THE FUTURE OF NETWORKING

5 PM ~ Evening Reception

8 AM ~ Breakfast

Welcome. It’s go time.

Tom Gillis will be your MC as he kicks off a day of deep networking dialogue promptly at 8:45. Get your coffee and bagel (or Redbull and donut). You will need the energy as you engage.

The wizards of networking predict architectural shifts to happen by 2025.

Prediction or certainty? Each wizard will have a chance to forecast the future state of networking in this lightning round capturing the impact of security, from the bits and bytes of hardware, to the role of software, to multi-cloud. How will networking architectures shift? Containers? Going serverless? No tarot here, these are experts.

Albert Greenberg—Corporate Vice President / Microsoft Azure Networking
Arun Gupta—Principal Open Source Technologist / AWS
Bikash Koley—CTO & Executive Vice President / Juniper Networks
Nick McKeown—Professor / Stanford University
Pere Monclus—CTO Network and Security / VMware
Vijoy Pandey—VP & CTO, Cloud & Distributed Systems / Cisco Cloud
Ken Duda—CTO/SVP Software Engineering / Arista

Break

DC network-focused, or DC infrastructure-focused? Other?

For decades IT professionals focused on buying, building, and managing infrastructure. The emergence of XaaS is completely changing what is procured, provisioned, and managed. Pundits have proposed with the advent of AI/ML and new cloud services, Infrastructure and Operations teams will simply buy SLAs. Is that paradise possible? Is it just another cruel promise never to be fulfilled? There might be one man on the planet with the answer, and he’s got the chops to guide you through it.

Joe Skorupa—VP Distinguished Analyst / Gartner

Networking—from automation to operations.

The internet was designed to keep running even after a nuclear attack, but now it can't survive when the lead network engineer goes out on PTO. AI Ops, DevOps, chaos monkeys, distributed visibility, self-healing, roles and responsibilities, and changing interactions... (deep breath). You will be nodding your head in agreement as experts describe fails, follies, and fixes.

Omar Baldonado—Director of Engineering, Network Infrastructure / Facebook
Andrew Clay Shafer—Senior Director of Technology / Pivotal
David Erickson—Co-founder, CEO / Forward Networks
Cameron Haight—VP & CTO, Americas / VMware
Mansour Karam—CEO and Founder / Apstra

Lunch

Afternoon Kickoff

Networks should be simple, right?

Simplify, simplify, simplify. What’s the best approach? That’s open for debate—as in “open source” hardware and software, hyperscale designs, and automation. How will the transitions around IP, MPLS, v6, LISP, and 5G impact the future of networking? Let’s hear from the specialists.

Omar Baldonado—Director of Engineering, Network Infrastructure / Facebook
Dino Farinacci—Founder / Lispers.net
Arpit Joshipura—GM Networking & Orchestration + Edge/IOT / Linux Foundation

SOCs? NOCs? Both, just one, or maybe one and a half?

Do we really need both? What could an integrated operation model unlock? Is the technology ready? Are the people? Can the mindset really be shifted? Thirty minutes, so many questions. Fortunately, we have John Pescatore who is the authority on the matter and brings SANS’ unique points of view.

John Pescatore—Director, Emerging Security Trends / SANS Institute

Break

The keepers—who should have control?

Network admins, security admins, and developers all carry sets of keys. But who should really hold the identity, network policy, and security policy keys to the kingdom? This group of tech leaders will get on their respective soapboxes and rationalize their stance, but ultimately you get to decide the outcome through an audience poll.

Forrest Bennett—Cyber Security Advisor / FedEX Services
Grant Dasher—Senior Staff Software Engineer / Google
Lane Patterson—Co-founder, Investor, Board Member, Infras. & DevOps Expert / Global Webscale
John Pescatore—Director, Emerging Security Trends / SANS Institute

What’s next in Branch+?

Let's delve into the world of edge networking, the Internet of Things, 5G, and innovations in SD-WAN. Join Mike Frane as he spells out the impact of these developments on emerging networking architectures and infrastructure. He’s got the expertise and the real-world experience to do it.

Mike Frane—VP Product Management of Network, Security, Digital Experience / Windstream Enterprise

IT organizations of the future—a tale of org charts.

Buckle up for skill gaps, siloless IT, and the role of networking—structure, operational models, tooling, and worst of all, certifications—as two esteemed leaders propose their vision for the org chart of the future. Dog fight? Maybe. Thought provoking? Definitely. Either way, you’ll be compelled to listen.

Truman Boyes—SVP Infrastructure / Major League Baseball (MLB)
Stephan Massalt—VP Cloud Labs / Swisscom Cloud Labs Ltd.

Close…

...but not the end.