LandWarNet – Military and Government Technology

I recently spent a week in beautiful Tampa, Florida for the U.S. Army’s premier information technology conference and showcase – the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s (AFCEA) LandWarNet. The show floor was buzzing this year, with more than 9,000 government and industry attendees and more than 300 exhibits. I caught up with Becky Nolan, Executive Vice President at AFCEA International, and she provided a brief overview of this year’s conference.

The overall theme for LandWarNet 2010 was “Providing Global Cyber Dominance to Joint/Combined Commanders.” I liked the way that one of the military’s top cyber commanders, Gen. Keith Alexander, U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, described the importance of this year’s theme. In the conference’s opening address he stated that cyberspace is now a domain alongside air, land, sea, and space. There were several great sessions at the conference aimed at educating attendees on how they can be fully prepared for today’s cyber environment.

Along with cyber security solutions, there were some amazing technologies being demonstrated at the technology showcase. One that received quite a bit of attention was HP’s Performance-Optimized-Data Center (POD) – a data center container that can be deployed in weeks rather than months or years. I took a POD tour with Greg Palmer, Federal Business Development Manager at HP.

I also spoke with Don Zimmerman, U.S. Army Account Manager at HP, about some of the personal computing products that HP was showing at its booth. In this video he gives us a quick overview of some of the notebook, workstation and thin client products that our government customers are excited about.

I also have a Flickr slideshow if you want to check out some photos from the event.

Overall, I had a great time in Tampa at LandWarNet. Thanks to AFCEA for a great event and I am already looking forward to next year!