Confession: I fly out to San Jose, CA for Networking Field Day 9 tomorrow morning and I have yet to pack a single thing.

This last minute preparation thing seems to have become a habit. I’d like to tell you that it’s because I’m a seasoned traveller and I can calmly pack for a two week vacation in under 15 minutes, but really it’s just procrastination. It’s not even that I dislike travel; I quite enjoy going places and I definitely enjoy Networking Field Day so I know there’s something amazing waiting for me when I get there. I conclude then that my lackadaisical approach to travel packing is laziness in its purest form.

Networking Field Day 9

Any idea of being lazy at NFD9 though is laughable. As ever, we have a packed schedule meeting some really interesting vendors. There are some old faces and some new ones both in the attendees and the vendors!

Wednesday 10th February

• VeloCloud – “Cloud-Delivered Software Defined WAN”. If they give prizes for buzz-word density, VeloCloud just won. The only thing missing is “as a Service”. Humor aside, VeloCloud seem to have an interesting product; it sounds almost like Cisco Meraki wireless, but for WAN. Should be fun!
• Cumulus Networks – creators of Cumulus Linux, an OS that runs on top of networking hardware (at least, hardware on the compatibility list!) – e.g. it’s a NOS for bare metal switching. It looks like they play in the same space as Big Switch (indeed, predate them on bare metal), so with Big Switch as a baseline I’m keen to hear what Cumulus brings to the table.
• Pluribus Networks – A returning vendor, Pluribus brings a very interesting product and architecture vision to the table, plus – I hope – their inimitable CTO Sunay Tripathi who is definitely a “Founding CTO”; a hands on guy with a wealth of knowledge to share.

Thursday 11th February

• NetBeez – A new company for me, whose name reminds me of an 1980’s Scritti Politti song. Thankfully I like that song, and I’m trying to think of new lyrics that are appropriate for a distributed monitoring company, though I’m having trouble figuring out where Aretha Franklin fits in. Definitely some similarities to some previous NFD presenters like Thousand Eyes, so it will be very interesting to see what differentiators NetBeez give us to chew on. By the way, if I like the product, I plan to title the first blog post “NetBeez – It’s a Honey!” You have to imagine it spoken like a bad 1950s commercial voiceover. It works in my head.
• SolarWinds – Back again! Solarwinds will I hope be talking to us about [embargoed] which they’re releasing on [embargoed]. The question is, if they present to us about that, will it be [embargoed]? More seriously though, SolarWinds is always on the move so it’s pretty much a guarantee that there will be something new to tell us about. SolarWinds is also hot off the back of their acquisition of cloud monitoring company Librato a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully we’ll get some appropriately disclaimed forward-looking statements of strategy with regard to their new addition.
• NEC Networking – These folks are not new to NFD (having appeared at NFD2 and NFD3 as well as other Tech Field Day events) but they are new to me. I know of their ProgrammableFlow SDN networking solution, though not much detail about it. Will there be new products? We’ll find out 🙂
• CloudGenix – Making sure that my already blurry brain is overwhelmed with products playing in the same space so that I can confuse them when I go to write posts about them, CloudGenix is in the business of Software Defined WAN solutions, meaning that the first two days of NFD9 are in fact one great big “doorstep” SD-WAN sandwich. I am disappointed that CloudGenix do not manage to get more buzzwords into their tagline (“CloudGenix virtualizes WANs and securely connects users and hybrid applications, while radically reducing remote office infrastructure”), but this is hopefully no reflection on their products.

Friday 12th February

• Cisco Insieme – As ACI ships and more information is out there about how the product works and how it can benefit different networks, I’m really interested to see how much more real world information we can glean about the ACI product line and its roadmap.
• Brocade – Not only has Brocade just hired an awesome previous NFD delegate, but the general presentation quality and cerebral stimulation level tends to be high. Brocade has built itself a brain trust of open networking and at the very least deserves our attention for that. A session not to be missed, I would wager.

How NFD Works

I’ve written in the past about how NFD works, but as a very brief summary, vendors pay for time in front of a hand-selected panel of delegates (of which I am fortunate to be one). The presentations are streamed live over the Internet and put up for replay shortly afterwards. The delegates listen to the presentations, we ask our questions, and if you are watching the live stream you can also hit us up on Twitter (hashtag #nfd9) so that we can also ask your questions. Afterwards, delegates can blog about what they saw, or not. We can be nice or we can choose not to be. It’s up to us, and there is no expectation or obligation. In fact, you can blog about what you saw too, and why not? If you watch the live stream (or a recording later on), you have seen the same as we did, so you can make your own evaluations and commentary.

For the purposes of transparency, I also try to add a disclosure statement on every NFD-related post covering the fact that my travel, accommodation and sustenance are paid for while I’m at Networking Field Day. I take vacation from work and attend as an independent blogger, and I don’t get paid by anybody to be there.

Where Is the LiveStream?

Go to http://techfieldday.com/ and the feed will be on the front page. There are gaps in the feed as we move locations or change presenter, and the schedule of events can be found on the NFD9 Page. Remember that all times are PST!

Please do follow the streams, and tweet us questions with the hashtag #nfd9 – we love it when we can include participation from viewers via Twitter.

Ok, so I wonder if I have any clean shirts I can pack? Hmm.