Ross Williams

infobox person
name=Ross Williams

---

birth_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
nationality = Australian

Ross Neil Williams is an Australian computer scientist and entrepreneur who has made significant contributions to data compression and deduplication technologies. He is best known as the inventor of the US patent|5,990,810 and the founder of "Rocksoft Pty Ltd".

Ross Williams gained his PhD in data compression from the University of Adelaide in 1991 and his thesis was subsequently published as "Adaptive Data Compression" [cite web |url=http://books.google.com.au/books?id=lBY6CcXU59EC&dq=%22adaptive+data+compression%22&pg=PP1&ots=WvS8nNo_PC&sig=g7U5ZxP0-U2mQ_07nRe94IQXFBM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result|title=Adaptive Data Compression|publisher=Google Books|accessdate=2008-09-19] . Williams conducted research into Lempel-Ziv lossless compression techniques during which he developed the SAKDC algorithm, the LZRW range of algorithms, and created the newsgroups "comp.compression" and "comp.compression.research".

In 1996 Williams submitted a patent, US patent|5,990,810, for a variable-length data partitioning system that has since become the basis for deduplication technology in the data storage industry.

In 2001, Williams founded the data integrity and data storage company Rocksoft Pty Ltd. With Williams as chairman and chief architect, Rocksoft developed the deduplication technology to a commercial product. In 2006, Rocksoft was sold to ADIC [cite web |url=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/031506-adic-aquires-rocksoft.html|title=ADIC Acquires Data De-Deplication Vendor|publisher=Network World|date=2006-03-15|accessdate=2008-09-19] which was in turn immediately acquired by Quantum Corporation [cite web |url=http://www.quantum.com/AboutUs/rocksoft/Index.aspx|title=Rocksoft Now Part of Quantum|publisher=Quantum Corporation|accessdate=2008-09-19] .

In 2007, Williams' patent became the subject of legal action between Quantum Corporation and Riverbed Technology. [cite web |url=http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=135934|title=Quantum Sues Riverbed|publisher=Byte and Switch|date=2007-10-09|accessdate=2008-09-19]

Since exiting Rocksoft, Williams founded, along with associate David Sag, "Carbon Planet Pty Ltd", a carbon credits auditing, origination, and retailing company.

References

External links

* [http://www.ross.net/compression/ Ross Williams's compression website]
* [http://www.carbonplanet.com/ Carbon Planet Website]