The conversation around the cloud may be foggy, but uptake of the virtualization technology that will ultimately enable cloud implementation is as solid as can be, says Barb Goldworm, Interop New York virtualization track chair.

But this year in the Interop virtualization conference, users will be desperately seeking virtualization management strategies and solutions for the complexities that virtualization software introduces into the network.

"All our sessions on virtualization are focused on what's real today -- desktop virtualization and virtualization management to get past VM stall and VM sprawl," says Goldworm.

That VM sprawl has resulted in many a long night for network managers.

"The data center LAN is almost croaking under its own weight. We used to have this standard access [and] distribution, three-tiered architecture. Then we started getting these things called virtual switches, which are fourth tier," explains Interop networking track chair Jim Metzler. "The real problem with virtual switches is there's one inside of every server. So if you have 1,000 servers, you have a 1,000 new switches [many from a variety of virtualization vendors]."

So what's the answer to these virtualization management challenges? Interop virtualization conference sessions will explore how automation, visibility and capacity management can address the situation.