Open Networking Summit to Hold Private “Think Tank” Event for Industry Leaders

An elite group of networking industry executives, investors and entrepreneurs will meet behind closed doors for a think tank discussion at Open Networking Summit (ONS) this year.

The intimate, invitation-only Open Networking Innovation Forum will facilitate a frank and open dialogue centered around the opportunities and challenges facing open networking acceleration and open source business models.                     

The purpose of this invitation-only forum is                                             

• Open Collaboration among open networking’s visionaries, thought leaders, early adopters, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators together in an intimate setting for a high-quality dialogue.    

• Stimulating Discussion about the state of open networking, opportunities and challenges, how to accelerate adoption of open networking by various Enterprise IT Teams in a Software Defined World with emerging cloud business models.

• Informal Networking with leaders representing the entire Enterprise, Cloud & Carrier ecosystem: CIO/CTO/VP IT/Architects, Users from multiple verticals, silicon, box, and software vendors, open source platforms providers, system integrators, venture capitalists, and others.                                      

ONS, to be held April 3-6 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, promises to be the largest, most comprehensive and most innovative networking and orchestration event of the year. The private innovation forum will take place the second day of ONS to gather executive leaders from a cross-section of the industry, including enterprise, carriers and cloud providers, startups and VCs, and others in the networking ecosystem.

In this informational Q&A, Arpit Joshipura, general manager of networking and orchestration at The Linux Foundation, discusses why he organized a think tank event for networking industry executives and what they’ll likely discuss.

Linux.com: Why are you holding a leadership event for open networking executives at ONS?

Arpit Joshipura: ONS is a the largest networking event in Silicon Valley and attracts both developers and business executives. Executive leaders and creators of innovation need a neutral platform for discussion with other like-minded thought leaders. Linux Foundation serves as a catalyst to bring the top influencers together.

Linux.com: Who is invited?

Joshipura: Networking and Orchestration is a very innovative industry and touches many verticals and markets. We are working with key leaders to represent the entire ecosystem – all layers of the stack, from creators to end users across multiple industries. In addition, Silicon Valley is the innovation capital of the world and we will bring Venture Capitalists/Visionaries like Martin Casado from Andreessen Horowitz, and startup executives. A list of some of the confirmed attendees is available on our ONS Website (here)

Linux.com: What is the format?

Joshipura: We’ll hold roundtables, chats, and panels. The format is workshop-style brainstorming.

Linux.com: What will you discuss?

Joshipura: High-level topics for discussion include Architecture Harmonization, Business Models, Open Source Adoption catalysts and blockers, Innovative use cases, vendor research, and more. As the world of Software Defined Enterprise, Service Provider Network Automation and Cloud Technologies come together, there is a huge opportunity for collaboration on topics like 5G/Private Clouds/SDN/NFV that would have a huge impact on adjacent markets like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) and Business Intelligence.

Linux.com: How will the outcome of the discussion be used?

Joshipura: This elite group will be collectively driving the vision and direction of the entire networking and orchestration industry for the next five years to come.

Linux.com: Will there be anything published about it afterward? Why is it closed to the press?

Joshipura: No. It is closed to press to allow for open discussions specifically as several enterprise verticals like FinTech, healthcare, travel and hospitality, retail and of course communications will be sharing use cases, best practices, and lessons learned.

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