Presentation: Steve Broadhead, Director, Broadband-Testing Labs

Steve Broadhead, Director, Broadband-Testing Labs provides a progress update on this years Wireless LAN testing programme and highlights the most significant findings.

(Note: Summaries of Broadband-Testing Labs Wireless LAN Test reports will be made available to the press and analyst attendees)

Chaired by: Chris Rose, Analyst, Networks & Infrastructure, The 451.com

Wireless LANs Rule. With the possible exception of instant messaging, there's never been a networking technology that's been more fervently embraced than WLANs. No more Cat-5 cables snaking across offices; the ability to work with a laptop in a conference room, lunch room, or colleague's cubicle -- everyone, from the CTO to the knowledge worker, love the new unwired future. However, today's WLANs often fail to deliver on all their benefits. Access points are shared resources more akin to 10Base-T hubs than Fast Ethernet switches. Security is an issue, and VLANs virtually nonexistent. The proper positioning and load-balancing of access points is a black art. Roaming doesn't always work. And of course, the IT director still needs to run a parallel wired infrastructure, to support enterprise printers, file shares, servers, desktops and legacy equipment. This session will provide a strategic update on important new developments in this critical technology: protocols, security, integration, management, and more.

Analyst introduction & chaired by: Jerry Caron, Senior Analyst, Current Analysis

The philosophical arguments regarding the merits of enterprise packet-switched telephony versus circuit-switched digital systems are over: IP telephony has won the espresso-sipping round, with every single major enterprise voice technology supplier shifting all systems and applications development to IP and shoving their tried-and-true legacy digital PBXs to the nether regions of their websites and into maintenance mode. Now, it is time for the debaters to exchange their black jumpers for military fatigues, snuff out their cigarettes and take the battle to the streets. IP telephony still accounts for less than 10% of enterprise voice lines sold in Europe, despite its intellectual prominence, so the opportunity for growth is huge. As one Cisco executive put it, bloody hand-to-hand combat will be required to woo channel partners and win migration customers in a European market without any single dominant player. Here are the key issues to be discussed in this session on the IP telephony revenue scramble: ROI, ROI and ROI. (Oh yes, of course performance and reliability are still issues, but it would not be a true technological revolution if important details weren't dismissively tossed aside, would it?)

Presentation and discussion: Bob Walder, Director, NSS Group Labs presents & leads the discussion

Recent reports from leading analyst groups have suggested that the IDS market is as good as dead. Who will need to detect intrusions when we can block them at the perimeter with Intrusion Prevention Systems? Mere weeks later and the analysts are claiming that the IPS market doesn't exist - that the prevention functionality actually makes them a firewall. Meanwhile other analysts claim that the IPS device is actually a "security switch". Who is right? Does the IPS market really exist? Do companies need that additional level of protection provided by the current crop of IPS products, or is the firewall and IDS enough? Will the firewall eventually do everything?�

Note: Summaries of NSS Group Security Lab reports including results from their Gigabit IDS and IPS (first ever, anywhere) tests will be made available to the press and analyst attendees.

Viruses, Hackers and Buffers, Oh My

Presentation and discussion: Alan Zeichick, Analyst, Camden Associates presents & leads the discussion

Today, your antivirus software probably blocked one or more viruses. Bugbear? Slammer? Melissa? While virus writers are saying "I love you," hackers are doing their own slam, probing your firewall and Web service for weaknesses and unpatched flaws. From buffer overloads to "social engineering," data resources are under increasing threat and it's only getting worse, with rumours of terrorists working alongside pubescent hobbyists to enter your network, corrupt your server, steal credit cards. Who can solve this problem? Not the government. Not your readers' overworked IT manager. So, what can you do? We've assembled an expert panel who will tell you what the next big threat is, and what your readers can do to prepare for their very own software Terminator.

Collect press/analyst meeting schedules

A series of pre-scheduled press & analyst meetings for each delegate

Open Meeting Sessions

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Opportunity for delegates to organise

their own additional meetings or

follow-up briefings with vendors,

press and analysts.

