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2015 Summit Session Details
Organizers:
Alex McDonald, Chair, SNIA Cloud Storage Initiative/CTO Office, NetApp
“OpenStack's market value will be $1.7 billion in 2016 and more than $3 billion by 2018. Additionally, major companies like Disney, BMW, Expedia, eBay, Wal-Mart, and Time Warner have publicly extolled its value.” – 451 Research
Seminar Description:
OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls compute, storage, and networking resources in a datacenter. Administrators manage everything through a dashboard that gives them control while allowing their users to provision resources through a web interface. It thus allows users and data centers to run cloud applications, use cloud resources, and transfer data to and from clouds. It works for both fully cloud-based applications and for hybrid applications that run partly in the data center and partly in the cloud. Interfaces and APIs for particular clouds may be OpenStack compliant, that is, they follow OpenStack’s rules and procedures.
Intended Audience:
Storage engineers and specialists, hardware engineers and designers, engineering managers, data center managers and engineers; system architects; systems analysts and engineers; network engineers; and consultants.
About the Organizers:
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.
Organizers:
Nithya Ruff, Director Open Source Strategy Group, SanDisk
Brian Berg, President, Berg Software Design
Brian Berg, President, Berg Software Design
“Ceph is an open-source, massively scalable, software-defined storage platform delivering unified object and block storage making it ideal for cloud scale environments like OpenStack.” – SuperMicro
“In a recent report, Gartner said it expects Ceph and similar open source storage systems to reach 20 per cent market share by 2018.”
Seminar Description:
Ceph is an open-source, massively scalable storage system which provides object, block and file system storage in a single platform. It is the de facto block storage backend for OpenStack, and is a distributed object store and file system designed to provide excellent performance, reliability, and scalability. It provides a standards-compliant network file system that aims for high performance, large data storage, and maximum compatibility with legacy applications. Its key advantage is its ability to handle different storage pools for different applications. Thus, for example, Ceph could handle the needs of an organization that had to store employee and customer data (and other ordinary databases), documents (such as contracts, briefs, or articles), drawings (such as CAD files or illustrations), images, photographs, and video or audio records (such as films or evidence files). It is thus a one-stop solution to the varied storage needs of most modern organizations.
Intended Audience:
Storage engineers and specialists, hardware engineers and designers, engineering managers, data center managers and engineers; system architects; systems analysts and engineers; network engineers; and consultants.
About the Organizers:
Brian Berg is President of Berg Software Design, a storage systems consultancy. He has extensive experience with a wide variety of storage devices and interfaces, with a particular emphasis on flash memory. He has worked as a project leader, software developer, industry analyst, technical marketer, technical writer, and expert witness, and has been an officer in local IEEE chapters for over 10 years. His consulting clients have included Intel, Fujitsu, Sony, SandForce, Hitachi and a number of startups. He has been a speaker, session chair, and conference chair at over 70 conferences. He holds a BS degree from Pacific Lutheran University, and has done graduate work in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
Nithya Ruff is Director of the Open Source Strategy Office at SanDisk, where she leads the company’s efforts in working with open source communities and foundations, and within SanDisk to drive innovation, interoperability, and open source contributions. She was previously Director Product Management and Marketing for Virtualizer Solutions at Synopsys, where she led product management and marketing to create virtual development kits for software developers. She has also been a Senior Director Product Marketing at Wind River, where she led efforts to market open source software. She has previous marketing and management experience with Avaya, Silicon Graphics, and Eastman Kodak. She earned an MBA from the University of Rochester and an MS in Computer Science from North Dakota State University.
Organizers:
Jim Pinkerton, Architect, Microsoft
SW Worth, Program Manager, Microsoft
SW Worth, Program Manager, Microsoft
“Software-defined storage is the next big trend. SDS enables agile and elastic storage through automated processes that can adapt to changing I/O demands” – Paul Venezia, New Tech Forum, April 2014
“Software-based storage will slowly but surely become a dominant part of every data center.” – IDC
Seminar Description:
Storage is a continual pain point for many current deployments, particularly clouds. Software-defined storage (SDS) abstracts storage services from the hardware, thus allowing from great operating efficiency. SDS reduces management complexity and provides inexpensive scaling. Centers can use commodity hardware, as well as their existing infrastructure. SDS allows for distribution, including storage that may actually be cloud-based.
Intended Audience:
Storage engineers and specialists, hardware engineers and designers, engineering managers, data center managers and engineers; system architects; systems analysts and engineers; network engineers; and consultants.
About the Organizers:
Jim Pinkerton is currently an 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 a storage architect on advanced scale-out file servers, and was the lead architect on SMB3, a next generation file access protocol that supports transparent server and network failover, high performance fabrics, peer-to-peer distributed access, and highly optimized WAN/branch office access. He also helped deliver the Windows NFSv4.1 server, iSCSI target, and other storage innovations. He has also been a network architect in the Windows core networking team, working on scalable networking technologies and advanced network device interfaces such as RDMA, IPSec, RSS, and the Chimney architecture.
Jim has helped create standards within SNIA, IETF, ANSI T11, InfiniBand Trade Association, and the RDMA Consortium, including co-chairing technical working groups and authoring specifications. He has also helped create industry interoperability events through both SNIA and the UNH IOL Consortium.
Before joining Microsoft, Jim was a principal engineer at Silicon Graphics, working on high speed networking, storage, and HPC. He holds a BSEE from MIT and a master’s in computer science from the University of New Mexico.
Jim has helped create standards within SNIA, IETF, ANSI T11, InfiniBand Trade Association, and the RDMA Consortium, including co-chairing technical working groups and authoring specifications. He has also helped create industry interoperability events through both SNIA and the UNH IOL Consortium.
Before joining Microsoft, Jim was a principal engineer at Silicon Graphics, working on high speed networking, storage, and HPC. He holds a BSEE from MIT and a master’s in computer science from the University of New Mexico.
