Cisco CEO John Chambers' keynote speech at Interop Tuesday focused on universal interactivity, no matter where the players are and what device they're using.

"Collaboration over IP based networks will drive productivity, when you have connections from anywhere anytime, whether consumer or enterprise", he said.

Chambers - who traditionally describes the future of networking over the next few years at this show-opening event - said his remarks related to the next three to five years.

"We’re talking about transitions towards a network that enables interactions needing to change three to five years ahead of those needs. A key technology in this world of unified communications will be virtualisation, going beyond videoconferencing but changing the underlying business process. If not productivity will suffer."