How Hyperscale Innovation is Reshaping Cloud to Edge Infrastructure: BI Analyst Briefing

Cliff Grossner

VP Market Research

Open Compute Project Foundation

At the Open Compute Project Foundation, Dr. Grossner leads its market intelligence function and is responsible for driving awareness of OCP, training and certification programs, and guiding inventors presenting their early-stage company ideas to potential investors. Cliff is also a member of the OCP Future Symposium Program Committee, and is active in the OCP Future Technology Initiative. Dr. Grossner has more than 25 years of telecommunications industry experience encompassing scientific research, market analysis, corporate and product strategy, product management and marketing. His current interests include IT Ecosystems from cloud to the edge looking at the equipment [servers, IT networking and storage] and software, and physical infrastructure [power and cooling] needed for computation, with a focus on edge computing, silicon components included in IT equipment including coprocessors for AI and ML, AI driven data center automation suites and adoption of open infrastructure including OCP-certified designs. A recognized thought leader, he frequently is an expert judge for industry and technology innovation awards and an invited conference speaker, who is often quoted in technical publications, including SDx Central, Light Reading, Fierce Telecom, eWeek, Network Computing and Lightwave Online. Previously, Dr. Grossner was head of the Cloud and Data Center Research Practice at Omdia, responsible for research quality across the practice and his research was focused on cloud services, data center compute and networking, and data center infrastructure. He joined Omdia with the 2019 acquisition of IHS Markit Technology, which acquired Infonetics Research in 2014. While at IHS Markit he launched the Cloud and Data Center Research Practice and during his tenure at Infonetics he launched their cloud services and DC SDN research and grew total revenue of his research portfolio by 100%. Previous to Infonetics, he held senior positions in the information and communications technology industries, including heading strategic marketing for Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise network business, tenures at Bell Labs, Sesame Networks, NewStep Networks and Nortel. At McGill and Concordia universities, he worked as a research scientist and faculty lecturer specializing in artificial intelligence, distributed computing and computer architecture. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy at McGill University, and his Master of Science in Computer Science at Concordia University, both in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, having been awarded national scholarships to support his graduate work. He holds more than 10 patents in computer networking, networking embedded security and telecommunications applications.

Bob Ghaffari

VP Network and Edge Group

Intel

Bob Ghaffari is currently Vice President, Network & Edge Group, General Manager, Enterprise and Cloud Division at Intel Corporation. He is responsible for working with key customers and partners to enable best-in-class solutions for the Edge and Cloud with a focus on network and security solution use cases.  Ghaffari’s organization works closely with enterprises, service providers and industry partners to deliver agile, secure, scalable and cost-effective network and edge solutions for multi and hybrid cloud implementations.  Prior to this position, Ghaffari has held several positions in product development, business development and marketing strategy. Bob has an EECS degree from UC Berkeley and a MBA from Santa Clara University.

Dharmesh Jani

Open Source Ecosystem Leader

Meta

Dharmesh Jani (‘DJ’) has been an active member of OCP since 2012. DJ has over 20+ years of experience in various roles spanning engineering, product management, and business strategy. In his current role as OCP Incubation committee co-chair, he works with the OCP Community and leadership team to define the industry technology direction to drive towards more open infrastructure. In his current role at Meta, he is responsible for leading OCP and other open technologies, working with stakeholders inside and outside Meta. He started his career at Rockwell Science Center designing ultra-high speed circuits in CMOS, subsequently as a system designer he designed first terrestrial FEC based optical transmission system at Corvis Systems. As a product manager at Semtech, he introduced the world’s first coherent 100G MUX for ultra-long-haul transport systems. Prior to joining Meta (nee Facebook), DJ led the cloud transformation for the biggest business unit at Flex. He was instrumental in bringing Flex into OCP and via founding of CloudLabs team, building core competencies within Flex to launch a cloud business unit. Earlier in his career, he held roles at Infinera and Intel among others listed above. DJ is based out of Menlo Park, CA.

Gregory Ratcliff

Chief Innovation Officer

Vertiv

Currently, Greg serves as Chief Innovation Officer for Vertiv. Greg leads a team of technology scouts and business experts who identify, evaluate and assess the future potential of new technologies, business models, and processes to address evolving business, economic and social trends for Vertiv and its customers. Greg has spoken and consulted internationally on IoT, artificial intelligence, big data, and the evaluation of emerging technologies to achieve business outcomes. Greg participates in international technology standards bodies, has multiple industry-article contributions to his credit, and advises technology incubators. Additionally, Greg holds five patents. Gregory Ratcliff has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and information systems, and has a master’s degree in business administration.

Woo Jin Ho

Senior Analyst

Bloomberg Intelligence

Woo Jin Ho is the senior networking and semiconductor analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. His research has focused on enabling technologies next generation networks, such as software defined networking (SDN), high speed optics and 5G, and the direction of smartphone and data center chips in the semiconductor sectors. Prior to joining Bloomberg Intelligence in 2015, he was a sell-side equity analyst for Nomura Securities, Merrill Lynch and CIBC Oppenheimer over a 15-year span. He covered the networking, enterprise software and imaging sectors during his tenure on Wall Street.