In-Memory Computing Summit Q&A
By Terry Erisman, Vice President of Marketing, GridGain Systems
Q1. Who benefits from In-Memory Computing?
Companies are increasingly implementing web-scale applications or Internet of Things (IoT) applications as a part of their digital transformation. These transformations result in massive amounts of data which require real-time analysis to drive improved end user experiences and reduced costs. In-memory computing offers the speed, scale and high availability necessary to address these challenges and benefits any company that is facing these new challenges. In particular, we’ve seen strong adoption of in-memory computing in industries including financial services, fintech, online travel, software, IoT, retail, healthcare, and telecom.
Q2. How did the idea of the In-Memory Computing Summits come about? Why did GridGain Systems launch the conference series?
The In-Memory Computing Summits are the only industry-wide events of their kind, tailored to in-memory computing-related technologies and solutions. They were launched three years ago in Silicon Valley after we searched for conferences devoted to in-memory computing and were surprised to find that none existed. The inaugural In-Memory Computing Summit, held in San Francisco in 2015, drew more than 150 attendees.
The following year the summit drew 300 registrants. Interest in in-memory computing continues to climb. We had over 200 attendees for our inaugural European summit, and we expect that the 2017 Summit in Silicon Valley, slated for October 24-25, will draw many more attendees than the prior years’ events.
Q3. Who typically attends the conferences?
Attendees of the In-Memory Computing Summits include IT decision makers, IT implementers, architects, and developers who make or influence purchasing decisions in the areas of in-memory computing, Big Data, Fast Data, IoT and HPC.
Attendees include CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, VPs, IT directors, IT managers, data scientists, senior engineers, senior developers, architects and more.
Q4. Tell us more about the In-Memory Computing Europe 2017 Summit held this past June in Amsterdam.
The first two In-Memory Computing Summits in Silicon Valley were wildly successful, and given the very strong interest in in-memory computing technologies in Europe, we decided to launch a European Summit this year. The European summit turned out to be a great success. Over two hundred attendees from 24 countries gathered to hear keynotes and breakout sessions on a broad range of in-memory computing topics, presented by representatives of companies including ING, Barclays, Misys, Intel, NetApp, Fujitsu and JacTravel. The speakers discussed topics ranging from in-memory computing for financial services, web-scale applications, and the Internet of Things to the state of non-volatile memory technology.
Q5. Who spoke at the European IMC Summit?
All of the keynote speakers are preeminent experts in the field of in-memory computing technology and adoption.
To give a sense of the caliber of companies and the types of topics, I’ll highlight just a few of the excellent speakers who presented keynotes at the event. Felix Grevy from Misys discussed a new platform for collaboration between fintechs, academics and the finance industry. Chris Goodall from CG Consultancy addressed high performance, high efficiency web application scaling for the travel industry. Alex McDonald from NetApp shared information about the Storage Networking Industry Association and emerging persistent memory technologies. The CEO of GridGain Systems, Abe Kleinfeld, spoke about in-memory computing, digital transformation and the future of business. We also had a compelling panel in which speakers from Barclay’s, CG Consultancy, ING and FSB Technology shared their views on the future of in-memory computing.
You can find videos of the keynotes here: https://imcsummit.org/eu/agenda/keynotes
Q6. What in-memory computing-related technologies and solutions were presented?
Speakers discussed the full range of in-memory computing technologies. In-memory data grids, in-memory databases, and streaming analytics were discussed. Server technology and non-volatile memory advancements were also discussed. Sponsors (which included ScaleOut Software, Fujitsu, Hazelcast, VoltDB, Redis Labs, Starcounter, GridGain Systems and SNIA) presented attendees with information on the latest commercial developments impacting the in-memory computing ecosystem.
Q7. What stood out from the European summit for you?
I was excited to see a packed room for the panel discussion titled “The Future of In-Memory Computing”, on the second day of the conference. Panelists included leaders from Barclays, JacTravel, ING Belgium, and FSB Technology. They discussed how in-memory computing has impacted their companies, and shared predictions on what they foresee as the industry transitions from traditional disk-based data stores to the current in-memory computing technologies. The panelists illuminated trends in the emerging class of memory-centric in-memory computing approaches and discussed opportunities for further improvements of in-memory computing technology in the future.
Q8. What is next?
The third annual North American In-Memory Computing Summit will take place October 24-25, 2017, at the South San Francisco Conference Center in Silicon Valley.
We have gathered an outstanding group of industry veterans and visionaries to serve on the 2017 Conference Committee, including:
- Robert Barr, Middleware Head of Development and Data Grid, Barclays
- Noah Arliss, Sr. Manager, Software Development Engineering, Workday
- Denis Magda, Product Manager, GridGain Systems and PMC Chairman for Apache® Ignite™
- Greg Luck, CEO, Hazelcast
- William Bain, CEO, ScaleOut Software
The Call for Papers is currently open and will close on July 14, 2017. This is the conference for the In-Memory Computing community – we encourage all industry leaders, technical experts and visionaries to submit their proposals via the conference website. It’s going to be a great event.