The Future of OpenBMC is Here

 A Meetup Hosted by Meta and AMI

 

Save-the-date: May 19, 2026
Meta Campus
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Learn. Connect. Advance.

OpenBMC is fragmented — and the ecosystem is feeling it. Vendor-specific, silicon-specific, and user-specific forks have multiplied, creating an unsustainable burden for maintainers chasing patches upstream and a management challenge for cloud and neocloud operators running heterogeneous fleets at scale.​ It's time to change that!

This meetup brings together the community and the leading designers behind some of the world's largest OpenBMC deployments to tackle problems head-on — and chart a path toward a faster, more secure, and more unified OpenBMC ecosystem.​​

Learn. Connect. Advance.

OpenBMC is fragmented — and the ecosystem is feeling it. Vendor-specific, silicon-specific, and user-specific forks have multiplied, creating an unsustainable burden for maintainers chasing patches upstream and a management challenge for cloud and neocloud operators running heterogeneous fleets at scale.​ It's time to change that!

This meetup brings together the community and the leading designers behind some of the world's largest OpenBMC deployments to tackle problems head-on — and chart a path toward a faster, more secure, and more unified OpenBMC ecosystem.​​

Discover. Connect. Celebrate.

Join over 55 leading industry experts and thousands of peers from around the world in San Francisco for the 2023 Apex Summit. During this three-day event, you'll discover the latest industry tactics, trends, and technology, learn how to level up your methods from experts, and build your network in a laid-back, fun environment.

The Agenda

Attendees will gain practical insight into how next-generation control frameworks are being engineered to support hyperscale AI infrastructure.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Registration Opens: 9:30 - 10:00

Session Times: 10:00 – 16:00

Networking Reception: 16:00 – 18:00

 

SLS Barcelona

Starlight Room, 2nd Floor

Time Agenda Topic/Presenter
9:30 – 10:00 Registration Opens
10:00 – 10:30
Welcome Keynote / AMI Vision for Open
Session Title:
AMI Re-imagines the Firmware of an Open Future

Session Speaker:
Sanjoy Maity

Session Abstract:
The AI data center era demands a fundamental re-architecture of firmware — one built on open innovation, secure resilient control, and fleet-scale operational confidence. In this opening keynote, AMI CEO Sanjoy Maity outlines how AMI is repositioning as the definitive platform for data center command and control, and why open source collaboration across silicon vendors, CSPs, and the OCP community is the only viable path forward for managing heterogeneous AI infrastructure at scale.
10:30 – 11:00
Open Platform Firmware: Driving Innovation in Open Source
Session Title:
Exploring Open System for Rack-scale AI

Session Speakers:
Zachary Bobroff
Anurag Bhatia

Session Abstract:
The data center industry is at an inflection point, and open platform firmware is at the center of the transformation. As infrastructure demands grow in complexity and scale, open-source firmware is emerging as a powerful catalyst — accelerating development cycles, enhancing security visibility, and fostering deep collaboration across the ecosystem.

This session explores how open firmware initiatives are reshaping the foundation of modern data center platforms, from boot and manageability to security and telemetry. Attendees will hear how AMI is an industry leader and is contributing to and building on open firmware frameworks to unlock greater agility, drive interoperability, and fuel the kind of community-led innovation that is pushing the boundaries of what modern infrastructure can do.
11:00 – 11:30
Open Systems for AI: Rack Level Management and AMD Helios
Session Title:
Explore the Story Behind AMI and Helios

Session Speaker:
AMD: Robert Hormuth

Session Abstract:
As GPU and accelerator diversity continues to fragment data center management, open firmware initiatives like Helios are proving that silicon and firmware providers can align on a common control foundation. AMI presents the joint value proposition behind Helios, demonstrating how open-source collaboration at the platform level drives consistency, reduces integration overhead, and accelerates operational readiness across heterogeneous AI infrastructure fleets.
11:30 – 11:45 Break
11:45 – 12:15
OCP: How Open is Driving the Industry Forward
Session Title:
OCP Leader Presentation — Open Compute as a Catalyst for Data Center Innovation

