The industry is moving in the direction of the IMS architectural model and embracing the idea of the Service Delivery Platform as a means of realizing the fundamental promise of IMS – to develop and deploy revenue generating applications more rapidly and more efficiently while simultaneously controlling costs. But often, in observing the steps being taken as part of the transformation, it can be seen that the methods used do not necessarily bring the “promise” closer to fulfillment. They could actually be deferring realization of the full potential of IMS.

In this session we will examine how some of the current experiments may overlook critical technological and business factors, requiring service providers and software developers alike to re-think how they structure the core software network as well as how applications are designed, implemented and deployed.

Gary has over 25 years experience in high performance, high availability computing in the Financial and Telecommunication industries. At a worldwide level, if you use debit cards, credit cards, carry a mobile phone, or conduct commerce electronically, there is a very high probability that you use software systems that he helped architect, implement, and deploy. A background deeply rooted in software design and the practical considerations of implementing very robust, highly scalable systems provides him with useful and somewhat different perspectives on the industry transition toward IMS.

As Chief Technologist for HP OpenCall in the Americas, Gary researches techniques for blending traditional IT and Telecommunications disciplines as the industry moves toward IMS, and how the results affect both the industry players and the markets they serve. He is actively involved in strategic technical planning, architectural design, and software prototyping targeted at the next generation service infrastructure. His research spans multiple disciplines, ranging from studies on advanced service behavior enabled by Next Generation and IMS software constructs to environmental data models and the true impacts of IT computing principles within the evolving telecom software ecosystem.

Since 1988 he has held a variety of senior technical and management positions in Research & Development, Systems Performance, Technical Field Support, Operations and Strategic Planning.