Puneet Sharma

About Puneet Sharma

Puneet Sharma is an HPE Fellow, Vice President, and Director of the Networking and Distributed Systems Lab at HPE Labs, where he leads the company’s research in Edge-to-Cloud-to-Exascale Infrastructure, Multi-Cloud Resource Orchestration, AI for Infrastructure, 5G/WiFi, and Security. He has been a key driver of HPE’s innovation pipeline, delivering breakthroughs in software-defined networking (SDN), GPU virtualization, container orchestration, edge computing, WiFi, Private 5G, and AI/ML systems. His work has resulted in major technology transfers and business impact across multiple HPE business units. Since joining HP Labs in 1998 after earning his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Puneet has built and led high-impact research teams tackling complex challenges in networking and distributed systems. His early leadership was instrumental in integrating the OpenFlow SDN protocol into HPE’s switching platforms — laying the foundation for SDN’s global adoption in cloud and data center environments. He has also contributed to Internet standards, co-authoring IETF RFCs on multicast routing protocols and the UPnP QoSv3 standard. A recognized global thought leader, Puneet has delivered keynote talks at leading venues including GHTC, the 5G Startup Summit, NFV World Congress, and LANMAN. His research has been featured in New Scientist Magazine and published in premier venues such as ACM SIGCOMM, USENIX NSDI, INFOCOM, and Transactions on Networking, garnering over citations. He has authored more than 150 research papers and holds 90+ granted patents. Puneet was named an Fellow in 2014 for his contributions to scalable networking, SDN, and energy-efficient data centers. He is also an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and was included twice in the Tsinghua University’s AI Most Influential Scholars list (2020, 2021) for his decade-long impact in AI and networking. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and a B.Tech. in Computer Science & Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Puneet’s leadership continues to shape the future of AI-powered, distributed computing and networking infrastructure, reinforcing HPE’s role at the forefront of global innovation.Specialties: Edge ComputingVirtualization OrchestrationSDWANNFVSDNApplied Machine LearningData Center NetworksEnergy Efficient NetworkingNetwork Measurement and Monitoring Mobile CommunicationsOverlay NetworksNetwork QoSNetwork ProgrammabilityTransport Protocols

Experience

1. Hpe Fellow & Vice President Director, Networking and Distributed Systems Lab

   Hewlett Packard Enterprise

   Jul 2025 — Present · CA, US

Education

• Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

  B.Tech, Computer Science and Engineering

  1989 — 1993

• University of Southern California

  Ph.D., Computer Science

  1993 — 1998

Skills

• Data Center
• C++
• Software Design
• Network Management Applications
• Ip Multicast
• Quality of Service (Qos)
• Distributed Systems
• Algorithms
• Computer Science
• Cloud Computing
• Software Development
• Python
• Mobile Communications
• High Performance Computing
• Wireless Networking
• Hadoop
• Signal Processing
• Qos
• C
• Research
• Mobile Devices
• Openflow
• Machine Learning
• Software Engineering
• Networking