| Page 146 | Kisaco Research
Networking

Author:

Ashwin Gumaste

Principal Architect Azure Network Hardware
Microsoft

Ashwin Gumaste is an AI Architect at Microsoft. He specializes in building AI systems, scaling networks, and model estimation. Before joining Microsoft, Ashwin held key roles at Infinera, Cisco, and Fujitsu, as well as academic positions at IIT Bombay and MIT. Earlier in his career at IIT Bombay, he designed, developed, and successfully commercialized carrier Ethernet switch routers, earning India's highest science and technology honor, the Bhatnagar Prize. A distinguished fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences in India, Ashwin has made significant contributions to AI and network engineering. He has authored three books, published 215 peer-reviewed papers, and holds 28 granted patents.

 

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Ashwin Gumaste

Principal Architect Azure Network Hardware
Microsoft

Ashwin Gumaste is an AI Architect at Microsoft. He specializes in building AI systems, scaling networks, and model estimation. Before joining Microsoft, Ashwin held key roles at Infinera, Cisco, and Fujitsu, as well as academic positions at IIT Bombay and MIT. Earlier in his career at IIT Bombay, he designed, developed, and successfully commercialized carrier Ethernet switch routers, earning India's highest science and technology honor, the Bhatnagar Prize. A distinguished fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences in India, Ashwin has made significant contributions to AI and network engineering. He has authored three books, published 215 peer-reviewed papers, and holds 28 granted patents.

 

Author:

Dudy Cohen

VP Product Marketing
Drivenets

Dudy is a qualified manager and technology expert, with more than 30 years of experience in the networking industry. As a senior AI networking expert, he partners closely with the product and engineering teams to shape DriveNets’ vision for AI Networking, helping to deliver the high performance of a proprietary solution with a standards-based Ethernet implementation that provides unrivaled performance. Previously, Dudy served as the VP of Product Marketing at Ceragon. He also served as a Director of Solutions Engineering at Alvarion Ltd. Dudy holds an M.Sc.-E.E degree from the Tel Aviv University.

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Dudy Cohen

VP Product Marketing
Drivenets

Dudy is a qualified manager and technology expert, with more than 30 years of experience in the networking industry. As a senior AI networking expert, he partners closely with the product and engineering teams to shape DriveNets’ vision for AI Networking, helping to deliver the high performance of a proprietary solution with a standards-based Ethernet implementation that provides unrivaled performance. Previously, Dudy served as the VP of Product Marketing at Ceragon. He also served as a Director of Solutions Engineering at Alvarion Ltd. Dudy holds an M.Sc.-E.E degree from the Tel Aviv University.

Author:

Dave Lazovsky

Co-Founder & CEO
Celestial

Dave Lazovsky is the Co-founder and CEO of Celestial AI, the creators of the Photonic FabricTM. Celestial AI, founded in April 2020, has developed the optical interconnectivity technology platform for AI computing.

Prior to founding Celestial AI, Mr. Lazovsky was a Venture Partner at Khosla Ventures. He has 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and over two decades of experience building and leading successful start-ups. In 2004 Mr. Lazovsky founded Intermolecular, a semiconductor and clean energy R&D and Intellectual Property licensing company. He served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and as a member of the board of directors from September 2004 through October 2014.

As President and CEO, Mr. Lazovsky led all aspects of the business through its lifecycle from early-stage start-up to public company. Intermolecular (IMI) went public on the NASDAQ in 2011. He currently has over 80 issued and pending U.S. patents.

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Dave Lazovsky

Co-Founder & CEO
Celestial

Dave Lazovsky is the Co-founder and CEO of Celestial AI, the creators of the Photonic FabricTM. Celestial AI, founded in April 2020, has developed the optical interconnectivity technology platform for AI computing.

