IBM's premier event is digital this year: the Think Digital Event experience. The event takes place May 5-6 and is free for you to register! Today's
Champions in Action entry covers some of the IBM Champions who will be speakers at the event. Len Santalucia has been in technology since 1973 and has been an IBM Champion since #IBMZ joined the program. He is CTO and Business Development Manager at Vicom Infinity, Inc. and Chair of the Linux Foundation Open Mainframe Project. Len joins us to explain a bit
about his session at #Think2020 and what else he's working on.
Tell us a little bit about your session(s) for Think digital event this year.
My session #1964 is a panel on which I discuss the Vicom Infinity’s use case, VIVA Vicom Infinity Voice Assistant, developed to exploit IBM’s Hyper Protect Services solution. VIVA is the world’s first Enterprise System worthy voice assistant with superior security over alternatives such as Alexa and Google Home.
Are there other sessions at Think you're really excited to attend?
I am excited to hear IBM’s new CEO Arvind Krishna present IBM’s strategy and directions and what he believes the emerging technologies are for the foreseeable future.
What does it mean to you to be an IBM Champion?
It is an honor and pleasure to be an IBM Champion due to the recognition it provides for all my hard work and what it represents as an IBM Business partner among my colleagues and our company’s clients.
And what are you excited to be working on now?
We are collaborating with IBM on implementing the first Red Hat OpenShift installation on IBM LinuxONE and running z/VM at Syracuse University for the purpose of teaching future students this exciting hybrid multicloud technology and conducting joint projects with industry. In addition, we are also spearheading a z15 T02 ESP project with a client, testing and evaluating ISV and IBM security analytics and middleware under NDA, and providing the Linux Foundation Open Mainframe Project system resources on our BPIC z14 system for the greater cause of growing the Open Source IBM Z community. We are also co-developing with the Linux Foundation Open Mainframe Project a COBOL community force to be announced in late May 2020.
Do you have some favorite events (in person or virtual) to attend or recommend?
I like to attend and recommend
IBM Tech U, Marist College ECC, VM Workshop, IBM Academic Initiative Master the Mainframe events at colleges and universities, Linux Foundation Open Mainframe Summit, IBM zCouncils (which we co-sponsor with IBM across the USA), and any non-IBM Z events such as the WSTA and VOICE Summit which can provide good exposure of IBM Z technology to those not familiar with it.
Any last thoughts about Think?
Think 2020 will show the world that IBM is the world leader in technology but most importantly the most resilient entity on the planet in these challenging times.
Watch Len Santalucia's panel session, 1964 Hyper Protect your sensitive data and workloads on IBM CLoud, on-demand.
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