As founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Techstrong Group, Alan manages a broad array of businesses and brands including Techstrong Media, Techstrong Live, Techstrong Research, Devops.com, Security Boulevard, Techstrong TV, and Techstrong Learning. To do so and succeed, Alan has to be attuned to the world of technology, particularly DevOps, cybersecurity, cloud-native and digital transformation.
With almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, Alan has been instrumental in the success of several organizations.
Shimel is an often-cited personality in the security and technology community and is a sought-after speaker at conferences and events. In addition to his writing, his DevOps Chat podcast, TechStrong TV and Digital Anarchist audio and video appearances are widely followed.
Alan attributes his success to the combination of a strong business background and a deep knowledge of technology. His legal background, long experience in the field and New York street smarts combine to form a unique personality.
Mr. Shimel is a graduate of St. John's University with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics, and holds a JD degree from NY Law School.
Mitch Ashley is VP and Practice Lead of DevOps and Application Development for The Futurum Group. Mitch has over 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, industry analyst, product development and IT leader, with expertise in software engineering, cybersecurity, DevOps, DevSecOps, cloud, and AI. Mitch comes to The Futurum Group through the acquisition of Techstrong Group (devops.com, securityboulevard.com, and techstrong.tv), where he serves as CTO and founder of Techstrong Research.
As a Chief Technology Advisor, CTO, CIO, and head of engineering, Mitch led the creation of award-winning cybersecurity products utilized in the private and public sectors, including the U.S. Department of Defense and all military branches. Mitch also led managed PKI services for broadband, Wi-Fi, IoT, energy management and 5G industries, product certification test labs, an online SaaS (93m transactions annually), the development of video-on-demand and Internet cable services, and a national broadband network. He began his career creating large banking and telecom applications and building AI expert systems.
Having led his first of three introductions of DevOps in 2014 and the modernization of three IT organizations, Mitch shares his experiences as an analyst, keynote and conference speaker, panelist, host, moderator, and expert interviewer. His talks cover some of the most in-demand topics, including CIO/CTO leadership, product and software development, DevOps, DevSecOps, containerization, container orchestration, AI/ML/GenAI, platform engineering, SRE, and cybersecurity. He publishes his research on FuturumGroup.com/ and TechstrongResearch.com/resources. He hosts multiple award-winning video and podcast series, including DevOps Unbound, CISO Talk, and Techstrong Gang.
Mike Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist with over 25 years of experience. He also contributed to IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, Baseline and a variety of other IT titles. Previously, Vizard was the editorial director at Ziff-Davis Enterprise as well as editor-in-chief at CRN and InfoWorld.
Community leader and CNCF ambassador, Alessandro has spent the last few years building cloud-native infrastructures for Microsoft customers, animating the Dutch community, and training others to pass the CKx exams. He has a passion for all things cloud native, he's been around open source for 25 years and recently moved to a new developer relations role at Solo.io, where he's on a mission to install a service mesh in every Kubernetes cluster he gets his hands on.
Arpit is a senior partner solution architect working with Global System Integrators to help with Enterprise Transformations and Migrate workloads from on-premise to cloud. Arpit helps large organizations accelerate cloud adoption and build secure, resilient, scalable and high-performance cloud applications. Arpit enjoys cycling, following cricket and spending time with his family.
Ganesh Kumar is a Practice Lead in Agile Infrastructure CoE for Cognitive Business Operations at TATA Consultancy Services (TCS). He is based out of India and has 12+ years of IT experience in Consulting, Solution Design & Implementation of Containers, Kubernetes and Hybrid Cloud solutions.
Danielle Cook is a VP at Fairwinds, a provider of Kubernetes governance software. Danielle has worked in the cloud native industry since 2016 helping organizations adopt the technologies that make cloud native enterprise ready. She helped author the Fairwinds Kubernetes Maturity Model, and co-authored and launched the CNCF Cloud Native Maturity Model in 2021. She is a co-chair of the CNCF Cartografos Working Group and co-author of the CNCF book Admiral Bash's Island Adventure with Phippy + Friends.
Mostafa Radwan is a technology consultant focused on cloud and cloud-native technologies. He started his career as a Java software engineer before getting in the trenches of application and production support. For the past several years he has been helping enterprises adopt DevOps and cloud-native technologies to drive better business outcomes. When not tinkering with technology or serving clients, Mostafa likes to read, bike, and travel the world with his family.