SW Worth is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft where he focuses on software-defined storage. He is also an elected member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Board of Directors. He has been an active participant in SNIA for over 10 years and was the worldwide lead for the SNIA Tutorials. Before joining Microsoft in late 2003, he was Technical Marketing Manager at Crossroads Systems.
| Tuesday, December 1st - Preconference Seminars | ||
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8:30-10:15am |
Chairperson: Rakesh Cheerla, Sr Director Product Marketing, CNEX Labs
Instructors:
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8:30-10:15am |
Chairperson: Brian Berg, President, Berg Software Design
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Brian Berg is President of Berg Software Design, a storage systems consultancy. He has extensive experience with a wide variety of storage devices and interfaces, with a particular emphasis on flash memory. He has worked as a project leader, software developer, industry analyst, technical marketer, technical writer, and expert witness, and has been an officer in local IEEE chapters for over 10 years. His consulting clients have included Intel, Fujitsu, Sony, SandForce, Hitachi and a number of startups. He has been a speaker, session chair, and conference chair at over 70 conferences. He holds a BS degree from Pacific Lutheran University, and has done graduate work in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
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8:30-10:15am |
Chairperson: SW Worth, Program Manager, Microsoft
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
SW Worth is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft where he focuses on software-defined storage. He is also an elected member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Board of Directors. He has been an active participant in SNIA for over 10 years and was the worldwide lead for the SNIA Tutorials. Before joining Microsoft in late 2003, he was Technical Marketing Manager at Crossroads Systems.
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9:45-10:15am |
Introducer: Chris DePuy, vP, Dell'Oro Group
Speaker: Jim Pinkerton, Partner Architect Lead, Microsoft
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10:30am-Noon |
Chairperson: Rao Mikkilineni, Chief Scientist, C3DNA
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Dr. Rao Mikkilineni is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at C3DNA, a Silicon Valley startup, where he helps enterprise IT departments and infrastructure providers transition to cloud computing. C3DNA provides next generation IT distributed data center technologies and products dealing with end-to-end application availability, performance, and security operations and management.
Rao has 30 years experience in the telecommunications and IT industries. He has held senior research and management positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Bellcore, US West, Network Programs, SS8 Networks, LightSand Communications, and Hitachi Data Systems. He also has worked at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Columbia University, and University of Paris. Rao obtained a PhD in Physics from the University of California, San Diego, working with Nobel Laureate physicist Walter Kohn. |
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10:30am-Noon |
Chairperson: Rob Davis, VP Storage Technology, Mellanox Technologies
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Rob Davis is Vice President of Storage Technology at Mellanox where he focuses on ways to apply high-speed interfaces to storage systems. As a technology leader and visionary for over 35 years, he has been a key figure in the development of an entire generation of storage networking products. He is currently leading the development and marketing of products based on NVMe over fabrics, which will allow for the high-speed networking of PCIe-based storage. Davis was previously Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at QLogic, where he drove development and marketing of Fibre Channel, Ethernet and InfiniBand technology into new markets such as blade servers. Before joining QLogic, Davis worked at Ancor Communications, where he drove development and marketing of Fibre Channel and InfiniBand products. Davis’ areas of expertise include virtualization, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SCSI, iSCSI, InfiniBand, RoCE (remote DMA over converged Ethernet), SAS, PCI, SATA, and flash storage.
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10:30am-Noon |
Chairperson: KRS Murthy, CEO, I Cubed
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
KRS Murthy is an experienced venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur. He is currently focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, big data strategy, and competitive strategy. He has led many companies at many different stages and has grown companies to sales of over $500 million. He is a popular speaker at conferences around the world and a leader in many technical societies, including IEEE Nanotechnology Council, IEEE Engineering Management Society, IEEE Computer Society, Silicon Valley Engineering Council, and IEEE Standards Board.
Murthy also has experience as a Country Manager for AT&T and AT&T Bell Labs and as a professor of computer engineering at California State University, Fullerton. He has received a Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Engineering Management Society and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the President of India. |
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1:00-1:30pm |
Speaker: Alex McDonald, Chair, SNIA Cloud Storage Initiative/CTO Office, NetApp
Interviewer: Chris DePuy, VP, Dell'Oro Group
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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.
About the Interviews:
Chris DePuy is a Vice-President at Dell’Oro Group, responsible for the Carrier IP Telephony, Enterprise Edge, Wireless LAN, Wireless Packet Core, and Storage market research programs. He has over 20 years of financial analysis, business analysis, and engineering experience. He has been a consultant with TS Cap and a research analyst covering software, communications, and Internet with Bowman Capital and Morgan Stanley. He was named the top ranking Equity Research Analyst in the data networking sector by Institutional Investor and Greenwich Research Survey. The co-author of a book, he holds a Masters in engineering from Cornell and a BS in engineering from Union College.
About SNIA:
Visit SNIA.org
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1:00-1:30pm |
Speaker: Neil Levine, Director Product Management, Red Hat
Interviewer: Brian Berg, President, Berg Software Design
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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. About Red Hat:
Visit RedHat.com
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1:00-1:30pm |
Speaker: Richard Probst, VP Infrastructure Technology Strategy, SAP
Interviewer: Rich Castagna, VP Editorial, TechTarget
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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.
About SAP:
Visit SAP.com
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1:30-2:45pm |
Chairperson: MP Dividar, CEO, Stack Design Automation
Instructors:
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1:30-2:45pm |
Chairperson: Jathin Ullal, Infrastructure Architect, Saygo
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Jathin Ullal is an Infrastructure Architect at Saygo. He is responsible for the design, deployment, and support of a hybrid cloud infrastructure covering over 80 cloud and IT offerings across legacy IT, private, public, and managed cloud. Before Saygo, he set up and led marketing and engineering teams at both venture-funded startups and large companies. He has held leadership positions at HP, Cisco, and Nortel, including being in charge of the design, deployment, and support of the networking, security, and management infrastructure for 15 SaaS applications hosted in 24 global data centers. Widely regarded as an expert in cloud computing and SaaS, he has presented at many conferences and led sessions and seminars. He holds an MSEE from the University of New Mexico.
