Manqing Liu Senior Director of Interoperability and Performance Science at Intransa

Intransa, Inc. announced a key executive appointment in response to expanding OEM and alliance partner demand for integration with the company’s solutions. Manqing Liu, a leading IP storage technologist and currently Intransa’s director of technical marketing, has been promoted to senior director of interoperability and performance science effective immediately.

In Liu’s new role, he assumes responsibility for Intransa’s advanced integration efforts with StorAlliance members, with the ultimate goal of producing integrated, viable real-world solutions that obtain maximum performance and reliability by leveraging Intransa’s scalable, external IP storage while reducing overall cost and complexity for customers. The new role extends Liu’s existing responsibility for technical outreach, OEM partner technical integration and modeling, and the highly-successful StorAlliance Technology Partner Program and its supporting StorAlliance Labs.

On September 15, the company announced the Intransa Sharable Security Platform (ISSP) at ASIS International in Atlanta, which enables physical security vendors to deploy applications on the ISSP, including software for open NVRs, video management, physical security information managers, life safety, access control, video analytics, network intercom, biometrics, compression and workflow systems, while interfacing with hardware devices ranging from card readers to IP network cameras. Liu’s interoperability and performance science efforts will be largely focused on the ISSP.

"Intransa has been experiencing rapid membership growth in the StorAlliance program at the same time as we’re engaging in several strategic OEM relationships," explained Intransa CEO Bud Broomhead. "Manqing brings extensive and well-proven technical leadership to this role, combined with nearly seven years of shaping the company’s product and technical direction. I am extremely pleased that he has agreed to take on this critical new assignment as we further up-level our engagement with ours StorAlliance partners and our new ISSP effort."

A hands-on engineer, Liu joined Intransa after it spun off from 3Com in 2001, taking on the role of senior software engineer for the System Architecture Group. He rose steadily through the Intransa ranks holding progressively more challenging assignments as solution architect, Asia-Pacific technical marketing manager and manager of professional services to his most recent role as director of technical marketing.

Intransa’s StorAlliance Technology Partner Program was launched in August 2007 to ensure that information technology software companies were able to interoperate with multiple other vendor solutions while taking full advantage of the power of 1Gb and 10Gb Ethernet-based shared, external IP storage. In May 2008, the company announced the expansion of the StorAlliance program to ensure the proper utilization of IP with video storage for physical security. It is the first such program of IP storage certification and interoperability of its kind in the industry. The Intransa 10GbE IP Storage Certification Program and the Security-Grade IP Storage Certified programs cover more than 100 physical security, medical imaging and information technology products and solutions today.

Under Liu, the StorAlliance program has recently expanded and allows members to alternatively use the GSO2010 and GSI2010 technology labs for the certification process. The StorAlliance program includes extensive interoperability with IP-oriented products as well as an audited self-testing program using vendor laboratories, both of which Liu will continue to supervise.

Output from the StorAlliance lab includes certification reports, technical whitepapers, best practices guides, setup guides, and development recommendations. Whitepapers jointly developed with JDS Digital Surveillance Systems, On-Net Surveillance Systems, Inc. (OnSSI), and Milestone Systems are among recent StorAlliance member reports issued. The lab also produces numerous technical whitepapers and application notes on a variety of real-world uses for IP storage, of significant value to end users, manufacturers and integrators, ranging from best practices for video management systems to NAS-SAN storage integration and how to best deploy physical security applications over IP. Finally, the lab produces working, next generation technology prototypes with multiple vendor solutions leveraging Intransa’s industry-leading IP storage.

"Manqing has been a critical leader in the success of the StorAlliance program, and in prototyping numerous technical solutions in support of our OEM partners," said Broomhead. "This promotion not only reflects our continued confidence in his abilities, but a stepping up of our entire effort in this area. As more and more partners join with Intransa to leverage the power and promise of IP storage, the StorAlliance will continue to grow in importance to the industry."

In his new assignment, Liu will continue to report directly to Jeff Whitney, Intransa’s vice president of Marketing. He will also work closely with Broomhead, CTO Alan Rowe, vice president of Engineering, Wing-Yee Au and other Intransa executives as a key member of the company’s technical leadership and direction setting team.

Prior to Intransa, Liu’s career spanned technical positions with Cisco Systems, Veritas, and MCI, and research roles at the Argonne National Lab, Chicago, Illinois and in the physics department at the University of Rochester in New York State.

A graduate of Beijing University, Beijing, China with a B.Sc, Physics, he earned earn his M.Sc and Ph.D from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Liu and his family reside in Santa Clara, California.