Session Speaker:
Zane Ball

Session Abstract:
The Open Compute Project has become a critical force in shaping how the industry designs, deploys, and manages next-generation data center infrastructure. This session examines how OCP's open hardware and firmware standards are accelerating innovation across the ecosystem — from silicon and systems to management and telemetry — and what the roadmap ahead means for cloud providers, Neo Clouds, and enterprise operators building for AI scale.
12:15 – 12:45
Open Chiplet Economy – How firmware is integral to chiplets / ARM and AMI
Session Title:
The Open Chiplet Economy: Firmware as the Connective Tissue

Session Speaker:
Dong Wei

Session Abstract:
As chiplet-based architectures redefine silicon design, firmware must evolve to manage the complexity of disaggregated, multi-die platforms where each component brings its own telemetry, power, and control requirements. This session explores how a consistent, open firmware foundation is essential to unlocking the full potential of the chiplet economy — enabling standardized management, validated interoperability, and operational predictability across an increasingly heterogeneous hardware landscape.
12:45 – 13:15
Sustainability – Finding platforms a second life with refreshed firmware / RackRenew and AMI
Session Title:
Sustainability — Finding Platforms a Second Life with Refreshed Firmware

Session Speakers:
RackRenew: Patrick Bliemer
AMI: Matty Bakkeren

Session Abstract:
As AI infrastructure costs soar and hardware refresh cycles accelerate, extending the operational life of existing platforms has become both an economic and environmental imperative. This session examines how modern firmware — with open, updatable architectures and fleet-scale update mechanisms including staged rollouts and health validation — can breathe new life into aging hardware, reducing waste and deferring capital expenditure without sacrificing performance or security.
13:15 – 14:30 Lunch
14:30 – 15:30
Panel Discussion: Power and Cooling Challenges at Scale: AMI with Microsoft, AMD, ARM, OCP
Session Title:
Challenges and Solutions to Managing Systems at Scalee

Panel Speakers:
ARM: Dong Wei
Microsoft: Bryan Kelly

Panel Abstract:
As AI workloads drive rack densities and power consumption to new heights, the infrastructure supporting them must evolve rapidly. This panel brings together leading voices from across the hardware, software, and open standards ecosystem to explore one of the most pressing challenges in modern data center design: keeping AI-scale systems powered, cooled, and running efficiently.

Panelists will share real-world perspectives on thermal management strategies, practical insights on power delivery, and the role of open standards in driving scalable, interoperable solutions — offering practical ideas into how the industry is engineering its way through the heat and power demands of next-generation AI infrastructure.
15:30 – 16:00
How AMI is Driving Innovation in OCP
Session Title:
Closing Keynote — Leading with Open: AMI, OCP, and a Call to Action

Session Abstract:
The transformation of AI data center firmware cannot be driven by any single company — it requires coordinated upstream contribution, shared standards, and a community committed to open innovation at every layer of the stack. AMI closes the conference with a forward-looking challenge to every attendee: how silicon providers, CSPs, Neo Clouds, and ISVs can actively shape the future of open firmware through OCP collaboration, and why the stakes for getting this right have never been higher.
16:00 – 18:00
Networking Reception

Alvin Rogers Follow me on LinkedIn

Director of Sales
Omnicorp

Lisa Smith Follow me on LinkedIn

Creative Director
Megacorp

James McGiven Follow me on LinkedIn

President
Minicorp

Our Speakers

Sanjoy Image

Sanjoy Maity

 CEO at AMI 

 
 
Zachary_Bobroff (1)

Zachary Bobroff

Chief Product Officer at AMI

 
 
Anurag_Bhatia

Anurag Bhatia

General Manager, Manageability and Firmware
 
 
0571f0280ac7062e4220ea015d02e03609bdfdac

Robert Hormuth

Corporate Vice President, Architecture and Strategy, Data Center Solutions Group at AMD
 
Zane Ball Headshot

Zane Ball

Chief Technology Officer at OCP
 
 
dong_wei_headshot

Dong Wei

 Arm Fellow 

 
 
Patrick Bliemer

Patrick Bliemer

Global Sales Manager at RackRenew
 
 
Matty Bakkeren

Matty Bakkeren

Transformation Program Director at AMI
 
 
Bryan Kelly Headshot

Bryan Kelley

 Security Architecture Manager at Microsoft
 

The Agenda

This meetup is specially designed to deliver insights on the pain points and opportunities surrounding the evolution of OpenBMC. Our afternoon agenda will be driven by topics from the community, and you are invited to select the sessions that are most important to you! The event will be offered both in person and live streamed.

