Tools and techniques for ensuring quality application performance will play a prominent role at Interop New York, which kicks off on Sept. 15. Jim Metzler of Ashton, Metzler & Associates and co-author of Network World's Wide-Area Networking newsletter is reprising his role as chair of an Interop session track dedicated to application delivery.

Metzler will be moderating panelists who will identify what IT organizations must do to ensure acceptable application performance, as well as discuss how emerging management technologies can help eliminate faults. If you’re headed to New York for the event and application delivery is a priority, here are some sessions to check out:

Managing and controlling application performance
Wednesday, Sept. 17
11:10 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
This session will describe techniques for identifying performance problems, managing bandwidth resources, and controlling application usage. Panelists include experts from Xangati, NetQoS and Mazu Networks.

Optimizing the performance of enterprise applications
Wednesday, Sept. 17
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
It’s one thing to talk about prioritizing certain enterprise applications -- it’s another thing to actually do it. In this session, speakers from F5 Networks, Riverbed Technology and Shunra Software will share the stage with Gerry Coady, CIO of Frontier Airlines. The panelists will describe the data flow of key enterprise applications from vendors such as SAP and Oracle. They’ll identify the performance roadblocks associated with those applications and talk about which optimization techniques really work and which ones don’t.

Optimizing application delivery to branch offices
Thursday, Sept. 18
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
This question-and-answer session aims to highlight the differences among WAN optimization technologies used to improve application performance at branch offices. While many solutions appear similar, there are key differences, assert panelists from Citrix Systems, Cisco, Ipanema Technologies, Juniper Networks and Riverbed.

The future of application delivery
Friday, Sept. 19
10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
What can IT organizations expect to see over then next year? This session will explore possibilities including the likelihood of storage optimization, the possible merging of symmetric and asymmetric application acceleration tools, and the idea that applications can dynamically control the network resources they need. Panelists include experts from Blue Coat Systems, Cisco, Foundry Networks and Strangeloop Networks. 

What SOA and Web 2.0 means to the network
Friday, Sept. 19
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
With all the hype surrounding SOA, Web services and Web 2.0 applications, it could be easy to dismiss these application development architectures as irrelevant -- but that would be a mistake. Applications built using either architecture are likely to run poorly and be difficult to manage. Hear why from experts at Gomez, NetScout Systems and Sonoa Systems.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.