Interop planning guide 2013

It's that time of the year again: Interop is almost here.

With all of the changes going on in IT, this year's conference is as important as ever. From the future of networking being software defined, to the emerging use cases around cloud computing, to the ever-persistent issues around security and new-found challenges of managing mobile devices, Interop is the place to be for IT managers.

Held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, the show officially kicks off on Monday and Tuesday (May 6 and 7) with full-day workshops on a variety of topics, including a first-ever two-day Mac & iOS IT conference, a two-day cloud summit focusing on public and private cloud deployments, workshops detailing how to build out a unified communications platform and other sessions on security and software-defined networking (SDN), among others.

The heart of Interop runs from Wednesday through Friday morning when keynote presenters from companies such as Facebook, PayPal, Cisco, Juniper Networks and Brocade discuss the latest in networking, data center hardware design and security. Dozens of sessions fill up the jammed-packed days of the conference, with topics on nine tracks including: applications, business of IT, cloud computing/big data, collaboration, data center/storage, mobility, networking, risk management/information security and virtualization. An expo with hundreds of vendors displaying their latest products and services runs from May 7-9.

With so many potential sessions to attend, booths to visit and connections to be made, Network World has gone through the entire program to recommend some highlights we hope are worth checking out at this year's show. To do some research yourself and to view the full schedule, check out the Interop web site.

See you in Vegas!

Monday, May 6 - 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

Enterprise Cloud Summit: Platforms

If you're pursuing a cloud strategy in your enterprise,

this is the workshop to be at. While the cloud can be somewhat of a nebulous term, at the end of the day it's about making organizations more efficient and agile.

This session will help you understand the platforms for public and private clouds and how to deploy them.

Panelists > David Linthicum, Cloud Technology

Partners (Instructor); Thirunavukkarasu Suresh, product marketing, Cisco; Peder Ulander, product marketing, Citrix; Rob Craft, director of cloud, Microsoft; Dan Baigent, business development, HP Cloud Services.

Other Monday workshops include BYOD, Mobile Security and Mobile Device Management; Financial Management skills for technical managers, and the Mac & iOS IT Conference.

Tuesday, May 7 - 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

Software Defined Networking and what impact will it have on your network?

The future of networking will be software defined. To get a glimpse into this new world, these series of sessions will tell you everything you need to know about SDNs. From the basic questions of what is an SDN, why should you care about it and what you should do about it, to an overview of the Open Network Foundation and the role of open source, as well as discussions about securing SDNs and perspectives from vendors.

Panelists > Jim Metzler, (Instructor) Ashton Metzler & Associates with speakers form Cisco, HP, Extreme Networks, VMware, Broadcom and analyst Jim Frey from Enterprise Management Associates.

Other TUESDAY workshops include

Big Data Myths and Real Decisions; Enterprise Cloud Summit focuson private clouds; Mac & iOS Conference Day 2.

Wednesday, May 8

PICK OF THE DAY

8:30 AM to 10:15 AM

Keynotes

The first general sessions of Interop kick off on Wednesday morning with three power-packed keynote speeches, including from Frank Frankovsky, vice president of hardware design and engineering at Facebook. In addition to his duties managing the infrastructure at the biggest social media company in the world, Frankovsky has also been instrumental in launching and growing the Open Compute Project, a community-based approach to building technical hardware infrastructure with commodity and open source components, instead of using proprietary, pre-packaged vendor solutions. During his speech hear how Facebook has used this philosophy to reduce energy by 38% and costs by 24% in one of the company's newest data centers, and find out how enterprise customers can incorporate this strategy into their shops.

OTHER keynote speakers include

Robert Soderbery, SVP and GM of Cisco's enterprise networking group who will discuss how networking can become more intelligent, context-aware, programmable and agile, while Bob Mulgia, executive vice president of Juniper Networks' Software Solutions Group, will talk about the principles of the SDN and steps toward embracing an SDN strategy.

10:15 a.m.

Business Interoperability

Interop got its roots as a conference discussing interoperability - a topic that is just as relevant today as ever. Security, disaster recovery and compliance all have to be integrated with next-generation tools like the cloud, and SDNs. Hear how to do it.

Presenter: Francis Rabuck, Director/Former CTO, Real time Asset Labs at Bentley Systems .

10:15 a.m.

Softening the network: Virtualization's final frontier

Compute and storage have been virtualized, and now it's time for the network to catch up. Find out about the driving factors for SDNs and how they can be integrated into existing networks.

Speaker: Steve Riley, technical leader, Riverbed Technology.

11:30 a.m

The future of data centers

Data centers are at the heart of IT operations, but they're changing quickly. Learn how some of the leading technology companies are building their next-generation data centers and find out how you can operate your own data center more efficiently at scale.

Presenters: Mark Thiele, Executive VP of Data Center technology, Switch; Ron Vokoun, JE Dunn Construction.

2:30 p.m.

The State of the SDN, OpenFlow and ONF Movement

Since 2011 the Open Network Foundation (ONF) has been working to advance the commercialization and adoption of software defined networking. Listen to an update on the road map from the organization's executive director.

Presenter: Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Network Foundation.

2:30 p.m.

