Role/Responsibility
Mark Driver is a vice president and research director in Gartner Research, where he specializes in application development technologies and open source software. Within Gartner, Mr. Driver serves as a principle analyst for Java technology as well as the Microsoft .NET framework. He also manages Gartner's research agenda concerning both business and technical issues around open source software. He covers many aspects of open source software models including adoption challenges, best practices, market impact and development models.

Bio
Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Driver was a technical architect and project leader for more than 15 years in the IT industry, where he focused on distributed open systems development. He worked in several areas including state government, commercial software vendors and in-house IT groups.

I love the ability to work with IT organizations and technology providers to spot major trends in IT as they emerge. Most importantly, I enjoy working with clients to help them effectively exploit these technologies for real-world business benefits. Balancing on the razor's edge between a technologyÍs theoretical potential and its pragmatic reality is the most challenging aspect of my job.

Years of Experience

• 9 years with Gartner
• 24 years in IT industry

Professional Background

• MCI Systemhouse, Technical Architect, 2 years
• PowerCerv, Internet Technology Manager, 3 years
• Florida Department of Management Services, Manager, Advanced Technology Projects, 5 years

Education

• B.S., Computer and Information Science, Florida State University