Interop Talk Focuses on the Cloud

Interop is taking place this week, providing a venue for IT companies to gather and discuss the latest products and trends within the industry. The day started with keynotes, and from the very beginning the message was clear: everyone wants to talk about the cloud. 

Dave Donatelli of HP led things off, and although his talk was more sales pitch than keynote, the products he presented were clearly positioned as products that would fit into a cloud solution and allow HP to pursue its goal of holistic solution provider.

Mark Templeton of Citrix gave a good presentation on the transition from the PC era to the cloud era. He also talked about the consumerization of IT, where his approach is “don’t fight it, feature it.” Citrix has a virtualization approach that takes advantage of cloud technology and works hand in hand with the “bring your own computer” policy that some companies are adopting.

Not all the keynotes were geared toward the future. One of the morning’s highlights was a discussion between Tom Lynch, the founder of Interop, and Vint Cerf, chief Internet evangelist at Google. Tom and Vint have been involved in building the Internet and its associated standards since its inception as a government project, and they were able to provide excellent, humorous perspective on how we got to this point and where we go from here.

After the keynotes, the expo floor opened and the information sessions started. The booths on the expo floor continued the major theme of cloud. Vendors such as Xirrus and Juniper showed how they are building components that will enable a stronger network for cloud services, and vendors such as Citrix and Oxygen Cloud showed unique applications that enable new ways of working within the cloud. Cloud is in danger of being overhyped, but the new model does open some very interesting questions on what components are needed and what new opportunities can be created.

A second set of keynotes in the afternoon focused less on the technology of cloud and more on the economies of scale and the service opportunities surrounding cloud, but two of the informational sessions concentrated on other areas. Storage does not get as much press, but as more data is created, storage technologies will become increasingly important. The number one wish from the storage panel was for applications—especially virtualization applications—that are aware of storage infrastructure. Storage experts also need to start working with different lines of business to understand their data structure so that storage can be correctly allocated.

The session on the future of work looked at how various disciplines—video, social technology, unified communications and mobility—are coalescing in the workplace and forcing new ways of dealing with the workforce. The panel did not feel that the generational gap was necessarily a major issue, but that business technology is simply behind consumer technology, which is used heavily by the generation entering the workforce.

Although cloud is the major topic, there are plenty of other disciplines being covered at Interop, from security to service delivery. The trick is trying to catch a little bit of everything. Check back tomorrow for a report on day 2!