Get Ready to Rethink the Data Center: Welcome to OpenPOWER Summit 2015!

By Gordon MacKean, OpenPOWER Chairman

We are here, we made it: the OpenPOWER Foundation’s inaugural Summit, “Rethink the Data Center,” starts tomorrow! I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome everyone that will be joining us for the OpenPOWER Summit taking place at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference in San Jose. We’ve got an exciting few days planned for you. Our three-day event kicks off tomorrow morning and goes through Thursday afternoon.  The full schedule is available online at www.openpowerfoundation.org/2015-summit, but here’s a quick rundown of what you won’t want to miss:

• All Show – Demos and Presentations in the OpenPOWER Pavilion on the GTC exhibit floor!  Join fellow OpenPOWER members to hear firsthand about their OpenPOWER-based solutions.
• Wednesday – Morning Keynotes with myself and OpenPOWER President Brad McCredie where we’ll unveil just how quickly our hardware ecosystem is expanding.
• Wednesday – Afternoon Member Presentations with several of our Foundation members.   You’ll hear from members such as Mellanox, Tyan, Altera, Rackspace, and Suzhou PowerCore about how they’re dialing up the volume on innovation.
• Thursday – Hands-on Firmware Training Labs hosted by IBM for building, modifying and testing OpenPOWER firmware with expert guides.
• Thursday – ISV Roundtable where we’ll discuss OpenPOWER at the software level, including presentations, lightning talks, open discussion and facilitated brainstorming.

With so much great content and a high level of engagement from our members, the OpenPOWER Summit is clearly the place for other interested parties to get involved and learn how they can join a global roster of innovators rethinking the data center.  Our work is far from over and, given our rapid membership growth, there is no slowdown in sight.  As of today, the Foundation is comprised of over 110 members across 22 countries.  Through eight charted Work Groups, and more on the way, we are providing the technical building blocks needed to equip our community to drive meaningful innovation.

So to those who are attending, welcome! I look forward to seeing you here in San Jose. And, for those who are unable to join us this week, I invite you to follow the conversation online with #OpenPOWERSummit – there will undoubtedly be lots to talk about this week!

Yours in collaboration, Gordon