Paul Grun Vice Chair, OpenFabrics Alliance

The OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) announced Paul Grun as the organization’s new vice chair.

Representing Cray, Inc., he brings a large system perspective and more than 30 years experience in server I/O including work on both large-scale storage systems and development of high performance networks. Grun has been influential within the OpenFabrics Alliance since prior to its inception and his recent posting as the OFA’s vice chair is further recognition of his involvement with the alliance.

 Grun began his career by focusing on storage for large mainframe systems including design and deployment of early generation RAID systems. In 1996, he turned his attention to high performance networks playing a prominent role in the development of modern RDMA technology. He contributed to the creation of the IB architecture as one of Intel‘s representatives to the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) and later assumed the role of chair of the IBTA’s technical working group. He also served as chair and one of the principle authors for the working group responsible for creating the RoCE (RDMA over converged Ethernet) specification. In addition to his new role as OFA vice chair, he is also serving as a director of the IBTA.

Adding to his experience in storage and networks, he also served as a chipset architect during his tenure at Intel, which completed the third leg of the storage/network/server platform stool.

Since joining Cray, Inc. in 2012, Grun has again turned his attention toward storage, serving as a senior technologist in the storage and data management group. In addition to his focus on networks for distributed parallel storage systems, his research interests include access to shared data over long distance networks.

"Paul is a proven professional in the high-tech industry and brings with him years of experience working in the strategic application of I/O technology, solving enterprise problems and creating advanced datacenters for the enterprise and government industries," said Jim Ryan, chairman, OFA. "I am pleased that Paul has offered his time and expertise to serve as the OpenFabrics Alliance’s vice chair and am honored to be working side-by-side with him to ensure the continued success of the alliance."