Mr. Jeffrey A. Frey

An IBM Fellow and the CTO for System z, he is one of the founding architects of System z Parallel Sysplex which operates as ultra-reliable clustering software to execute many of the world's daily business and financial transactions nearly flawlessly. His innovations in the areas of autonomic systems management, dynamic resource provisioning, and goal-oriented resource management are highly sought after by clients as they embark on popular initiatives like cloud computing. Currently, he is responsible for the ongoing architecture and design of IBM's next-generation mainframe. He graduated from Monroe Community College, and then attended Rochester Institute of Technology; graduating in 1983 with a degree in Computer Science. Two months after graduation he began his career at IBM's Poughkeepsie, N.Y., facility where he spent his career in and around System z. System z traces its roots to IBM's System/360, introduced in April 1964. At that time, IBM promised that the operating system would remain compatible with future IBM technology. He is quoted as saying, "we've held true to that promise". More than four decades later, applications written for that early operating system can still run on the newest System z -a great benefit for longtime customers. He explained that System z, "has the good fortune of having been adopted by some of the major companies in the world. It is still a backbone of commercial data processing and transaction processing." He has a long history of leadership and innovation within IBM. By advancing the IBM System z operating system and middleware to help clients leverage their mainframe investments, he has been instrumental in the technical revitalization of the IBM mainframe into one of the world's most sophisticated servers. In May, 2010, he was named an IBM fellow, the company's highest technical distinction, for his work with the venerable operating system in which he played a pivotal role; The zEnterprise System unveiled in July. The zEnterprize System is the result of more than $1.5 billion in IBM research and development and more than three years of collaboration with IBM's top clients around the world. Among articles he has authored are: Software-Defined IT Infrastructures Are the Next Chapter in Virtualization Benefits, May 2013; Another Dimension, January 2012; and Launching Pad, November 2011.