Interop Las Vegas 2016 Announces First Keynotes, including Creator of SDN Movement and Google's Datacenter Network Expert

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Interop. 2.0: Your network is your business. As the foundation of business operations, the modern network supports the ever-increasing amount of applications and systems that drive efficiencies, innovation and success—from powering the cloud, managing data storage and securing critical information from unauthorized access.

This is the idea behind Interop 2.0. Interop Las Vegas celebrates its 30^th anniversary in 2016, presenting a reimagined conference and expo that celebrates the network, the technologies that feed off of it, and the IT professionals behind it all. Interop Las Vegas will return to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, May 2-6, 2016. For more information and to register, visit: interop.com/lasvegas.  

Interop Las Vegas 2016 announces its initial keynote lineup, welcoming two legendary names in the networking industry – VMware's Martin Casado, credited with developing software-defined networking (SDN); and Amin Vahdat, the mastermind behind Google's datacenter network.  

• Martin Casado, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Networking and Security Business Unit, VMware
  Casado is credited with a leading role in the creation of the SDN movement. Casado received his PhD from Stanford University in 2007, where his dissertation laid the foundation for the new paradigm of network virtualization. He joined VMware in 2012, when the company acquired Nicira, of which he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. Casado has been recognized as one of the industry's leading innovators, and has been featured as one of Business Insider's "50 Most Powerful People in Enterprise Tech," Forbes' "Next Gen Innovators," and Silicon Valley Business Journal's "Silicon Valley 40 Under 40."
• Amin Vahdat, Google Fellow & Networking Technical Lead, Google
  Vahdat is an expert on Google's network infrastructure, which powers all of Google's distributed computing, storage systems, and cloud Infrastructure. He has contributed to Google's datacenter, wide area, edge/CDN, and cloud networking infrastructure, with a particular focus on driving vertical integration across large-scale compute, networking and storage. Vahdat has made fundamental research contributions to cloud computing, data consistency, energy-efficient computing, datacenter architecture, and optical networking. Vahdat received his PhD from UC Berkeley in Computer Science, is an ACM Fellow, and a past recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Duke University David and Janet Vaughn Teaching Award.

Interop 2.0 Brings Technology to Life
Interop Las Vegas will be unveiling a host of new conference and expo features in 2016, with more hands-on demonstrations and training than ever – bringing technology to life through real-world scenarios. Across 10 tracks, the conference includes both practical and visionary sessions led by renowned IT leaders.

On the Expo floor, the remodeled InteropNet Demo Lab will be front and center, demonstrating IoT capabilities and innovative applications running on top of core infrastructure. New Technology Zones will host focused exhibit areas, organized by crucial technologies and solutions that top the list for technology buyers: Security, Cloud, and Storage.

"Networking has come a long way since switches and routers. Along comes SDN, and networking's reputation elevates to cool and essential. Networking is all about open systems, open source, infrastructure as code and software-defined everything, and is what makes IoT a reality," said Jennifer Jessup, Interop General Manager. "Interop 2.0 is borrowing from its roots as a networking conference, but will go well beyond expectations. Offering hands-on, practical training, Interop helps IT pros shepherd their companies to the next generation of industry – one that relies on the IT architecture at its core."

To discover the full scope of new programming for Interop Las Vegas 2016:

• Read Interop General Manager Jennifer Jessup's blog: interop.com/lasvegas/about
• Register for the webinar, Interop Las Vegas: Learn What's New for 2016, on November 10: ubm.io/ILVWhatsNewWebinar

Media Registration: interop.com/lasvegas/media-center  

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About Interop
Interop is the leading global IT infrastructure event series, offering in-depth education alongside a showcase of emerging technologies in an independent, vendor-neutral environment. For 30 years, Interop has brought the IT community together to explore the latest in network infrastructure, encouraging collaboration, and interoperability. Through dynamic conference programs, Interop helps professionals at all career levels leverage the network, systems and applications that enable business innovation. The Interop Expo and InteropNet Demo Lab provide immersive, hands-on experiences, while connecting enterprise IT buyers with leading suppliers. Interop Las Vegas is the flagship event held each spring, with annual international events in London and Tokyo, all produced by UBM Tech and partners. For more information about these events, visit interop.com.

About UBM Tech
UBM Tech engages technology professionals live and online through its world-class brands, including Black Hat, InformationWeek, Enterprise Connect, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Dark Reading, HDI, GTEC, Network Computing and Interop. We're dedicated to fostering real engagement by creating environments where the technology industry can make connections, share insights, and network effectively. UBM Tech is the only media company that delivers large-scale industry events, leading online brands and content marketing services serving the Enterprise IT, Information Security, Game Development, Enterprise Communications and Technical Services and Support communities. UBM Tech is a part of UBM (UBM.L), a global provider of media and information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion. For more information, go to http://tech.ubm.com.

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