Keynotes

Keynote OS: Fireside Chat with Alex McDonald of SNIA/NetApp
Tuesday, December 1st, 1-1:30pm

Alex McDonald
Chair Cloud Storage Initiative/CTO Office
SNIA/NetApp

Alex McDonald is Chair of SNIA’s Cloud Storage Initiative and NFS Special Interest Group. He is also part of NetApp’s CTO Office that supports storage industry activities and promotes technology and standards based solutions, including OpenStack Cinder, Swift, and Manila. A highly regarded speaker in the US and Europe, Alex has presented on file protocols (particularly NFS), management (OpenStack), and legal, privacy, and security related aspects of data storage at conferences including Open Stack Summit, Data Storage Innovation Conference, and Cloud Expo Europe, as well as several OpenStack webinars, Before joining NetApp, he had over 30 years of industry experience with such companies as BMC Software and Legent/Morino Associates. He has an extensive background in both software development and support with an emphasis on system and storage management.

Abstract: Fireside Chat with Alex McDonald of SNIA/NetApp
Hear a discussion of the popular OpenStack initiative, featuring Alex McDonald, Chair of SNIA’s Cloud Storage Initiative and member of the CTO Office at NetApp. Topics will include OpenStack’s major features, current status, typical applications, and future trends, as well as discussions of open-source efforts within OpenStack such as Swift, Cinder, and Manila. The emphasis will be on how OpenStack provides an open source cloud computing platform to meet the needs of public and private clouds of any size. Learn why OpenStack is important and why both product developers and data center managers should be learning about it now

About SNIA:
Welcome to the SNIA, advancing IT technologies, standards, and education programs for all IT professionals. Made up of some 400 member companies spanning the global storage market, the SNIA connects the IT industry with end-to-end storage and information management solutions.
As a not-for-profit association, the SNIA enables our members to develop robust solutions for storing and managing the massive volumes of information generated by today’s businesses. For more than a decade we have worked to bring recognition of storage issues to the IT world, making storage less complicated for the end user. As a result, the SNIA has adopted the role of industry catalyst for the development of storage solution specifications and technologies, global standards, and storage education. More information is available at SNIA.

Keynote CEPH: Fireside Chat with Neil Levine of Red Hat
Tuesday, December 1st, 1-1:30pm

Neil Levine
Director Product Management
Red Hat

Neil Levine is Director Product Management at Red Hat Software, where he leads the Ceph product efforts. He was previously VP Product at Inktank (acquired by Red Hat), where he helped create the first enterprise-grade, dedicated Ceph product, as well as best-in-class professional services and Ceph training. Inktank was listed in many lists of startups to watch, including those from InfoStor and CRN.
Before joining Inktank, Levine was VP Enterprise Services at Canonical, where he ran the unit which built tools and delivered services to enterprise customers. He also spearheaded the adoption of OpenStack as Canonical’s cloud platform. Levine had prior experience at Claranet, where he helped grow a startup into one of the largest independent European managed service providers.

Abstract: Fireside Chat with Neil Levine of Red Hat
Hear a discussion of the massively scalable, open-source, software-defined storage system Ceph featuring Neil Levine, who heads product management efforts at Red Hat, the leading company in the Ceph world today. Topics will include Ceph’s major features, current status, typical applications, and future trends, as well as comparisons with Ceph’s major competitors. Join Brian as he probes Director Product Management Neil Levine about why Ceph is important and why data center managers should be learning about it now.

About Red Hat:
More than two decades ago, Red Hat had a spark of an idea—a vision for developing better software. Then and now, collaboration with an ecosystem of IT leaders, open source advocates, developers, and partners creates the perfect foundation for the future of IT—Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®. But that was just the beginning.
Today, Red Hat is at the forefront of open source software development for enterprise IT, with a broad portfolio of products and services for commercial markets.
That vision for developing better software is a reality, as CIOs and IT departments around the world rely on us to deliver solutions that meet their business needs. Solutions that provide technology leadership, performance, security, and unmatched value to more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.* Trusted and innovative solutions preparing them for the future of IT. More information is available at company.

