Network Field Day 17: Mark Your Calendars!

The 17th installment of Network Field Day takes place January 24th through the 26th.

Network Field Day puts tech vendors in front of live video cameras for in-depth presentations on products, services, and new initiatives.

You can live-stream the presentations or play them later–all for free. It’s a great opportunity to get a ton of information on vendors’ technologies and strategies.

In fact, the volume of information can be a little…intense.

The event also assembles a room full of practitioners and technical bloggers to ask the vendors questions during the presentations and demos.

I’m pleased to be invited back as a delegate. My boss and Network Break co-host Greg Ferro will also be there—it’s two for one! (Or two too many, depending on how you feel about Packet Pushers).

As a delegate, I see my role as an advocate for users and potential customers. That means pushing back on claims and assertions, asking clarifying questions, and trying to get past reflexive marketing language to figure out what’s really going on.

How To Play Along

The full presentation schedule is available here (scroll down past the delegate list). As mentioned, you can watch the presentations via the live stream, or at your leisure later on.

You can also follow along on Twitter. Look for the hash tag #NFD17, or use it yourself to be part of the conversation. The delegates are always happy to ask questions on your behalf.

The Lineup

Several big vendors dominate the NFD17 lineup, including Cisco, Juniper, and VMware. On the startup front, ThousandEyes will represent the young guns.

Mellanox is also on the schedule, which is great because they’re an interesting company that (to my mind) doesn’t reach out often enough to the tech press and blogging community. As a bonus, Mellanox will bring Cumulus Networks and Ixia along as partners using Mellanox gear.

Last but not least, Extreme Networks will present. I’m very curious to get a deep dive into what Extreme has been up to since the company picked up the IP networking portfolios of Avaya and Brocade. The company has also put a lot of investment into automation, and I hear the StackStorm project will be a key component of their presentation.

Thanks as always to the Tech Field Day crew for the opportunity to participate. See you next week!