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1:30-2:45pm |
Chairperson: Tadashi Yogi, Consultant, Yogi Associates
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Tadashi Yogi is an experienced technologist working in the data storage industry. He has over 25 years’ experience, primarily in the HDD industry in areas ranging from R&D to technology integration in HDD products. He has worked on head/media integration at Hitachi GST, Maxtor, and IBM Almaden Research Center. He holds a PhD in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology.
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3:00-4:00pm |
Chairperson: Ken Pepple, CTO, Solinea
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Ken Pepple is Co-Founder and CTO at Solinea, where he focuses on helping organizations develop OpenStack cloud infrastructure. He is also the co-developer of Goldstone, the first purpose-built monitoring, management, and analytics platform for operating OpenStack clouds. Ken was previously Director of Cloud Development at Internap Network Services. Under his leadership, Internap developed and introduced public cloud services, including the world’s first compute service based on OpenStack. Ken is a blogger, a frequent conference speaker, and the author of the highly popular O'Reilly book Developing OpenStack (now in its 2nd edition).
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3:00-4:00pm |
Chairperson: Allen Samuels, Engineering Fellow, SanDisk
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Allen Samuels is an Engineering Fellow and Architect at SanDisk, where he is responsible for directing software development for system-level products. He was previously Chief Architect at Weitek and Citrix, and founded several companies including AMKAR Consulting, Orbital Data, and Cirtas Systems. He has led teams that produced award winning products in high performance computation, graphics display systems, wide-area network optimization, and enterprise class flash storage subsystems. He holds over 40 patents in such areas as storage, networking, and system design and is a registered patent agent. A frequent conference presenter, he has appeared recently at the Vault Linux Conference, OpenStack Summit, Open Server Summit, and LinuxCon events in Asia, North America, and Europe. Allen has a BSEE from Rice University (Houston, TX).
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3:00-4:00pm |
Chairperson: Rich Fetik, CEO, Data Confidential
Instructors:
About the Chairperson:
Rich Fetik is CEO and founder of Data Confidential, a security consultancy focusing on data confidentiality, system reliability, and reduced operating costs. He is an expert at designing security into the real world, including embedded systems and devices as well as traditional IT systems. Rich has broad product experience from design and development through market introduction and evangelism. He is also the inventor of a device security model that includes the patented storage firewall and other technologies that change the game in information security. His model provides whitelist protection against spyware and other malware from writing themselves to a storage firewall protected drive and even from executing from off of the protected drive.
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4:00-5:00pm |
Chairperson: Alan Weckel, VP, Dell’Oro Group
Panelists:
About the Chairperson:
Alan Weckel is VP of Enterprise and Data Center Market Research at Dell’Oro Group, where he is in charge of Ethernet switch research and new areas such as SDN forecasting and WAN optimization. He has written many articles for the trade and technical press, and is frequently quoted in such leading publications as Bloomberg, Business Week, Forbes, Network World, and the Wall Street Journal. Before joining Dell’Oro Group, he had engineering and software development experience at Raytheon, General Electric Power Systems, and Cisco. He holds a BSEE and an MS in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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4:00-5:00pm |
Chairperson: Nithya Ruff, Director Open Source Strategy Group, SanDisk
Panelists:
About the Chairperson:
Nithya Ruff is Director of the Open Source Strategy Office at SanDisk, where she leads the company’s efforts in working with open source communities and foundations, and within SanDisk to drive innovation, interoperability, and open source contributions. She was previously Director Product Management and Marketing for Virtualizer Solutions at Synopsys, where she led product management and marketing to create virtual development kits for software developers. She has also been a Senior Director Product Marketing at Wind River, where she led efforts to market open source software. She has previous marketing and management experience with Avaya, Silicon Graphics, and Eastman Kodak. She earned an MBA from the University of Rochester and an MS in Computer Science from North Dakota State University.
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4:00-5:00pm |
Seminar SDS: Software-Defined Storage (sponsord by Microsoft)
Session SDS-5: Future of Software-Defined Storage Chairperson: Ashish Nadkarni, Research Director, IDC
Panelists:
About the Chairperson:
Ashish Nadkarni is a Research Director in IDC's Storage Systems and Software research practice. He provides detailed insight and analysis on industry trends, vendor performance, and the impact of new technology adoption. Mr. Nadkarni is responsible for producing and delivering timely, in-depth market research with a specific focus on file and object-based storage, storage for and in the cloud, and storage for Big Data and Analytics. He also co-leads IDC's Big Data Global Overview program, in addition to managing the infrastructure component of that program.
Since entering the IT industry in 1997, Mr. Nadkarni has held high-level engineering, consulting, and product management positions at Bose, CSC, GlassHouse Technologies, and AutoVirt. Ashish received his MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College and his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Physics from the University of Pune. |
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5:15-6:15pm |
Chairperson: Ibrahim Rahmani, Director Product/Solutions Marketing, DataCore Software
Table Leaders:
Description:
The software-defined data center (SDDC) is a concept in which all data center infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service. Control is fully automated through software, allowing hardware configuration to be maintained through automated policies. SDDC advances virtualization and cloud computing by supporting both legacy enterprise applications and new cloud computing services. It thus provides a solid base for using public, private, and hybrid clouds. By abstracting applications from hardware, SDDC allows apps to run anywhere and even move from place to place. It also allows for greater automation within a data center and faster, simple orchestration across centers.
