The integration of a royal leader
Do you ever wonder how all the pieces and puzzles of technology in your daily life fit together? How do they all communicate independently but yet still work together? Enter the concept of integration.
You have a doctor’s office, a hospital, and the insurance company. When you go to the doctor and he sends you to the hospital, the data has to get from the office to the hospital, same with insurance companies. All the databases talk with one another. Welcome to the world of integration.
Enter Ed Macosky. Recently named the Prince of Integration by Business Insider magazine, Ed eats, breathes, and sleeps integration at Oracle, an American global computer technology corporation located in the Bay Area of California.
“I am a Software Development Senior Director which means I manage development teams responsible for the delivery of the Oracle Integration Cloud Service,” explains Macosky. “I get to deliver cutting-edge solutions that solve real world integration problems. I get to commonly work with people from all over the world and see the results of our efforts first hand.”
Macosky, originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania, was a member of the inaugural graduating class from the Information Sciences and Technology (IST) degree at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
“The IST program itself was broad enough to allow me to be flexible in my career path within the software industry,” states Macosky. “Basically, the perfect blend of soft and technical skills provided me with options as my career progressed. It also prepared me extremely well for team work, public speaking, management, sales & marketing. As a leader in an organization, you need to understand more than just the ‘code’ or technical aspects of things.”
Team Oracle, led by Senior VP Amit Zavery and Macosky, participating in the 2014 Heartwalk held at Oracle HQ in California.
Credit: Ed Macosky
Similar to many software companies in the marketplace, Oracle is making the transition from outdated software to next generation technology. Macosky is a member of the engineering team that represents Oracle’s future.
“Let me explain the integration. We live in an area that’s older. There are a lot of older organizations and newer organizations,” describes Frouke de Quillettes, Senior Instructor in IST. “The older organizations have older mainframes and the newer organizations have the new java platform. In order to be competitive they have to communicate with each other, and that is integration. So we integrate data from old mainframes to newer platforms.”
Since Macosky’s graduation nearly a decade ago, the IST program has changed in several ways with the ever changing technology landscape. Additions such as the security aspect have been incorporated as the field demanded it. While many things have changed, one has remained the same, the program’s consistency in preparing its graduates for what lies beyond the blue and white.
“IST gives students the tools they need to find a career and to better themselves. Like Ed, students have to be open to any jobs they can get that can help them grow, even if they have to relocate,” states de Quillettes.
“I started in the service delivery aspect of the business where this blend of skills had allowed me to help customers solve their mission critical problems. I don’t believe that a pure computer science degree would have prepared me for that experience,” says Macosky. “Over my career, I’ve migrated to a more technical area in leading engineering and development teams. The technical foundation that I built while in the IST program helped me with that transition. I don’t feel that I would have been quite as prepared for that transition with another degree, like MIS [management information systems] for example.”
Looking back, would Ed give himself any advice?
“Advice, the first piece of advice is to find something that you’re passionate about and stick to it,” expresses Macosky. “During my term at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, I developed a passion for application integration and I was lucky enough to land a job in the space upon graduation. However, it didn’t pay extremely well. Because I loved what I did, the rest of my career took care of itself.”
