In this podcast, Richard Wolf, the General Manager for Office Graphics Services at Microsoft. In this role, Wolf oversees two major business applications within Microsoft Office: Visio and Powerpoint. In this podcast, which is the second in a two-part interview, Wolf talks about new features and capabilities of Powerpoint 2007, the upcoming version of Microsoft's presentation application.

In this podcast, we talk to Richard Wolf, the General Manager for Office Graphics Services at Microsoft. Wolf oversees two major business applications within the Microsoft Office suite: Visio and Powerpoint. In this podcast, which is the first in a two-part series, Wolf talks about the new features and capabilities of Visio 2007, the upcoming version of Microsoft's drawing and diagramming application. In part 2 of this podcast interview, which will be released next Monday, Wolf will explain what users can expect from Powerpoint 2007.

In this podcast, Steve Hultquist, the team lead for the Network Access Control (NAC) Initiative in the Interop Labs, explains what his team is presenting at Interop New York.  The NAC Initiative is exploring the NAC frameworks from Microsoft, Cisco and Trusted Computing Group, and Hultquist tells a bit about what they've learned.

Tideway Systems develops a product called Foundation -- an appliance that plugs into the network, and then autodiscovers and catalogs all the IP-facing devices on it. Foundation can model enterprise networks from the perspective of business applications and services, right down into the technology layers. At Interop New York, Kosten Metreweli, Tideway's VP of Marketing & Alliances, explains how Foundation can help companies, and reveals a new managed service the company is announcing at Interop.

As a company, Augur Systems is 9 years old, but it's been flying under the radar most of that time. At Interop New York, the company is hoping to change that -- it's launching verion 4 of its event management and notification system. Augur 4 is designed to handle lots of events requiring the expertise of lots of people, and has a number of built-in tools for qualifying its alerts, as CEO Chris Janicki explains.

At Interop New York, Network General is launching its NetworkDNA initiative.  NetworkDNA is a suite of products that allow organizations to access, manage, and share network performance information. In this interview, James Messer, a technical marketing manager at Network General, explains what it's all about.

Four months ago at Interop Las Vegas, I sat down with Nortel and learned about their new line of secure routers -- a result of Nortel's acquisition of Tasman. This week at Interop New York, I caught up with Bob Reason again, and he told me about some companies that have rolled out these routers.  He also talked briefly about Nortel's new IPT 1-2-3 program -- a VoIP product bundle aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses.  Here's the interview.

Here's a conversation with Keith Vozel of Stampede, who describes his company's new Internet acceleration system.  Acceleration On-Demand, as it's called, automatically injects code into the data stream from an appliance, so no software needs to be installed by IT on users' machines. The result is performance increases for web applications and data bandwidth reductions.

In this interview, conducted at Interop New York 2006, Dwight Barker discusses two major announcements that Network Physics is making at the show related to its NetSensory line of application performance monitoring appliances. The new products offer real-time assessment of what's going on at the packet level on the network, which helps companies tune their networks for technologies such as VoIP and database-intensive applications.

Here's a conversation with Mike Skripek, a Senior Field Evangelist for Network Security at Extreme Networks. Skripek is setting up various security systems on the InteropNet to encrypt traffic between the NOCs, and to identify and quarantine incoming worms and viruses from the Internet. The cornerstone of this defense is Extreme's Sentriant family of security appliances, and Skripek explains their role on the InteropNet.

As Interop prepares for its second show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in September, the crew that puts together the massive show network is busy at work.  Leading this team is Glenn Evans, the Interop's lead network engineer who oversees the InteropNet and InteropLabs. This podcast is an interview with Evans at a warehouse in Belmont, CA, where equipment for the InteropNet and InteropLabs is received, set up, tested, and then shipped out to the convention center. Evans talks about what he's got planned for the network in New York.

Stefan Dyckerhoff talks about trends in router platforms available for both the mid-size business and branch office deployment in larger enterprises. One of the key areas discussed is the convergence of security functions into the network core, and what that convergence means for small- to mid-sized organizations.

Security and continuity can rest on seemingly-simple foundations, and protected access to servers and infrastructure components is a key function for any distributed network. In this podcast we talk with Herman Chan of Raritan about the challenges of secure remote access to infrastructure control consoles, and new developments in the tools that answer the challenges.

With all the talk about the convergence of security and network infrastructure, it's interesting to hear from Greg Adams, who comes at the issue from the perspective of the traditional security vendor. In this interview, Adams discusses the importance of partnerships and the nature of the overall network continuity market as seen from a company that has chosen to maintain a focus on the protection of the network, its applications, and data.

This podcast features a conversation with Paul Congdon, the CTO of Procurve Networking by HP.  In this interview, Congdon explores the major directions in network infrastructure components, spends time talking about the nature of the network for smaller businesses, and talks about what it means for the infrastructure when the SMB market is seeking the same capabilities that were once the exclusive realm of the large enterprise.

In this podcast James Messer of Network General talks about new developments in Sniffer and InfiniStream technologies, and discusses ways in which active datastream monitoring can be used for both proactive network tuning and post-problem forensics.

In this interview, we talk with Tom Burns, the senior vice president and general manager of Alcatel's enterprise network infrastructure group.  Last week Alcatel launched the OmniSwitch 6850 family of stackable 10/100/1000/PoE, 10-Gigabit workgroup switches, which are the first Alcatel switches to provide Gigabit power over Ethernet (PoE).  The switch market is getting fairly commoditized, but Burns explains how Alcatel will to try stay ahead of the price-performance curve  by adding new functionality like POE and security to its switches.