SDDC has four core infrastructure components: compute, storage, network and management. Deployment, provisioning, configuration, instrumentation, management and operation are all handled through a software layer rather than through direct access to the hardware. The idea is to increase flexibility, improve responsiveness, simplify upgrades, and avoid dependence on proprietary hardware and software. Performance and capacity are added by scaling out rather than scaling up. The challenges with SDDC include increased data center complexity, added overhead, the issue of how to handle legacy applications, a lack of suitable management tools, and the difficulty of combining a wide range of components under a single umbrella. Intended Audience:
Data center, computer center, and network managers and engineers, technology managers, CTOs, product planners and designers, marketing and product engineers, sales engineers, product managers, server and storage designers and marketers, marketing consultants, marketing and sales managers, and systems engineers, analysts, and integrators.
About the Chairperson:
Ben Woo is the Founder and Managing Director of Neuralytix, a global analyst firm focused on the data and information industry. Mr. Woo is a frequent speaker at industry and customer events worldwide and is often quoted by leading business and technology press outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Information Week. He is an advisor to leading IT vendors and the financial community. Before founding Neuralytix, Mr. Woo was Program Vice President of IDC’s Worldwide Storage Systems Research. At IDC, he also initiated the global research program on big data. He previously held management positions at ASI System Integration, Network Appliance, and MTI Technology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of New South Wales (Australia).
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6:30-7:30pm |
Organizer/Chairperson: Frank Berry, President/Chief Analyst, IT Brand Pulse
Panelists:
Description:
2025 stands out as the critical year in the entire history of Software-Defined Infrastructure (SDI). The technology has become a disruptive singularity that has evolved into a synergistic ecosystem essential to the modern data center. SDI is everywhere – in supercomputers, in clouds (and fog, sleet, rain, slush, and snow), in the Internet of Everything (and More), in megadatacenters (that now have everyone connected to everybody 24 hours per day so no one actually does any work or gets any sleep), and in scale-out/scale-in/scale-up/scale-down distributed systems that occupy the entire universe. How did we arrive at this incredible point in which freeway traffic everywhere is so phenomenal that nothing and no one has moved in years? The panel will discuss the subject thoroughly before retiring to a banquet of stale Twinkies and Jolt Cola plus a nice injection of Soylent Green.
Intended Audience:
Data center, computer, and network managers and engineers, technology managers, CTOs, product planners and designers, marketing and product engineers, sales engineers, product managers, server and storage designers and marketers, marketing consultants, marketing and sales managers, and systems engineers, analysts, and integrators.
About the Organizer/Chairperson:
Frank Berry is founder, CEO, and senior analyst at IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source of testing, research, and analysis covering data center infrastructure. A 30-year veteran of the IT industry, Frank has held senior engineering, sales, and marketing positions including VP Worldwide Marketing for Quantum and VP Product Marketing at QLogic. Frank led marketing teams that increased QLogic’s SAN business from $100M to $750M, Quantum’s automation business from $30M to $450M, and Andataco’s UNIX business from $30M to $100M. He also played a major role in the introduction of cutting-edge technology products such as the first web storage management app, a new class of mid-range DLT robotics, and extensive lines of Fibre Channel and converged networking technology. Frank is a popular keynote speaker and has authored hundreds of analyst reports, blogs, and feature articles published in such media as Seeking Alpha (a top-100 financial website), Virtual Strategy Magazine, and Network Computing.
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8:30-9:45am |
Chairperson: Roy Chua, Partner, SDxCentral
Panelists:
Description:
The SDI market has recently seen explosive growth and rising demand, attracting many startups and creating exciting acquisitions and IPOs. Products include software-defined storage, software-defined data center, software-defined networking, visibility, test, management, orchestration, automation, services, and integration. Initial estimates are for a market of over $50 billion with a compound annual growth rate of over 30%.
Attend this key session on the state of the SDI Industry. It will cover market forecasts, shares, technology progress, competition, go-to-market pricing structures, and possible mergers and acquisitions. Ask questions of analysts to crystallize your understanding of markets and potentially competitive products. Areas of interest include:
Intended Audience:
Product managers, marketing managers and executives, product marketing engineers, marketing specialists, sales engineers, managers, and executives, product planners, data center and network managers
About the Chairperson:
Roy Chua is co-Founder and Partner at SDxCentral, and a Partner at Wiretap Ventures, a management consulting firm providing trusted advice on strategy, product, and go-to-market plans to Fortune 500 and high-revenue-growth startups. Roy has over 20 years of experience in enterprise SaaS, cloud computing, networking, and security, and has co-founded companies in the networking, security, and identity management space. In addition, Roy held executive roles at early SDN companies such as XORP, and at enterprise SaaS companies.
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10:00-10:30am |
Speaker: Jim Pinkerton, Partner Architect Lead, Microsoft
Introducer: Jean S. Bozman, Director Infrastructure Research, Neuralytix
Abstract:
Coming soon.
About the Speaker:
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. About Microsoft:
Visit Microsoft.com
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10:30-10:40am |
Speaker: Rich Castagna, VP Editorial, TechTarget
Introducer: Jean S. Bozman, Director Infrastructure Research, Neuralytix
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10:40-11:10am |
Speaker: Nick Werstiuk
Product Line Executive - Software Defined Infrastructure
IBM
Introducer: Jean S. Bozman, Director Infrastructure Research, Neuralytix
Abstract:
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 (facilities available only to a particular application)? 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 the Speaker:
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 offering 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 and played a key role in developing the strategy and managing the execution of the acquisition of Platform by IBM. 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 including key leasdership roles at multiple startups and early stage technology companies . A frequent conference speaker, he has presented at such events as Supercomputing, Open Grid Forum, and Design Automation Conference. He holds a BSEE with Honors from the University of Toronto.
