Key data center architect leaves Microsoft, headed for Amazon |
Register here for our next TechFlash Live networking event, March 23, featuring an expert panel discussing the future of online advertising.
James Hamilton
James Hamilton, one of the big brains behind Microsoft's data center strategy, has left the company, according to a note on his Microsoft home page. And we just confirmed that he's headed across town to Amazon.com, one of Microsoft's key rivals in the market for Web services and cloud computing.
"We are excited that James Hamilton has chosen to join Amazon Web Services as Vice President and Distinguished Engineer," an Amazon.com spokesman said via e-mail. "James has a distinguished career designing and deploying systems that are secure and that scale reliably and cost-effectively. James will start putting his expertise to work for Amazon Web Services customers in January."
Hamilton, a Microsoft veteran, was most recently an architect on the Data Center Futures Team. The rumors of his switch to Amazon surfaced yesterday on the Digital Cave Tech Hermit blog, which wrote that Hamilton's move would have major implications for both companies:
"If true this will be a significant hit to Microsoft’s data center program and an incredible benefit for Amazon. One of the recurring challenges to Amazon’s EC2 strategy is that they did not have enough focus and attention on their infrastructure. Picking up Hamilton would definitely show that Amazon is making moves to be a significant player in the space and give them a thought leader who has been known to be a key influencer of change."
The Data Center Knowledge blog has more details Hamilton's impact on Microsoft's data center strategy, particularly in the area of containerization. Also see this recent O'Reilly Radar post on Hamilton's work in the area of data center power efficiency.
Seattle University Software Engineering
Chinwe Okeke (MSE’08) pursued her graduate degree while working as a developer and technical analyst for the Boeing Company. She picked the SU-MSE program for small class sizes and real world learning opportunities offered through the academic service-learning and capstone projects.
The MSE program at Seattle University is geared for working professionals with classes offered in the evenings. The program builds upon the computing experience of its students and offers courses in a variety of technical and management areas of software engineering, with an emphasis on teamwork and a disciplined approach to problem solving.
Marchex is one of Seattle’s largest ad technology companies with 300+ employees providing call and click based performance marketing products, and managing over $100m in ad budget for tens of thousands of advertisers. Our customers range from local businesses to the Fortune 500.
Our talented and creative product engineering group is hiring.
If you are an innovative software design engineer interested in solving difficult problems at scale, across a wide array of technologies from Lucene to Hadoop to Asterisk and SIP then we’d love to hear from you!
Apply now.
Technology Tax Planning – Did You Take The Deduction?
Technology companies require professional advisors who can assist in all aspects of the business. The BDO Technology Practice provides a full range of services tailored to help address the changing needs of domestic and international companies. In addition to core audit and tax services, BDO professionals can assist technology companies with:
· Revenue recognition
· Business combination accounting
· R&D tax credits
· Compensation and benefits
· Business valuations
Backed by 38 national offices and an international network in 110 countries, we have the domestic and global footprint to serve growing technology companies. Contact sphilpott@bdo.com (audit partner), mreeves@bdo.com (audit partner), psmith@bdo.com (tax partner), tzambito@bdovaluation.us.com (valuation), tfiscus@bdo.com, Director, 206.624.2020