Sponsor: Cisco Systems
Featured Analyst Firm: Gartner
Speakers: George Weiss, John McCool, John Vorreiter
Type: Video (25 minutes)
Companies today face new and growing demands on their data centers. Trends like virtualization and cloud and emerging applications like big data are causing them to re-think their approach to data center architecture, with a new emphasis on simplicity and extensibility. The concept of a data center fabric has emerged as a promising strategy for navigating this transition for the data center.
In this webcast, trusted advisors from Gartner and Cisco explore this concept of fabric and, more importantly, the solutions they can use to overcome those challenges. We'll also find out why KindredHealth turned to Cisco to meet the growing demands of their business.
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About George Weiss, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
George Weiss is a vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research. Mr. Weiss has been analyzing server and operating system trends for Gartner since 1985. He leads Gartner's research and analysis in Unix, Linux, open-source trends and the future of servers.
Mr. Weiss has 30 years of overall experience in a variety of marketing and analyst positions in the computer industry. Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Weiss held marketing positions at Elbit, General Instrument, AT&T Bell Labs and ITT. He was also a consultant in the IT industry.
About John McCool, SVP & GM Data Center, Switching & Services Group, Cisco
John McCool is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Data Center, Switching and Services Group (DSSG). In this role he is responsible for driving the strategy, engineering and marketing direction of modular Cisco Catalyst 4000/6000 Series switching for campus, the new Nexus Data Center switching series, and Cisco's Optical product line. McCool is also charged with driving the expansion into application networking, virtualization, and integrated security services. The DSSG business accounts for about $10 billion in direct and $15 billion of indirect revenue.
McCool is a member of the Cisco Development Council, the senior leadership team who is collectively driving Cisco's engineering and development efforts. In addition, McCool has several other leadership roles in Cisco: he leads Cisco's Switching Business Council, is a member of Cisco's Enterprise Business Council, a co-chair of the Cisco's Enterprise Architecture Board and a co-chair of Cisco EcoBoard. As the co-chair of Cisco's Enterprise Architecture Board, McCool oversees the company's initiatives to drive system solutions for the campus, branch and data center.
McCool came to Cisco through the Granite acquisition, where he was instrumental in growing Cisco's Gigabit Ethernet technologies and Catalyst 4500 to multibillion dollar run rates. Over the years he expanded his responsibilities to lead the Internet Switching Business Unit responsible for the Catalyst 6500, Cisco's most successful and innovative LAN switching platform. Prior to his current role he led the Campus Switching Systems Technology Group which encompassed the both the Catalyst 4000 and 6000 series, as well as optical transceivers.
Prior to joining Cisco, McCool led network product development teams at SynOptics, NeXT Computer and Advanced Micro Devices. He has been active in creating industry standards, playing a key role in the development of dual speed 10/100BASE-T technology as part of the IEEE802.3u standard and making significant contributions to the ANSI X3T9.5 FDDI standard. McCool holds several patents related to network technologies. McCool is a graduate of Drexel University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a master's degree in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University.
About John D. Vorreiter, Senior Director, Technical Services, Kindred Healthcare, Inc.
John Vorreiter is a key player in the Information Systems Department at Kindred Healthcare. With his diverse background in the I/S clinical and financial systems development departments and the technical services departments, John brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Kindred. Kindred Healthcare, Inc. is a healthcare services company. On June 1, 2011, Kindred through its subsidiaries provided healthcare services in over 2,000 locations, including 121 long-term acute care hospitals, 224 nursing and rehabilitation centers, 118 inpatient rehabilitation facilities (primarily hospital-based units) and a contract rehabilitation services business, RehabCare, which served approximately 1,560 non-affiliated facilities.
John has been with Kindred for 21 years and has over 25 years in IT healthcare. He is involved in multiple manufacturer advisory councils and is engaged with many vendors on their strategic roadmaps and initiatives.
Prior to Kindred John was Sr. Vice President of ProData Systems in Mobile, Alabama. ProData was a systems outsourcer which provided payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and general ledger processing for the Hospital and Rehab industry. John's responsibilities included responsibility for systems and development of mainframe and pc based systems. John was also previously Vice President of Development for The Optimal Solution, an integrator of physician's office financial systems in Montgomery, Alabama.
