Dennis Hahn | Senior Analyst, Data Center Storage, Omdia
Dennis covers data center storage technologies, including SAN, NAS, DAS, cloud storage, NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeOF), and software-defined storage (SDS). He has more than 25 years of broad storage industry technology experience, which includes storage systems design, product and project management, corporate and product strategy, and storage innovations development and market insight.
Specializing in storage technologies, Dennis has created winning products, such as the MetaStore SAN, which grew to $60 million in annual revenue. He also holds patents in storage systems design, data caching, and hybrid cloud data migration. He is certified in Agile development practices and cloud solution architectures.
Before joining Omdia (formerly IHS Markit) in 2018, Dennis worked at NetApp and contributed to the E-Series product line, which is worth $1 billion. He also held positions at Symbios Logic, Engenio, and LSI.
Dennis earned his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, US and MBA from Wichita State University, US.
Andrew Greenfield | Global Engineer - Storage & Security, IBM
Andrew Greenfield is a Global IBM Engineer responsible for Storage and Security. He is a Platinum Redbook author of 34 technical publications for IBM. He holds technical certifications from IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft. Andrew brings over 31 years of data center experience inside the Fortune 100, to the IBM team. He graduated Honors; Magna c. Laude, from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Andrew is also a professional wedding photographer and his media work has been featured on VMware, IBM, and various YouTube channels including many IBM products.
Duke Robertson | Senior Product Manager of Cabinet & Thermal Solutions, Chatsworth Products
Duke Robertson joined CPI in December 2007 and has more than 20 years of experience in a broad range of disciplines including design, manufacturing, product management and product development. In his current role as Senior Product Manager for Cabinet and Thermal Solutions, Duke manages the life cycle and performance of CPI’s vast array of cabinet and thermal solutions platforms and is a key contributor to innovation and new product development.
Dave Raffo | Senior Analyst, Evaluator Group
Senior Analyst for integrated systems and container storage at Evaluator Group.
Before joining the Evaluator Group, Dave spent 25 years as a technology journalist and covered enterprise storage for more than 15 years. He most recently worked for 13 years at TechTarget as Editorial Director and Executive News Editor for storage, data protection and converged infrastructure. In 2020, Dave won an American Society of Business Professional Editors (ASBPE) national award for column writing. His previous jobs covering technology include news editor at Byte and Switch, managing editor of EdTech Magazine, and features and new products editor at Windows Magazine. Before turning to technology, he was an editor and sports reporter for United Press International in New York for 12 years. A New Jersey native, Dave currently lives in northern Virginia.
Steffen Hellmold | Founder, DNA Storage Alliance; VP of Strategic Initiatives, Western Digital
Steffen Hellmold is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Western Digital. He is responsible for identifying & leading incubated disruptive innovation projects in support of storage adjacent growth opportunities. His current area of focus is Archive Storage with an emphasis on driving tape and DNA Data Storage innovation to address the growing demand for cloud-scale accessible and deep archive solutions providing improved density and longevity as well as lower product acquisition and operating costs.
Before joining Western Digital in 2013, Hellmold was Vice President of Marketing at Everspin Technologies. Prior positions include executive management at SandForce, Seagate Technology, Lexar Media (a subsidiary of Micron), Samsung Semiconductor, Fujitsu and SMART Modular Technologies.
Hellmold has been deeply engaged in various industry trade associations as well as industry standards organizations such as JEDEC, IEEE, USB-IF, CFA, SDA, and MMCA. He co-founded the USB Flash Drive Alliance and served as their president from 2003 to 2007.
Hellmold holds an Economic Electrical Engineering degree (EEE) from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.
Dr. Narasimha Reddy | Site Director, Center on Intelligent Storage
Narasimha Reddy received a B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in August 1985, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 1987 and August 1990, respectively.
Reddy is currently a J.W. Runyon Professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University as well as the Associate Dean for Research with the Texas A&M Engineering Program and the Assistant Director of Strategic Initiatives & Centers with the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.
Reddy’s research interests are in Computer Networks, Storage Systems, Multimedia Systems, and Computer Architecture. During 1990-1995, he was a Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose where he worked on projects related to disk arrays, multiprocessor communication, hierarchical storage systems and video servers.
Reddy holds five patents and was awarded a technical accomplishment award while at IBM. He received an NSF Career Award in 1996. He was a Faculty Fellow of the College of Engineering at Texas A&M during 1999-2000. His honors include an Outstanding Professor award by the IEEE student branch at Texas A&M during 1997-1998, an Outstanding Faculty award by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering during 2003-2004, a Distinguished Achievement award for teaching from the Former Students Association of Texas A&M University, and a citation "for one of the most influential papers from the 1st ACM Multimedia Conference".
Reddy is a Fellow of IEEE Computer Society and is a member of ACM.
Pete Renneker | Technical Resilience Leader, Deloitte
Pete, a managing director at Deloitte & Touche LLP, serves as the Technical Resilience leader for the Cyber Risk Services Infrastructure practice of Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory. In this role, he helps clients improve their ability to withstand technology disruptions and cyberattacks.
Pete has served as a board director for the Disaster Recovery International Foundation, and is a frequent speaker and author, most notably in the recent Ransoming government: What state and local governments can do to break free from ransomware attacks. Pete is also a self-proclaimed BBQ pitmaster and a proud graduate of the University of Dayton.