Keynote SDS-2: Fireside Chat with Richard Probst of SAP
Tuesday, December 1st, 1-1:30pm

Richard Probst
VP Infrastructure Technology Strategy
SAP

Richard Probst is VP Infrastructure Technology Strategy at SAP, where he defines and coordinates strategy for leveraging infrastructure technology including computing hardware, networking, storage, execution/virtualization environments, cloud computing services, distributed systems, and federation architectures. He leads a small team of architects and evangelists while working with a larger virtual team of researchers, architects, and product owners. He was previously VP Ecosystem Technology and Architecture at SAP where he developed guidelines for best-built applications, created the Co-Innovation Laboratories, and started the Enterprise Services Community. He has previous experience with startups Nominum and Ejasent, as well as with Sun Microsystems. He has been active in industry standards groups including the Object Management Group (OMG). He holds an MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where he was also a PhD candidate.

Abstract: Fireside Chat with Richard Probst of SAP
Hear a discussion of how SAP plans to work with SDI-enabled data centers. SAP landscapes are end-to-end deployments across the data center infrastructure. In an SAP data center, the landscapes will leverage new types of hardware and software platforms. Topics will include differences in deployment for SAP workloads, the creation of blueprints of SAP applications, orchestration of SDI, and the delivery of zero-touch deployment and governance of complex application landscapes. Join Rich as he probes VP Infrastructure Technology Strategy Richard Probst on how this major data center platform will interact with SDI.

About SAP:
As the market leader in enterprise application software, SAP is at the center of today’s business and technology revolution. Our innovations enable more than 296,000 customers worldwide to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively.
SAP helps organizations of all sizes and industries overcome the complexities that plague our businesses, our jobs, and our lives. With Run Simple as our operating principle, SAP’s nearly 75,600 employees focus on a singular purpose that inspires us every day: To help the world run better and improve people’s lives. More information is available at SAP.

Keynote 1: title
Wednesday, December 2nd, 10-10:30am

Jim Pinkerton
Cloud Architect
Microsoft

Jim Pinkerton is currently a lead architect in Microsoft’s Windows Server Group. His primary role is designing private cloud solutions, including networking, storage, fabric, and management at scale. Previously Jim was the lead architect for the world’s most widely used file access protocol, SMB/CIFS. He helped lead the development of SMB3, a next generation implementation that transforms server shared storage from block storage to file access. He has also been a network architect in the Windows core networking team, working on scalable networking technologies and advanced network device interfaces.
Jim has helped create standards within SNIA, IETF, ANSI T11, InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA), and the RDMA Consortium, including co-chairing technical working groups and authoring specifications.
Before joining Microsoft, Jim was a principal engineer at Silicon Graphics, working on high speed networking, storage, and high-performance computing. He holds a BSEE from MIT and a master’s in computer science from the University of New Mexico.

Abstract: title
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About Microsoft:
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. More information is available at Microsoft.

Keynote 2: SDI Helps Data Centers Maximize Performance for Varied Workloads
Wednesday, December 2nd, 10:40-11:10am

Nick Werstiuk
Product Line Executive - Software Defined Infrastructure
IBM

Nick Werstiuk is a Product Line Executive for SDI at IBM, where he leads the Platform Computing and Spectrum Scale businesses. He is focused on providing a complete portfolio, including solution updates, strategy, and directions. He joined IBM with the Platform Computing acquisition. At Platform for 8 years, he was most recently VP Product Line Management. His areas of interest include clusters, high-performance computing, private clouds, and grid computing. He has over 25 years experience in the high-technology industry. A frequent conference speaker, he has presented at such events as Supercomputing, Open Grid Forum, and Design Automation Conference. He holds a BSEE from the University of Toronto.

