Leaders are visionaries with no sense of fear and no concept of odds against them. They are the ones who make ideas work. And to belong to that category is a real distinction, which only people like Kumar Malvalli, Chairman and CEO, Inmage System, can boast of. Known as a visionary behind Storage Area Networks (SANs), it's no wonder that Malvalli today is commanding a multi-billion dollar market segment. An engineering and physics graduate from the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, Malvalli has worked for ITT Communications, Amdahl, Canstar, and HP before arriving in Silicon Valley from Canada in 1995.

In fact, Malvalli was one of the pioneers who co founded InMage and Brocade Communications. Malavalli was for many years the chief technical officer of Brocade Communications, the leading provider of storage area networking infrastructure. It was in 2003 that Malavalli was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame for his contributions to technology. He also received the Gene Milligan Award for Effective Committee Management from the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) for chairing an INCITS committee that developed 17 standards in the area of storage area networks. A man who holds several patents in fibre channel, including zoning for storage area networks, Malvalli's most significant contributions to the industry was when he was elected to the post of chairman of ANSI T11 Technical Committee where he played a pivotal role in taking the technological innovations forward.

Not only this, while serving in various management and technical capacities in Amdahl, Canstar, and Hewlett-Packard he introduced several path-breaking measures which increased the productivity of the companies he served. Known for his conviction in new technology, Malvalli in 2004, established the Kumar Malavalli Endowed Chair in Storage Systems Research at UC Santa Cruz's Baskin School of Engineering.

Following the endowment, Darrell Long, professor of computer science and director of the Storage Systems Research Center (SSRC), said that Malavalli's name has added an imprimatur to the SSRC that will help to attract further investments from companies and individuals. Hailing Malvalli's valuable contribution, Long said, "He is one of the most influential figures in the area of storage systems and has made great contributions to storage area networks. I am very pleased that someone knows as much as he does about this field and about what's going on in the industry."

Fitting tributes to Malvalli's talent indeed! A man who has always maintained a high-level of enthusiasm, Malavalli is currently investing and mentoring numerous storage networking startups in both Silicon Valley and in India. He also contributes substantially toward his own global vision, which encompasses telemedicine and education. A member of the Board of Directors of The Indus Entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley Chapter, and a trustee of the American India Foundation, Malvalli's enthusiasm, energy and vision are sure to take him to new heights of technological innovations.