It's a breezy 85 degrees here in Las Vegas, but the Mandalay Bay convention center AC is keeping thousands upon thousands of Interop-ites cool and content as they bustle from floor to floor. (Note to self: next time, listen to the little voice that says "choose the comfy shoes." My dogs, they're barking!) The crowds are quite impressive; estimates say there may be 20,000+ here, and I wouldn't doubt it. NAC and s It’s a breezy 85 degrees here in Las Vegas, but the Mandalay Bay convention center AC is keeping thousands upon thousands of Interop-ites cool and content as they bustle from floor to floor. (Note to self: next time, listen to the little voice that says “choose the comfy shoes.” My dogs, they’re barking!)The crowds are quite impressive; estimates say there may be 20,000+ here, and I wouldn’t doubt it. NAC and security are big attention-getters, and VoIP interest is high (perhaps a sign that enterprises really are becoming comfortable with sending voice traffic over their networks?). Here are a couple of things that caught my eye while roaming the show floor: NAC attack: Lots of NAC talk out there, but Lockdown Networks is playing the interoperability card with their appliances and “iNAC” interoperability partnerships. The Lockdown NAC strategy is to integrate with your existing security programs and appliances – they’ve just announced a software update with support for 802.11 wireless solutions from Avaya, Meru Networks, and Trapeze, and they will now pull in event information from any device that supports Web services or syslog. There’s a full published API, too, and a hardware update on the way. Nifty. NAP-NAC news: In case you haven’t already heard, Microsoft is publishing a section of its NAP (network access protection) protocol, and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) is making that Microsoft segment part of its NAC. That leaves Cisco out in the cold as the only one not supporting the TCG specs. Should be interesting to see how that plays out. Hate the way those server racks take up so much space, especially in small offices and branch locations? Very cool alternative making its debut at Interop: the Armarac “zero-footprint” rack, from New Zealand-based Thureon. It’s a wall-mounted, colorful enclosure that locks servers inside and secures them with a double-lock system: one key opens the KVM on the front, one that opens the enclosure to allow access to the servers. The hinged doors open vertically, so the Armarac takes about 4 square feet of space when opened up, but since you’re hanging everything on the wall, there’s no squatting and bending to get access to the guts (check out the online demo). There’s 6U of space inside, and servers “hang” on racks that swing open to allow access to those in the back. Lots of customization available depending on your environment, and you can even pick your colors if you place a big order (green camo is available for those extremely remote branch offices). Add a neon-light kit, disco ball, and a margarita dispenser, and this server rack could quickly become party central…Keep an eye on Oliver Rist’s SMB IT blog for more tasty Interop tidbits, as well as our special report page Technology Industry