Prior to founding Celestial AI, Mr. Lazovsky was a Venture Partner at Khosla Ventures. He has 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and over two decades of experience building and leading successful start-ups. In 2004 Mr. Lazovsky founded Intermolecular, a semiconductor and clean energy R&D and Intellectual Property licensing company. He served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and as a member of the board of directors from September 2004 through October 2014.

As President and CEO, Mr. Lazovsky led all aspects of the business through its lifecycle from early-stage start-up to public company. Intermolecular (IMI) went public on the NASDAQ in 2011. He currently has over 80 issued and pending U.S. patents.

Author:

Charlie Fu

Technical Director, High-Speed Optical Interconnect
Amphenol

Charlie Fu is an optoelectronics veteran with over 30 years of leadership experience spanning global industry leaders such as Lumentum, Harris, Nortel, and JDSU, as well as two innovative startup ventures. He currently serves as Technical Director of High-Speed Optical Interconnect Solutions at Amphenol ACS, where he leads the strategic development of next-generation optical technologies for AI and high-performance computing applications.

Throughout his career, Charlie has consistently demonstrated a unique ability to bridge deep technical knowledge with strong business insight—delivering impactful product roadmaps and driving widespread market adoption. He holds a Ph.D. in Optics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a B.S. in Optoelectronics from Tsinghua University. He is the named inventor on ten U.S. patents, has authored more than ten journal papers as well as a technical book.

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Charlie Fu

Technical Director, High-Speed Optical Interconnect
Amphenol

Charlie Fu is an optoelectronics veteran with over 30 years of leadership experience spanning global industry leaders such as Lumentum, Harris, Nortel, and JDSU, as well as two innovative startup ventures. He currently serves as Technical Director of High-Speed Optical Interconnect Solutions at Amphenol ACS, where he leads the strategic development of next-generation optical technologies for AI and high-performance computing applications.

Throughout his career, Charlie has consistently demonstrated a unique ability to bridge deep technical knowledge with strong business insight—delivering impactful product roadmaps and driving widespread market adoption. He holds a Ph.D. in Optics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a B.S. in Optoelectronics from Tsinghua University. He is the named inventor on ten U.S. patents, has authored more than ten journal papers as well as a technical book.

Author:

Sherman Ikemoto

Group Director
Cadence

Sherman Ikemoto is the Sales Development Group Director at Cadence Design Systems, where he leads global business development for the innovative Reality DC Digital Twin solution. With a passion for addressing challenges in data center design, performance, and sustainability, Sherman brings extensive expertise to the forefront of this critical industry. Previously, Sherman served as Managing Director and Board Member at Future Facilities, the pioneer of the original data center Digital Twin, and as North America Sales and Marketing Director at Flomerics, where he helped introduce computational fluid dynamics modeling to electronics cooling design. During his tenure at Future Facilities, Sherman was a sought-after speaker at prominent industry events like ITW, Data Center World, Uptime Symposium, and Data Center Dynamics. Sherman holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from San Jose State University, where he was a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) from Santa Clara University. His career reflects a deep commitment to advancing sustainable and efficient technologies for the data center industry.

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Sherman Ikemoto

Group Director
Cadence

Sherman Ikemoto is the Sales Development Group Director at Cadence Design Systems, where he leads global business development for the innovative Reality DC Digital Twin solution. With a passion for addressing challenges in data center design, performance, and sustainability, Sherman brings extensive expertise to the forefront of this critical industry. Previously, Sherman served as Managing Director and Board Member at Future Facilities, the pioneer of the original data center Digital Twin, and as North America Sales and Marketing Director at Flomerics, where he helped introduce computational fluid dynamics modeling to electronics cooling design. During his tenure at Future Facilities, Sherman was a sought-after speaker at prominent industry events like ITW, Data Center World, Uptime Symposium, and Data Center Dynamics. Sherman holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from San Jose State University, where he was a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) from Santa Clara University. His career reflects a deep commitment to advancing sustainable and efficient technologies for the data center industry.

