Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) has further extended its worldwide technology leadership by promoting Curt Beckmann to the role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Previously Principal Architect, in this new role Beckmann will be responsible for leading the company's technology strategy and product roadmap within the region, aligning technology initiatives and execution closely with customer needs.
Beckmann, with almost two decades' networking expertise, will also continue in his role as a leader in the Open Networking Foundation where he serves as chair of the Forwarding Abstractions Working Group. In this role he works closely with the world's leading experts on SDN and the OpenFlow Standard to advance software defined networking (SDN) concepts, frameworks, architecture, and standards.
Beckmann entered networking as a hardware architect at Bay Networks (later Nortel Networks) in 1995, developing customized chipsets for Ethernet switching and early Layer 3 gigabit switches. He moved on to manage and architect Fibre Channel storage virtualization and iSCSI/FCIP protocol-conversion system-on-a-chip ASIC designs as a member of the founding team at Rhapsody Networks, which was acquired by Brocade in 2003. He spent some years in product management before returning to engineering, where he focused on enhancing the OpenFlow Standard to accelerate hardware adoption of new features.
"We're already seeing customers in EMEA laying the foundations for SDN deployment in their data centers, to enable business growth and innovation," said Marcus Jewell, vice president EMEA at Brocade. "Curt is an industry veteran with the vision to help customers and partners understand how they can transform their existing networks. We are delighted to welcome him to the EMEA team."
According to Gartner, EMEA infrastructure spending in 2014 will be driven by data center modernization efforts and new data centers projects undertaken by both local and international companies.* In response to this customer requirement, key areas of focus for Beckmann will be network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN).
"Brocade is in a unique position to capture historic industry shifts and opportunities in software networking given its strong support of open networking standards and proven leadership in Ethernet fabrics," said Curt Beckmann. "I am thrilled to be joining the EMEA organization at such a pivotal time to be able to help our local customers and partners realize the benefits of this new network paradigm. The Brocade approach will help enterprises and service providers simplify the transition of their networks to drive new levels of business transformation."
Beckmann will be based in Paris, France, and report directly to Brocade vice president for EMEA, Marcus Jewell.