About IBM:
Visit IBM.com
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11:10am-12:10pm |
Chairperson: Jathin Ullal, Infrastructure Architect, Saygo
Instructors:
Description:
SDI is now being implemented by a wide variety of customers in many industries. Early adherents included clouds, megawebsites, telcos, and other advanced facilities. More recently, attention has expanded to a larger range of enterprises. In this session, a variety of customers will discuss why they chose to implement SDI, how the implementations went, what problems they encountered, how they expect to proceed, and what products and advances they would like to see from vendors. They’ll cover issues such as funding, transitions, personnel buy-in, legacy applications, performance, management, and hints and warnings.
Intended Audience:
Data center, computer, and network managers and engineers; IT executives; product managers, marketing managers and executives, product marketing engineers, marketing specialists, sales engineers, managers, and executives.
About the Chairperson:
Jathin Ullal is an Infrastructure Architect at Saygo. He is responsible for the design, deployment, and support of a hybrid cloud infrastructure covering over 80 cloud and IT offerings across legacy IT, private, public, and managed cloud. Before Saygo, he set up and led marketing and engineering teams at both venture-funded startups and large companies. He has held leadership positions at HP, Cisco, and Nortel, including being in charge of the design, deployment, and support of the networking, security, and management infrastructure for 15 SaaS applications hosted in 24 global data centers. Widely regarded as an expert in cloud computing and SaaS, he has presented at many conferences and led sessions and seminars. He holds an MSEE from the University of New Mexico.
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1:30-2:00pm |
Speaker: Charles Fan, SVP/GM Storage Business Unit, VMware
Introducer: Roy Chua, Partner, SDxCentral
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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).
About VMware:
Visit VMware.com
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2:00-2:10pm |
OPEN - Special Presentation 2: IT Brand Innovation Leader Awards
Recognizing Brand Leaders as Voted on by IT Professionals (Exhibit Hall) Presenter: Frank Berry, President/Chief Analyst, IT Brand Pulse
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2:10-2:40am |
Speaker: Gordon Haff, Senior Cloud Strategy Marketing and Evangelism Manager, Red Hat
Introducer: Frank Berry, President/Chief Analyst, IT Brand Pulse
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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. About Red Hat:
Visit RedHat.com
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2:40-3:10pm |
Speaker: Ed Goldman, CTO Enterprise Datacenter Group, Intel
Introducer: George Crump, Lead Analyst, Storage Switzerland
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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. About Intel:
Visit Intel.com
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3:25-4:30pm |
Chairperson: Sameh Boujelbene, Director, Dell’Oro Group
Instructors:
Description:
Hyperconvergence refers to a software-centric architecture that tightly integrates compute, storage, networking, and virtualization resources and other technologies from scratch in a commodity hardware box supported by a single vendor. Its advantages include lower cost, simpler maintenance and management, easier scaling, lower power consumption, rapid deployment, and highly competitive sourcing. The software, often open-source products readily available at minimal cost, is kept separate from the hardware to avoid vendor lock-in and high licensing and maintenance fees. Expansion is handled by adding boxes rather than by upgrading them (that is, scale-out rather than scale-up).
Intended Audience:
Hardware and software design engineers; network and data center engineers and managers; marketing engineers and managers; engineering managers; systems engineers and managers; consultants.
About the Chairperson:
Sameh Boujelbene is responsible for Dell’Oro Group’s Server and Controller and Adapter market research programs. While at the firm, she has significantly expanded Controller and Adapter research and also built the Server program. She has also published articles on the Ethernet market and has given presentations at industry events such as the Ethernet Technology Summit and the Open Server Summit.
She was previously a Solution Sales Manager with Nokia Siemens Networks, where she focused on broadband access and IP connectivity solutions for mobile and fixed operators. She holds an MBA from San Jose State University and a Master's Degree in Telecommunication from the Higher Engineering School of Communication in Tunisia. |
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3:25-4:30pm |
Chairperson: Ashish Nadkarni, Research Director, IDC
Instructors:
Description:
Today’s enterprise data centers must be flexible, agile, and scalable to cope with increased demands. They must meet challenges such as big data, real-time analysis, the storage explosion, mobile access everywhere, and the Internet-of-things. They also must operate in an uncertain and risky environment in which change is unpredictable and omnipresent and responses must be easy to plan and rapidly implemented. And they must do all this within severe budget and personnel constraints. “Software-defined” is a key aspect of data centers today, along with white-box hardware, open-source software, and hyperconvergence.
Intended Audience:
Network and data center engineers and managers; IT managers; marketing engineers and managers;facilities engineers and managers; consultants; infrastructure managers and analysts.
About the Chairperson:
Ashish Nadkarni is a Research Director in IDC's Storage Systems and Software research practice. He provides detailed insight and analysis on industry trends, vendor performance, and the impact of new technology adoption. Mr. Nadkarni is responsible for producing and delivering timely, in-depth market research with a specific focus on software-defined storage, file and object-based storage, storage for and in the cloud, and storage for Big Data and Analytics. He also co-leads IDC's Big Data Global Overview program, in addition to managing its infrastructure component.
Since entering the IT industry in 1997, Mr. Nadkarni has held high-level engineering, consulting, and product management positions at Bose, CSC, GlassHouse Technologies, and AutoVirt. Ashish received his MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College and his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Physics from the University of Pune. |
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3:25-4:30pm |
Chairperson: George Crump, Lead Analyst, Storage Switzerland
Instructors:
Description:
Most computing facilities today run in a virtualized environment under Linux. To launch a new virtual machine (VM) and run an application, one must send it not only the actual code and dependencies involved but also a Linux kernel (that is, the operating system). However, in practice, the application does not require the entire operating system, but only a subset containing the utilities the application needs to run. Such a standard subset is called a container. The obvious advantage here is that the subset is much smaller than the entire kernel (hence said to be lightweight) and takes less time to move and bring up. If the application should for some reason need other OS features, they are available via a shared facility.
