Denis Kennelly’s ardour for expertise and main enterprise transformations has resulted in a outstanding profession spanning a number of continents and main distributors. Following senior roles at DEC, EMC and Motorola, Kennelly grew to become SVP of engineering at Vallent Technologies, a cell options start-up that was bought by IBM a number of months later. Leadership positions in IBM Tivoli, IBM Security and IBM Hybrid Cloud adopted the Vallent acquisition.
In August 2020, Kennelly was appointed GM of IBM Storage. He leads the workforce that delivers trade main storage options and helps consumer journeys to hybrid cloud and AI.
Pund-IT: It’s good to speak with you, Denis. Appreciate you sharing some particulars about your life and work, together with your new position in IBM Storage as normal supervisor (GM). Can we start by discussing your upbringing and training?
Denis Kennelly: I come from a reasonably humble background, rising up on a farm within the city of Listowel, which is in County Kerry, Ireland. My mom was the “career coach” and insisted that I get a school training; in any other case, I could be a farmer immediately!
Pund-IT: How did you turn into involved in expertise, and so forth.?
Kennelly: I at all times appreciated arithmetic and the sciences, which led me to a major diploma in Electronics Engineering. I actually loved pc {hardware} design and understanding how computer systems truly labored from the bottom up.
Pund-IT: Many individuals are acquainted with U.S. universities with a powerful concentrate on IT (Stanford, MIT, and so forth.). What was college like in Ireland? Do you consider that you just discovered, skilled or have been uncovered to issues there that have been distinctive?
Kennelly: The school that I attended in Ireland, the University of Limerick, was closely influenced by U.S. faculties and used the U.S. GPA grading system. At that point (1984-88), the expertise trade was nonetheless in its infancy in Ireland and so the curriculum was stuffed with lecturers who had both studied or labored within the U.S.
Pund-IT: What levels have been you awarded?
Kennelly: I earned a bachelor’s diploma from the University of Limerick in digital and electrical engineering. I additionally acquired a grasp’s diploma in pc science from Trinity College in Dublin.
Pund-IT: After college, what was your preliminary skilled focus? What intrigued you about that space? What corporations did you initially work for, and what have been your duties?
Kennelly: In 1988, I went to work for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), making use of my data of pc {hardware} to the VAX 11/785, one among DEC’s flagship machines on the time.
Pund-IT: What type of duties did that contain?
Kennelly: One of my preliminary obligations was troubleshooting system reminiscence crash dumps, which required me to know the VMS Operating System,…
