Christopher Ferris
Christopher Ferris | |
|---|---|
| Born | circa 1957 |
| Occupation(s) | Computer scientist, IBM Fellow, CTO of Open Technologies |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Known for | Co-leading Hyperledger Fabric initiative, chairing its Technical Steering Committee (2016–2018), contributions to open source software, web services, cloud technology |
Christopher (Chris) Ferris (born circa 1957) is a distinguished computer scientist recognized for his role in co-leading the Hyperledger Fabric initiative and chairing its Technical Steering Committee between 2016 and 2018. He was a member of the Governing Board for this prominent blockchain project under the auspices of the Linux Foundation, which has expanded to include more than 200 corporate and associate participants. Ferris has made significant contributions to open-source software, particularly in advancing web services and cloud technology innovations. Presently, he holds the titles of IBM Fellow and CTO of Open Technologies.
History
Ferris embarked on his journey into open-source software in 1999 through his involvement with OASIS (organization), focusing on resolving challenges related to B2B transactions. During his tenure as Chief Architect at Sun Microsystems, he engaged in the early stages of ebXML development aimed at ERP and B2B transaction frameworks, efforts that were eventually adopted by the United Nations as an international trade standard (UN/CEFACT).
He assumed the position of vice chair within OASIS’s messaging working group, promoting SOAP as a substitute for proprietary messaging protocols and playing a key role in shaping XML standards at the W3C. Subsequently, Ferris led the W3C web service architecture working group as chair. After joining IBM in 2002, he advanced to become an IBM Distinguished Engineer.
Ferris has also taken on leadership roles in several major open source projects such as OpenStack, Cloud Foundry, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Open Container Initiative, Mesos, and Docker, aligning with IBM’s strategic emphasis on cloud infrastructure and container orchestration technologies.
Linux Foundation Hyperledger
Within the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger initiative, Ferris contributed as a member of the Technical Steering Committee and actively promotes open source ecosystems characterized by commercially viable licenses and transparent governance models.
He delivered the keynote address titled "State of Blockchain" at the 2017 Open Source Leadership Summit organized by the Linux Foundation.
Publications
- Androulaki E, Barger A, Bortnikov V, Cachin C, Christidis K, De Caro A, Enyeart D, Ferris C, Laventman G, Manevich Y, Muralidharan S. (2018), "Hyperledger Fabric: A Distributed Operating System for Permissioned Blockchains," arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.10228.
- Todd Moore and Chris Ferris (2016), "IBM's approach to open technology: Investing in communities and projects critical to enterprise," IBM developerWorks
- Christopher Ferris, Kelvin Lawrence, Tony Storey (2007), “IBM Submission for the W3C Workshop on Web of Services for Enterprise Computing”
- Christopher Ferris, Joel A. Farrell (2003), "What are Web services?" Commun. ACM 46(6):31
- Gupta A, Ferris C, Wilson Y, Venkatasubramanian K. (1998) "Implementing Java computing: Sun on architecture and applications deployment," IEEE Internet Computing 2(2):60-4.
Patents
Among the patents referenced more than 100 times are the following:
- Gupta A, Ferris C, Abdelnur A; Sun Microsystems Inc. System and method for user authentication. US Patent 6,226,752 (2001).
- Wood DL, Weschler P, Norton D, Ferris C et al.; Sun Microsystems Inc. Log-on service enabling credential level modification without interrupting session. US Patent 6,609,198 (2003).
- Wood DL, Norton D, Weschler P, Ferris C et al.; Sun Microsystems Inc. Single sign-on architecture incorporating trust-level mapping to authentication criteria. US Patent 6,892,307 (2005).
- Wood DL, Weschler P, Norton D, Ferris C et al.; Sun Microsystems Inc. Log-on service permitting credential level adjustment without session loss. US Patent 6,944,761 (2005).
- Abdelnur AH, Ferris C; Sun Microsystems Inc. Component for user interface. US Patent 6,429,882 (2002).