The Open Grid Alliance (OGA) expands its board of directors and workstream charters
The Open Grid Alliance (OGA), a professional organization dedicated to re-architecting the Internet into a global shared platform, announced an expanded Board of Directors, workstream charters, and the formal election of co-chairs for each work stream.
A group of over thirty companies founded the OGA in 2020, including VMware, Intel and Crown Castle. Since its formation, the OGA has made significant progress toward its goal of creating an open grid platform that anyone can use anywhere in the world.
The Grid is the next stage in the evolution of the Internet, fueled by edge infrastructure, 5G networks and billions of IoT devices. The Global Grid, a weave of private and public compute, data and intelligence, enables contextually aware and immersive applications. Users can access these apps on demand, as needed. According to the organization, creating something as significant as a global grid is beyond the scope of any one firm or group. It will require both cooperation and competition from numerous sources.
“Pleased to see the speed with which the OGA has captured the mind-share in the past year alone,” Kaniz Mahdi, SVP of technology architecture and innovation at Deutsche Telekom. “With a think tank shaping our vision and grid innovation zones spanning across North America, we are well on our way to setting up the initial constructs for our ultimate ambition: an open grid that fosters an open exchange of resources across the globe, be it digital, physical or biological, to enable circular economies of the future.”
The expanded board of directors at the OGA now includes representatives from each of the four workstreams: Grid Think Tank, Grid Innovation Zones, Grid Industry Development, and Grid Market Development. Each workstream has its own charter and co-chairs responsible for driving the OGA’s work in that area.
The Grid Think Tank is in charge of outlining the long-term vision for the Open Grid and determining how to realize this vision. Its leaders are Meryem Simsek (VMware) and Christian Maciocco (Intel).
The Grid Innovation Zones workstream aims to create, implement, and validate new technologies and best practices. Mahdi Hirab (VMware) and Allwyn Sequeira (Highway 9 Networks) are co-chairs.
The Industry Development Workstream has two primary objectives: to comprehend the requirements and needs of various industries and to assist these sectors in adopting the Open Grid platform. The current co-chairs are Andreas Florath (Deutsche Telekom), with a second co-chair chosen this year.
The Open Grid Workstream is in charge of finding potential consumers and use cases for the Grid Market, converting client needs into requirements, and promoting the platform to prospective users. Its o-chairs include Matt Trifiro (Vapor IO) and Jeff Hannah (Crown Castle).
The OGA officers include:
- Chair: Kaniz Mahdi, SVP Technology Architecture and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom
- Vice Chair: Cole Crawford, Founder and CEO of Vapor IO
- Secretary: Shreyani Shah, Director, Strategy Planning & Operations, Distributed Edge at VMware
- Treasurer: Rowland Shaw, Director, Technology & Standards at Dell Technologies
The complete list of board members can be found on the organization’s website.
Article Topics
Crown Castle | Dell | Deutsche Telecom | industry standards | Intel | interconnection | networking | Open Grid Alliance | Vapor IO | VMWare
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