A presentation at Parallel Data Lab Annual Retreat in in Pittsburgh, PA, USA by erik riedel
Crea%ve Engineering PDL Dis%nguished Alumni Talk Erik Riedel, PhD October 2010 Bedford Springs, PA
Crea%vity
Exposure to diverse fields and diverse ideas is cri%cal to be able to see the “big picture” when faced with a problem in your own domain.
Conferences among my trip reports Magazines on my nightstand • • • • • • • • Economist Business Week Wired Fast Company Technology Review Harvard Business Review Forbes Talk* • • • • • InfoVis CODES Int’l CES Emergence SOUPS • ISCA • ASPLOS PLUS – any book with “innova%on” in the %tle *no longer in print, Tina Brown interview magazine
The same thing is true in discussion among your peers and colleagues. Inclusion of diverse ideas and approaches leads to superior solu3ons.
Seagate Ac%ve Storage Tour
Most important advice – get out of the office regularly. Whether to conferences, or to talks or to visit other divisions in your company, or (best) to visit your customers (the target users of your technology).
Consumer
Enterprise
Go into someone’s data center and look around Picture from flickr/ewwhite
Look in the corners too Pictures from flickr/ewwhite, craig1black
Passion
Enthusiasm.
Results ma\er.
There are always more solu%ons than barriers, but there sure are a lot of barriers…. real and imagined Budgets, skills, headcount, informa%on, freedom-‐of-‐ac%on, poli%cs, processes
Don’t mis-‐underes%mate the power of ge_ng your hands dirty. Prototypes, systema%c analysis, evalua%on. Make the %me for rigor.
Engineering
There are a lot of ways for an engineer / scien%st to make an impact.* * The difference between a scien3st and an engineer is that the engineer stops to think how much it will cost.
Pa%ence
Objects Ideas • U.S. 6,298,401 Anderson • CMU NASD – Network-‐A\ached Secure Disks • NSIC NASD – Wide support & feedback • T10 OSD (SNIA/ANSI) – Wide support & feedback – Worked out lots of details • Storage Bricks (Gray) – Saw the win, spread the word Results • Lustre • Panasas • IETF pNFS • EMC Atmos Influences • Google GFS • Spinnaker • S3 • ….
Pa%ence II
See U.S. Patent 7,464,106 (January 2006)
Patents • 6,732,241 Technique for migra%ng data between storage devices for reduced power consump%on • 7,200,747 System for ensuring data privacy and user differen%a%on in a distributed file system • 7,405,941 Storage array with enhanced RVI
Influence • Research vs. Product Groups • CTOs have an impact almost exclusively by influencing the “real” parts of the business – Product Management – Sales & Marke%ng – Business GMs – caveat: don’t confuse power with influence
Communica%on
Dinners Mee%ngs Mee%ngs Career Progression Code Amount of %me spent
*Advice courtesy Jim Gray, as retold in May 2007 at UC Berkeley on a day both sad and upliping
Never underes%mate the power of talking and listening. PowerPoint is way over-‐rated.
There are numerous studies that show that your personal network is the single biggest determinant of career success. These studies are correct.
Summary Crea%vity Passion Results & Rigor Pa%ence Influence Communica%on
References • Listen: Discover the Secret to GeIng Through to Absolutely Anyone by Mark Goulston • The Tipping Point: How LiLle Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell • Made to S3ck: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip & Dan Heath • Design Thinking (IDEO and others) • The Future of Enterprise IT by Geoff Moore at 2010 SNIA CloudBurst event • Gobioff/Riedel Emigra%on talks – startups vs. labs
What wouldn’t fit into the talk OTHER THOUGHTS
Cloud Compu%ng
The previously separate roles of sopware developer and opera%ons have [become] increasingly intermeshed and intertwined. Things are materially different… Ray Ozzie, Chief SoUware Architect, MicrosoU Programmers Ruby/Rails, MapReduce IT Managers VM images, vApps, VLANs
Cloud is open an “excuse” for enterprises to move to “New IT” – away from the old client/ server model that has been used for the past ten years [toward Web 2.0 IT] Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon
Consumer vs. Enterprise
The way we run our lives has forever changed. The employees we are hiring right out of school are appalled by the technology we use to run our companies. They are more produc%ve at home than they are in the office. Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com
From September 2010, SNIA CloudBurst keynote by Geoffrey Moore
Consumer A\en%on • Diagram from Maya Gap Courtesy Mick McManus, MAYA Design
Small Nodes vs. Big Nodes
From April 1999, Ac%ve Disks talk
talk presented on receipt of the PDL Distinguished Alumni award in October 2010 - advice to grad students and other attendees on the various pathways to innovation and invention - based on my own personal experience
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