In person capacity is limited, so please be sure to register today and reserve your spot!

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Doors Open: 8:30am - 9:00am

Session Times: 9:00am - 4:25pm

 

Meta Campus

Menlo Park

8:30am – 9:00am
Doors Open
9:00am – 9:30am
Welcome – The Key Opportunities for the OpenBMC Community
Session Speaker:
Patrick Bliemer

Session Abstract:
The OpenBMC ecosystem has reached an inflection point — fragmentation across vendor, silicon, and user-specific forks is slowing innovation and compounding the maintenance burden for engineers and operators alike.

This opening keynote, delivered by Meta, makes the case for a structured global community of partners committed to shared development practices, upstream alignment, and collective ownership of the OpenBMC roadmap.

Together, we examine what that community could look like, what it would take to build it, and why the time to act is now.
9:30am – 10:00am
Commitment to Open Innovation
Session Speakers:
Sanjoy Maity
Anurag Bhatia

Session Abstract:
The AI data center era demands a fundamental re-architecture of firmware — one built on open innovation, secure resilient control, and fleet-scale operational confidence. In this opening keynote, AMI CEO Sanjoy Maity outlines how AMI is repositioning as the definitive platform for data center command and control, and why open source collaboration across silicon vendors, CSPs, and the OCP community is the only viable path forward for managing heterogeneous AI infrastructure at scale.
10:00am – 10:30am
Top Challenges in Heterogeneous Management
Session Speaker:
TBD

Session Abstract:
Managing heterogeneous fleets of systems at cloud and neocloud scale exposes the real cost of a fragmented OpenBMC ecosystem — inconsistent interfaces, divergent firmware stacks, and security patching cycles that struggle to keep pace with upstream.

This session surfaces the top challenges engineers and operators face when maintaining diverse hardware environments under a unified management framework.

Attendees will leave with a clearer picture of where the ecosystem is breaking down and what architectural approaches are emerging to address it.
10:30am – 10:45am
Break
10:45am – 11:15am
A Silicon Perspective for Data Center Control Plane Delivery
Session Speaker:
TBD

Session Abstract:
The decisions made at the silicon level have profound and often underestimated implications for how the data center control plane is architected, delivered, and maintained. This session examines the intersection of silicon design and BMC firmware strategy, exploring how hardware choices shape — and sometimes constrain — control plane capabilities across large-scale deployments. Attendees will gain insight into how closer alignment between silicon vendors and the OpenBMC community can accelerate delivery and reduce downstream integration complexity.
11:15am – 12:15pm
Panel Discussion / Managing Systems at Scale
Session Speakers:
TBD

Session Abstract:
The challenges of managing OpenBMC deployments at cloud and neocloud scale touch every dimension of the ecosystem, from firmware architecture and security patching to heterogeneous fleet management and control plane delivery.

This panel brings together the voices from across the morning's sessions for a frank, cross-disciplinary conversation about what it actually takes to operate and maintain large-scale OpenBMC environments in production.

Panelists will draw on their collective experience to surface the hard lessons, emerging best practices, and the community-level commitments that will be required to move the ecosystem forward together.
12:15pm – 1:15pm
Lunch
1:15pm – 1:55pm
Deep Dive 1 | Topic to Be Decided By the Community 
Deep Dive Topic will be selected by the community. Please make sure to choose your preferred topics as you complete your registration.
1:55pm – 2:35pm
Deep Dive 2 | Topic to Be Decided By the Community
Deep Dive Topic will be selected by the community. Please make sure to choose your preferred topics as you complete your registration.
2:35pm – 2:50pm
Break
2:50pm – 3:30pm
Deep Dive 3 | Topic to Be Decided By the Community
Deep Dive Topic will be selected by the community. Please make sure to choose your preferred topics as you complete your registration.
3:30pm – 4:10pm
Deep Dive 4 | Topic to Be Decided By the Community
Deep Dive Topic will be selected by the community. Please make sure to choose your preferred topics as you complete your registration.
4:10pm – 4:25pm
Closing Summary
Session Speakers:
Anurag Bhatia
Zachery Bobroff

Session Abstract:
The final session will summarize the key themes, technical insights, and community discussions from the Meetup and conclude with a look ahead at upcoming priorities, opportunities for continued engagement, and the ways participants can contribute to the evolution of OpenBMC.