Docker is an open-source platform that allows developers to build, ship, and run applications anywhere. That is, it allows them to create the application-container combination, ship it somewhere, and run it. Yes, it is like the harbor at any seaport where there are containers to be moved and cranes to move them. So there is no place on this waterfront any more for Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, or Lee J. Cobb (he was the evil boss Johnny Friendly, in case you don’t remember the fabulous movie of 1954!). Intended Audience:
Software engineers and managers; network and data center engineers and managers; IT managers; systems engineers and analysts; consultants
About the Chairperson:
George Crump is a leading storage analyst focused on the emerging subjects of big data, solid state storage, virtualization, and cloud computing. He is widely recognized for his blogs, whitepapers, and videos on such current issues as all-flash arrays, deduplication, SSDs, software-defined storage, backup appliances, and storage networking. His popular whiteboard sessions, in which he leads key vendors through their solutions to data center problems, have also gotten tremendous attention. As President and Founder of Storage Switzerland, an analyst firm focused on the storage, virtualization, and cloud markets, he provides marketing, product definition, technical writing, presentation training, and product planning services to storage vendors, integrators, and end users. He has spoken or moderated at many conferences including Flash Memory Summit, StorageVisions, Pure Evolve, and Storage Networking World. He has 25 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at SANZ, a large storage integrator where he led technology testing, integration, and product selection. The “Switzerland” in his firm’s name indicates his pledge to provide neutral analysis of the storage marketplace, rather than focusing on a single vendor or approach.
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3:25-4:30pm |
OPEN - Session D-101: Software-Defined Storage (Software Defined Storage Track)
(sponsored by Microsoft) Chairperson: S.W. Worth, Program Manager, Microsoft
Instructors::
Description:
Software-defined storage provides major advantages for data centers wanting to implement the latest types of storage and storage management. In particular, it provides a level of abstraction that can handle storage in other data centers (such as clouds) and storage organized to handle non-relational data such as objects.
Intended Audience:
Storage engineers and specialists, hardware engineers and designers, engineering managers, data center managers and engineers; system architects; systems analysts and engineers; network engineers; and consultants.
About the Chairperson:
S.W. Worth is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft where he focuses on software-defined storage. He is also an elected member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Board of Directors. He has been an active participant in SNIA for over 10 years and was the worldwide lead for the SNIA Tutorials. Before joining Microsoft in late 2003, he was Technical Marketing Manager at Crossroads Systems.
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4:30-5:30pm |
Chairperson: Jean S. Bozman, Director/Infrastructrure Research, Neuralytix
Panelists:
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7:00-8:30
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Organizers: Brian Zahnstecher, Principal,. PowerRox; KRS Murthy, CEO, I Cubed
Table Leaders:
Description:
This session will give attendees a chance to discuss a wide variety of subjects in an informal atmosphere and ask questions of experts in specific areas. Table subjects will include open-source software, software-defined storage, software-defined data center, OpenStack, containers and Docker, and Ceph. Attendees are welcome to move from table to table during the session, increasing their exposure to different subjects. Beer, wine, soft drinks, and pizza will be served to promote informality and encourage networking. Emphasis will be on frequently asked questions, best practices, hints and warnings, major issues, and key products and standards.
Intended Audience:
Marketing and sales managers and executives, marketing engineers, product managers, product marketing specialists, hardware and software designers, software engineers, technology managers, systems analysts and integrators, engineering managers, consultants, design specialists, design service providers, marcom specialists, product marketing engineers, financial managers and executives, system engineers, test engineers, venture capitalists, financial analysts, media representatives, sales representatives, distributors, and solution providers.
About the Organizers:
Brian Zahnstecher is a Principal at PowerRox, where he focuses on power design, integration, system applications, and OEM market penetration for the power electronics. He has successfully handled assignments in system design/architecting, AC/DC front-end power, embedded solutions, processor power, and digital power solutions for a variety of clients. He offers complete, end-to-end power services covering design support, troubleshooting/debug, quality, reliability, manufacturing, technical sales/marketing support, market definition, and logistics. He previously held positions in power electronics with industry leaders Emerson Network Power, Cisco, and Agilent, where he advised on best practices, oversaw product development, managed an international team, and designed and optimized voltage regulators. He has over 10 years of industry experience. He holds Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Science degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
KRS Murthy is an experienced venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur. He is currently focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, big data strategy, and competitive strategy. He has led many companies at many different stages and has grown companies to sales of over $500 million. He is a popular speaker at conferences around the world and a leader in many technical societies, including IEEE Nanotechnology Council, IEEE Engineering Management Society, IEEE Computer Society, Silicon Valley Engineering Council, and IEEE Standards Board.
Murthy also has experience as a Country Manager for AT&T and AT&T Bell Labs and as a professor of computer engineering at California State University, Fullerton. He has received a Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Engineering Management Society and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the President of India. |
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8:30-9:45am |
Chairperson: Jim Handy, Director/Chief Analyst, Objective Analysis
Instructors:
Description:
One problem with any software-defined approach is that the added layer of abstraction reduces performance, often substantially. The common solution is to introduce more or faster hardware to bring performance back to the required level. The additions may be higher-speed connections such as Infiniband, FPGAs positioned in critical places, solid state memory (replacing hard drives), or even new sensors.
Intended Audience:
Hardware design engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers; product planners; systems analyst.
About the Chairperson:
Jim Handy is the Director of Objective Analysis, a strategic marketing and market research firm for the semiconductor industry. He has over 30 years of electronic industry experience, including 20 years as an industry analyst. He is a leading blogger (as “The Memory Guy” and “The SSD Guy”), a frequent presenter at trade shows, and the author of hundreds of articles and reports. He is often quoted in the electronics trade press. Jim is the author of “The Cache Memory Book” and a patent holder in cache memory design. He holds a BSEE from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
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8:30-9:45am |
Chairperson: KRS Murthy, CEO, I Cubed
Instructors:
Description:
Today’s data centers generally consist of distributed systems characterized by hyper-convergence. Applications run anywhere that is available and use whatever resources they need to maximize performance. However, such approaches require special software that can run in a distributed environment. It must be hardware-independent and scalable, and able to run with whatever resources are available and which it can utilize efficiently. Such software may include file systems, databases, storage systems, and a wide variety of other programs.
