Chambers Talks Network Intelligence @ Interop

John Chambers kicked off Interop this morning, using his exuberant (per the usual) morning keynote to remind us that the IQ of the network is only going to continue to rise to support the next wave of networked IT solutions and collboration / unified communications.

Chambers also outlined Cisco's view that the "Network is the Platform" -- and that virtualization of storage / applications / processors is leading us to a new era where the applications themselves are relatively thin, with the heavy lifting of security and performance requirements abstracted into the network. Essentially, a "services-oriented network achitecture" -- where the network determines what type of device is accessing what type of data, and the right info is presented to the right folks at the right time.

A lot of Chambers' fodder at the top was focused on generic agility / business flexibility discussions. But he did get into some interesting discussions about how collaboration across IT groups (and 'breaking down silos') is pushing the need for this service-oriented network platform.

He called out transportation - a $2.9 trillion annual industry - and showed attendees how IP sensors throughout a railway system could bring real time monitoring of engine performance, routes, security, maintencance, etc. into a single view. Similarly, he pointed to the trucking industry (60 percent of US freight is carried by trucks, according to Chambers) and ran the audience through a fleet management application that shows where clogs are occuring in the highway system, allows real-time re-routing ("smart highways"), and provides the driver with what looked like a GPS system on steroids (all over IP).

The idea that applications will be dumbed down -- with the critical details abstracted into the network, is one that has varying industry opinions).