InterOp 2009 is a success by anyone's measure but it's been a mixed bag for me so far. Internet access on the show floor is almost non-existent. For a major tech show like this, it's absolutely ridiculous. You'd think that Internet access would be a standard feature of any technical show--especially for perhaps the largest one of the year in North America.

The show floor is packed with exhibitors showing their wares (hardware appliances, security software and virtualization solutions) and eager-to-learn and buy show attendees. Most attendees report that they will increase IT spending this year.

Good news for the tech sector and good news for Interop's exhibitors.

While being interviewed yesterday on InterOp TV, I was asked what I was most impressed with at the show. My answer was a simple one: Avocent's MergePoint Infrastructure Explorer (MPIE).

The reason?

This product goes in the absolute opposite direction of any current application on the market: It requires less rather than more.

That's right, less.

The MPIE's hardware requirements are a Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM running Windows Server 2003.

Yes, that's all. It doesn't need a 32 GB RAM $20K server with an Oracle database on the back end. Training won't kill your budget either and only takes about half a day if you can't figure out its already very simple interface.

I know it isn't Linux-based but you have to admit that it's pretty cool.

For Linux-based solutions at the show, I'm still pretty unimpressed. You'd think that there would be at least half the show running some sort of Linux-based application servers, appliances and services. I'm not saying that there aren't some but they are few and far between.

I'm going back in today to find more (If they exist) and will report back here on all the Linux-based solutions I find at the show.

InterOp 2009? Even if you're a gambler, I wouldn't bet on having reliable Internet access or locating that super cool Linux-based solution.