In this video and guest blog, Mauri Whalen, vice president, Intel Corporation and director, Open Source Technology Center Core System Software, gives us a preview of her keynote, “The Power Behind the Open Data Center” at LinuxCon, CloudOpen, and ContainerCon North America in Seattle, Aug. 17-19, 2015. 

Wherever you look in today’s business computing environment, amazing innovation is happening. If you’re not paying attention you risk missing out and falling behind. The challenge, of course, is deciding where you will focus. Right now I am spending a lot of time on cloud computing and the convergence of public and private clouds.

Perhaps no market segment embodies the rapid pace of change we’re seeing better than the data center. Enterprises are continually challenged to deliver more: more computing capacity, more storage, more data transfers, more bandwidth, and more data analytics. Businesses of all sizes are wrestling with questions related to scalability, reliability, and how to process and present vast amounts of information—both to customers and for internal use.

In my role, I see a lot of technology developments, and I am constantly amazed at the power of collaboration to bring about new ideas and innovations. I am so grateful I get to work with Linux and the open source culture every day because they have fueled a great deal of innovation at every layer of the stack, from open computing to virtualization to orchestration.

This incredible innovation is the direct result of a willingness to collaborate. We as an industry do best when we listen, learn, and work with one another. I’ve lost count of how many times I thought I had a technology figured out and then someone goes and puts a new twist on it. Advancements like our Intel® Clear Containers or graphics virtualization don’t happen in a vacuum. They are possible because we collaborate and challenge existing ideas of what’s possible, then innovate on top of those expectations. They continue to get better as we develop them with others in the open.

Open source leadership is a big responsibility for Intel. When we take leadership positions in the open source ecosystem, it pushes us to advance the entire industry along with our company. In that mindset, Intel is investing a tremendous amount to continue expanding the boundaries of what technology can do for the data center and to ensure there is an ecosystem that facilitates the innovation required to meet enterprise demands and spur adoption.

You can see that commitment through our investments in the OpenStack Foundation, our work with major open source projects, and through our partnerships as part of the recently announced Intel® Cloud for All initiative.

We recognize our success with customers and end users is directly related to providing leadership and influence to the open source projects we participate in. After all, you can’t just sign an agreement with Linux and expect to take a leadership position. It’s contributions that count.

I’m excited to see where we will take this industry, together.