Autonomy
Robotics
On-Device ML
Enterprise Use Case

Author:

Eliana Stefani

Staff Autonomy & AI Research Engineer
Lockheed Martin

Eliana Stefani, PhD is a Staff Autonomy & AI Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin, with expertise in autonomous systems, AI, and robotics. She has experience architecting solutions to complex problems, leading teams across engineering disciplines, and deploying artificially intelligent systems to the edge. 
 
As Principal Investigator, she architected the autonomy stack and developed novel autonomous driving software for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, enabling a rover to navigate dynamic obstacles while traversing unmapped environments; garnering interest from additional customers. 
 
As Program Manager and later Chief Engineer, she architected system design, led a multi-disciplinary engineering team from research concept to successful test events, guided the program to a contract win, and interfaced with customers and stakeholders. 
 
Dr. Stefani's strong track record of delivering high-impact results and driving program success has been recognized with multiple awards from within Lockheed Martin. She has presented at conferences including NVIDIA's GTC-DC and Amazon's re:MARS. 

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Eliana Stefani

Staff Autonomy & AI Research Engineer
Lockheed Martin

Eliana Stefani, PhD is a Staff Autonomy & AI Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin, with expertise in autonomous systems, AI, and robotics. She has experience architecting solutions to complex problems, leading teams across engineering disciplines, and deploying artificially intelligent systems to the edge. 
 
As Principal Investigator, she architected the autonomy stack and developed novel autonomous driving software for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, enabling a rover to navigate dynamic obstacles while traversing unmapped environments; garnering interest from additional customers. 
 
As Program Manager and later Chief Engineer, she architected system design, led a multi-disciplinary engineering team from research concept to successful test events, guided the program to a contract win, and interfaced with customers and stakeholders. 
 
Dr. Stefani's strong track record of delivering high-impact results and driving program success has been recognized with multiple awards from within Lockheed Martin. She has presented at conferences including NVIDIA's GTC-DC and Amazon's re:MARS. 

Networking

Author:

Matthew Burns

Global Director, Technical Marketing
Samtec

Matthew Burns develops go-to-market strategies for Samtec’s Silicon-to-Silicon solutions. Over the course of 25 years, he has been a leader in design, applications engineering, technical sales and marketing in the telecommunications, medical and electronic components industries. He currently serves as Secretary at PICMG. Mr. Burns holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University.

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Matthew Burns

Global Director, Technical Marketing
Samtec

Matthew Burns develops go-to-market strategies for Samtec’s Silicon-to-Silicon solutions. Over the course of 25 years, he has been a leader in design, applications engineering, technical sales and marketing in the telecommunications, medical and electronic components industries. He currently serves as Secretary at PICMG. Mr. Burns holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University.

Author:

Chris Sharp

CTO
Digital Realty

Chris Sharp has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, with an extensive background in developing technology strategies in global markets. He has a deep knowledge of the data center sector and is well positioned to expand technical innovation at Digital Realty.

Most recently, he was responsible for cloud innovation at Equinix, where he led the development of innovative cloud services solutions and developed new capabilities enabling next-generation, high-performance exchange, and interconnection solutions, facilitating broad commercial adoption of cloud computing on a global basis.

Previously, Chris held leadership positions at top network and colocation providers, including Qwest Communications, MCI/Verizon Business and Reliance Globalcom.

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Chris Sharp

CTO
Digital Realty

Chris Sharp has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, with an extensive background in developing technology strategies in global markets. He has a deep knowledge of the data center sector and is well positioned to expand technical innovation at Digital Realty.

Most recently, he was responsible for cloud innovation at Equinix, where he led the development of innovative cloud services solutions and developed new capabilities enabling next-generation, high-performance exchange, and interconnection solutions, facilitating broad commercial adoption of cloud computing on a global basis.

Previously, Chris held leadership positions at top network and colocation providers, including Qwest Communications, MCI/Verizon Business and Reliance Globalcom.

