Luncheon Keynote

"FOCUS ON THE CLOUD"
Special Guest Speaker ~ Wayne Warren
Chief Technology Officer, Raima, Inc.

Since the definition of "the Cloud" is more like fog at the present time, we will define it here only as the delivery and storage of computing and data to wherever it is needed. It can be said that the Cloud is built from the technologies of many companies and organizations, and that there is no "control" over its standards, technologies or ownership. The Technology industry contains many interdependent players who are shaping and advancing the Cloud, so we expect to see it change significantly over the next few years.

The subset of Cloud technologies we will discuss here and define more precisely is "the Data Grid." The Data Grid consists of the devices, software and media used to shape and share information. Attendees of this conference are more likely to participate as part of the Data Grid than the Cloud in general. As a power grid can transmit power, dealing with the various volume and power requirements and having multiple transmission paths for reliability, so also this Data Grid deals with different volumes, formats, and reliable transmission of data. As a power grid doesn't address how the power is generated or consumed, so also the data grid stands between producers and consumers, effectively delivering and transforming the exchanged data.

Does this sound like a solved problem? Think again. With pervasive, small and powerful embedded computers, the Data Grid's domain is expanding exponentially.

About the speaker: 
Wayne Warren is Chief Technology Officer at Raima, Inc., a leading developer of database management software targeted for Embedded, Real-time and Mobile computers, based in Seattle.  He has an MS in Computer Science from Colorado State University. Wayne was hired by Boeing in 1978 where he worked on Air Force research projects. In 1982, together with Boeing Engineer Randy Merilatt, he started the company that became Raima. In 1984, Raima released its first commercial product, db_VISTA, which is the predecessor of today's RDM (Raima Database Manager) product. In the 90's, Wayne designed and implemented the client/server product now known as RDM Server. In recent years, he has lead the effort to modernize the RDM product so that it runs well in multi-core, multi-platform, distributed, and networked configurations.