USENIX Association

What USENIX Association does

USENIX Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1975 and operating under the trade name "The Advanced Computing Systems Association." It is governed by an elected Board of Directors and operates with a small professional staff (11 personnel including Executive Director, Deputy Director, Finance Manager, Conference Director, Production Manager, Development Director, and supporting coordinators) — leadership spans executives from North Carolina State University, LinkedIn, Clari, Microsoft Research, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP), Reddit, UC San Diego, and others. The organization maintains its administrative operations from the Berkeley/San Francisco area (mailing address at 2443 Fillmore Street, Suite 380-25600, San Francisco).

Name

USENIX Association

Legal name

USENIX Association

Website

https://usenix.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1975

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Association and Conference Services

NAICS

Professional Organizations (81392), Libraries and Archives (519210), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing (MPAJABAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA), Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Access Academic Publishing (MPAJABAG)

Keywords

• Advanced computing systems
• Open access publishing
• Technical conferences
• Professional association
• Research community

Headquarters

HQ city

Berkeley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Conference Registration Fees: Revenue generated from conference attendance fees, with discounted rates for members and students.
2. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees that provide access to conference proceedings, discounted registration rates, and other member benefits.
3. Corporate Sponsorship: Corporate sponsors support USENIX through patron programs, event sponsorship, and general organizational support to maintain open access.
4. Individual Donations: Contributions from individuals, including IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions, planned giving, and donor-advised fund distributions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

USENIX Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional association that organizes more than ten annual technical conferences and workshops on advanced computing systems topics (including OSDI, NSDI, FAST, USENIX Security, ATC, SREcon, and SOUPS) and publishes open-access conference proceedings and the ;login: digital publication. It supports the computing research community through membership programs, student and professional grants, and recognition awards, with all conference materials free to publish and free to read since 2008.

Product overview

USENIX Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that serves as a professional association for the advanced computing systems community. The organization's primary offerings include recurring technical conferences (OSDI, NSDI, FAST, USENIX Security, ATC, WOOT, VehicleSec, SREcon, SOUPS, PEPR) where research is presented and published; open-access conference proceedings available free of charge since 2008; the ;login: digital publication; multimedia recordings of conference presentations; and award programs including the Lifetime Achievement Award (The Flame), Test of Time Awards, and Best Papers recognition. The organization also supports community participation through student and professional grant programs, and membership services providing conference discounts and proceedings access.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• USENIX Conferences Annual and recurring technical conferences covering advanced computing systems topics including operating systems, networked systems, storage, security, and site reliability engineering. Major conferences include OSDI, NSDI, FAST, USENIX Security, ATC, WOOT, VehicleSec, SREcon, SOUPS, and PEPR.
• ;login: Publication Digital-only publication serving as a medium for the USENIX community to learn about tools, research, and events. Previously a print magazine (1984-2020), transitioned to fully open-access digital-only format in 2021, with online edition concluding in 2025.
• Conference Proceedings Open-access research publications from USENIX conferences, available free of charge since 2008. CiteSeer ranks USENIX Conference Proceedings among the top ten highest-impact publication venues for computer science.
• Conference Multimedia Recordings Recorded video presentations of conference sessions, publicly available on the USENIX website and YouTube after each event, covering technical presentations from all major USENIX conferences.
• Student Grant Program Funding program providing registration fee coverage and travel/lodging assistance for full-time students at accredited institutions to attend USENIX conferences and workshops.
• Professional Grant Program Grant program supporting computer scientists experiencing adversity in attending USENIX conferences, providing funds to defray conference attendance expenses for academics and industry professionals.
• USENIX Membership Dues-paying membership providing access to conference proceedings, discounted conference registration rates, and participation in the advanced computing systems community. Includes student, individual, and corporate membership tiers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Conference proceedings ranked in top 10 highest-impact publication venues for computer science by CiteSeer
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered primary and core.

• BloombergprimaryGTM or Marketing PartnerBloomberg is listed as a USENIX Patron, providing support for USENIX's open access mission and conference programs.
• GoogleprimaryGTM or Marketing PartnerGoogle is listed as both a USENIX Patron and Open Access Supporter, supporting USENIX's commitment to open access publishing.
• PeerJcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerPeerJ is listed as an Open Access Publishing Partner, supporting USENIX's open access policy.
• Computing Research AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUSENIX has a professional affiliation with the Computing Research Association, representing the interests of the computing research community.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): ACM is the largest international computing professional society, publishing journals, magazines, and sponsoring flagship conferences across all areas of computing. Comparable to USENIX as a professional society publishing computing research, but with a much broader scope beyond systems.
• IEEE Computer Society: IEEE Computer Society is the leading global organization for computing engineering professionals, publishing journals, sponsoring conferences, and offering certifications. Comparable to USENIX as a parallel membership-based computing society, though it spans all of computing rather than specializing in systems.
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): IETF is the standards organization for the internet, producing RFCs and hosting meetings that draw the networking systems community. Comparable to USENIX as a vendor-neutral, community-driven venue for technical computing/networking work with open access outputs.
• The Linux Foundation: Linux Foundation is the umbrella nonprofit for Linux, Kubernetes, and numerous open source projects, hosting conferences (e.g., KubeCon) and managing open source communities. Comparable to USENIX as a nonprofit steward of open computing communities, though it is centered on open source project governance rather than academic publishing.
• Internet Society (ISOC): ISOC is a global nonprofit promoting the open development and use of the internet, with membership and educational programs. Comparable to USENIX as a global nonprofit membership organization supporting an open computing/internet community, but focused on policy and access rather than systems research.

Others

• Computing Research Association (CRA): CRA is a nonprofit that represents computing research departments in academia and has a documented professional affiliation with USENIX. Comparable as a computing community organization focused on research advocacy, though its model is more about policy and workforce than conference publishing.
• Open Source Initiative (OSI): OSI is the nonprofit steward of the Open Source Definition and community programs around open source software. Comparable to USENIX as a community nonprofit promoting open computing, though its mission is advocacy and standards rather than conferences or publishing.

Direct peers

• Apache Software Foundation: ASF is the nonprofit home of the Apache open source projects and operates community-led governance with events like ApacheCon. Comparable to USENIX as a community-led nonprofit steward of open computing work, though its focus is open source software rather than research publication.

Emerging players

• FreeBSD Foundation: FreeBSD Foundation is a nonprofit supporting the FreeBSD operating system project, including community events and grants. Comparable to USENIX as a small nonprofit supporting an open computing community with sponsorship and grants, but scoped specifically to a single OS project.

Regional players

• AFCEA International: AFCEA is a nonprofit professional association serving defense, intelligence, and cybersecurity communities through conferences, publications, and networking. Comparable to USENIX as a membership-based nonprofit that hosts security conferences and publishes proceedings, though its focus is defense/government adjacent.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/usenix
• Facebookfacebook.com/usenixassociation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/39865

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about USENIX Association