TORONTO, Canada, May 8, 2007 – Platform Computing,
the leading cluster and grid systems infrastructure software company,
announced today that Christopher Smith, Principal Product Architect of
Platform, has been elected by the Open Grid Forum (OGF) Board as its
Vice President of Standards. OGF is a non-profit consortium of public
and private organizations and individuals dedicated to accelerating the
adoption of grid computing worldwide.
Open Grid Forum provides an open forum for grid innovation and the
development of open standards for grid software interoperability. As an
open standards organization, OGF collaborates with other standards
development organizations to align with existing industry standards and
develop new specifications to enable grid software
interoperability.
"Chris Smith has a reputation as a well respected technologist with
extensive industry experience both inside and outside the grid
community," said Mark Linesch, President of OGF and Vice President of
Hewlett-Packard. "As someone who has championed the adoption of grid
computing, we look forward to him continuing his work at OGF in this
new leadership position."
A long time member of the Open Grid Forum, Mr. Smith will now be
overseeing a large and important function within OGF as the new Vice
President of Standards. He will be responsible for leading the
development of architecture, specifications, roadmaps, and related
activities associated with the standardization and interoperability of
grid software. In addition, he will also act as a liaison between the
grid community and the larger computing industry to increase awareness
and understanding of grid computing and its applications.
"It is vital that users of grid technology reach out to external
stakeholders in a variety of industries and I look forward to utilizing
my experience at Platform Computing to help OGF achieve this goal,"
said Chris Smith, Vice President of Standards, Open Grid Forum. "I also
hope to build on the work myself and others have begun at OGF to
promote the standards that provide us with the interoperability needed
to ease grid adoption."
"I would like to congratulate Chris on his appointment as Vice
President of Standards at the Open Grid Forum," said Jingwen Wang, Vice
President of Products of Platform Computing. "The development of
standards is a cornerstone upon which the grid community and computing
industry at large has been built. Few are better suited or experienced
than Chris Smith to shape and influence the ongoing direction of grid
standardization."
Platform Computing is one of the original board members of the OGF
and has been a leader in and supporter of standards in the grid space
of the Global Grid Forum since its inception. In addition to
participating in the development of specifications such as JSDL,
OGSA-BES and the HPC Profile, Platform has been taking active
leadership roles in the Grid Forum Steering Group, Marketing Committee
and the OGF board.
Platform is a sponsor of this year’s OGF to be held in Manchester,
England, May 7 – 11, 2007. You can visit Platform at booth # 18
www.ogf.org/OGF20/events_ogf20.php
About Platform Computing
Platform Computing is the leading systems infrastructure software
company that accelerates applications and delivers IT agility for
increased business performance and reduced cost. Founded in 1992,
Platform is a pioneer in HPC, Cluster and Grid Computing technologies.
Platform has over 2,000 global customers and strategic relationships
with Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat and SAS, along with the
industry's broadest support for third-party applications. For more
information please visit www.platform.com.
About the Open Grid Forum
Open Grid Forum (OGF) was formed in June, 2006 with the merger of
the Global Grid Forum (GGF) and the Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA).
Headquartered in Chicago, OGF is a community of users, researchers,
developers, and solution providers representing over 400 organizations
in more than 50 countries. OGF works to accelerate grid adoption by
providing an open forum for grid innovation and developing open
standards for grid software interoperability. www.ogf.org
