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At Interop 2013 New York, the Application Economy Rises (Again)

Jim Rapoza

During his keynote speech at the recent Interop 2013 conference in New York, Cisco CEO John Chambers talked about how technology trends are moving towards a focus on applications. Chambers said, “We're moving from a web economy to an application economy.”

This focus could be seen in many areas of the busy but smaller (compared to the earlier spring Interop in Las Vegas) show floor. The classic big iron networking pitches of more, bigger, faster and better hardware were being replaced by claims of improved application performance, better end-user experience and effective application delivery.

Of course, we heard many of the same pitches a year and a half ago at spring Interop 2012. One could have expected this trend to continue steadily, but the last two Interop shows took unexpected turns due to the rapid growth of, and interest in, Software Defined Networks.

SDN hasn't gone away, in fact, it was very prevalent at the New York Interop this October. But the push to application focus is back, and in some ways aided by the rise of SDN.

For the most part, it was good to hear Chambers and Cisco talk about the importance of applications. The more big vendors are focused on helping organizations build, deliver and manage high-performing services and applications, the more likely it will be that we'll see improved application capabilities across the board.

Among some of the other trends in focus at Interop 2012 was the Internet of things or Machine to Machine, looking at the challenges and opportunities that arise when everything, computers to printers to vending machines to you name it, has an IP address and connects to networks. There was also more than a bit of discussion about reigning in the impact of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). In this area, it was refreshing to see more vendors talk about better ways that networks can identify, connect and manage BYOD devices in a light and seamless manner without requiring heavy clients or other old school mobile device management solutions.

Jim Rapoza is Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen Group.

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At Interop 2013 New York, the Application Economy Rises (Again)

Jim Rapoza

During his keynote speech at the recent Interop 2013 conference in New York, Cisco CEO John Chambers talked about how technology trends are moving towards a focus on applications. Chambers said, “We're moving from a web economy to an application economy.”

This focus could be seen in many areas of the busy but smaller (compared to the earlier spring Interop in Las Vegas) show floor. The classic big iron networking pitches of more, bigger, faster and better hardware were being replaced by claims of improved application performance, better end-user experience and effective application delivery.

Of course, we heard many of the same pitches a year and a half ago at spring Interop 2012. One could have expected this trend to continue steadily, but the last two Interop shows took unexpected turns due to the rapid growth of, and interest in, Software Defined Networks.

SDN hasn't gone away, in fact, it was very prevalent at the New York Interop this October. But the push to application focus is back, and in some ways aided by the rise of SDN.

For the most part, it was good to hear Chambers and Cisco talk about the importance of applications. The more big vendors are focused on helping organizations build, deliver and manage high-performing services and applications, the more likely it will be that we'll see improved application capabilities across the board.

Among some of the other trends in focus at Interop 2012 was the Internet of things or Machine to Machine, looking at the challenges and opportunities that arise when everything, computers to printers to vending machines to you name it, has an IP address and connects to networks. There was also more than a bit of discussion about reigning in the impact of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). In this area, it was refreshing to see more vendors talk about better ways that networks can identify, connect and manage BYOD devices in a light and seamless manner without requiring heavy clients or other old school mobile device management solutions.

Jim Rapoza is Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen Group.

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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