Edouard Bugnion

Edouard Bugnion is a Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he joined in 2012. His research focuses on datacenter systems through the Data Center Systems Lab (DCSL).

Professor Bugnion's research interests span Operating Systems, Datacenter Infrastructure, Systems Networking, and Computer Architecture. His work aims to combine low latency, high throughput, and efficiency in protected dataplane systems, with a particular focus on virtualized datacenters and operating system design.

His publication record shows a consistent focus on operating systems and virtualization technologies, with significant contributions spanning from the late 1990s to the present. His work demonstrates a progression from foundational virtualization research to practical datacenter systems engineering, particularly in optimizing networking performance while maintaining kernel protection benefits.

Professor Bugnion's scientific achievements have been recognized with several prestigious awards:

• ACM Software System Award for VMware 1.0 (2009)
• Best Paper Award at SOSP '97 for "Disco: Running Commodity Operating Systems on Scalable Multiprocessors"
• ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award (2008)
• OSDI 2014 Best Paper Award for work on the IX dataplane operating system

Before joining EPFL, Professor Bugnion co-founded two successful startups: VMware and Nuova Systems (acquired by Cisco). At VMware (1998-2005), he served in various roles including CTO. At Nuova/Cisco (2005-2011), he helped build the core engineering team and became VP/CTO of Cisco's Server, Access, and Virtualization Technology Group, which developed Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) platform for virtualized datacenters.

Professor Bugnion leads research in the Data Center Systems Lab (DCSL) at EPFL, which focuses on next-generation datacenter technologies. His lab maintains a strong collaboration with Stanford University, as evidenced by the joint development of the IX Operating System, demonstrating his continued engagement with top academic institutions and industry partners in advancing datacenter infrastructure.