Paul Strong helps lead VMware’s Office of the CTO. Paul is a recognized leader within the IT industry and is a regular keynote speaker and author of articles on the subjects of Clouds, IT transformation and business transformation. Before joining VMware, he served as a Distinguished Research Scientist at eBay where he was responsible for eBay’s research into large distributed systems and how to manage them. Prior to eBay, Paul architected and developed various software systems, including Sun’s Solaris Containers, large scale B2B eCommerce systems, and large, distributed command and control systems. He sat on the board of directors of the Open Grid Forum (OGF), and was chairman of that organization from 2006-2008. Paul also sits on the technology advisory boards of a number of small startups, mature businesses, and government-funded consortia. Paul holds a bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Manchester, in England

In his role in VMware’s Office of the CTO (OCTO), Paul helps lead a global team whose charter is to drive thought leadership and accelerate technology innovation with a focus on business outcomes. VMware’s OCTO works in collaboration with VMware customers and partners as well as leading academic institutions on projects designed to solve customer problems while advancing VMware’s long-term strategy and product-development roadmaps. The OCTO focuses on encouraging and surfacing breakthrough ideas, and then executes by assembling the right people at the right time to realize the full potential and value of those ideas. OCTO programs and activities include everything from hackathons to long-term incubated technology projects to direct consultancy with product units, partners and customers on new technologies.