NetEvents EMEA Summit - Highlights

Dan Pitt, Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) presented the opening keynote at the NetEvents EMEA Press & Analyst Summit. His theme was "˜A Revolution in Networking is on the Horizon"¦´ building on the ONF´s pioneering work on Software-Defined Networking. Pitt predicts that: "enterprises are going to be exiting plumbing. They are not going to care about the plumbing, whether it´s their networks or the cloud networks that increasingly meet their needs. And IT might actually have greater business value and be valuable in the enterprise for positive goals."

Revolutionary change was a major theme in this two-day conference "´ including a new, evolutionary concept in IT server consolidation, and the challenges it offers the enterprise, presented by Carolyn Crandall from Riverbed. Crandall commented "Not everyone will want to do this as it´s an architectural change. But now they have a choice", plus a final presentation by Cisco´s Roland Klemann sharing his vision of tomorrow´s mobile cloud who predicts that the future will see virtual desktop integration, thin-client, cloud-based devices, and further blurring of professional and personal lives using dual personality devices.

One of the major highlights of the Summit was when Bob Metcalfe, who invented Ethernet in 1973, announced in conjunction with the MEF, a new generation of Ethernet "´ Carrier Ethernet 2.0. Bob said "the new generation of Ethernet will change the world again with the new generation, CE 2.0." [View NEW Ethernet video featuring Bob Metcalfe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvBJ47EFxl0 plus CE 2.0 Overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM7pA9ri2Bk&feature=youtu.be ]

Other highlights of the Summit were the spirited debate on change in the datacentre, led by Tier1 Research analyst Daniel Beazer, who said that server huggers in branch offices needed the machines to help them fend off the "insane demands" from head offices, and the debate on Service Provider profitability, which suggested that the coming data tsunami from mobile devices will stretch the mobile operators´ capabilities to deal with it to the limit -- and perhaps beyond.

Transcripts and photo´s of all sessions are available on-line at http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Germany2012/NetEvents-Garmisch-Press-download-materials-URLs.pdf featured speakers included analyst groups and senior executives from leading industry organisations including; AboveNet Communications, Accedian, Alcatel-Lucent, Accedian Networks, BT, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, DragonWave Inc., Enterasys, EuroLAN Research, F5, Fortinet, IBM, IDC, Gartner, MEF, NetApp, Nokia Siemens Networks, Open Networking Foundation, Ovum, NetIQ, Quocirca, Riverbed Technology, Symantec, Telco Systems, Tier 1 Research.

Upcoming Press & Analyst Summits:

Asia-Pacific: April 25 & 26, Hong Kong

Americas: June 13 & 14, Miami, USA

Europe: September 27 & 28, Quinta do Lago, Portugal