Blade.org, the premier open community dedicated to creating
solutions based on the blade server platform pioneered by IBM and
Intel, announced Alex Yost, vice president and business line
executive for IBM System x and BladeCenter, will assume the role of
chairman effective immediately. The Blade.org Board of Directors
unanimously confirmed Yost for the position. Yost has been involved
in Blade.org for a number of years, and was a natural choice for the
chairman role.
"The Blade.org membership is driving client value through innovation
and collaboration," said Yost. "Blade.org plays an essential role in
bringing companies together and accelerating availability of new
technologies."
"Alex's experience and leadership as IBM vice president and business
line executive for System x and BladeCenter will be a great asset to
the organization going forward, and he will bring new energy and new
thinking to move Blade.org forward and into the next decade," said
Doug Balog, Blade.org founder and chairman emeritus, serving for the
past four years. Balog's role at IBM recently changed, and he now
serves as vice president and business line executive for Disk Systems
in IBM Storage.
Under Balog's leadership, Blade.org grew from an idea in 2005 to an
industry-impacting organization today, bringing together a broad
ecosystem of clients, hardware and software vendors, venture
capitalists and other industry participants. Membership has more than
doubled since 2006; and not only does Blade.org have a strong base of
member firms, client membership is the largest it's been. In
addition, the blade industry has enjoyed similar growth; during
Balog's tenure, blade servers grew as a percent of the market to well
over 20 percent.
The Blade.org Board of Directors also approved Emulex and QLogic to
fill two vacant Governing Board seats. Both companies have been
engaged in Blade.org since February 2006.
Taufik Ma, Emulex's vice president of Product Management, will be the
primary representative from Emulex to the Blade.org Governing Board.
Members of Taufiks' team have been very active in Blade.org, taking
on roles such as chairing the Blade.org Solutions Committee;
contributing technical expertise to Blade.org white papers; hosting
Blade.org webinars; and emceeing the 2009 Blade.org Technology
Symposium.
"Emulex recognizes the value provided to members of Blade.org in
developing solutions for the blade market," said Taufik Ma, Emulex.
"We continue to collaborate with the Blade.org members to produce
cutting edge blade server-based solutions that are fostered by the
Blade.org ecosystem, which is focused on delivering valuable
solutions to blade computing customers."
QLogic's path to the Blade.org Board of Directors took a slightly
different path. Prior to the acquisition of NetXen by QLogic, Vikram
Karvat served as NetXen's representative on the Blade.org Board of
Directors. After the successful acquisition and integration of NetXen
earlier this year, QLogic is continuing the role NetXen began in 2007
as a steward of the blade server market.
"Since joining Blade.org more than three years ago, QLogic has
collaborated closely with fellow members to drive innovation in the
context of the blade server paradigm," said Karvat, senior director,
Host Solutions Group, QLogic. "With more than 70 percent Fibre
Channel mezzanine adapter market share, QLogic has made blade server
platforms like IBM's BladeCenter a strategic focus for the company.
It's a privilege for me to represent QLogic on the Blade.org board,
where I hope to foster continued cooperation with other members in
the development of interoperable Fibre Channel, Ethernet and Fibre
Channel over Ethernet solutions in bladed environments."
The Blade.org Board of Directors now includes the American Power
Conversion Corp., BLADE Network Technologies, Brocade, Emulex, IBM,
Intel and QLogic.
About Blade.org
Blade.org is a collaborative vendor and end-use community focused on
accelerating the development and adoption of blade server solutions.
The organization provides leadership to the blade market and fosters a
thriving industry ecosystem focused on delivering valuable solutions
to blade computing customers. More information is available at
www.blade.org.
Media Contact
Lisa Galish
galish@us.ibm.com
(919) 486-2280
SOURCE: Blade.org
mailto:galish@us.ibm.com