Abstract: SDI Helps Data Centers Maximize Performance for Varied Workloads
Today’s enterprise data centers must handle an ever-increasing variety of workloads including frameworks such as Hadoop, Spark, and NoSQL databases. How can SDI help increase workload performance over distributed systems while eliminating the need for application silos? The answer is to offer a converged compute and storage infrastructure. It includes intelligent scheduling, high-performance storage management, and universal data access. It places workloads on the resources best suited to them, thus improving both throughput and system utilization. This new approach avoids the sprawl and data duplication that occur when new applications and frameworks all have their own dedicated hardware. As a result, organizations also benefit from lower costs, simpler management, greater flexibility, and lower power consumption.

About IBM:
IBM Systems and Technology Group offers a full range of offerings supporting public, private and hybrid cloud implementations that integrate with IBM's cloud software and services. The portfolio includes IBM System x racks and BladeCenter, NeXtScale, PureFlex, Power Systems, System z servers, and IBM Storage solutions. More information is available at IBM.

Keynote 3: Hot Edge, Cold Core and the Rise of the Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Wednesday, Devember 2nd, 1:30-2pm

Charles Fan
SVP/GM
VMware

Charles Fan is Senior VP/GM for VMware’s Storage and Availability Business Unit, where he is responsible for the company’s software-defined storage and availability business. He was previously VP/GM of China R&D for EMC, and also a founder of VMware China R&D Center. Before joining EMC, Charles was a co-founder/CTO of Rainfinity, a startup acquired by EMC. A widely recognized expert in distributed systems, cloud computing and network storage technologies, he has been a keynoter or featured speaker at many events and has been interviewed by many media sources. He earned a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Caltech and a BSEE from Cooper Union (New York).

Abstract: Hot Edge, Cold Core and the Rise of the Hyperconverged Infrastructure
The demands of big data and clouds are leading to new storage architectures. Enormous increases in the demand for storage and computing power have outpaced the growth of many IT budgets. Meanwhile the rapid pace of business and the growth of cloud computing requires a storage architecture that is agile enough to meet the needs of a wide and ever-changing variety of applications and scalable enough to add capacity on demand. Software defined storage provides flexibility, scaling, and the ability to use commodity hardware. However, a single tier can no longer do the job by itself. The next generation of storage architecture will require two tiers: a hot edge close to the applications in every way and a cold core that can be further away from those applications. The hot edge will utilize hyperconvergence, a melding of compute, storage, and networking. The cold core will still allow for more affordable components to keep costs in line.

About VMware:
VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility. Built on VMware's industry-leading virtualization technology, our solutions deliver a brave new model of IT that is fluid, instant and more secure. Customers can innovate faster by rapidly developing, automatically delivering and more safely consuming any application. With 2014 revenues of $6 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world. More information is available at VMware.

Keynote 4: The New Open Distributed Application Platform
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2:10-2:40pm

Gordon Haff
Senior Cloud Strategy Marketing and Evangelism Manager
Red Hat

Gordon Haff is Senior Cloud Strategy Marketing and Evangelism Manager at Red Hat Software, where he helps develop strategy for the company’s cloud, DevOps, and IoT solutions. A highly acclaimed speaker and blogger, he has presented on cloud topics at many conferences including DevOps Summit, Red Hat Summit, CloudOpen, OpenStack Summit, and DevNation. He has also written many articles in magazines such as Forbes, as well as the book Computing Next: How the Cloud Opens the Future (Amazon).
Before joining Red Hat, he was Principal IT Advisor at Illuminata, where he wrote research notes and advised clients on product and marketing strategies. He was frequently quoted in publications such as The New York Times on a wide range of IT topics. He holds an MBA from Cornell, a Master’s in Engineering from Dartmouth, and an SB in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Abstract: The New Open Distributed Application Platform
Today’s workloads require a new platform for development and execution. The platform must handle a wide range of recent developments, including containers and Docker (or other packaging methods), distributed resource management, and DevOps tool chains and processes. The resulting infrastructure and management framework must be optimized for distributed, scalable applications, work with a wide variety of open source packages, and provide a universally understandable interface for developers and administrators worldwide.

