Irwin Lazar is the Vice President for Communications and Collaboration Research at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, develops cost models, conducts strategic seminars, and advises clients. Irwin is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in the enterprise in areas including VOIP, unified communications, video conferencing, social computing, collaboration, and advanced network services.

A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Irwin is a blogger for No Jitter, The Enterprise2Blog, and Network World's "Masters of Unified Communications." He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press and is regular speaker at events such as Enterprise Connect (Formerly VoiceCon), and Enterprise 2.0. Irwin serves as the conference director for FutureNet (formerly MPLScon), and is on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference.

Prior to joining Nemertes, Irwin spent nine years with Burton Group, where he led the networking strategies consulting process before heading up VOIP/UC research. His earlier background was in IP network architecture, design, and engineering.

After completing ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and receiving his commission, Irwin served 8 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, Ordnance Corps.

Irwin holds a Masters degree in business administration from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems from Radford University. He is active in Cub Scouts and is an avid baseball fan.

Blog: http://www.irwinlazar.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/irwin-lazar/0/1a7/6ab

Twitter: imlazar