November 24, 2014, Updated November 23, 2014

Data virtualization company Primary Data has announced that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will serve as chief scientist of the Israeli-American data virtualization company. Wozniak, who is fondly known as ‘Woz’, will counsel Primary Data on technology vision and architecture, and advocate the company’s story with technology innovators around the globe.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak  (Michael Sarnacki/Woz.org)
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Michael Sarnacki/Woz.org)

“Innovations like wearables, digital assistants, and the Internet of Things are making computing more and more transparent in our lives, and for technology to remain accessible, we need to ensure data remains seamless as it serves us information,” said Wozniak. “Primary Data uses data virtualization to dynamically place data anywhere as applications demand. I’m excited to share our data virtualization platform with the world.”

Primary Data CEO Lance Smith and Wozniak announced the Silicon Valley icon’s new position at DEMO Fall 2014.

“Woz has a unique way of seeing the world through the eyes of both an engineer and a visionary, and his energy, curiosity, and excitement about technology is inspiring,” said Smith. “At Fusion-io, he helped us showcase the breakthroughs possible by adding flash in the enterprise, and we’re excited to have him on the team at Primary Data as we focus on how data virtualization can deliver intelligent data mobility that evolves with the needs of modern enterprises.”

According to a press release, Primary Data is developing data virtualization solutions that transform datacenter architectures by matching data demands with storage supply across a single global data space.

Primary Data grew out of the Israeli startup Tonian Systems.