Herbert Daly
Academic, Talent Scout, Advocate @ University of Wolverhampton
Herb is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Wolverhampton. He began his career as a Software Engineer working on large scale telecoms systems where he first met concurrency, Erlang and the BEAM platform. As an academic researcher he looks at the technical and socio-technical aspects of Enterprise Systems. A former chair of the UKCMG, he is a regular participant in industry conferences and encourages his students to do likewise. Herb engages with initiatives such as the Linux Foundation's Open Mainframe Project and is a supporter of his local student society Wolverhampton MaSS.
Past Activities
Code Mesh V
12.50 - 13.30
A funny thing happened on the way to the future...' - Why Mainframes Still Matter
For the cool kids of enterprise computing, mainframes are considered something of an embarassment; technology of a previous era, long superceeded with its clunky interfaces, all staffed by a curious breed who measure time in epochs. Recent events like the Cobol Covid Crisis of 2020 highlight the risks of technical debt at the heart of our critial infrastructure...and yet there's another, overlooked story about this first general purpose enterprise platform. With design goals familiar to anybody working on BEAM, mainframes pioneered many of the innovations the cool kids take for granted and continue to serve up impressive solutions to the problems we face in a high stakes computing world. Moreover as the Linux Foundation Open Mainframe project celerates its fifth year, ideas and technologies continue to converge, presenting a future where the platform may enjoy a rennassance or at the very least exchange its frumpy image for new found credibility.
OBJECTIVES
Offer an alternative to the "Technical debt" "Legacy systems" view of mainframe technology, to highlight historic innovations, discuss new developments including the Linux Foundation's Open Mainframe Project and show how the techicaly objectives of BEAM and mainframes are aligned
AUDIENCE
New comers to tech, retro enthusiasts, mainframe sceptics