Matthew Eastwood is Senior Vice President of IDC’s enterprise infrastructure, cloud, telecom, security, developers, channels and enabling technology research groups. Mr. Eastwood and his team research people, process and technology trends affecting the enterprise technology marketplace worldwide. Mr. Eastwood first joined IDC in 2000 as part of the server team and his responsibilities have evolved and expanded during his tenure. In his current role, he leads a team of more than 100 analysts providing insights and analysis to IT suppliers, buyers, investors, and distributors through more than 75 syndicated research programs. Mr. Eastwood also leads IDC’s BuyerView primary research programs which are focused on defining emerging trends in cloud, developers, service providers, edge, AI and security.

Mr. Eastwood joined IDC in 2000. He provides in-depth market analysis, research, and consulting on all aspects of the enterprise infrastructure marketplace to IT professionals, investors, resellers and technology suppliers. During his tenure at IDC, Mr. Eastwood has led IDC primary research focused on emerging trends in enterprise systems and data centers. This primary research allows IDC to make continuous assessments regarding how customers are deploying and using enterprise infrastructure power digital transformation. Recent topics covered in Mr. Eastwood’s research include: Software Defined Infrastructure, Integrated infrastructure, Convergence, Disaggregated Infrastructure, Virtualization & Automation, Cloud Computing, High Availability, Platform Migration and Datacenter Workloads. Mr. Eastwood also serves as IDC’s lead analyst covering Dell and VMware.

Prior to joining IDC, Mr. Eastwood worked for twelve years as a senior project manager and environmental consultant at CDM Smith in Boston. Mr. Eastwood was responsible for managing the planning and design of large environmental infrastructure projects including wastewater collection and treatment facilities. In addition, Mr. Eastwood served as Operations Manager of the firm’s New England practice.

Mr. Eastwood received a bachelor’s degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston and earned his MS in Engineering Project Management from WPI in Worcester, MA. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Massachusetts.

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.

Meredith Whalen is IDC’s Chief Research & Data Intelligence Officer, responsible for the global organization of analysts and data scientists who create the technology intelligence the world’s leading vendors and enterprises run on. She sets IDC’s research agenda — shaping the methodologies, frameworks, and priorities that produce IDC’s market-defining insights. 

Meredith has spent her career building research practices at IDC, pioneering the analytical frameworks that define how the industry measures and understands technology markets. She is also driving IDC’s transformation into the intelligence infrastructure layer of the AI economy, including the strategy behind IDC Quanta, IDC’s AI platform grounded in 60+ years of proprietary data and 15 billion data points. 

A sought-after keynote speaker, Meredith regularly advises CIOs and senior technology executives on AI strategy, market trends, and what it takes to turn intelligence into competitive advantage. 

Sarah Lee is Research Director for IDC Manufacturing Insights responsible for the IT Priorities & Strategies (ITP&S) practice. Sarah’s core research coverage includes IT investments made across the manufacturing industry and manufacturers’ progress with digital transformation. Based on her background covering the manufacturing space, Sarah’s research also includes an emphasis on the technology enablers that help manufacturing executives make better-informed operational decisions.

BACKGROUND

Previously, Sarah has held various roles as an analyst and consultant with The Big Four Technology Strategy Advisory Team where she focused on leveraging data driven insights and research-grounded perspective to inform clients through the delivery and prioritization of technology in their organization. Focused on emerging technologies and organizational transformation, her experience with analyzing and advising on manufacturing trends span across Asset, Brand, Engineering and Technology Oriented Value Chains.

Stephen Elliot manages multiple programs spanning IT Operations, Enterprise Management, ITSM, Agile and DevOps, Application performance, Virtualization, Multi-Cloud Management and Automation, Log Analytics, Container Management, DaaS, and Software Defined Compute.   Mr. Elliot advises Senior IT, Business, and Investment Executives globally in the creation of strategy and operational tactics that drive the execution of Digital Transformation and business growth.

