Vocera Communications founder awarded 2013 Jean-Claude Laprie Award in Dependable Computing

Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VCRA), the leading provider of solutions that address critical communications and productivity challenges facing healthcare, hospitality, retail and other mobile work environments, today announced that its founder and chief technology officer, Robert Shostak, PhD, has been awarded the 2013 Jean-Claude Laprie Award in Dependable Computing for his co-authored paper, "The Byzantine Generals Problem". Shostak, who worked with two other scientists on this fault-tolerance theory, Marshall Pease and Leslie Lamport, will be awarded the honor at the 43rd Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN) this week in Budapest, Hungary.

The Jean-Claude Laprie Award recognizes outstanding papers that have significantly influenced the theory and/or practice of Dependable Computing. "The Byzantine Generals Problem" is the seminal paper on Byzantine Fault Tolerance, a design that enables a redundant system to handle malfunctioning computer components sending conflicting information to different parts of a system. This concept is expressed abstractly as a group of Byzantine generals, who, communicating only by messenger, must overcome their geographic separation and the traitors among them in order to make a unanimous decision about whether to attack an enemy army. Byzantine fault-tolerant algorithms must cope with communication failures in a way that allows the loyal generals (or non-faulty components) to reach an agreement.

"I am elated to receive this award and to be recognized by this prestigious international forum on Dependable Computing," said Robert Shostak, co-founder of Vocera. "The relevance of this research to modern technology, including the Vocera communication system, is a powerful testament to the proven principles of Byzantine Fault Tolerance."

Robert Shostak co-founded Vocera Communications, Inc. in 2000. Under his guidance, Vocera technology has consistently provided smarter ways to communicate that improve patient and customer satisfaction. The architecture of the system, including Vocera's clustering technology, embodies the principles of Byzantine Fault Tolerance. As a result, thousands of organizations nationwide trust the reliability and availability of the Vocera system.