Alvin Rogers Follow me on LinkedIn

Director of Sales
Omnicorp

Lisa Smith Follow me on LinkedIn

Creative Director
Megacorp

James McGiven Follow me on LinkedIn

President
Minicorp

Our Speakers

Sanjoy Image

Sanjoy Maity

 CEO at AMI 

 
 
Zachary_Bobroff (1)

Zachary Bobroff

Chief Product Officer at AMI

 
 
Anurag_Bhatia

Anurag Bhatia

General Manager, Manageability and Firmware
 
 
0571f0280ac7062e4220ea015d02e03609bdfdac

Robert Hormuth

Corporate Vice President, Architecture and Strategy, Data Center Solutions Group at AMD
 
Zane Ball Headshot

Zane Ball

Chief Technology Officer at OCP
 
 
dong_wei_headshot

Dong Wei

 Arm Fellow 

 
 
Patrick Bliemer

Patrick Bliemer

Global Sales Manager at RackRenew
 
 
Matty Bakkeren

Matty Bakkeren

Transformation Program Director at AMI
 
 
Bryan Kelly Headshot

Bryan Kelley

 Security Architecture Manager at Microsoft
 

Afternoon Deep Dive Session Options

Topic 1
Fixing the Fractures: Harmonizing Debug Data Across Silicon Vendors
Session Abstract:
Building a unified structure for silicon debug data within the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) requires close collaboration with silicon vendors to harmonize diverse debug methodologies, data formats, and telemetry models. By establishing common schemas and transport mechanisms, this effort enables consistent ingestion, interpretation, and exposure of debug data across heterogeneous platforms. The result is a scalable, vendor‑agnostic framework that improves system observability, accelerates root‑cause analysis, and reduces integration complexity for hyperscale and enterprise environments. 
Topic 2
Caliptra and BMC TIP: Redefining Platform Root of Trust
Session Abstract:
As platform security requirements grow more demanding, the industry is actively debating where root of trust should live.

This session examines Caliptra as an open-source silicon RoT specification alongside the emerging role of BMC TIP, exploring the architectural trade-offs of each approach and the downstream implications for the BMC stack.

Attendees will come away with a sharper understanding of how these two models intersect, compete, and potentially complement one another in securing modern data center platforms.
Topic 3
OpenBMC Beyond Compute: Firmware Management for the Full Data Center Stack
Session Abstract:
OpenBMC was built with compute in mind, but the modern data center demands far more, spanning power shelves, rack managers, liquid cooling systems, and high-speed interconnect pooling devices.

This deep dive walks attendees through the architectural considerations and practical challenges of extending OpenBMC management beyond the server, examining how the framework can be adapted to address the full breadth of data center infrastructure.

Attendees will leave with a foundational understanding of what it takes to deploy OpenBMC as a unified firmware management platform across a heterogeneous and increasingly complex hardware ecosystem.
Topic 4
Finding Common Ground: Sideband Protocols and the Future of BIOS/BMC Integration
Session Abstract:
The landscape of BIOS/BMC sideband communication is defined by inconsistency — with Redfish, MCTP, and MMBI each addressing integration challenges in different and often incompatible ways.

This deep dive gives attendees a structured look at how these protocols function, where they diverge, and what the lack of a unified approach means for firmware development and platform interoperability at scale.

Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the current protocol landscape and the technical trade-offs that will shape the future of standardized BIOS/BMC integration.
Topic 5
Solving the OpenBMC Fork Problem: A Layered, Modular Architecture Approach
Session Abstract:
The proliferation of vendor, silicon, and user-specific forks remains one of the most persistent and costly challenges in OpenBMC development, yet the technical foundation for solving it exists and organizations can take advantage of the innovation that is happening in the OpenBMC space.

This deep dive walks attendees through a layered, modular architecture approach that cleanly separates hardware-specific customization from shared platform logic, reducing fork dependency and improving upstream alignment.

Attendees will leave with practical architectural patterns they can apply to their own OpenBMC development workflows to reduce maintenance overhead and build more sustainably against the upstream codebase.
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