Network Storage: Network Appliance Cofounders Dave Hitz And James Lau, Network Storage Pioneers, To Receive IEEE Award
The IEEE has named Network Appliance co-founders Dave Hitz and James Lau as the recipients of its 2007 Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems Award, recognizing their contributions to the simplification of networked data storage. Their creation of network-attached storage (NAS), a technology currently used worldwide by approximately 90 percent of FORTUNE 500 companies, has helped fuel the growth of the billion-dollar global data storage market.
The IEEE is the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology. Sponsored by IBM Almaden Research Center, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to information storage, with emphasis on computer storage systems. It will be presented to Hitz and Lau on 25 September 2007 at the IEEE 24th Symposium on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies, San Diego, CA.
During their careers, Hitz and Lau have helped to alter the landscape of the storage industry through the creation of "Write Anywhere File Layout" (WAFL) technology. Invented in the early 1990s and patented in 2001, WAFL is a software kernel that stores and retrieves information anywhere, at any time. It was created under the premise that data is a living, breathing organism that should be continuously moving so that assets can be managed, shared and protected throughout an organization.
WAFL technology was also used to power dedicated network storage appliances that could be stacked, enabling corporations to easily scale up on demand as their storage needs changed. Since their release, NAS appliances have largely replaced general-purpose servers as file servers in most enterprise organizations.
Hitz and Lau are widely published in the field of information storage and network file systems, and hold 14 U.S. patents between them, with several others pending. In 1992, they co-founded Network Appliance, Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of unified storage systems for enterprise environments. In 2006, the company achieved Fortune 1000 status, with revenue of over $2B.
Since 2003, Hitz has served as executive vice president of Network Appliance, responsible for the future strategy and direction of the company. He held the position of executive vice president of engineering from the company's inception through 2003. Prior to founding Network Appliance, he was a senior engineer at Auspex Corporation, and held various engineering positions at MIPS Computer.He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University in New Jersey. Serving as executive vice president and chief strategy officer of Network Appliance
since 1995, Lau has been responsible for guiding the evolution of the company's business strategy and identifying additional market and product opportunities to fuel future growth. He served as executive vice president of engineering from the time he co-founded the company until assuming his current role in 1995. Before Network Appliance, Lau held various senior positions at Auspex Corporation and was group manager of PC products at Bridge Communications (now 3Com). He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and applied mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree in computer engineering from Stanford University in California.
About the IEEE
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) is the world's largest technical professional society. Through its 370,000 members in 160 countries, the society is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world's literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed more than 900 active industry standards. The organization also sponsors or co-sponsors nearly 400 international technical conferences each year.
SOURCE: IEEE