About Red Hat:
Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As a connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. More information is available at Red Hat.

Keynote 5: Don't Know Much about SDI? Practical Pathfinding to Make It Happen in Your Data Center
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2:40-3:10pm

Ed Goldman
Enterprise Datacenter Group - CTO
Intel

Ed Goldman is CTO Enterprise Datacenter Group at Intel, where he was previously GM Strategy, Architecture, and Innovation and IT CTO. His team helps facilitate the future direction of the technologies Intel uses, the systems it will implement, and the new business capabilities IT will deliver to strategic business units. His work was recognized by a 2014 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders award. He is a regular blogger at CIO Magazine and a frequent contributor to conferences and press interviews.
Before joining Intel, he spent over 14 years at Marriott International, where he served as VP Technology Strategy, VP Enterprise Operations, and VP Enterprise Architecture. While at Marriott, he implemented a second data center to reduce business risk, delivered a new business product (GoThere Virtual Meeting) for worldwide use, and reorganized the global operations group to use ITIL best practices. He also has IT experience with the National Association of Security Dealers (NASD), Boeing, and IBM.
Mr. Goldman received an MBA in Information Systems from Mount St. Mary’s College and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Abstract: Don't Know Much about SDI? Practical Pathfinding to Make It Happen in Your Data Center
Every data center manager is looking at Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) as a way to handle today’s huge challenges, including big data, cloud computing, real-time analysis, the storage explosion, and the Internet of Things. But how can practical leaders find the right path to SDI among the many that are available? The transition will require change that can stretch your entire IT organization. Combining it with ever changing workloads (big data, DevOps, and cloud aware applications) and new technologies and innovations (containers, advanced resource managers, software-defined storage, and SDN/NFV) will surely fill your plate. Meanwhile, technology marches on! Yes, you must know the current status of the various solutions, but that isn’t enough by itself. You need a clear understanding of the resources at your disposal, your current pain points, and what changes are realistic for your organization. You can then pick a path that is right for you and will provide the business value that justifies the time and trouble.

About Intel:
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing devices. As a leader in corporate responsibility and sustainability, Intel also manufactures the world's first commercially available "conflict-free" microprocessors. More information is available at Intel.

Keynote 6: Policy Abstraction Helps SDI Drive Infrastructure Agilit
Thursday, December 3rd, 11-11:30am

Errol Roberts
Distinguished Systems Engineer
Cisco Systems

Errol Roberts is a Distinguished Systems Engineer with Cisco with over 20 years of industry experience. His focus is on Packet Optical Transport, data center architectures, and technologies for enterprise and service provider environments. He is a frequent speaker at events such as Cisco Live on topics such as high-speed data networks (40G, 100G, and beyond), optical networks, high-speed optics, multilayer networks, and OpenStack clouds. He has extensive experience in supporting major data centers, particularly financial centers requiring high performance, extremely low latency, extreme flexibility, and programmability. He is also a co-author of the Cisco Press book Data Center Networking for Cloud Computing Environments. He holds two computer science degrees, an MS from New York University (NYU) and a BS from Long Island University (LIU).

Abstract: Policy Abstraction Helps SDI Drive Infrastructure Agilit
Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) is popular as a way to make data centers more flexible and more agile through methods such as virtualization, service orientation, containers, and platform-as-a-service. However, it can also improve application performance. One way to do this is through policy abstraction – that is, each application carries along with it a description of its infrastructure needs in terms that can be supplied to the programmatic interfaces. SDI then takes the abstraction and implements it, much as an administrator would using a system control program or script run from a console. The policy can also cover issues such as security and assurance. SDI thus makes the infrastructure into a resource that can be managed without operator intervention to better meet the needs of an ever-increasing variety of applications. Key issues here include implementation of policy abstraction, SDI deployment models, success factors that motivate SDI deployments, challenges, and the path forward.