BACKGROUND

Before his current role, Stephen helped build business for IDC’s IT Executive Program, where he advised enterprise IT organizations on DevOps best practices across people, process, and technology strategies and tactics.  Prior to IDC, Stephen was Vice President of Strategy for CA Technologies’ Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit, providing direct strategic and tactical support to customers accelerating their path toward the cloud, software-defined datacenters, and Dev/Ops. He also led product management for CA’s VCE partnership, helping customers better understand the business value of converged fabric. Prior to his work at CA, Stephen was a noted software industry analyst at firms including IDC, Gartner, and Forrester, where he advised IT executives and the financial community on IT operations, virtualization, datacenter automation, and network and application management. He also served as a product marketing manager at Inteq, an early provider of SaaS-based network monitoring and service desk capabilities, helping customers understand the business value of the SaaS delivery model.

Rob Tiffany is Research Director within IDC’s Enterprise Infrastructure global research domain and part of the Cloud and Datacenters subdomain. Rob leads IDC’s North America cloud adoption research, aligned with the worldwide cloud adoption research. Notably, Rob manages IDC’s Cloud Pulse research, which delivers quarterly insights into the voice of the customer from cloud buyers worldwide. Additionally, he leads research on global cloud adoption trends and strategies and delivers actionable insights to technology providers and enterprise decision-makers. Based on his hands-on background in designing and building hyperscale cloud infrastructure, Rob is uniquely positioned to provide guidance on public, private, hybrid, and multicloud infrastructure needed to succeed with next-generation workloads.

BACKGROUND

Previously, Rob was Vice President and Head of IoT Strategy at Ericsson, where he drove 5G connection management with the IoT Accelerator and contributed to global M&A activities. As Chief Technology Officer at Hitachi, he received the Presidential “Product of the Year” award for designing the Lumada Industrial IoT + Digital Twin platform. Spending most of his career at Microsoft, Rob was Director, Global Technology Lead, and co-designer of the Azure IoT cloud platform in addition to software engineering, product management, and architecture roles with Windows Phone and SQL Server.

Kevin Prouty is Group Vice President and General Manager for IDC’s Tech Buyer business unit. He is responsible for managing a global group of analysts and consultants that provide research-based advisory, benchmarking, consulting, and career development services for technology executives. Kevin also specializes in industrial and operational research.

BACKGROUND

Prior to his current role, Kevin led the worldwide manufacturing and energy research groups in IDC’s Industry Insights business.  Before joining IDC he was SVP of Research at Aberdeen Group. He also spent over five years as Sr. Director of Manufacturing and Energy Solutions at Motorola and was the resident expert on technology’s role in continuous improvement. Prior to Motorola, he was Research Director for Manufacturing and Automotive at AMR Research and Gartner, where he spent a cumulative six years. Leading up to his research role, Kevin spent over 15 years as both a user and system integrator of operations software. Twelve of those years was as a plant manager and project manager at a global manufacturer, managing a large workforce and business that produced tooling for automotive and industrial companies. He was responsible for all automation of the facility and energy plant, including integration of automated process and information systems into all aspects of the business. In addition, Kevin helped lead the re -engineering team that implemented ERP and shop floor systems throughout the company. Kevin also managed the building, start up, and initial operation of a plant in China from 1992 to 1993.

Archana Lamoureux is Vice President of Corporate Solutions at Northwestern Mutual, where she leads digital solutions, AI enablement and adoption, and business and enterprise platforms supporting corporate functions. She is focused on helping organizations turn AI potential into practical business outcomes through responsible adoption, modern technology foundations, effective governance, and disciplined execution.

With more than 25 years of experience across banking, financial services, and insurance, Archana has led large-scale technology and business transformation efforts in highly regulated environments. Prior to Northwestern Mutual, she served as Head of Standards and Innovation at Citibank, where she helped operationalize AI adoption from ideation to production and established practices to support responsible, scalable deployment.

