Steve Helvie

This proposed talk would focus on how Europe is taking the lead deploying and supporting Open Hardware technologies. Large enterprises are looking for best practices gleamed from hyper-scale companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Google who run highly efficient private and public clouds. The sharing of open hardware and data centre designs is a core strategy for these companies and the basis for the Open Compute Project (OCP).

The Open Compute Project (OCP) was started by Facebook in 2011 with the idea of delivering the most efficient designs for scalable computing through an open source hardware community. We believe that openly sharing ideas, specifications, and other intellectual property is the key to maximizing innovation and reducing complexity in technology components.

In this topical discussion we would discuss the recent research that highlights how efficiency plays a role in the data centre transformation from conventional gear to OCP and open source. We would provide specific examples of how local European VAR’s and Solution Providers are capitalising on the open hardware business model and how "Open Source Software deserves Open Hardware".