One of the key creators of the fiber channel technology, Kumar Malavalli has been a powerful influence on the development of fiber channel standards and products for the last 15 years. Owner of several patents in fiber channel technology, Malavalli has been instrumental in the evolution of the storage area networks. Besides his responsibilities at Brocade, a company he co-found, Malavalli currently chairs the ANSI Fiber Channel Switch Committee and the Fiber Channel Association Technology Committee. At Brocade, Malavalli is helping to shape the company’s technology direction and product strategy and supporting ongoing storage area networking standards initiatives.

Mysore-born Malavalli left for Germany in 1971 where he enrolled at the National Institute of Engineering in Dusseldorf. He spent three years studying industrial electronics and earned the equivalent of a Masters degree. He also worked briefly in Germany before moving to Toronto in 1974.

For about two decades, Malavalli worked for large corporations. He started at ITT and moved on to Canstar, a subsidiary of France’s Alcatel, and Hewlett-Packard and gained high proficiency in the emerging area of fiber channel storage, a technology that links computers and storage devices, and enables secure storage of data. In 1995, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Seth Neiman of Crosspoint Ventures, contacted Malavalli and thereafter Brocade Communications was launched in August 1995.

The rest, as they say, is history. Brocade’s IPO in 1999 was hugely successful. It has emerged the reigning champion of fiber channel SANs. n