About Cisco:
Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. At Cisco customers come first and an integral part of our DNA is creating long-lasting customer partnerships and working with them to identify their needs and provide solutions that support their success. More information is available at Cisco.

Keynote 7: Creating an Innovation Machine with SDI
Thursday, December 3rd, 11:30-Noon

Sam Greenblatt
Technologist in Residence
Nano Global

Sam Greenblatt is a well-known consultant to technology companies where he focuses on defining strategies and offering new technology services. He also serves as Chief Technology Advisor at AT Kearney, Technologist in Residence at Nano Global (working with former Committee Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Steve Papermaster), and Technologist in Residence at Nexenta Systems, a supplier of software-defined storage programs. A widely recognized business figure in the computer technology world, he has served as both CTO at HP and CTO/General Manager of Engineering Solutions at Dell. At Dell, he was the chief architect of the Enterprise Solution Group which developed and promoted the Enterprise family of products. A recognized expert in object technology, IaaS, PaaS, and HPC, he has built solutions based on them and holds four key patents. He has been a board member for many important standards groups including the Linux Foundation, Object Management Group, Eclipse, and DMTF. He has also taught computer science at both Temple University and LaSalle University. He holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Information Sciences from Temple University.

Abstract: Creating an Innovation Machine with SDI
An obvious problem with today’s data center infrastructures is that change is both difficult and dangerous. It is difficult because it generally involves many low-level, highly detailed structures and depends on both hardware and software. It is dangerous because legacy applications on which enterprises rely for their ordinary daily activities may not run in the new infrastructure. And who knows exactly why? SDI offers a much better basis for change. It not only makes change simpler, but it can also leave the original architecture readily available in case of problems. All you do is restore the original parameters in software or, even better, keep a copy of that architecture in “virtual” form. So you end up with an innovation machine – you can innovate all you want in software while keeping the original base architecture for use as needed or when changes have unexpected side effects.

About Nano Global:
Nano Global is a team of diverse professionals working together to discover and deliver new nanotechnologies that will heal the world. We could not pursue our challenging mission without the collaboration of a wide range of professionals, including global industry partners, geopolitical experts, finance professionals, and scientists. All Nano Global products are powered by Nanobots and establish a healthier future. More information is available at Nano Global.

Keynote 8: Vision for the Software-Defined Data Center
Thursday, December 3rd, Noon-12:30pm

Tarkan Maner
Chairman &CEO
Nexenta

Tarkan Maner is Chairman and CEO at Nexenta and a world leader and spokesperson for software-defined storage and software-defined infrastructure. He has experience with leading technology companies as a global executive operator as well as an investor and advisor. His operational and investment specialties include infrastructure software, social media, mobility, virtualization, converged infrastructures, contextual intelligence, and cloud computing. He has held leading executive roles at Dell, Wyse, CA, IBM, Quest, and Sterling Software. He is the founding chairman of TechAmerica’s cloud computing commission. He has been an advisor to several IT startup companies and boards. He is the winner of the 2012 and the lead judge of the 2013 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Programs in California and a frequent speaker, commentator, and author on current business, economic, and social issues in the media and academic circles. He holds a BS in Engineering Management from Istanbul Technical University (Turkey) and an MBA from Midwestern (TX) State University. He also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Abstract: Vision for the Software-Defined Data Center
Join Tarkan Maner, Nexenta CEO, as he discusses the future for the software-defined data center, software-defined storage, and software-defined infrastructure. Everything must change in the era of big data, cloud computing, and the storage explosion – and software-defined everything is clearly the solution.

About Nexenta:
Nexenta is the global leader in Software-Defined Storage. Its flagship software platform, NexentaStor, delivers high-performance, ultra-scalable, cloud- and virtualization-optimized storage solutions. Built on an open platform and running on a broad choice of industry-standard hardware, NexentaStor eliminates vendor lock-in and provides open, secure, and scalable unified storage management at much lower total cost than legacy systems. Nexenta’s global partners include Dell, Cisco, VMware, and other leading IT vendors. More information is available at Nexenta.