Archana is recognized for her ability to connect business priorities with technology execution. She brings a practical perspective to enterprise AI, digital transformation, risk, and governance, with a focus on moving beyond experimentation to adoption models that deliver measurable value while meeting the expectations of regulators, risk partners, and business stakeholders.

Doug Freud, before joining Solution Advisory, served as the VP of AI at SAP’s BTP Global Center of Excellence. He is a seasoned expert in the integration of AI and Machine Learning technologies into business processes. With a foundation in psychology from Illinois State University, his journey through data science and AI has been marked by leadership roles at major corporations like Google and Oracle, as well as significant tenures at SAP. His expertise in Machine Learning is underscored by his strategic customer transformations, focusing on enhancing business processes through the innovative use of AI/ML technologies. 

Giorgio Barnabò is the CEO and Co-Founder of Syllotips. He holds a PhD in AI and has a background as an Applied Research Scientist at Amazon Alexa AI. As Founder of Syllotips, he now leads one of Italy’s most recognized companies in the enterprise AI agents space.

Mark Mikhail is a Principal Product Marketing Specialist at BlueCat, where he focuses on helping organizations build trusted, data-driven foundations for AI adoption and digital transformation. He works at the intersection of infrastructure, data quality, and automation, translating complex systems—spanning DNS, DHCP, IPAM, and cloud networking—into practical, business-aligned strategies.

Mark brings a pragmatic perspective to AI, emphasizing that its effectiveness depends on data quality, governance, and human oversight. He has spoken on separating AI hype from reality, advocating for human-in-the-loop approaches, privacy-preserving architectures, and responsible deployment models—particularly for organizations operating under regulatory and security constraints. His work helps enterprise and public-sector leaders operationalize AI as an assistive capability that enhances decision-making, resilience, and trust rather than replacing human expertise.

With over a decade of leadership at Dell Technologies, Melissa Crichton is dedicated to delivering advanced AI solutions to customers across North America. Her extensive experience in data center sales and enterprise technologies enables her to guide organizations in adopting innovative strategies to achieve their IT and business objectives. Melissa’s expertise spans disaster recovery, hybrid cloud, and AI-driven solutions, ensuring her clients are prepared to meet today’s challenges and future demands.

Ramon Tramontini is President of International Operations at OGI, leading strategy, delivery, and growth across the United States and Europe. A technology executive, cofounder, and shareholder with a strong software engineering background, he has built and scaled profitable business units and high-performing teams. Ramon combines technical expertise with strategic leadership, Agile practices, and data-driven approaches to align technology with business outcomes and drive innovation. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence, researching large language models and multi-agent systems and their potential to improve decision-making and operational scalability.

Sahil works at the intersection of product, GTM and marketing at CodeRabbit, bringing the stories of their customers to life and helping drive enterprise adoption of AI code review solutions to improve code quality pushed out by coding agents. 

He has previously worked as the lead product manager for hybrid cloud infrastructure (HCI) at Nutanix and in various other cloud services products spanning cloud management platforms, security risk assessment and cost management services.

A background in semiconductors to cloud services, product marketing to product management allows Sahil to share empathy with the noise that customers get bombarded with, identify the true pain-points of his customers, and help implement their solutions in an ever shifting Generative AI landscape.

Stephen Fishman leads Boomi’s office of AI Advisory, where he helps drive customer digital transformation initiatives and shapes integration, API, and digital product strategy across the entire Boomi Enterprise Platform. He spent over seven years at MuleSoft in roles including Regional Vice President and Global Practice Lead for Customer Success Strategy and Architecture. Stephen is co-author, with Boomi CTO Matt McLarty, of “Unbundling the Enterprise: APIs, Optionality, and the Science of Happy Accidents” (IT Revolution).

Vasant Paranjpe is Vice President of Sales Engineering, North America at Strategy, with over 12 years at the company leading technical presales teams across North America. He brings nearly two decades of experience in enterprise analytics and business intelligence, including prior BI architecture roles at Scholastic, Related, and C.R. Bard. Vasant holds a BS from Tufts University and an MBA from Rutgers.