Dr. Linton Ward is an IBM Distinguished Engineer currently focusing on leadership open workloads on OpenPower systems. He has designed and optimized many hardware-software stack solutions and led hardware design teams for numerous integrated offerings, including Data Warehouse and Hadoop offerings. As a systems and solutions architect, Linton brings a unique combination of deep understanding of software needs, client experience and hardware capability. He regularly meets with clients to help them understand the solution space and their next steps.