I spent the week before last at the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Anaheim, Calif. This is a show I’d paid scant attention to in the past, but the former conference has evolved quite a bit into an “infrastructure” event – packed with Active Directory-related information and sponsored by a number of directory-related vendors and management-tool suppliers.
Besides the usual hardware sponsors (Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Toshiba), the non-Exchange-related sponsors far outweighed those with an Exchange perspective. Brands well known from this column and my newsletters (Aelita, BMC Software, Citrix, NetIQ and Quest) were well represented. That’s good, because Microsoft hasn’t given infrastructure software the trade show/conference support it really needs. It has been an extra at TechEd, nonexistent at HEC and – until now – simply nodded at during MEC. That’s changed, and changed for the better.
There are a number of rumors swirling about the future of MEC with some saying it will be killed off and its better parts folded into TechEd. Others are just as vehement that MEC will continue as the infrastructure (including Exchange) conference while TechEd focuses even more on developers.
Before the conference I’d heard lots of rumors that this would be the final MEC, but that appears to have been disingenuous talk by those with an Exchange ax to grind. What those folks have to realize is that an infrastructure-related MEC can cover Exchange as well as it ever did while expanding to take in other directoryrelated and management-related tasks.
The show was well done, with the possible exception of the food quality. It’s my impression that TechEd has better food – but that might simply be a reflection on the Anaheim Convention Center’s kitchens. Microsoft could also squeeze in a few more “break out” timeslots while reducing the extensive marketing in the keynote addresses. Rather than two two-hour-plus keynotes, three or four one-hour sessions might be better. The first two days of the conference allowed only a single morning breakout session each – that’s not what attendees spending up to $1,700 should expect.
On the other hand, the quality of the breakout sessions was uniformly good in my experience. This is a show to watch – it could be a better use of your training dollars (especially for network managers) than TechEd in the years to come.
Tip of the week
The SANS Institute, in conjunction with the FBI, publishes a list of the top 20 Internet security vulnerabilities. Configursoft wants to remind you that most involve misconfigured systems. Time to review your configurations!
Kearns, a former network administrator, is a freelance writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He can be reached at wired@quill.com.
