Donald Ferguson (born 1960) is a Technical Fellow and Chief SW Architect at Ansys, Inc. Before joining Ansys, Ferguson was a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Professional Practice in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Before joining Columbia in 2018, he was vice president and CTO for software at

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

. Previously he was CTO, Distinguished Engineer and Executive VP at CA, Inc., formerly known as Computer Associates.

Education

Ferguson graduated with a BA from

in 1982, a MS in 1984, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in 1989. His thesis studied the application of economic models to the management of system resources in distributed systems.

Career

IBM

From 1985 to 2007, Ferguson worked for

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, being appointed

IBM Fellow An IBM Fellow is a position at IBM appointed by the CEO. Typically only four to nine (eleven in 2014) IBM Fellows are appointed each year, in May or June. Fellow is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve. Over ...

in 2001, and chief architect for IBM's Software Group (SWG). He provided overall technical leadership for

IBM WebSphere IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of proprietary computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create and integrate applications ...

Tivoli Software Tivoli Software encompasses a set of products originally developed by Tivoli Systems Inc. IBM bought the company and ran the operation as its Tivoli Software division. Additional products were acquired and run under the Tivoli portfolio brand. ...

, IBM DB2,

Rational Software Rational Machines is an enterprise founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin in 1981 to provide tools to expand the use of modern software engineering practices, particularly explicit modular architecture and iterative development. It changed its n ...

and

Lotus Software Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was sold to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2-3 sprea ...

products. He also chaired the SWG Architecture Board (SWG AB). The SWG AB focused on product integration, cross-product initiatives and emerging technology. Some of the public focus areas were

web service A web service (WS) is either: * a service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating with each other via the Internet, or * a server running on a computer device, listening for requests at a particular port over a n ...

pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...

web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture, and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, a ...

and

business-driven development Business-driven development is a meta-methodology for developing IT solutions that directly satisfy requirement, business requirements. This is achieved by adopting a model-driven approach that starts with the business strategy, requirements, and g ...

. Ferguson guided IBM's strategy and architecture for SOA and web services, and co-authored many of the initial web-service specifications. Previously, he had been the chief architect for WebSphere and the WebSphere products, which provide support for dynamic web applications. Prior to transferring to IBM SWG, Ferguson was a research staff member at the IBM

Thomas J. Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for IBM Research. Its main laboratory is in Yorktown Heights, New York, 38 miles (61 km) north of New York City. It also operates facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Albany, ...

Microsoft

From 2007 to 2008, he worked at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

as a technical fellow in platforms and strategy in the office of the CTO.

CA

Ferguson joined CA in March 2008.

Dell

Ferguson joined

in June 2012 as VP and CTO for

Dell Software Dell Software was a former division of Dell with headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell Software was created by merging various acquisitions (mainly Quest Software and Sonicwall) by Dell Inc., the third-largest maker of PCs and ...

Awards

Ferguson received the 2013

Columbia School of Engineering and applied Science The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university ...

Alumni Association Egleston Medal for Distinguished Engineering Achievement.

Ansys

Ferguson focuses on product integration, additional of new capabilities and strategic initiatives.

Books

* ''Web Services Platform Architecture: SOAP, WSDL, WS-Policy, WS-Addressing, WS-BPEL, WS-Reliable Messaging, and More'', Prentice Hall PTR, , March 22, 2005

References

External links

WWISA

The Architecture Journal

BPM 2006 Keynotes

2nd International Conference on Service Oriented Computing
1960 births Living people IBM employees IBM Fellows Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni {{US-compu-bio-stub