Several prominent leaders, educators, and North Carolina-based technology organizations will come together on Thursday for Networking the Future North Carolina – a half-day event kicking off the partnership initiative between U.S. Ignite and Extreme Networks hosted at MCNC in Research Triangle Park.

The event begins at 9 a.m. at MCNC.

Organized by Extreme Networks, U.S. Ignite, the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA) and MCNC, this half-day event is dedicated to celebrating advanced networking in North Carolina by bringing together bright minds and distinguished leaders to discuss how technology will accelerate the future, create jobs, and enhance communities.

This event features prominent speakers from industry, government and education including:

  • Oscar Rodriguez, CEO of Extreme Networks;
  • Glenn Ricart, former CTO of Novell and current U.S. Ignite founder and CTO;
  • NCTA CEO Brooks Raiford;
  • Gov. Bev Perdue (invited);
  • Susan Spradley, executive director of U.S. Ignite;
  • MCNC President and CEO Joe Freddoso;
  • Duke CIO Tracy Futhey;
  • Ilia Baldine, director of RENCI’s Networking Research Group;
  • Henry Schaffer, Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Biomathematics at N.C. State University

Extreme’s partnership and collaboration with U.S. Ignite aims to drive innovation around emerging network technologies, namely the cloud and software-defined networking (SDN). A key goal of the collaboration is to realize the full potential of these technologies, giving people access to applications and efficiencies that lead to economic vitality through business development, job creation, and education initiatives.

North Carolina continues to be an emerging technology hub with some of the country’s top innovators. U.S. Ignite recognizes North Carolina as a leader in bringing about the next generation of Internet networks and applications, and hopes the state can become a model for others.

Over the next five years, Extreme, U.S. Ignite, and its partners plan to work with communities, government agencies, schools, and businesses to create and deploy dozens of next-generation Internet applications that show promise of significant public impact. This work will leverage the coming revolution in network services marked by programmability, software control, ultra-fast broadband to the end-user, and the deployment of low-latency local clouds.

U.S. Ignite was birthed from the White House and National Science Foundation with the mission to engage diverse public and private leaders to “ignite” the development and deployment of new apps that have a profound impact on how Americans work, live, learn, and play.