Behind the scenes at Cisco Networkers

I've just checked in at the busy Cisco Networkers conference - the twice-yearly show which brings the networking giant together with its channel, customers and more than a few interested third parties as well.

From today through Thursday is the European showcase, which has returned to Barcelona after 14 years away.

And although the event hasn't properly kicked off yet, it's looking like an eventful one, with an estimated 1,000 delegates already through the doors.

Officially Cisco is going to make two news announcements here. One will surround what Cisco calls an extension to its application acceleration products, which it calls WAAS (wide area application services).

This extension should give businesses the ability to accelerate applications out to their remote workers. Previously WAAS was only an option for accelerating applications to remote offices where a WAAS appliance needed to be installed.

Some people I've spoken to are questioning how integrated this new WAAS is going to be with the old WAAS, and how far behind Cisco are in this market. There are several pioneers which are somewhat more quick of foot than Cisco, Riverbed and Bluecoat being two.

The announcement's not yet out, so there's a bit of guessing going on as to the technical details, so I'll come back with some firmer details later in the show.

Cisco's also planning an announcement concerning an extension to its Catalyst switching portfolio. Ears to the ground here when that announcement is made.

What else is Cisco likely to be trumpeting here? Well, it's bigging up BT. The two companies have for many years been close on IP telephony - one of Cisco's biggest markets, with BT selling huge amounts of Cisco gear.

But now the two are working closely together on TelePresence - Cisco's top end videoconferencing technology, which sells for us to £150,000 a site.

In December, Cisco signed up BT as a TelePresence reseller, and BT was the carrier network of choice when Cisco demonstrated how TelePresence could work across the internet with other vendors' equipment.

BT's also up for an innovation award here for its 21st Century Network, its £10bn network upgrade which is supposed to be completed within the next three years. It will be interesting to see whether it wins.

It's got some stern competition: Orange Slovakia, Telecom Namibia, and, er, BT Italy. Looks an odds-on victory I'd say.

Cisco's keen to get the eyes of the world on TelePresence during Networkers, and BT's been elevated to the status of 'Official TelePresence Partner' here as well as having branding everywhere.

There'll be no John Chambers unfortunately, but we will see Chris Dedicoat, Cisco's president of European markets, who will be keynoting tomorrow.

Chambers will have to wait till the US version of Networkers in Orlando in June for his appearance.

Cisco's also making a push to promote green technology, although I'm starting to see through it already. Apparently we've all convened on the warmest corner of Europe in January (and yes, it's 18 deg C with broad sunshine) because Barcelona has a "proactive approach to the environment". Is that the only reason?

What I'm rather more sure about is the lack of wires round here. Everywhere I've been so far is wireless, and that's quite amazing for a company which has made most of its bucks from cabled infrastructure.

Of course it now has three wireless brands to sell - the old Linksys, Aironet and Airespace portfolios. Perhaps the prevalence of wireless LANs here is a sign that it's shipping serious amounts of this kit. I'll try to pin Cisco down on whether that's the case later.

I was also struck by a prominent ad in the event guide urging customers to look out for fake Cisco hardware. It's got a photo of two switches side-by-side with the caption: 'One of these ads is fake'. I can't tell the difference.

Software piracy has for many years been a problem. But with Cisco the clear market leader for routers and switches, could it be falling victim to the copycats too?