Final series of pre-scheduled press & analyst meetings for each delegate

Presentation:� Brian van Steen, Principal Analyst, Point East Research

Brian van Streen, Principal Analyst at Point East Research provides an overview of the status of the Metro Ethernet market in Europe and global outlook over the next 5 years.

Metro Ethernet - Product & Services Update

Presentation:� Bob Mandeville, Director, Iometrics and Steve Broadhead, Director, Broadband Testing Labs

Bob Mandeville, Director, Iometrics and Steve Broadhead, Director, Broadband-Testing Labs then provide an insight into their respective studies and highlight some of the exciting new developments in the Metro Ethernet space.

Chaired by: Bob Mandeville, Director, Iometrics

Did someone say SONET or SDH?� While the recession has slowed carrier investment in metro optical, there's a huge upside for those vendors who can make a compelling business case for upgrading their existing infrastructure, or who can successfully penetrate new markets.� But what to deploy?� Despite the existing mass of SONET/SDH deployment, many carriers like the prospects offered by pure packet-based services, such as 10-Gig Ethernet and Resilient Packet Ring.� Yet those technologies continue to have their own downsides, such as relative immaturity problems with voice provisioning and service-level guarantees, and dodgy compatility - not to mentionhigh prices.� So what are your readers going to deploy?� Here the experts weigh the pros and cons, and then you can help make the call.

Analyst Introduction & Chaired by: Sarah Skinner, Associate, Bryan Garnier & Company

There's not much money in offering dial-tone. But there's not much money, period, in telecommunications services. For several years, carriers have talked about offering features like firewalls, virus protection, Voice over IP, improved call accounting, flexible VPNs. Customers haven't bought, and the investments that carriers have made in the infrastructure hasn't been repaid. As we prepare for the ITU World Telecon conference next week , it's time to lay the cards on the table: How can carriers make money? What value-added services can they offer to justify higher priced products? How can they increase the margins on a commodity product being sold in an increasingly deregulated and competitive market place? Let's put those business plans to the test.

Analyst Introduction by: Ian Keene, Vice President & Chief Analyst, Gartner

Chaired by: Emma McClune, Editor, Total Telecom

Who will win the battle for the last mile: the telephone provider, the cable provider -- or metro wireless? In North America and Europe, the situation varies from country to country, but while many consumers believe that cable TV providers offer better service, the ubiquity and power of the entrenched phone companies continues to give them stronger reach. Yet, 3G broadband, UMTS and metro 802.11-based Wireless Ethernet provide alternatives that are increasingly attractive to consumers, while offering potential for new carriers. And in some urban areas, telecoms vendors are again discussing the prospects of fibre-to-the-curb. Does the emergence of wireless throw the last mile wide open -- or is it still a battle-to-the-death between coax cable and twisted-pair telco?

Analyst Introduction: Pim Bilderbeek, Vice President, IDC

Chaired by: Fredrik Bernsel, Editor-in-Chief, N�tverk & Kommunikation

While many of the sessions at this NetEvents conference focus on the wide area network, let's not forget that the purpose of the WAN is to link together the systems on the enterprise local area network. With new software and services running on the LAN, though, it's clear that many enterprises need to invest and upgrade. Throw out those 10Base-T switches and Fast Ethernet hubs -- yes, they worked, but in today's environment, desktops and notebooks need more bandwidth. We're talking 10-gig backbones in the server room, Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop, and security offered by VLANs and internal firewalls. To satisfy the need for speed, companies will be installing caches; to increase security, new management and authentication schemes will come to the fore. Plus, don't forget the need to seamlessly integrate WiFi into the mix, letting users roam around the campus and switch from wired to wireless in an instant. Coming soon, too, will be Voice over WiFi, improving productivity for nearly everyone.

Central to corporate networking remains storage, both in its classic Fibre Channel format -- now boosted to higher speeds than ever -- and iSCSI, a means of implementing storage networks over Ethernet. Come hear about the newest enterprise networking technologies and trends -- the year of the LAN is back!