As a Senior Research Director at IDC, Gina Smith produces research in the IT education and skills sector. Her responsibilities include primary research, analysis, and the production of market insights worldwide.

The New York Times bestselling author of Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak’s memoir, iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer (2006/2011) and The Genomics Age (2005), a Barron’s Book of the Year, Gina has more than 25 years of working experience in technology journalism, publishing, and tech startup management. She was CEO of Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s network computer startup in 2000, served ABC News as its first on-air technology correspondent, and was editor-in-chief of BYTE magazine.

Gina Smith earned a PhD in clinical psychology from Saybrook University in 2017. She also has a master’s degree in psychology and a double BA/BS in English and Chemistry from Florida State University. From 2019 to 2022, she was based in Hong Kong, where she led IDC’s DevOps and digital innovation research. She now is based in Seattle.

Marlanna Harrington is a Research Analyst on the data, analytics, AI, and automation team. Ms. Harrington’s research concentrates on data platforms, including data warehouses, lakes, and lakehouses, focusing on data storage and management. She examines core technologies for implementing analytic data platforms across various environments, data modeling techniques, and emerging open table structures. Her research closely aligns with the data control plane that helps govern and manage data, all in preparation for analytics that provide data-driven solutions to impact business operations.

Marlanna has covered a wide range of research topics during her time at IDC. She started out in consumer research analyzing consumer attitudes, behaviors, technology usage, spending, brand perceptions, etc. When transitioning over to the data and analytics team at IDC, Marlanna focused on data analytic tools and their impact on enterprise decision-making. Her research was centered around business intelligence, geospatial data management and analytics as well as enterprise performance management software.

Megha Kumar heads software and cloud services research at IDC Canada. As a research vice president, Megha is responsible for managing and delivering projects across technology areas such as cloud services, enterprise applications, software and digital transformation for the Canadian market. She manages both the Canadian Software as a Service (SaaS) and Canadian Cloud Platforms (PaaS and IaaS) research programs in Canada

In addition to research, Megha has aided vendors with go-to-market engagements to improve market awareness and provide end users with essential guidance on technology adoption. She regularly interacts with CIOs and IT decision makers regarding their technology preferences, priorities, and concerns.

She originally joined IDC in 2007 covering the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region, based out of Dubai, U.A.E. In her previous role at IDC, she regularly provided insights on market dynamics, vendor strategies, and end-user trends across the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey for both global and regional ICT firms as well as public sector organizations.

Megha presents at various industry and vendor conferences. She is often quoted in the media, providing opinions on technologies and market dynamics. She holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honors in Marketing from York University, Canada.

Ashish Nadkarni leads IDC’s enterprise infrastructure global research domain. Ashish oversees five global research subdomains: core infrastructure, cloud infrastructure and services, network infrastructure and services, semiconductors and enabling technologies, and digital and datacenter infrastructure and services. Ashish’s coverage spans infrastructure software platforms, cloud and edge services, storage and converged systems, compute infrastructure, service provider trends, enterprise, emerging and performance intensive workloads (AI and HPC).

Ashish draws upon his experience working in the IT industry to take a long view on the lifecycle of infrastructure-related services, deployments, systems, platforms, and technologies. Examples of his research coverage include heterogeneous, accelerated, edge, analog and quantum computing, rackscale, composable/disaggregated architecture, memory, flash and other data persistence technologies, high-speed fabrics and interconnects, operating systems, and software-defined infrastructure.

Dave McCarthy leads IDC’s cloud and infrastructure services global research subdomain with two primary focuses. The first is cloud infrastructure and its related adoption strategies: public, private, hybrid, multicloud, distributed, sovereign and edge. The second is infrastructure services: flexible consumption, deployment, support, and the circular economy. Benefiting both technology suppliers and IT decision makers, Dave’s insights delve into ways in cloud and infrastructure services provide the foundation for both general purpose and AI workloads, enabling organizations to innovate faster, create new revenue streams, and achieve competitive advantages. His research is available via syndicated research programs (subscription services), data products (IDC Trackers) and custom engagements.

BACKGROUND

Previously, Dave served as Vice President, IoT Solutions at Bsquare Corporation, an edge-to-cloud solutions provider where he focused on product strategy, market positioning, and solutions architecture. Dave has also had an extensive career leading global enterprise IT for several high-tech companies.

Tony Olvet is Group Vice President, Worldwide C-suite and Digital Business Research at IDC. His team’s global research focuses on the connection between business transformation and digital investments across enterprises. Tony’s analysis and insights help vendors, IT professionals, and business executives make fact-based decisions on technology strategy and digital business.

Tony has worked with clients across a variety of organizations including global IT manufacturers, enterprise software vendors, telecom service providers, financial institutions and public sector organizations. He has been quoted in major business and industry media including CIO Magazine, The Globe and Mail, CBC and The Financial Post.

He is also a frequent public speaker delivering keynote presentations at conferences, IDC webinars, and virtual events for clients. Tony is member of IDC Canada’s senior leadership team and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Allice Shandler, a seasoned event management professional, orchestrates captivating and seamless experiences in the technology, hospitality, entertainment, and manufacturing industries. With a proven track record spanning the past 25 years, she skillfully designs and executes a multitude of events, both virtual and in-person, to bring together like-minded individuals for the purpose of sharing knowledge and forging connections. She is an energetic leader who enjoys leading with empathy and embodying the science of emotional intelligence.

From her time as an Assistant Cruise Director with Princess Cruises to her role as the National Virtual Events Manager and subject matter expert during the pandemic at KPMG Canada, and currently as the Director of events with IDC and Foundry, Allice’s journey reflects a mastery of marketing integration, project logistics, and alignment with sales strategies, all underscored by her meticulous attention to detail. Allice Shandler exudes a passion for hosting and connecting with peers both on the stage and during carefully crafted industry events. She brings an unmatched ability to curate engaging experiences that resonate across industries and captivate audiences around the globe.