New EMC Technology Advisory Board

As part of their strategy to help customers accelerate their journey to the private cloud and adopt highly efficient and flexible new models of computing, EMC Corporation announced the formation of a new Technical Advisory Board. Consisting of a broad range of recognized leaders from academia and industry and chaired by EMC management, this panel will provide independent review of and perspectives on EMC’s future technologies and strategy – including private clouds – and report its findings and recommendations directly to EMC’s senior leadership team.

"Private clouds hold the promise of delivering unprecedented gains in operational efficiency, quality of service and business agility," said Pat Gelsinger, President and COO, Information Infrastructure Products, EMC. "To execute on EMC’s vision of being the leader in the journey to the private cloud, we need to harness the best thinking and thinkers in the industry. The formation of the Technical Advisory Board is a major milestone in this strategy, giving EMC an independent resource to ensure we fully address the dramatic challenges customers face as they move to the private cloud."

Specifically, members will provide EMC’s leadership team with an external perspective on long-term technology strategy, advice on industry trends, and opinions on advanced development opportunities and initiatives. The board is comprised of recognized industry experts from business and academia, including key leaders from some of EMC’s strategic partners. Members were selected for their expertise and thought leadership in such key areas as:  server, networking, storage, virtualization, cloud computing, data structures, security, application middleware, and technical computing.  

The charter members include:

• Randolph Cowen – Board member, EMC; Former Chief Information Officer, Goldman Sachs
• Ian Foster – Professor and Director, Computation Institute, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory
• Pat Gelsinger – President and Chief Operating Officer, Information Infrastructure Products, EMC; Technical Advisory Board Chairman
• Joseph M. Hellerstein – Professor of Computer Science, UC Berkeley
• Steve Herrod – Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of R&D, VMware
• Rod Johnson – General Manager, SpringSource; Senior Vice President of Middleware, VMware
• Kai Li – Paul M. Wythes ’55, P’86 and Marcia R. Wythes P’86 Professor, Princeton University; Founder and Chief Scientist, EMC Data Domain
• Jeffrey M. Nick – Chief Technology Officer, Senior Vice President, EMC  
• Steve Pawlowski – Senior Fellow, Intel Architecture Group; General Manager, Central Architecture and Planning, Intel Corporation
• Ronald L. Rivest –  Viterbi Professor of Computer Science, MIT EECS Department

"The bottom line is that the private cloud is real and companies are looking for more effective ways to transform their IT infrastructures, leveraging the full benefits it brings," said Jeffrey M. Nick, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, EMC. "EMC is putting together an unprecedented panel of industry luminaries from academia and the business world to tackle customer challenges across a broad range of issues. In addition to the journey to the private cloud, the Technical Advisory Board will focus on key trends shaping the IT industry such as the convergence of server, network and storage technology platforms; data analytics at cloud-scale; and IT governance, risk and compliance."

All Board members are appointed for a period of two years. Members will meet regularly, with the inaugural event taking place at EMC World, May 12.