Caroline Wong is a renowned cybersecurity strategist and author with nearly two decades of experience in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), product innovation, and team leadership. Her book, Security Metrics: A Beginner’s Guide, was inducted into the Cybersecurity Canon Hall of Fame in 2022. Caroline is also a sought-after speaker, podcast host, and LinkedIn Learning instructor, known for empowering professionals with actionable insights.
Sergio Méndez is a systems engineer and professor of operating systems at USAC Guatemala University. He has experience working on DevOps, and MLOps using open-source technologies at work. About open source communities, he is involved in the CNCF Community, promoting students into the CNCF Ecosystem and hosting a Cloud Native meetup in Guatemala. He has been a speaker at several conferences such as KubeCon, WTFisCloudNative, and Kubernetes Community Days. He is also a CNCF and Linkerd Ambassador and author of the Packt book Edge Computing Systems with Kubernetes.
Chris Aniszczyk is an open-source executive and engineer with a passion for building a better world through open collaboration. He's currently a CTO at the Linux Foundation focused on developer relations and running the Open Container Initiative (OCI)/Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). He's also a partner at Capital Factory where he focuses on mentoring, advising and investing in open-source and infrastructure-focused startups.
At Twitter, he created their open source program and led their open source efforts. For many years he served on the Eclipse Foundation's board of directors representing the committer community and the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee. In a previous life, he bootstrapped a consulting company, made many mistakes, led and hacked on many eclipse.org and Linux-related projects.
At Twitter, he created their open source program and led their open source efforts. For many years he served on the Eclipse Foundation's board of directors representing the committer community and the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee. In a previous life, he bootstrapped a consulting company, made many mistakes, led and hacked on many eclipse.org and Linux-related projects.
Thomas Lawless is a senior technical staff member (STSM) for IBM. He is responsible for the IBM CIO's common CI/CD platform and developer experience. He is passionate about building healthy engineering cultures in large engineering organizations.
IBM fellow, CIO and DevSecOps CTO Rosalind Radcliffe is responsible for driving DevSecOps and application modernization transformation for the IBM CIO office with the goal of making the CIO office the showcase for hybrid cloud. In this role she works across the CIO office and partners with research and development to drive the adoption of common practices and tools. Ultimately this effort will transform, standardize and automate the processes, tools and methodologies used to make IBM the most secure, agile, efficient and automated hybrid cloud engineering organization.
In her prior role she was responsible for bringing open modern toolchains to the z/OS platform and working with clients on their DevOps transformations. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, a master inventor, a member of the IBM Academy of Technology and the author of Enterprise Bug Busting.
In her prior role she was responsible for bringing open modern toolchains to the z/OS platform and working with clients on their DevOps transformations. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, a master inventor, a member of the IBM Academy of Technology and the author of Enterprise Bug Busting.
Hi, I'm Sharone Zitzman, a marketing technologist and open source community builder, who likes to work with engineering teams that are building products that developers love. I have experience in deep tech, developer relations and product marketing (the other side of the coin), with expertise in open source, DevOps, and cloud native technology. Having built both the DevOps Israel and Cloud Native Israel communities from the ground up, today I spend my time finding the places where technology and people intersect and ensuring that this is an excellent experience by empowering engineering organizations and brands, improving developer experience of products, simplifying user journeys, and bringing excellent technology and people together.
Ory Segal is a world-renowned expert in application security, with 20 years of experience in the field. Ory is the CTO of Prisma Cloud at Palo Alto Networks overseeing technology vision and security research. He came to Palo Alto through the acquisition of his previous company PureSec, which enabled organizations to secure serverless applications. Prior to PureSec, Ory was senior director of threat research at Akamai, where he led a team of top web security and big data researchers. Prior to Akamai, Ory worked at IBM as the security products architect and product manager for the market-leading application security solution IBM Security AppScan. Ory has authored 30 patents in the field of application security, static analysis, dynamic analysis, threat reputation and cloud security. Ory is a regular conference presenter at conferences such as Blackhat, OWASP, CodeBlue and Gartner Security Summit.
BMK is a highly accomplished IT professional with an impressive track record spanning over 25 years. His extensive experience encompasses Software Development and training, Solution Architecture and design, and strategic consulting. Passionate about innovation and perpetual improvement, BMK has established himself as a sought-after advisor for senior IT leadership teams, including executives.
