Kriens opened this week's Interop New York at the Jacob K. Javits Center with a keynote speech explaining how to meet customers' needs as technology moves toward its next growth phase.
He showed a chart depicting the decline of IT spending between bursts in spending during milestones in the evolution of technology. They include the dawn of the IT age, the PC age and the wide availability of the Internet, coupled with the launch of Windows 95. Kriens said that he believes the next big thing is SOA.
He said IT has reacted slowly to business requests, has been unpredictable in performance and expenses and has not correlated with business priorities. Juniper's approach relies on simplicity, predictability and open standards, Kriens said.
Instead of marketing speed, affordability and performance, while making claims about offering the best in class and total integration and using words like revolutionary, world-class, vendors should set realistic expectations, he said.
Instead of receiving requests for proposals with impossible criterion, they would repair broken trust by listening, working toward real understanding, developing real partnerships and real collaboration and coming up with real solutions, Kriens said.
"If everyone took one step toward doing real work on this, we'd make real progress," he said.
Kriens was the first of five keynote speakers and panelists to speak at the event, which runs through Thursday.
Though the New York City event is smaller than the Las Vegas gathering, it experienced double-digit increases in all metrics over last year, according to Ben Stricker, public relations director.
"Interop, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, continues to drive the revolution in IP communications, helping businesses get the right information to the right people at the right time," Stricker said in a prepared statement.
Other organizers said about 200 people had signed up for educational workshops Tuesday.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the event a plug by declaring an Interop Week and praising event organizers.
"Technology is fundamentally changing the way we live, and CMP Technology is leading the push to integrate the latest developments into everyday life," Bloomberg said in a prepared statement.
Since CMP acquired Interop, the event has taken place in Moscow and Tokyo, said Lenny Heymann, Interop general manager. Heymann said the company is excited to bring Interop to New York City, the business capital of the world, and will continue doing so in the future.
"Remarkably, while the Internet revolution is 20 years in the making, businesses are really just scratching the surface when it comes to leveraging the power of IP-based networks and applications," Heymann said. "That's where Interop comes in today: our goal has greatly expanded to help attendees bring together all the key components of their communications strategy."
