I had the pleasure of interviewing Sally Khudairi of OptDyn, former Head of Communications for the World Wide Web Consortium, current Vice President at The Apache Software Foundation, Director of Marketing and Media at OptDyn, and promoter of tomorrow’s technology today.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?

I’ve been active in the Web since 1993, and helped launched some of the industry’s most prominent standards and organizations. I’m widely recognized as the former deputy to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Head of Communications for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C; this group acts as the “United Nations of the Web” by producing industry standards that ensure interoperability). In 1999, I helped launch The Apache Software Foundation (ASF; the world’s largest Open Source foundation). I was elected its first female and non-technical member. I have served as an officer of the ASF for the past eight years as Vice President of Marketing and Publicity; I was named Vice President of Sponsor Relations in 2018. I lead communications consultancy HALO Worldwide, focusing on the intersection of technology with the arts and luxury markets. I joined OptDyn in early 2016 to head up marketing and media on the corporate side as well as for its product, Subutai, and upcoming launch of its KHAN token.

Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

As a long-time champion of collaborative innovation, I am thrilled by the opportunity to roll up sleeves and participate in a variety of projects.

Last year I worked with architect and industrial designer Giovanni Pagnotta on the development and launch of the P22, the world’s first production 3D-printed ergonomically designed titanium pen. We are now exploring new opportunities with smart fabrics and wearable technology.

My work at the ASF is always evolving as new projects are graduating from the Apache Incubator, with dozens of innovations under development in Big Data, edge computing, and machine learning, among other categories. Our 20th Anniversary is taking place early 2019, so we’re planning ways to celebrate our projects and their communities, as well as the collective success of Open Source development “The Apache Way”.

A tremendously exciting part of my work is at OptDyn, where our primary product, Subutai, brings Peer-to-Peer Cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and cryptocurrency mining to everyone.

Unlike many projects launching in the blockchain/crypto space, Subutai is mature and in active use today. Our PeerOS software decentralizes the Cloud, allowing private and commercial users to easily create virtual P2P private clouds across idle computer resources. Subutai connects end users with IoT and devices more effectively on the continuum to improve performance.

The Subutai Bazaar is a reputation-based global marketplace for selling or renting compute resources and applications. Subutai dynamically tracks the availability, quality of service, and pricing of peer resources so that you can easily participate in a crypto-sharing economy. The system’s analytics, machine learning, and intelligent broker optimize searches and automatically hedges provider benefits to serve as the “Airbnb of Cloud and IoT computing resources”.

Our open hardware Subutai Blockchain Router is an engineering marvel. As an eco-friendly, “green” broadband cloud router and IoT gateway, the Blockchain Router is flexible and extensible, so you can add devices and functionality as you wish. The Industrial Edition of the Blockchain Router is used for mission-critical Industrial IoT applications, such as energy control and management for Itaipu Binacional, the world’s largest producer of renewable energy. The Residential Edition of the Subutai Blockchain Router serves as a plug-and-play cryptocurrency wallet and mining device, which, at a draw of just 18 watts, is 1,083% more efficient than traditional crypto mining methods.

We are security obsessed: Subutai helps users keep their private data protected from legislation such as the CLOUD Act, which requires companies to surrender data stored on servers outside the United States. The Subutai Blockchain Router has built-in intelligence that automatically monitors any unusual usage and reconfigures itself to protect users from intruders or hackers.

The FBI recently issued a directive for everyone to disconnect and reboot their routers in response to a cyber attack by foreign entities. Subutai would protect users from that sort of intrusion risk.

We are also finalizing the details for the development and launch of our KHAN token, which is an Ethereum Blockchain-based reserve currency token. KHAN is one-part of Subutai’s dual token structure; the other part is GoodWill, the Subutai sidechain smart token used for transactions in the Bazaar. The KHAN is the staking token of the Subutai platform, designed to safeguard providers and consumers under the motto “All those who enter are protected by the KHAN. All who stay do so out of GoodWill…”

To round it all off, we’re making it easier to use the Cloud by using Subutai blueprints. From blueprints for office communication and productivity such as Mattermost, or publishing blogs on Wordpress, to gaming on Minecraft, we make it easier for you to get up and running quickly by reducing development time and simplifying the application deployment process. A popular Subutai blueprint is Blockchain-in-a-Box, a turnkey “Blockchain as a Service” (BaaS) instant environment for writing decentralized blockchain-based applications and Solidity Smart Contracts on the Ethereum Network.