{"id":1683,"date":"2013-08-20T23:19:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T04:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hic\/?p=1683"},"modified":"2014-12-09T19:54:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T00:54:32","slug":"maritz-gift-to-launch-cci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hic\/2013\/08\/20\/maritz-gift-to-launch-cci\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift by Paul Maritz Launches Institute Cloud Computing Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Portait<\/a>
Paul Martiz, Pivotal CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A $300,000 gift by Paul Maritz<\/a>, Chief Executive Officer of\u00a0Pivotal<\/a> (an EMC-backed startup), is providing the critical resources needed to launch BU’s Cloud Computing Initiative (CCI), which is incubated\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0Hariri Institute for Computing<\/a>, and which is spearheaded by CS Research Professor and Institute Fellow, Orran Krieger.<\/p>\n

Recently named as one of\u00a0the 50 Most Powerful People in Enterprise Technology<\/a>,\u00a0Paul Maritz formed Pivotal in 2013. \u00a0At its core, Pivotal builds big data infrastructures, which are able to handle next-generation workloads<\/a>, and which can be adopted broadly through development and use of application-friendly platforms. Before being tapped by\u00a0EMC Corporation<\/a> to lead Pivotal, Maritz\u00a0served as Chief Strategist of EMC, and as CEO of\u00a0VMware Inc<\/a>., where he remains a member of its board of directors. \u00a0During his tenure at VMware, Maritz\u00a0led the transformation of the company from a technology leader in virtualization to a category leader in cloud computing.<\/p>\n

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Commenting on Maritz’s generous gift — the first of its kind to the Institute —\u00a0Azer Bestavros<\/a>, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Hariri Institute for Computing, notes that\u00a0“Paul’s support is quite important, not only for its financial implications, but also because <\/em>the imprimatur of his name will open doors and convey recognition of CCI and Institute projects.” <\/em>Stan Sclaroff<\/a>, Professor and outgoing Chair\u00a0of Computer Science adds that “this\u00a0is a testament to the quality and pivotal importance\u00a0of the research portfolio of our CS faculty to the diverse set of interdisciplinary projects\u00a0pursued with collaborators at the Hariri Institute.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In a recent visit to the Institute, Maritz met with key faculty members involved in CS and CCI projects focusing on novel cloud platforms for high-performance computing, big data, and cyber security. The discussions that ensued helped distill three thrusts required to create “An Advanced Platform for Data Science” at Boston University.<\/p>\n