Intended Audience:
Software engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers; application developers; systems analysts.
About the Chairperson:
KRS Murthy is an experienced venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur. He is currently focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, big data strategy, and competitive strategy. He has led many companies at many different stages and has grown companies to sales of over $500 million. He is a popular speaker at conferences around the world and a leader in many technical societies, including IEEE Nanotechnology Council, IEEE Engineering Management Society, IEEE Computer Society, Silicon Valley Engineering Council, and IEEE Standards Board.
Murthy also has experience as a Country Manager for AT&T and AT&T Bell Labs and as a professor of computer engineering at California State University, Pomona and Fullerton. He has received a Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Engineering Management Society and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the President of India. |
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8:30-9:45am |
Chairperson: Peter ffoulkes, Partner, OrionX.net
Instructors:
Description:
Software is king in SDI. New lightweight operating systems serve the needs of distributed applications. Software platforms can offer scalability to applications everywhere. And analytics programs can then drive SDI itself, providing information required to make the configuration fit the application.
Intended Audience:
Software engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers; systems analysts.
About the Chairperson:
Peter ffoulkes is a Partner at OrionX, a provider of consulting services for strategy, marketing, and PR. He focuses on market research and advisory services for leading global companies in cloud computing, enterprise workloads including big data and business analytics, and the convergence of infrastructure for cloud-ready data centers. He was previously Research Director for Cloud Computing and Enterprise Platforms at 451 Research. He has also held marketing positions in high-performance computing, including being a Director at Sun Microsystems, and he was Director and Principal Analyst for the Worldwide Workstation Computing program at Gartner Dataquest. He earned a BS in mathematics and computer science from the University of Bath.
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10:00-11:00am |
Chairperson: Casey Quillin, Director, Dell’Oro Group
Instructors:
Description:
SDI still requires all the usual features of hardware infrastructure. One has to be able to test it and maintain it, secure it, provide ever more integrated ancillary chips, and combine networking with the rest of the infrastructure.
Intended Audience:
Hardware design engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers.
About the Chairperson:
Casey Quillin is Director for Network Security, Data Center Appliance, and Storage Area Network Market Research at Dell’Oro Group. He has over 18 years experience as an executive manager and entrepreneur in the technology sector. Before joining Dell’Oro Group in 2011, he was VP Engineering at Snapfish, the world’s largest online photo-sharing site; CTO of Oasys Networks, an application service providers; and Co-Founder and CEO of Logic by Design, an interactive media agency. He holds an MS in Finance from Georgia State University and an MBA from St. Mary’s College.
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10:00-11:00am |
Chairperson: Jean S. Bozman, Director Infrastructure Research, Neuralytix
Instructors:
Description:
Databases remain among the most important applications for any data center. The infrastructure must provide fast execution for them, since performance is typically a major issue. New types of databases allow for handling as a service, with the actual execution usually occurring in a cloud.
Intended Audience:
Software engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers; database specialists.
About the Chairperson:
Jean S. Bozman is currently Director Infrastructure Research at Neuralytix, where she covers all aspects of datacenter infrastructure. She focuses on workloads handled by a combination of on-premises and off-premises resources, typically involving linking an enterprise datacenter with one or more clouds. She also serves as Program Chairperson for the Software-Defined Infrastructure Summit. Before joining Neuralytix, she was Senior Product Marketing Manager at SanDisk, where she drove the discussion of enterprise workloads that leverage SSDs.
A well-respected IT professional with over 20 years experience covering the worldwide markets for operating environments, servers and the workloads that run on servers, she was previously a Research VP at IDC. While at IDC, she focused on the worldwide market for server operating systems. She analyzed the worldwide server market and managed the Clustering and Availability Software (CLAS) market research. Ms. Bozman has been widely quoted in business publications, including BusinessWeek and Investors Business Daily; in daily newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Times; and in online publications, such as CNET (news.com), Bloomberg, and Reuters. Ms. Bozman holds a B.S. from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and a master's degree from Stanford University. |
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10:00-11:00am |
Chairperson: Peter Christy, Research Director Networking, 451 Research
Instructors:
Description:
Networking remains a key aspect of software-defined infrastructure (SDI). SDN must manage every aspect of the data center and must be responsive to the needs of applications. Performance is important in light of the extra abstraction layer, and additional hardware may be needed to keep it at a high level.
Intended Audience:
Hardware engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers; network engineers and managers; networking specialists.
About the Chairperson:
Peter Christy is currently Research Director Networking at 451 Research Group. He has recently been studying OpenFlow from the perspective of existing systems and networking companies and new ventures. Previously, he co-founded the Internet Research Group (IRG), a boutique consultancy that provides strategy and marketing services to technical ventures and enterprises. IRG has worked with companies whose products depend on both network and system capabilities in disruptive or emerging markets. Before founding IRG, Peter worked in technology and strategy roles at major computer companies including DEC, IBM/Rolm, HP, Apple, and Sun. He was a founder and VP Software at MasPar Computer. He has an AB from Harvard and did graduate work in EECS at UC Berkeley.
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11:00-11:30am |
Speaker: Errol Roberts, Distinguished Systems Engineer, Cisco Systems
Introducer: Peter Christy, Research Director Networking, 451 Research
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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).
About Cisco:
Visit Cisco.com
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11:30am-Noon |
Speaker: Sam Greenblatt, Technologist in Residence, Nano Global
Introducer: Casey Quillin, Director, Dell’Oro Group
Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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.
