Abstract:
Service providers and enterprises are eager to deploy new mobile and broadband applications and services comprised of voice, data and rich media communications capabilities. The business case for deployment of these new services must be justified not only on the basis of user productivity gains, but also reduction in capital and human investment for services creation, management and operations.

Today, many communications services are based on a vertically integrated monolithic architecture making service creation, deployment, and operation a costly and slow process in terms of both capital and human resources. With the proliferation of IP technologies and open software platforms, it is possible to provide a platform where new services can be created by composing common components and operated using open interfaces and standard tools and management platforms - a concept known as “service oriented architecture”.

This talk addresses some the key challenges towards a service oriented networking architecture that builds on componentized building blocks for service creation, deployment, and management. It exemplifies the systematic approach towards intelligent networking where new services and associated operations support systems are created by discovering and composing available component services provided by one or more service providers.

Biography:
Hamid is the Vice President, Technology & CTO in the Global Communications Sector at IBM Corporation. As lead CTO for the sector, he is responsible for formulating and driving a growth program with the industry GMs and MDs. He is the sector relationship manager for innovation through Extreme Blue, Venture Capital, ISVs, and IBM Research. In addition, helping customers transform their IT infrastructures, help IBM build the opportunity & IBM capability, secure customer commitments and customer buy-in. He is looking at innovative ways to drive big changes across divisional lines for S&D, SWG, ISG.

Prior to his current position, Hamid was the Director of Autonomic Computing and Networking Services at IBM Research Division. He was responsible for setting strategy, direction and overseeing scientists and engineers doing exploratory and applied research in these fields and to make sure that research contributions are fully connected with IBM strategy and technology and services.

Prior to re-joining IBM, Hamid was Vice President of the Global Network and IP Services Planning and Development organizations at AT&T Labs for 5 years. The Global Network and IP Services Planning and Development groups were comprised of all the systems engineering, design, and planning, supporting the needs of the Network through service applications (layer 1 – layer 7) in support of Connectivity and Managed Services customers. The group was responsible for developing AT&T’s transport network and services, AT&T’s IP (Internet Protocol) backbone, Frame Relay and ATM networks and services, voice over IP solutions and broadband access services. Hamid was also Vice President and Chief Technology Architect, Internet and Networking Systems. Hamid was also responsible for the creation of the highly visible AT&T Center for Internet Research (ACIRI) in joint collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley in February 1999 and a new networking research and development group in AT&T Labs, Menlo Park, CA.

Prior to joining AT&T, he was with IBM for 15 years, where he was the Director of Security and Networking Research at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. His department there was responsible for research in the areas of communications systems, fast packet switching architecture, IP and data networks, directory enabled networking, ARIS project, mobile and optical networking, cryptography, Internet security and electronic commerce. He was responsible for research and development efforts that led to two IBM Wireless LAN products (SAMBA and FENWAY). He was also co-inventor of IBM Prizma Switch technology that has been deployed in several gigaswitch routers such as Celox Networks and Alcatel. In 1994, he was the recipient of IBM’s Outstanding Innovation Award for Prizma Switch technology.

Hamid is an IEEE Fellow. He serves on the Board of Directors of Packeteer®, Inc. (NASDAQ: PKTR), a leading provider of application performance infrastructure systems. He also served on the advisory board of MessageOne, a company based in Austin, TX which does network management software and monitoring for enterprise mail system, and Lemur Networks, a company that builds and markets robust middleware solutions for service providers. He is on the Industry Advisory Board of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park and was an Executive Board Member of the International Computer Science Institute at University of California, Berkeley. He served as founding editor-in-chief of the IEEE Personal Communications Magazine, guest editor for the IEEE JSAC and was technical editor for the IEEE transaction on communications. He is also adjunct faculty at Polytechnic University of NY.

Hamid received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY, in 1976, 1978, and 1983, respectively.