking at everything as a service,” Jafa said of the $100 million project that began in 2006. “Process in the world of virtualization will replace current disciplines of technology stacks.”
Letting their hair down and sticking their tongues out
The day’s events culminated with an evening party at an equestrian field near Mission Viejo. Surreal… busloads of customers were greeted by costumed characters – some on stilts – while heavy metal and hard rock tribute bands blasted away on stage. But they were just warming the crowd up for the real event: a concert by KISS! What other $35 billion company books KISS for its parties? As the bands played and the characters milled about, Cisco customers played assorted carnival games like sealing themselves in giant balls filled with air and racing each other around a track; playing human foosball; wading through sensory exhibits; playing Guitar Hero under a giant tent; riding a Ferris Wheel and the Zipper; and taking turns barking commands at partygoers with their face on a giant head, a la the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.
KISS finally took the stage with many lights, flames, pyrotechnics and, yes, blood oozing from Gene Simmons’ mouth. Many partiers had their faces painted to look like different members of the band. And these are the people who design and operate the biggest, most sophisticated and mission critical networks in the world. A company’s lifeblood is entrusted to someone decked out and painted up to look like KISS drummer Peter Criss. As one customer from Minnesota remarked to me while we were both waiting for an opportunity to use the portable facilities, “It’s hard to believe that some of the smartest people in the world are here.”
