CloudU: Grow Your Cloud Knowledge

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Charles joined InformationWeek in 2003 and has been covering technology for more than 20 years. He's a respected industry expert and the author of the McGraw-Hill book, The Cloud Revolution.

John joined Rackspace in August of 2000 and currently serves as Chief Technology Officer. He has worked in several areas of Rackspace including Operations, Professional Services and Customer Care.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Bernard is the CEO of HyperStratus, a Silicon Valley cloud computing consultancy. He also serves as the Cloud Computing Advisor for CIO Magazine where his blog is read by thousands each month.

Lew has been instrumental in driving strategic planning, product development and new business initiatives for Rackspace since joining in April of 2000.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Alex led Cloudkick, a Y-Combinator funded start-up, as its CEO and co-founder to the successful acquisition by Rackspace. Now with Rackspace he is responsible for Cloudkick product development and the build out of Rackspace's Bay Area operations. Previously, he has worked on many infrastructure projects for the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and the Oregon State Open Source Lab. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Oregon State University.

Dave managed the PayPal Developer Network through 2006. After PayPal, Dave helped companies marketing their Web Services & Developer Tools to developers. With the emergence of Cloud Computing, Dave saw a real need to educate developers, entrepreneurs, IT professionals, and corporate executives about the opportunities and challenges provided by Cloud Computing. Dave co-founded CloudCamp to address this need. Since the first CloudCamp SF in 2008, Dave has helped organize 175 CloudCamps reaching more than 20,000 attendees all over the world.

Alex Williams is an Editor for ReadWriteWeb. He manages ReadWriteEnterprise and ReadWriteCloud. Alex is old enough to have started his career with a daily newspaper, working a one-man bureau in rural Georgia back in 1989. He has worked as a writer and editor for daily newspapers, magazines and did a year in broadcast as a business anchor. He caught the technology bug back in 1994 and has been obsessed about its implications ever since.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

John is responsible for driving Dell's strategy on issues around Environmental Sustainability—including Energy, GHG Emissions, Materials of Concern, Material Use/Recovery/Reuse, and Water. Prior to this role, John was Dell's subject matter expert on data center energy efficiency and managed initiatives to help customers improve the productivity of their computer systems and facilities.

Michael is the Editor in Chief of Greentech Media, a media and research firm that concentrates on clean technologies. Prior to joining the company in 2008, he worked for CNET Network's News.com for eleven years. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, NPR, CBS, CNBC, Fox News and other media outlets and speaks in the U.S. Europe and Asia on alternative energy and efficiency.

Melissa is responsible for driving Rackspace's global strategy to integrate environmental stewardship into the company. She has oversight to the Supply Chain, Product Development and Data Center design. Melissa joined Rackspace in October of 2009 bringing 15 years of experience in Enterprise Operations to guide development of Rackspace’s multiyear strategic plan, working directly for the CEO.

Luis is responsible for designing and implementing Rackspace’s strategy to become the sustainability leader in the IT hosting and cloud computing industries by 2013, with a particular focus in Europe and Asia. In addition to his sustainability work at Rackspace, Luis is working with the government of the United Kingdom to develop a roadmap to a low carbon economy.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Erik Carlin joined Rackspace in 2008 and is a Senior Architect in Rackspace’s cloud division. His focus is on innovation, optimization, and integration of various technologies that span Rackspace products and services. Prior to joining Rackspace, Erik was Chief Infrastructure Architect for SRA International, where he helped architect solutions for large, complex enterprise and government clients.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Mike leads Gazzang's product organization, including its ezNcrypt cloud security product. Mike has over 20 years of experience in the software industry in both development and product line management and is a recognized expert in the open source industry. Prior to Gazzang Mike was a senior product manager at Oracle focused on MySQL in the areas of development, backup, platforms, virtualization and authentication. Mike has also held positions in product and development management at PentaSafe Security Technologies, Inc. and NetIQ Corporation.

Gregg is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) at Rackspace and played a leading role in Rackspace's listing on Visa's global list of PCI Compliant Level 1 Service Providers. He has also participated in hundreds of successful audit and assessment engagements such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, DIACAP, FISMA, and SAS 70 Type II. A 10+ year Racker. Gregg currently leads the Customer Security Advocacy team which is part of Rackspace's Global Security Services department.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Karl is a recognized industry leader in cloud services, managed services, and Small Business I.T. Consulting. He engages regularly with his audience via his Cloud Services Roundtable Podcasts and through his Small Biz Thoughts Blog. Karl's "Walking Into the Cloud" Pre-day show held last year at the SMB Nation fall conference was a raving success and he will be holding a similar address at this year's conference. Karl has just completed a ten-city roadshow tour for Intel, highlighting their new Hybrid Cloud server offering.

Jim's time in “the cloud” dates back to the late 90’s when the shared hosting, dedicated hosting and ASP markets first began implementing the core concepts of virtualization. During his nearly 20 years in the high-tech industry, his primary roles – spanning from startups to Fortune 50 companies – have been in the fields of Product Marketing, Product Management, Corporate Communications, Strategic Planning and Business Development.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Dave is the founder and CEO of Soba Labs, co-founder of Mulesoft, and writes the Software Interrupted blog for CNET.

In his 7 year tenure at Rackspace, Henry has led the creation of Rackspace University, served as the Director of Racker Communications and Engagement, Partner Manager for Professional Services, and Sr. HR Business Partner for the Rackspace Cloud.

Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Limited, a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Toby is a Senior Manager for Hybrid Cloud Solutions at Rackspace Hosting. Toby has been working in the IT industry for over 14 years. Currently, he is responsible for RackConnect and the Hybrid Hosting product portfolio. Prior to joining Rackspace he led the Web Services team for Wells Fargo, with responsibility for internet banking infrastructure and support. He holds a BS in Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and an MBA from the University of Texas. Currently, Toby is responsible for RackConnect and the Hybrid Hosting product portfolio.

Mike is Editor of Network Computing and is Track Chair for Interop's Data Center and Storage tracks. He has been with TechWeb for over 11 years and has extensive experience evaluating enterprise remote access, security, and network infrastructure products. He previously was Lead Analyst with InformationWeek Analytics, Senior Technology Editor with Network Computing and Executive Editor for Secure Enterprise. Speaking engagements include Interop, MISTI, and the Internet Security Conference. He also teaches a network security graduate course at Syracuse University.

Ben is the driving force behind CloudU, a year-long educational program aiming to create broad knowledge around cloud computing. In his spare time, Ben is the founder and managing director of Diversity Ltd., a consultancy specializing in cloud computing/SaaS, collaboration, business strategy and user-centric design.

Sam Johnston is Director, Cloud & IT Services at Equinix, where he provides Cloud Computing expertise internally and externally for Europe. He was previously the Technical Program Manager for Google's Site Reliability Engineering team in Switzerland. Before joining Google, Sam worked at Citrix Systems and served as founder and CTO for a number of successful high-tech start-ups in Australia, France and Ireland. He was recently listed as one of the leaders of Cloud Computing as an active contributor to the community since its inception. Sam earned his BS in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Scott Sanchez is Director, Business Development at Rackspace Cloud Builders, focusing on partners and opportunities in the fast growing OpenStack ecosystem. Prior to joining Rackspace, he was part of the management team at ScaleUp Technologies, a startup building a business storefront with OpenStack to accelerate Cloud adoption. Scott has held leadership roles at companies like Goldman Sachs, Unisys and has been involved in multiple successful software and security startups throughout his career.