How to Install a 1,000 node LAN In Only Two Days

Interview with Earle D. Jones (right), representative director Asia-Pacific, and Toru Takahashi (left), director of technology of Ziff-Davis Japan

Interop is known in the States for being the technical trade show where you actually have the technologies working on-site. Are you doing the same thing here in Japan?

Jones: This is the first Interop in Japan -- in fact, in Asia. We're using a similar strategy as elsewhere; we get the close involvement of the exhibitors to make sure that actual working technology is being displayed. We want Interop to be a learning experience, not just a show.
Many of these exhibitors, especially the Japanese ones, have never attended an Interop show before, and require a lot of hand-holding. There are many technical meetings for each of the seven different technology areas that we are emphasizing.
It is actually a requirement for every exhibitor, except those with publishers' booths, to use the network. Everyone is Interconnected. Most equipment and cable is donated for up to three months by the exhibitors in a comprehensive contributor's program that we organize. Half the equipment comes from the States, and half from Japanese companies.
In terms of site design, we put everything overhead. Even though Makuhari has beautiful channels built into the floor, we want the customer to see the network, so we are stringing the cables overhead. When you walk into the show floor, what you see is an array of wires, and every booth has a drop coming down. We give every exhibitor what they want -- for example, an Ethernet drop to support TCP/IP.

I understand the network at Makuhari will be put together in two days. That's an amazingly short time in which to install a 1,000-node LAN. How do you do it?

Jones: The network is actually designed at least a month before the show, then built on a "hot stage" in the States. 50 you have three halls worth of cabling and infrastructure intended for Makuhari put together in a warehouse in Sunnyvale, California.>br? The hot stage is being built around June 20. Then all of that will be taken apart, packaged, put into a big 40-foot container, and sent to Makuhari in Japan. In Japan it will be unpacked and put together on the floor of Makuhari on Friday night, starting at midnight. In two days, it has to be in place and working.

What happens if the container gets held up by a strike, or the ship sinks?

Jones: It can't happen! (Laughter.) The network does have to be working by Sunday night, midnight, because at that time the exhibitors move in. They morning when the show opens. So we're building a network the size and complexity of a major corporate LAN that you might see installed in two or three 30-story buildings.

Some of the technologies you are introducing are not yet being used here in Japan. How far behind the US do you think Japan is in adopting these technologies?

Takahashi: Well, that is a very typical question: asking how far Japan is behind the USA. I don't think it can be answered easily, because the two countries and their computing histories are so different. However, I do think that in the case of Frame Relay, there will be a 12- to 18-month delay in adoption.

Is that largely due to government delays?

Takahashi: No. Most of the technology we are featuring are those that can be implemented in private companies, so the delay is likely to be due to the internal decision-making processes of those companies, not the government. However, I would like to point out that most people don't realize Japan is one of the world's leaders in largescale networking. Last year and this year, the government allocated large budgets to universities to invest in ATM networks. They are buying a lot of that technology now.

Coming back to the issue of putting the show together: Given that some of the technology is so new here, can I assume that you not only have to bring all the network infrastructure into Japan, but that you also need to bring a team of networking experts?

Jones: For the first year at least, and this is our experience elsewhere in the world... for example, we have a show in Berlin in June, and we had one in October. We have a very strong group of resources in California, and we use them. Especially for this first show, the hot stage is being done in California, not Tokyo, because it is the first year. But next year, we'll do it in Japan.

So your people in California are like Interop "readies"?

Jones: Well, actually we call them the Weekend Warriors! There are about 20 people coming from California, who will do both technical work and project organization. The idea is that our local staff all have counterparts in the States who have done this type of show many times before. So those people will be coming here and providing training.
At Makuhari we have a NOC (Network Operations Center) team of 19 people who will run the technical operations, like the nerve center for the show. The team consists of 13 Japanese and 6 non-Japanese, so we have plenty of local talent.

What new technologies and trends do you expect in your next (1995) show?

Jones: Well, the trends are foreseeable now. Seven key technologies were picked for Interop Japan '94 because we think they represent future growth.

Takahashi: The technologies are ATM, ISDN, Frame Relay, Distributed Transaction Processing (i.e., multi vendor integration architecture) FDDI, SMTP e-mail exchange, and SNMP network management. Of these, ATM will be the most difficult to implement, so I think that the more established technologies will gain popularity first.

A key difference between Interop and other shows in Japan is that you aim to teach people something. Can you tell us about the tutorials?

7 American and 7 Japanese experts. We are planning that, over the next couple of years, the number of Japanese speakers will increase. However, the local Japanese community has actually told us that they want to know what's happening in Europe and the US, so I think that we will always have a foreign component in the tutorial lineup.
If we're going to give a course, say in TCP/IP, we search the world for the best person. It's expensive, but it's worth it. We have tried to keep the fees reasonable. We charge 80,000 yen for a 2-day workshop and 40,000 yen for a 1-day workshop, or 80,000 yen for a 3day conference and 35,000 yen for a 1-day conference. These prices are actually 20% cheaper than the US.

The Interop show looks like it will be the major new event of 1994 on the computer show calendar. How many people are you actually expecting to come?

Jones: We don't know how many people will be coming, but we have heard numbers anywhere between 20,000 and 80,000. The beauty of Tokyo is that there are 40 million people living close by who can get here by train. There will also be overseas groups coming in from Korea, China, Taiwan, and elsewhere.

Takahashi: Oracle had a private show in Yokohama several months ago, and they had 70,000 people show up. So we're very optimistic.

About half of our readers are native English speakers. I notice from your publicity material that, while all the English-language presentations will be interpreted into Japanese, not all the Japanese presentations will be interpreted into English.

Jones: That's right. The program is marked to show which presentations will be in Japanese. We'd like to do you look at the costs, it is difficult to do.

Takahashi: Nearly half of the presentations will be in English. It is definitely worth an English-speaker's while to attend the conferences, because when we have a panel discussion, if even only one of the panel members is a non-Japanese, there will be a simultaneous translation.

Where do you think Interop will be three years from now?

Jones: Well, we want to grow. The growth rates elsewhere have been in the order of 50% per year. For example, the Washington show went from 22,000 to 33,000. The best form of advertising for Interop is by word-of mouth from exhibitors of the previous year. We actually sell exhibit space for the following year there. For example, we had 6 exhibitors at Las Vegas in May. We put up the Las Vegas floor plan 1995, and we were completely sold out by the end of the show. I expect that kind of growth here Japan, too.
Also, we are also going to a new shows. The next one will be called Microsoft Windows Solutions show which will involve a Microsoft-organized 30-company industry group called Microsoft Windows Solution Providers. This show will include such companies as N TT, DEC, NTT Data and so on. The Windows Solutions show will feature Bill Gates as keynote speaker, and will be held December 7, 8, and 9.
Another show we're thinking about for 1995/96 is Seybold, for the Japanese DTP industry. And a Digital World show for multimedia maybe a year later.