Michael Usher, Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz

Email: musher@ucsc.edu

My LinkedIn profile

Research Interests

In my professional career I have focused on network infrastructure and data cetner systems. In particular I worked on improving technology adoption by a combination of better product design through customer listening, better customer and partner education through carefully planned knowledge transfer, and technology crisis management response whether for individual situations or for product-wide recall programs.

Now that I am returning to study, I am interested in the confluence of networking, storage, security and identity management. Storage systems should scale from the micro-scale for low budgets and small businesses needing simple auto-configuration and troubleshooting, right up to exa-scale and beyond for highly aggregated cloud-type datacenters or HPC clusters which need better scaling for performance and reliability. I want to explore whether new models of object and file store can deliver through the full spectrum of needs.

Published Papers

Recent Papers of Interest

Personal

I moved to California in 1999 working for Cisco Systems just before the tech bubble burst. It is a testament to the culture and climate of Silicon Valley that I am still here almost twenty years later. I live in Santa Cruz with my three beautiful, challenging and engaging daughters. When I'm not working, studying or parenting, I love to take the time to appreciate my environment by hiking, cycling (pedal and engine) or on the water. I am an Extra-class amateur radio operator although I rarely have time on the air these days (AG6MK).