For a couple of days this past week, I was embedded at Interop Las Vegas 2013 by HP.

Ostensibly by HP Networking, I was there to listen in and see what HP Networking doing in innovation, development, products, and mindshare.

Most importantly, I wanted to see how HP was doing vis-à-vis both the 80,000 lb. behemoth in the room (Cisco), as well as the other top-shelf players such as Juniper, F5, etc.

Over the next few days, I will post information gleaned there, as well as videos – if I am able to clean them up.

I was able to interview HP Senior Vice-President and General Manager of HP Networking, Bethany Meyer for the second year in a row at Interop.

A video of the Q&A session with her will be posted shortly.

I missed getting the MeatFather, HP Networking’s Les Stuart (@netmanLes), on camera for an interview. However, judging from the absolutely borked way the audio in the videos I shot came out, I have asked Teri S. to see if she can secure a conference call for me to converse with Les on the new groundbreaking improvements and features in HP’s IMC control suite.

One of the personal highlights for me at Interop Las Vegas 2013 was finally meeting NetApp’s Val Bercovici in person.

Val is someone I have followed on Twitter (@valb00) for years, and he is also a Facebook friend. Soft-spoken – even in social media, he was what I expected: a smart, friendly person with a lot of knowledge to impart. I hope to engage with him a lot more going forward.

The Dell TechCenter guys, Lance Boley (@LanceBoley) and Dennis Smith (@DennisMSmith), were to tech stalwarts that I had the opportunity of meeting as well. These guys know datacenter, and it behooves you to follow and interact with them for knowledge. I do.

Stay tuned.

© 2002 – 2013, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited