Focus on…Systems, Software, and Storage
Focus offers a team of industry veterans combining decades of expertise in systems, software, storage, management and services for the enterprise, SMB
and public sector markets. Founder, President and Chief Analyst Barb Goldworm and her team bring extensive experience in technical, marketing, business and executive roles
with companies including IBM, StorageTek, Sun, Novell, Enterprise
Management Associates, and numerous startups.
In addition to their experience in market research and analysis, Focus analysts have written extensively for leading industry publications including
NetworkWorld, ComputerWorld, TechTarget, SNW Online, InfoStor and others; have authored and edited books, and are frequent speakers and educators at industry events. The Focus team brings a comprehensive perspective to both vendor and user clients.
Our Team Members
Founder, President and Chief Analyst
Barb Goldworm has spent over 30 years in systems, software, and storage in various senior management, marketing, sales, technical and industry analyst positions with IBM, StorageTek, Novell, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) and several successful startup ventures. A frequent keynote speaker at industry events, Barb has been one of the top ranked expert speakers at StorageNetworkingWorld (SNW), TechTarget Data Center Decisions and numerous other events. She also chairs Interop’s Virtualization and Virtualization Management tracks, created and chaired Interop’s Network Storage Track, and is virtualization chair for Blade Systems Insight, as well as being a frequent judge for various Product of the Year and Best of Show awards. Barb also has been a regular featured expert speaker for TechTarget, Ziff-Davis and Business Trends Quarterly webcast, podcast and live events, as well as hundreds of channel partner events throughout North America.
As an analyst and expert columnist since the 1990s, Barb has authored hundreds of articles, business and technical white papers, and research studies. She has written regular columns for TechTarget SearchServerVirtualization and SearchSystemsChannel, Network World, ComputerWorld and Virtual Strategy Magazine. She recently published a book entitled "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs" commissioned by Wiley, available on Amazon.com.
Barb brings a unique blend of marketing and technical depth, both strategic and tactical, with experience in product management, product marketing, sales, market research, software development, project management and education.
Research Director
Anne Skamarock has 30 years of technical, marketing, research, analysis and consulting experience, as an industry analyst, vendor and end-user/administrator. She has held various technical and marketing positions with Sun Microsystems; StorageTek; SRI, International; EMA; and several successful startups. For the past eight years, she has been a market analyst focusing on virtualization and the intersections between systems, storage, and software.. Anne’s expertise encompasses systems, storage and storage networking architectures; virtualization technologies; enterprise management software; data protection solutions; and tape and disk storage solutions. A frequent speaker at conferences and channel events, she chairs the Interop Virtualization tracks along with Barb, and previously chaired Interop's Network Storage Track for several years. She was a co-creator as well as Program Manager for the ROI Planning Lab at the 2007 Server Blade Summit on Blades and Virtualization, and also ran key tutorial sessions on blades and virtualization. In addition to regular TechTarget columns on virtualization, previous Network World weekly column on storage, and numerous business and technical white papers and research reports, Anne also co-authored the book "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs" as well as "Storage Solutions: a Buyer's Guide."
MaryAnne Winniford, Ph.D. 
Survey Research Manager
Dr. MaryAnne Winniford has over 20 years experience in IT research and user surveys in both business and academic environments. She received her Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona, one of the top five programs in the nation. Specializing in the design, administration, and analysis of telephone, web, and mail surveys, she has managed all phases of survey research, including question design, data analysis, report writing, final review and presentation. Dr. Winniford has provided survey expertise on surveys of varying lengths, depths and sample sizes. She has published survey research articles in many academic journals and has been a faculty member at University of Colorado- Boulder, University of North Texas, and Southern Methodist University. In addition to her fifty plus surveys, she also co-authored the book, “Service Level Management Buyer’s Guide.”
Analyst/Consultant
Andrew Kutz has over 10 years of professional experience in computer systems design, security, programming, implementation, and management. Andrew is s a site expert on SearchServerVirtualization.com, and has written numerous articles and whitepapers, and given many webcasts and presentations on building virtual infrastructures using VMware and other enterprise virtualization solutions such as XenSource XenServer. Andrew also specializes in Microsoft technologies such as Windows XP/Vista/2003, IIS 6, Exchange 2003, and .NET 1.1/2.0. He is author of the widely used security project, "Sudo for Windows." Andrew has also designed solutions using OS X and various Linux distributions. Andrew served as a technical editor and contributor for the book "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs." In addition to working with Focus, Andrew currently works for the University of Texas at Austin as an Operating Systems Specialist in charge of the campus' central virtual infrastructure, and other servers, Windows and Linux. Andrew is also the principal member of l o s t c r e a t i o n s, a development and consulting firm that aims to offer high-end, custom solutions using Microsoft and VMware based technologies.
Affiliate Consultant
Howard Goldstein has over 30 years experience in storage and networking, including technical positions, management, education, architecture, implementation, and operations. His technical focus crosses storage network architectures including IP storage, iSCSI, SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI, SATA, Fibre Channel, TCP/IP, Gigabit Ethernet and more. Howard served as technical editor of Building Storage Networks (Marc Farley) and Resilient Storage Networks (Greg Shultz) and Storage Series editor for Digital Press and was a contributor to "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs." He is also a frequent speaker at Interop and SNW. Howard is very active on the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Education Committee, where he helped develop the SNIA Certification Program. Howard is the founder and principal of Howard Goldstein Associates, Inc. an Education Provider Company offering instructor-led training and course development.
Focus Company Values:
- We are responsive to our customers. We add value to all of our engagements by working collaboratively. We deliver outstanding, consistent, reliable service,
with a strong commitment to integrity.
- We are committed to making every customer a reference customer through exceptional relationship development, value added service, on time and in-budget deliverables and partnership building attitudes.
- We respect and appreciate all of our customers and prospective customers, all of the time.
- We strive to maintain a financially strong business, earning reasonable profits, ensuring we can provide continuous, high quality service for our customers.
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