Fields of Fiber

Friday was the third and final day of ITEXPO 2017 and our third survey question, “What is the top priority for your network for 2017?” Our booth saw good traffic for the final day as we discussed this question with a few enthusiastic customers! As we all know, there are always many initiatives and there can only be one "priority one"!

As with the first two days, the mixed audience shared a variety of top priorities. All of the answers were different except for one exception; several of our visitors listed Disaster Recovery, or DR.

Thursday was the second day of ITEXPO and our second survey question, “What causes the most chaos in your network?” The second part of the question was: "Is the problem addressed inside or outsourced to a trusted advisor?" Sometimes the discussion never got to the second part of the question, but we had some energetic discussions since everyone has a story! At an independent business IT conference such as ITEXPO, the audience mix is always very interesting as the views of each individual are so unique.

The most surprising response came from a consultant who is looking for new gigs (i.e. customers) who felt that the answer to the question is “customers, because they don’t know what they are talking about and are clueless with regards to new technology!” How ironic! In his case, customers who contract with him do so to outsource the problem resolution because they don’t have the skills or experience to fix the chaos! Sounds like the right thing to do and a good business decision.

Last night we opened up ITEXPO 2017 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL with a diversity of visitors who had a lot to talk about. We here at Fiber Mountain like to have survey questions and ask booth visitors one question per day of the conference. Yesterday’s question: “What trends do you predict will drive the most networking change in 2017?” Experts love to discuss their perspectives and challenges they are experiencing and we like to share with our readers. All those who take the time to participate are entered in a drawing for an Amazon gift certificate, and the first fifteen to answer each day also get a Starbucks gift card!

The team decided we needed to get in the spirit of Groundhog Day – too bad Frank saw his shadow yesterday. But the good news is Fiber Mountain invites you to join us in sunny Fort Lauderdale, FL next week for IT Expo! We will be demonstrating how our Glass Core ™ solution delivers software defined, dynamic and managed physical layer solutions to data centers, colocation and networks - and enjoying the warm weather!

I have been attending, exhibiting and speaking at ITEXPO events for over 15 years. I have worked closely with the TMC executives and team members for years including creating and managing collocated events such as Asterisk World, leveraging Content Boost for the content marketing side of the business, and creating multiple communities on TMCNet.

Fun facts for newer ITEXPO attendees:

M. H. Raza, the Founder & CEO of Fiber Mountain, was a recent guest on my TechnologyAdvice Expert Interview Series. The series explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders.

In this episode, we discussed everything from network architecture to virtualization and Glass Core.

Last week, the members of the Fiber Mountain™ team who managed to make it out of the northeast before the nasty winter weather hit (apologies to our tradeshow and networking guru, Keith, who was not so fortunate) headed to Miami for Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC) business technology event, ITEXPO. As I mentioned on this blog shortly before we left, this conference promised to be markedly different from our trip to ITEXPO Las Vegas last August, before we had emerged from stealth mode. 

At last week’s conference, I was fortunate enough to engage with TMC CEO Rich Tehrani in a “fireside chat” that served as one of the event’s keynote addresses. Discussing the future of data center networks—and how Fiber Mountain believes our Glass Core™ and Connectivity Virtualization™ will transform the future of network architecture—in front of industry peers at the Miami Beach Convention Center was a thrill. Unlike those of you who have been following this blog regularly, many in the crowd were hearing for the first time Fiber Mountain’s vision of data center networks without fire-breathing, million-dollar core switches. It was certainly exciting to present our concepts to a new and diverse audience.

Another Fiber Mountain™ milestone is almost upon us, and the excitement is palpable around our Cheshire, CT office.

At 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 28 at ITEXPO Miami, I will be speaking with Rich Tehrani, CEO of Technology Marketing Corporation—host company for the biannual conference—in a “fireside chat” that will serve as one of the event’s keynotes.

I’ll be discussing the growth of data centers, the bottlenecks that continued expansion is creating and, of course, the change in network architecture I believe is critical to supporting our ever-expanding bandwidth needs.

In the past, data centers had only one option to support growing networks—purchase larger and more expensive core switches from incumbent vendors. But today, innovations that provide an alternative to massive core switches—like optical connectivity, for example—can help data centers increase capacity and reduce latency while cutting heat, cooling, power and space costs.

I am honored to have the chance to share my perspective with so many technological innovators at a conference with such an impressive history and reputation. And I’m looking forward to seeing all of you there! In the meantime, here is a pre-interview Rich and I recorded for you recently: