V. K. Cody Bumgardner has been in the IT industry for over 20 years. In this time, he has worked in technical, managerial, and sales roles in the areas of IT architecture, software development, networking, research, systems, and security.

Over the last several years, he has focused on researching, implementing, and speaking about cloud computing and computational economics. He is also currently pursuing a PhD in computer science at the University of Kentucky (UK), focusing on computational economics of cloud computing.

He currently serves as the Chief Technology Architect (CTA) and research computing service owner of a large public land-grant university. He is responsible for technology architectures supporting over 40,000 users in academic, research, and health care (academic) divisions.

He is also the author of OpenStack in Action, Manning Publishing.

Xander Oortgiesen has been working in different roles and functions and is currently working for Switch IT Solutions (www.switch.nl) in the Netherlands. Xander also works for his own IT consultancy company called Lorlon (www.lorlon.nl). Before working as a business consultant, he was active in the field as a technical consultant specialized in Microsoft Server, Cloud/Office 365, System Center Technologies, Storage, Virtualization Technologies (Hyper-V, VMware, XenServer), and Citrix.

Xander is a Citrix CCEE, RES RCP, VMware VCP/VCDA, MCSE NT4—2012 R2, and several Microsoft Specialties (Exchange, Hyper-V, System Center, and so on).

You can follow him on his blog (www.vWorld.nl) or contact him via Twitter (@vworlddotnl) or e-mail (<[email protected]>).

Vision, purpose, relentless passion for technology, and life of spirituality—that's what Dr. Rajeev Papneja brings to the table, combined with over 18 years of extensive systems and software experience on an international scale, including more than 9 years of senior management experience in the United States. Prior to affiliating with bodHOST, in collaboration with his global partners, he founded a firm called Artilligence Inc., a well-respected name in Northeast America as a one-stop service center for all IT services ranging from turnkey software development to supplemental staffing. Employees sometimes refer to him as "a COO with a heart", because in the cut-throat war zone of corporate America, he refuses to compromise his humility, simplicity, sincerity, truthfulness, and loyalty to his co-workers. Dr. Papneja also serves as a COO at ESDS Software Solution Pvt. Ltd, a leading organization in the space of managed hosting and data center services.

A believer in a borderless new economy, his business focus is truly global, and that is what he achieved his doctorate in. His longest tenure was with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, the largest drug manufacturer in the world with its current headquarters in New York, where he spent more than 7 years providing enterprise-class technology solutions and setting up financial processes.

Inspite of obtaining a master's degree in computer science at the age of 20, his zeal for education did not stop. Along with his professional career in the United States, he pursued his PhD in business administration, the highest honors he achieved at the age of 27. He has worked as a senior consultant at major corporations such as United Parcel Services, Ernst & Young, Dun & Bradstreet to name a few, before becoming an entrepreneur.

When he is not at work, he is usually serving the community and seeking spirituality. He believes in the future, loves his extended family of colleagues and associates, and has faith in his organization's ability to be a Fortune 100 company in his lifetime.

Bert Wolters is a Dutch senior technical consultant on Microsoft on-premises and cloud infrastructures. He started his professional life in the Dutch military, but around 1999, found his talents in IT, helping out the platoon and unit leaders with small IT issues in the field. By the time he started on his first Microsoft certification in 2005, he had found his new vocation in life.

His ability to look at all sides of a story (an issue, problem, and implementation) was formed by the wide variety of jobs he had. Having a background in the business side of IT as well as an incident and change manager, and in the field as an engineer and consultant, helps him deliver the most comprehensive solutions driven by businesses, technology, or business case.

Since 2010, he has specialized further in system management for Microsoft infrastructures and is still riding Microsoft's wave of innovation, looking forward to and experimenting with every single new feature of Microsoft Azure. Because of this focus, he decided to resign from the Dutch Powershell User Group (DuPSUg) when asked to take part in the System Center User Group in the Netherlands (SCUG_NL).

He currently advises companies on how to get the most out of System Center Suite and shares his knowledge on Microsoft's hybrid cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft Azure, and StorSimple.

David Xie spent 6 years as a software developer working mainly with Python and PHP, and he's familiar with OpenStack, Linux and web development.

He has worked at IBM for 3 years as a Python developer for OpenStack and currently works at ThoughtWorks bridging operations and software development.