The Social/Collaboration Marketplace in 2013

Many organizations are implementing, or considering bringing on board enterprise wide social collaboration platforms. But with such a broad market, who are the leading players, what are their pros and cons and what is the real value this technology brings?

Presenter: Tony Byrne, President of collaboration research firm Real Story Group

3:45 p.m.

Lessons learned on the road from server virtualization to private cloud

If you're humbled by the notion of moving from a virtualized environment to a private or hybrid cloud, hear how some users have already made this journey and what they've learned along the way.

Panelists: Moderator: Bar Goldworm, Chief Analyst FOCUS; Scott Hammond, VP of strategy, Cisco; Mohammed Abdula, director SmartCloud Strategy, IBM; Jay Litkey, Embotics, Mike Leeper, Director of Global Technology at Columbia Sportswear.

3:45 p.m.

IPv6: It's high time to get started

IPv6, the new internet protocol for web addresses, is hereto stay. But what does it mean for enterpriseIT shops today and how should ITmanagers consider this new wavemoving forward?

Speaker: Ivan Pepelnjak, chief technology advisor, NIL Data Communications

Thursday, May 9

PICK OF THE DAY

8:30 AM to 10:15 AM

Keynotes

The death of password!? That's the title of the keynote speech set to be delivered by someone that knows a thing or two about security and authentication: Michael Barrett, chief information security officer for PayPal, the online payment platform. Barrett will discuss the newest strategies for fixing the old problem of authentication via passwords.

OTHER keynote speakers include

Enterprise Cloud Summit Panel discussion hosted by cloud analyst Alistair Croll, founder of CloudOps Research, featuring Steve Shalita, vice president of Marketing for NetScout Systems and John Considine, CTO of Terremark, the cloud computing division of Verizon. Rajiv Ramaswami, executive vice president and general manager of Broadcom's infrastructure and networking group will also speak during Thursday morning's keynote addresses.

10:15 a.m.

Network Monitoring Fabrics: Decision Points

Packet-based monitoring is on the rise, but with these new tools for managing and securing the IT environment comes questions about implementation: Use fixed appliances or chassis-based? How are these systems integrated and automated?

Speakers: Moderator: Jim Frey, Managing research director, Enterprise Management Associates; Ran Nahmias, Net Optics; Huy Nguyen, Gigamon; Mo Rozenhart, Ixia; Ahmed Abdelhalim, NetScout Systems;

Doug Gourlay, Arista Networks

11:30 a.m.

Strategic Staffing: Winning the War for Talent

The heart of any IT team is its people. But getting the right talent with the right skill sets is a challenge today. Learn how to handle vacant positions, where to find new recruits and what skills organizations are looking for.

Panelists: Moderator: Cinda Daly, director of content, HDI; Mary Cruse, First American Title; Brian Fox, CompuCom; John Reed, Robert Half Technology.

2:30 p.m.

The Great Debate: Managing Mobile Applications and Data 

The advent of the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon has opened up a whole new can of worms for IT managers. This session explores the challenges, and some potential solutions for managing a BYOD environment.

Panelists: Moderator: Chris Hazelton, Research Director, 451 Research; Ahmed Datoo, Mobile Platforms Group; Tony Kueh, SAP; Ryan Kalember, WatchDox; Tyler Lessard, FixMo; Srinivas Krishnamurti, VMware.

3:45 p.m.

Wireless Everywhere: LTE and Beyond

Wireless is exploding. Come to this session to learn about the dramatic changes in the wireless wide-area network, including the deployment of LTE, metered data plans and Wi-Fi offload.

Speaker: Peter Rysavy, President, Rysavy Research

Friday, May 10

9 a.m.

Desktop Virtualization: Getting it right from the start

Whether you're just getting started with a virtual desktop deployment or just thinking about it, this panel will discuss the pros and cons, as well as the do's and don'ts of how to execute the right VDI strategy.

Speaker: Tyler Rohrer, Liquidware Labs

10:15 a.m.

Big Data 2013

Big data is a big deal. During this session, Netflix's reliability architect discusses the latest trends in big data management tools, examples of how big data is being used, and advice on how to implement a strategy yourself to manage all that data.

Speaker: Jeremy Edberg, Netflix

11:30 a.m.

Addressing persistent challenges in the cloud

We've all heard the benefits of cloud computing: efficiency, agility, off-loading management, but deploying a cloud strategy is easier said than done. Hear how to overcome the most common roadblocks to implementing cloud in your IT operations.

Speakers: Paul Burns, analyst, Neovise; Azmir Mohamed, product management, CloudScaling

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags FacebooksoftwareData Centerjuniper networkshardware systemspaypalConfiguration / maintenanceLAN & WAN

More about AristaArista NetworksBentley SystemsBroadcomBrocade CommunicationsCiscoCitrix Systems Asia PacificEmboticsEnterprise Management AssociatesExtreme NetworksFacebookGigamonHPIBM AustraliaInteropJuniper NetworksJuniper NetworksMicrosoftNetflixNet OpticsNETSCOUTNETSCOUTNetScout SystemsPayPalRiverbedSAP AustraliaScott CorporationSolutions GroupTechnologyVerizonVerizonVMware AustraliaWatchDox

Show Comments
[]