Al Tobey is a Partner Architect at Datastax focused on infrastructure and performance validation. During his 15-years in IT, he has worked on all parts of the Linux stack, from building hardware to single-page HTML5 applications. Before joining Datastax, Al acted as a lead engineer on numerous projects at companies such as H&R Block, Priority Health, Sony Online Entertainment, Limelight Networks, Cisco Systems, and Ooyala. When he's not busy pushing IOPS through Apache Cassandra, he likes to play games with his son, play jazz on the trombone, and study Japanese.