interop

While few doubt the importance of maximizing the energy efficiency of their corporate data centers, executive vice president of data center technology for Las Vegas-based Switch, Mark Thiele's talk at Interop this week showcased just how much companies might still be missing.

Cisco this week at Interop 2012 released an API for its branch routers designed to enable third-party developers to write applications to enhance the security of phone calls over the router network.

Alcatel-Lucent this week at Interop will flesh out its data center fabric vision with 40G Ethernet and higher-density 10G Ethernet capabilities on its core switches, as well as enhanced software for its top-of-rack and core switches.

Tucked way in the back corner of the exhibition floor in a tiny cubicle, Gnodal Limited, a startup data center switch vendor from Bristol, U.K., unveiled its initial Ethernet offerings at Interop 2011 this week.

Interop 2011 could have been called The OpenFlow Show. Vendors were hawking OpenFlow switches and controllers, and a lab demonstration on the show floor displayed the traffic management technique and applicability among multivendor switches.

Businesses need to look at security as a military exercise and can benefit from strategies that have proved useful in battle, a former military security expert told an Interop audience this week.

Interop Las Vegas will focus on virtualization, cloud computing, the impact of social technologies and smartphones on work, and much more.

Corporations should institute daily one-minute Internet safety lessons that users must complete before they are allowed online, a security expert told Interop attendees this week, but he said even that might not work because attackers pay more attention to the advice than those it is intended to protect.

A survey of 475 Interop attendees pegged mobile device management as the biggest mobile concern, with 200 people saying that is their top worry.

If you think meeting security audits is tough, try passing one if you’ve got your data in a cloud, Interop attendees were told today.

Cloud computing is making it easier for startups to develop new technology, but once companies grow beyond a certain size they may find current cloud technologies do not meet their requirements.

Switching will once again be all the rage at this week's Interop conference in Las Vegas as the first 40Gbps Ethernet products are slated to be unveiled.