Over 35 digital infrastructure personalities speaking at the second IEIC Global NAP Summit in Henrico, Virginia which will include the official inauguration of the DE-CIX Richmond
HENRICO, Va., November 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC), an independent global committee that promotes Internet diversity and resilience through the formation of new global Internet hotspots, today announced that Zaid Kahn from Microsoft joined the board.
The EICR will host its second annual summit in henrico virginia on November 8e2022.Dr. Vint Cerf“Father of the Internet will deliver the keynote address followed by five panel discussions, a fireside chat and the groundbreaking ceremony for Richmond’s DE-CIX Internet Exchange, the most largest data center in the world and the carrier-neutral Internet exchange.
The event will feature over 35 digital infrastructure keynote speakers from six continents representing all digital infrastructure sub-sectors, including—Data centers, submarine cables, terrestrial fiber, Internet exchange, CDN and SDN. The event will bring together hundreds of leaders from industries such as Automotive, Finance, University, Banking, Healthcare and Hospitality.
“IEIC is an independent global committee, and I’m glad it attracts like-minded people who work to keep the Internet open and stable,” said Vint CerfChairman of the Board of Directors of the IEIC. “I have previously worked with Zaid to establish the Internet Society (ISOC) Chapter in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zaid is passionate about technology and the Internet, and I am delighted to welcome him to the within the Board of Directors of the IEIC.”
“What I like about the IEIC charter is the focus on building infrastructure and the right group of experts who currently sit on the board to guide a wider audience,” said Zaid Kahn, general manager of cloud AI and advanced systems engineering at Microsoft. “My past experience of developing Internet infrastructure will be useful for the IEIC cause and also for many aspects of what I am currently working on with advanced technologies at Microsoft. I want us to propel digital economies so that technology become much easier to reach as the company grows over time,” “Attending the upcoming IEIC Summit is very special to me, as I served as a member of the DE-CIX Board of Directors, and witnessing of the continued global expansion of their platform is an honor.”
“It was pioneers like Zaid who made the difference in the stability and inner workings of the internet,” said Vinay Nagpalexecutive director and founding member of the IEIC, and president of InterGlobix, LLC. “Usually we take for granted that the internet works, but there is hard work being done behind the scenes to keep the internet running. I welcome Zaid to the IEIC Board of Directors and look forward to collaborate with him on the diversification of the Internet and the creation of more interconnection hubs. The next summit will be a great and unique opportunity not only for Henrico but for the whole Commonwealth of Virginia to learn more about the economic impacts and benefits to local businesses of rapidly evolving digital infrastructure. I encourage everyone to take this opportunity to meet the luminaries of internet infrastructure from various parts of the world.”
The full summit program also includes the DE-CIX Richmond ribbon-cutting ceremony. DE-CIX Richmond is the company’s 5e Internet exchange in North America providing low-latency Layer 2 connectivity between Richmond, New York, dallas, Phoenixand Chicagocreating the largest carrier and data center neutral interconnect ecosystem North America. Customers connected to the DE-CIX North America interconnect ecosystem can also connect to DE-CIX IXs across the Atlantic.
Additional information about the summit is available at: https://ieicco.com/summit-2-0/
About Zaid Kahn
Zaid Kahn is currently the General Manager (GM) of Cloud, AI & Advanced Systems Engineering at Microsoft, where he leads a team focusing on advanced architecture and engineering efforts for Microsoft’s AI infrastructure. Zaid is part of Microsoft’s technical leadership team defining an AI hardware strategy for training and inference. Zaid’s team is also responsible for software and hardware engineering efforts to develop specialized computing systems, artificial intelligence and network accelerators, and advanced networking technologies in the 400/800G space. Prior to Microsoft, Zaid was Head of Infrastructure at LinkedIn, where he was responsible for all aspects of architecture and engineering for data centers, networking, compute, storage and hardware. Zaid has also led several software development teams focused on building and managing infrastructure as code. This included zero-touch provisioning, software-defined networking, network operating systems (SONiC), self-healing networks, backbone controller, software-defined storage, and distributed firewalls based on the host. Network teams led by Zaid built the global network for LinkedIn, including POPs, peering for edge services, IPv6 implementation, DWDM infrastructure, and data center network fabric. Zaid-led hardware and data center engineering teams were responsible for rack water cooling, fiber optic infrastructure, and open hardware development that contributed to the Open Compute Foundation (OCP). Zaid holds multiple networking patents and is a sought-after speaker at high profile conferences and events. Zaid holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Physics from the Southern University Peaceful.
About the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Board
The IEIC is an independent committee that promotes Internet diversity by creating new global Internet connection points. IEIC’s mission is to partner with communities around the world to create new Internet hotspots through public and private partnerships with local municipalities, universities and businesses. The founding members of the IEIC are industry luminaries from many of the world’s most respected companies and leaders, including: Vint Cerf/Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Clint Heyden/IEIC, Vinay Nagpal/InterGlobix, Steve Alexander/Ciena (NYSE:CIEN), Raphael Arranz/ Telxius, Jason Black/NVIDIA (NYSE: NVDA), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), boxer brand/Cigna (NYSE: CI), Barbara Boyan/Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Andre Dugan/CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), Staffan Gojeryd/Carrier Telia (TPE: TEL1L), Brent Bensten/QTS, Asher Kagan/Blade, Vinay Kanitkar/Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), Sarah Keller/Uber (NYSE: UBER), Athanasios (Sakis) Kitsopanidis /Ford (NYSE: F) Michael Leidinger/Hilton (NYSE: HLT), Steve Alexander/Ciena (NYSE: CIEN), Krishna Narayanaswamy/Netskope, Frank Nazzaro/FreddieMac, Anthony Romanello/Henrico Economic Development Authority, and Zaid Khan/Microsoft. For more information visit: www.ieicco.com
IEIC media contact:
Carter B. Cromley
(703) 861-7245 | cromley@cox.net
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SOURCE Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC)