Interop officials were still tabulating attendance numbers at press time, but some estimates put the total at 15,000, about 25% less than the previous year. Or put another way, about half that of the International Council of Shopping Centers show, which took place in Vegas the same week.

Beyond the attendance figures, though, one of the most striking changes was modest physical presence at the event. Its booth size was a fraction of what it has been in past years, and what it did have was mainly to highlight its partners' wares. Cisco had one executive on a keynote panel, but otherwise gave way to leaders from , F5 Networks and Skype (Cisco CEO John Chambers last spoke there in 2007).

As one attendee put it: "You can't put on a networking conference without Cisco."

There was talk that the company would not have come at all were it not afforded free exhibition space, though an Interop spokeswoman assured us that Cisco "ranked in the top tier of sponsor investment/spend in the event" and even produced a custom for the event. Some took Cisco's relatively low-key approach to the show as a sign of the company's utter dominance in Ethernet switching and IP routing.

"Interop needs Cisco more than Cisco needs Interop," says Zeus Kerravala, a Yankee Group analyst. "Cisco's been trying to make [its own Cisco Live!] Networkers the premier networking show.