SDN has become a hot topic of late. To help ITEXPO (News - Alert) Miami attendees get a better handle on what it’s all about and how they can benefit from it, TMC this month will include a preconference on SDN. The SDN Preconference will take place Tuesday, Jan. 29 from noon to 4 p.m. in room B210 of the Miami Beach Convention Center.

For more information on the program, visit here.

To register, go to here.

Software-defined network is considered by many to be one of the most important, and potentially disruptive, developments in networking since the rise of the Internet. To date, networks and connectivity have come first, and applications have followed. SDN turns this model on its head, approaching networking from an apps-first standpoint.

In this SDN event at ITEXPO Miami, we will define SDN, look at the technologies and components involved in SDN, the use cases of SDN, the players involved in moving SDN forward, and what this all means for networking – and application delivery -- as we know it.

The speaker lineup also includes Sean Blakley, communications infrastructure analyst & managing director of WCP Research. Sean brings a wealth of knowledge to the research process gained through a wide range of professional roles in the communications equipment market and as an industry research analyst. Prior to joining WCP Research, Sean spent over four years working as a senior research analyst at Inflection Point Research. He also has held key management roles in sales, marketing, partner alliances, product management, and product development at several technology companies including Tellabs, Advance Fibre Communications, Harris Corp., and Hewlett-Packard.

Eve Griliches (News - Alert), vice president of optical research at ACG Research, will also play a key role at the SDN Preconference next week. She has a reputation for delivering accurate and timely market information. In addition to her work at ACG, Eve spent five years at IDC (News - Alert) as program director for the telecommunications equipment group. And she has over 10 years of product management experience with a number of network equipment vendors including Marconi (Ericsson), PhotonEx, Nortel Networks, Bay Networks, and Wellfleet. Additionally, she spent four years at Thinking Machines Corp., one of the first parallel processing supercomputer companies.

Other speakers include Nils Swart, a director at Plexxi; Mike McBride, who is a principal engineer within Huawei’s (News - Alert) Network Technology CTO office, and a member of ONF; Houman Modarres, senior director of product marketing at Alcatel-Lucent; Ping Pan, architect for Infinera (News - Alert); and me, as the moderator of a couple of the panels.

I hope to see you there.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.