Jun 30, 2026

Plenary Talk 3​: Challenges and research opportunities for global hyperscale services

Jim Kleewein's talk outlines the immense challenges and critical research opportunities in building and operating global hyperscale services like Microsoft 365 and Azure. He emphasizes that at this scale, traditional approaches fail, necessitating a "new golden age of applied research" across areas like continuous availability, data management, security, and sustainability. Kleewein also discusses AI's powerful but limited role, stressing the ongoing need for human expertise, and highlights the ethical imperative to prevent failures that can have life-or-death consequences.

Jun 21, 2026

3‑2‑1 Backup Rule Explained: Protect Your Data from Disaster

Jeff Crume outlines essential data resiliency strategies, starting with the 3-2-1 backup rule—three copies, two media types, one offsite—and expanding to include immutable or air-gapped backups, rigorous testing, and encryption. He emphasizes these principles for robust disaster recovery, ransomware protection, and minimizing costly downtime, highlighting the trade-offs in achieving high availability.