One of the big fish at Interop, Nortel, is using the show talk about the company's new Secure Router Portfolio. While this family of routers was announced in late March, it is a major focus for Nortel at Interop this week. The Secure Router family is a direct result of Nortel's acquisition of Tasman Networks in December, and comprises the 1001, 1002 and 1004 models for small office and branch deployments, and the Secure Router 3120 for mid-range deployments. In this interview, Aziz Khadbai (VP and GM of the Converged Data Networks Group) and Bob Reason (Security and Routing Marketing Manager) talk about the new line of routers.

In this interview we talk with Mahboud Zabetian, the President and CEO of WildPackets. At Interop Las Vegas, WildPackets is featuring the first public demonstrations of Omni Distributed Network Analysis Platform 4, which has new capabilities and integrated analysis for VoIP, application monitoring, and network forensics. Zabetian explains how the product can help optimize network services and maximize the uptime for enterprise networks.

At Interop Las Vegas 2006, BlueCat Networks is launching the Proteus Enterprise Internet Protocol Address Management appliance.  The need for a dedicated IPAM appliance such as Proteus is driven by the growth in applications like VoIP, Internet-based video conferencing, and mobile and wireless technology. These and other applications, combined with the growing demands placed on enterprise networks with the Internet's evolution from IPv4 to IPv6, make it increasingly challenging for network administrators to effectively manage IP-based networks. In this interview with Michael Hyatt (CEO) and Richard Hyatt (CTO) of BlueCat, we learn about the new appliance and how IP address management will only get more complicated for companies in the future.

In this interview, Curt Franklin talks with Dr. Michelle Blank, Radware's Chief Marketing Officer, about the company's new application acceleration and carrier-grade perimeter security products that the company is launching here at Interop this week. Blank explains how the products help network administrators optimize their network traffic and enhance security.

In this interview we talk with Neil Lieberman, the VP of Global Marketing for Interwise.  Interwise is launching version 7 of Interwise Connect, an IP-based conferencing application for audio conferences, Web meetings, virtual classes, webcasts, broadcasts and on-demand recordings. Web conferencing can be an important component of corporate business continuity plans in the face of a large-scale disaster like hurricane Katrina or a global flu pandemic, where employees cannot come to work.  In these cases, a rich communications tool can keep employees connected and productive, as Lieberman explains.

An interview with Glenn Wiseman, a corporate systems engineer for Extreme Networks.  You can't miss the purple hardware scattered around Interop - gear from Extreme Networks is found in peds on the expo floor, in the NOCs, and around classrooms. Helping to integrate Extreme's switches within the InteropNet is Wiseman's role. In this interview he explains thte Extreme hardware that will be at the show, and how he helps keep the network up and stable in the face of DOS attacks, ping scans, and other intrusions.

An interview with Steve Hultquist, who's a team lead in the InteropLabs.  The InteropLabs is a sandbox of sorts, where experts develop, implement and test new solutions. Hultquist oversees the lab focused on Network Access Control, and in this lab his team will explore three network access control frameworks: Trusted Computing Group's TNC specification, Cisco's Network Admission Control technologies, and Microsoft's Network Access Protection platform.  This lab will help show attendees understand more about these technologies and show what they are capable of.  Steve explains who's on his team and what the objectives of his lab are.

Here's a conversation with Denny Miu, the CEO of Gigamon.  Gigamon is a fairly new addition to the InteropNet; the company launched at the 2005 Las Vegas event and provided its GigaVUE appliance to the InteropNet simultaneously. The GigaVUE is an out-of-band network monitoring appliance which helps engineers in the network operations center keep an eye on the network traffic. In this podcast, Denny talks about the GigaVUE and its roots at the show.

A conversation with Neal Allen of Fluke Networks, which provides key troubleshooting tools that Interop engineers have used for years.  Neal's history with Interop goes way back - to 1993 - so he's been a part of well over 20 Interop shows. At Interop, support technicians carry around Fluke's portable network testing and analysis tools to help to identify and solve network problems. Neal explains what it's like to support the huge InteropNet, and how Fluke uses the opportunity to help improve its products.

Dan Backman's history with the InteropNet goes back several years, and spans his employment at both Extreme and now Juniper.  This year Dan is helping install and configure Juniper's security and intrusion detection products on Interop's network, which, as he explains, poses some significant challenges.  With a full /8 of IP address space, Backman explains how Juniper's security products must filter out the normal "background radiation" of network communications on the InteropNet in order to quickly detect and block real security attacks.

An interview with Robert Ballecer, the voice and video team lead for the InteropNet. "Padre", as he's known around Interop, is responsible for setting up and managing technologies on the show network like IP telephony, video conferencing, and video streaming. Ballecer explains how products from companies like Avaya, Tandberg, and even Sling Media (maker of the Slingbox television appliance) will be demonstrated on Interop's massive network this year.

At the Interop hotstage we sat down with Glenn Evans, who oversees the InteropNet and InteropLabs. What Glenn goes through to get the massive InteropNet together is formidable, and there is no doubt about the scale of this project once someone arrives at the hotstage warehouse in Belmont, CA, and sees all of the equipment and people who pull it together. Glenn has to figure out how to build a state-of-the-art, somewhat experimental network in California, test it, take it down, then ship it down to Las Vegas and put it back together again. Also note that he has to wrangle most of the gear, too, from vendors, and keep an army of volunteer engineers happy and focused. How does he do it?

At the Interop hotstage we sat down with Brian Chee, a researcher at the University of Hawaii and the director of the school's advanced network computer laboratory. At Interop, Chee is the team lead for wireless technology on the InteropNet, which means he's responsible for setting up and managing Interop's wireless network on the expo floor. In that role he sometimes serves as Interop's wireless "secretary of state" -- and sometimes the show's bouncer, as you'll hear.