When it comes to AI, inference is how today’s gen AI models can solve real-world business problems. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is seeing an increasing adoption of gen AI inference. In this session, discover how GKE empowers customers to achieve high-performance, cost-effective, and scalable AI inference through cutting-edge Gen AI inference innovations.Plus, hear directly from one of our customers on how they are solving their AI/ML needs on GKE.

Data Privacy & Governance
Gen AI

Author:

Nathan Beach

Director, Product Management
Google Cloud

Nathan Beach is Director of Product Management for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). He leads the product team working to make GKE a great platform on which to run AI workloads. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and, prior to Google, led his own startup. He is a builder and creator passionate about making products that superbly meet user needs. He enjoys career coaching and mentoring, and he is eager to help others transition into product management and excel in their careers.

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Nathan Beach

Director, Product Management
Google Cloud

Nathan Beach is Director of Product Management for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). He leads the product team working to make GKE a great platform on which to run AI workloads. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and, prior to Google, led his own startup. He is a builder and creator passionate about making products that superbly meet user needs. He enjoys career coaching and mentoring, and he is eager to help others transition into product management and excel in their careers.

Networking

Author:

Dave Lazovsky

Co-Founder & CEO
Celestial

Dave Lazovsky is the Co-founder and CEO of Celestial AI, the creators of the Photonic FabricTM. Celestial AI, founded in April 2020, has developed the optical interconnectivity technology platform for AI computing.

Prior to founding Celestial AI, Mr. Lazovsky was a Venture Partner at Khosla Ventures. He has 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and over two decades of experience building and leading successful start-ups. In 2004 Mr. Lazovsky founded Intermolecular, a semiconductor and clean energy R&D and Intellectual Property licensing company. He served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and as a member of the board of directors from September 2004 through October 2014.

As President and CEO, Mr. Lazovsky led all aspects of the business through its lifecycle from early-stage start-up to public company. Intermolecular (IMI) went public on the NASDAQ in 2011. He currently has over 80 issued and pending U.S. patents.

... read more

Dave Lazovsky

Co-Founder & CEO
Celestial

Dave Lazovsky is the Co-founder and CEO of Celestial AI, the creators of the Photonic FabricTM. Celestial AI, founded in April 2020, has developed the optical interconnectivity technology platform for AI computing.

Prior to founding Celestial AI, Mr. Lazovsky was a Venture Partner at Khosla Ventures. He has 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and over two decades of experience building and leading successful start-ups. In 2004 Mr. Lazovsky founded Intermolecular, a semiconductor and clean energy R&D and Intellectual Property licensing company. He served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and as a member of the board of directors from September 2004 through October 2014.

As President and CEO, Mr. Lazovsky led all aspects of the business through its lifecycle from early-stage start-up to public company. Intermolecular (IMI) went public on the NASDAQ in 2011. He currently has over 80 issued and pending U.S. patents.

Author:

Ram Velaga

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Core Switching Group
Broadcom

Ram Velaga is Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Core Switching Group at  Broadcom, responsible for the company’s extensive Ethernet switch portfolio serving broad markets including the service provider, data center and enterprise segments. Prior to joining Broadcom in 2012, he served in a variety of product management roles at Cisco Systems, including Vice President of Product Management for the Data Center Technology Group. Mr. Velaga earned an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. Mr. Velaga holds patents in communications and virtual infrastructure.

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Ram Velaga

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Core Switching Group
Broadcom

Ram Velaga is Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Core Switching Group at  Broadcom, responsible for the company’s extensive Ethernet switch portfolio serving broad markets including the service provider, data center and enterprise segments. Prior to joining Broadcom in 2012, he served in a variety of product management roles at Cisco Systems, including Vice President of Product Management for the Data Center Technology Group. Mr. Velaga earned an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. Mr. Velaga holds patents in communications and virtual infrastructure.