Stream: Keynote
Time: 09:00 - 09:45
As the mainframe turns 60, its role in powering critical business operations remains vital, yet the need for modernization has never been more pressing. This session will explore how organizations can future-proof their mainframe environments by embracing modern technologies such as hybrid cloud, AI, and advanced automation—all without disrupting existing operations. Through real-world case studies and expert insights, we’ll discuss strategies for incremental modernization, maximizing the value of legacy systems, and ensuring long-term agility and scalability for the evolving demands of the digital era.
Scot Nielsen is the Vice President of Product Management for COBOL and the Enterprise Suite at Rocket Software. With over 25 years of experience in application modernization, Scot has a deep appreciation of the value of legacy systems. Trained as a Software Engineer, he gained firsthand knowledge while working with one of the most renowned names in COBOL software tools for distributed platforms. Scot has contributed to two books on COBOL modernization for the .NET and Java platforms and beyond his professional expertise, Scot is passionate about brewing coffee and baking sourdough bread—because even tech gurus need a break to perfect their crumb!
Edward Marootian is the Vice President of Product Management for Rocket’s Mainframe Infrastructure Modernization organization. Ed joined Rocket from Veracode where he was most recently the VP of Strategic Product Management having led the Static Analysis, Dynamic Analysis, and Security Labs product lines. Ed has a broad background in enterprise computing, security, application development, workload management, and machine learning as both a vendor and practitioner. He has spent his career in product leadership roles with companies including CA Technologies, where he led their mainframe product management and strategy. Ed has also spent time at SmartBear, CloudBees, ORACLE, and eBay where he focused on delivering products that delighted customers and delivered bottom-line results. Ed is a graduate of MIT’s Advanced Management Program, has an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a BS from UMass Lowell. Ed enjoys travel, studying history, and cooking.
Colin leads the mainframe technical consultants in Kyndryl UK&I, where we advise and deliver projects to modernise applications on the mainframe, integrate with cloud or if appropriate move to cloud. He has over 26 years of experience with mainframes, technical leadership in IBM and cloud computing in Google.
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