Fueled by strategic technical acumen and leadership prowess, BMK has cultivated enduring relationships, consistently achieving goals while forging collaborations with stakeholders across the spectrum. His global network of thought leaders, influencers, authors, and practitioners underscores his status as a highly respected professional.
BMK's forward-thinking approach, technical mastery, and keen foresight set him apart as an industry trailblazer. His ability to align with vendors and partners complements his proficiency in driving innovation. Widely recognized within the speaker circuit, BMK has graced platforms like DevOps Enterprise Summit, AllDayDevOps, DevOpsWorld, CloudNative Now, and Global SKILUp Days, captivating audiences with his insightful presentations.
Beyond his professional pursuits, BMK is a dedicated mentor and advocate for community engagement. His contributions extend beyond New Zealand as he serves as a CNCF, DevOps Institute, and Continuous Delivery Ambassador. He also takes on the role of a board advisor for the Value Stream Consortium, Team Topologies Advocate, demonstrating his commitment to shaping industry standards."
Papers:
My blog:
https://bmk.nz/
https://bmk.nz/2023/03/07/the-brutal-truth-developer-experience-challenges-in-non-tech-enterprises/
https://bmk.nz/2020/03/16/our-devops-journey-is-incomplete-without-data/
My contribution to the 60th Year of NZ ICT / ITP book chapter: https://history.itp.nz/part-1/lakshminarayan.html
My blog post on InfoQ by an InfoQ analyst: https://www.infoq.com/news/2023/03/devex-nontechnical-enterprises/
Shannon Lietz is a 30+ year award-winning technology and security industry veteran. She is currently a member of It's 5:05 the Podcast and a startup founder.
Previously, she was the vice president of product and software security at Adobe, driving the security of Adobe's products and software ecosystem. Ms. Lietz has held numerous roles throughout her career with a focus on offensive security, application security, cloud security, DevSecOps and threat intelligence. In her recent role, Ms. Lietz operated a 24x7 DevSecOps team that specialized in adversary management at Intuit.
Shannon has worked for and consulted with many of the Fortune 500. Her work has been instrumental in changing how companies implement software security and has brought critical focus to security metrics. She holds 40+ cloud security patents, is a startup advisor, community whisperer, a member of the RSA Program Committee, Glynn 100 and dedicates time to mentoring and coaching. Ms. Lietz is an IANS faculty member and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Mary’s College.
Pete Chestna serves as the CISO of North America at Checkmarx, where he provides customers and prospects with practical advice for building successful application security programs. Bringing more than 16 years of direct AppSec practitioner experience, Pete has held roles ranging from developer and development leader to his most recent position as the global head of AppSec for the Bank of Montreal where he was responsible for the security of thousands of applications.
Over his years as a software engineer and engineering leader, Pete has led organizational transformations from waterfall to Agile to DevOps and from monolith to microservice architectures. He is certified as both a scrum master and product owner. Stemming from his experience as both an avid practitioner and consultant, Pete has spoken internationally at numerous prominent security and developer conferences including DevOpsDays, All Day DevOps, OWASP AppSec, Security BSides and DevSecCon.
Pete has been granted three patents. He enjoys whiskey tourism, astronomy, model rocketry and listening to Rush in his spare time.
Over his years as a software engineer and engineering leader, Pete has led organizational transformations from waterfall to Agile to DevOps and from monolith to microservice architectures. He is certified as both a scrum master and product owner. Stemming from his experience as both an avid practitioner and consultant, Pete has spoken internationally at numerous prominent security and developer conferences including DevOpsDays, All Day DevOps, OWASP AppSec, Security BSides and DevSecCon.
Pete has been granted three patents. He enjoys whiskey tourism, astronomy, model rocketry and listening to Rush in his spare time.
Scott Kelly is a senior product marketing manager at Chronosphere. Previously, Scott was in product marketing at VMware (via the Pivotal acquisition) where he worked on the Tanzu Observability (Wavefront) team and partnered on go-to-market efforts for VMware’s Tanzu portfolio with AWS and Microsoft Azure. Before VMware, Scott spent three years in product marketing at Dynatrace. In his free time, you’ll find Scott at his local CrossFit “box”, doing home improvement projects and spending time with his family enjoying Naples, Florida, where he lives.