About Nano Global:
Visit NanoGlobal.com
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Noon-12:30pm |
Speaker: Tarkan Maner, Chairman/CEO, Nexenta
Introducer: Peter ffoulkes, Partner,
OrionX.net Abstract:
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 the Speaker:
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.
About Nano Global:
Visit Nexenta.com
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2:00-3:15pm |
Chairperson: Nathan Brookwood, Research Fellow, Insight 64
Instructors:
Description:
Even with SDI, hardware issues remain. The physical infrastructure must still be monitored and its power usage minimized. Extra hardware may be necessary to create a viable cloud-based solution, but the use of white-box components can keep the cost down.
Intended Audience:
Hardware design engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers
About the Chairperson:
Nathan Brookwood is Research Fellow at Insight 64, a semiconductor consulting firm. He has focused recently on microprocessors used in computational applications. His views on the microprocessor market often find their way into articles in mainstream media, business media, and the trade press. He has worked for and with suppliers of mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers, and semiconductors, and he has analyzed and commented on the industry for D.H. Brown Associates and Dataquest. During his 40 year career in the industry, Mr. Brookwood has experience with Micronics Computers, Intergraph, Convergent Technologies, Prime Computer, and Digital Equipment. He is a graduate of MIT and has taken classes at Harvard Business School.
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2:00-3:15pm |
Chairperson: Pete Jarvis, VP Business Development, TidalScale
Instructors:
Description:
Both automation and orchestration are essential for software-defined infrastructures. Resource management must be automated within a single system and orchestrated over many systems. Software packages are essential for both tasks, and new standards have been described for both purposes.
Intended Audience:
Software engineers and managers; systems engineers and managers; engineering managers; database specialists.
About the Chairperson:
Pete Jarvis is VP Business Development at TidalScale, which is developing a platform for scalable big data applications. He has over 20 years experience managing complex business and technology organizations with an emphasis on starting and scaling companies, bringing new products to market, and developing customer focused solutions. He is a member of the IAM Strategy 300, the world’s 300 most influential intellectual property strategists. He previously worked for the Center for Technology Advancement, Intellectual Ventures, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, and 3Com. His achievements include receiving the Nortel Networks President’s Award for developing the CentrexIP gateway and soft client product solution, helping launch Microsoft Lync, and helping develop the 3Com Transcend Enterprise Manager. He holds a BSc Honors in Computer Science from The University of Wolverhampton (UK).
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2:00-3:15pm |
Organizer/Chairperson: Michael Kanellos, Editor-in-Chief, SanDisk
Panelists:
Description:
The SDI area is bursting out all over with many startups and high-priced acquisitions. What are the short-term and long-term investment prospects? What are VCs looking for in funding SDI companies and what do they think will be the key factors in achieving success? Is there enough room for all the current SDI companies? Do the current and projected revenues justify the valuations? Which companies are most likely to succeed? When (if ever) will Ceph, OpenStack and OpenStack Swift, Cassandra, and other widely touted open-source software products be ready for prime time?
About the Organizer/Chairperson:
Michael Kanellos is the Editor in Chief at SanDisk where his job is to show how flash memory is changing the world. He has worked as a reporter, analyst, and marketing executive in Silicon Valley for over 20 years covering semiconductors, renewable energy, batteries, PCs, and start-up companies. His work has appeared in the New York Times, CNET, Forbes, Newsweek, Newsday, the Chicago Tribune, and National Geographic, among other outlets. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, National Public Radio, The Early Show on CBS, CNBC, Al Jazeera, Fox News, and other media outlets and regularly speaks at conferences such as CEATEC, Intersolar, and the Flash Memory Summit. He holds a JD from the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law and a BA in history from Cornell.
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3:30-5:00pm |
OPEN - Session A-204: Top Ten Things Everyone Needs to Know about Software-Defined Infrastructure (SDI) Today (Hardware Track)
Chairperson: Jean S. Bozman, Director Infrastructure Research, Neuralytix
Panelist:
Description:
SDI is becoming increasingly important for a wide variety of data centers, particularly clouds, megawebsites, and telecom facilities. After all, SDI is inherently more flexible, more agile, more scalable, and more economical than traditional infrastructures based on proprietary hardware and software. Everything is coming together for SDI to become a dominant infrastructure technology. We have:
The speakers in this session will give you new ideas on how to use the latest SDI products effectively and to develop design wins and markets for new products and solutions. The session will work as follows:
Intended Audience:
Anyone who needs to keep up with the latest trends in SDI. This could include product planners, marketers, sales and communications specialists, and managers, as well as those working in data centers or computer facilities or at solution providers, distributors, VARs, research agencies, laboratories, or investment/financial firms. It will be especially well-suited to those seeking a broad overview rather than technical details.
About the Chairperson:
Jean S. Bozman is currently Director Infrastructure Research at Neuralytix, where she covers all aspects of datacenter infrastructure. She focuses on workloads handled by a combination of on-premises and off-premises resources, typically involving linking an enterprise datacenter with one or more clouds. She also serves as Program Chairperson for the Software-Defined Infrastructure Summit. Before joining Neuralytix, she was Senior Product Marketing Manager at SanDisk, where she drove the discussion of enterprise workloads that leverage SSDs.
A well-respected IT professional with over 20 years experience covering the worldwide markets for operating environments, servers and the workloads that run on servers, she was previously a Research VP at IDC. While at IDC, she focused on the worldwide market for server operating systems. She analyzed the worldwide server market and managed the Clustering and Availability Software (CLAS) market research. Ms. Bozman has been widely quoted in business publications, including BusinessWeek and Investors Business Daily; in daily newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Times; and in online publications, such as CNET (news.com), Bloomberg, and Reuters. Ms. Bozman holds a B.S. from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and a master's degree from Stanford University. |
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