I am a Mainframer: Sarah Julia Kriesch

About this episode

Sarah Julia Kriesch shares her journey and insights on mainframe innovation and open source collaboration.

In this episode of the Mainframe Connect podcast's I Am a Mainframer series, Sarah Julia Kriesch, Senior Lead Mainframe Architect (Open Source) at Kyndryl, shares her journey from Linux system administration to leading the Linux Distribution Working Group at the Open Mainframe Project. Starting with her bachelor thesis on Kubernetes on mainframe through Germany's Academic Mainframe Consortium, Sarah transitioned from IBM to Axians consulting and founded the working group that coordinates Linux distributions on s390x.Sarah discusses how the group collaborates on upstream challenges, serves as a point of contact for developers (like COBOL compiler teams), secures hardware upgrades, and leverages the LinuxONE Community Cloud for free VMs. She highlights successes with Rust, PyPI modules, and multi‑architecture testing, plus her vision for blockchain networks connecting bank mainframes with confidential computing and integrated AI.Celebrating Women's History Month – Sarah exemplifies women leading mainframe innovation through open source collaboration and community building during Women's History Month.#mainframe #opensource #IamaMainframer #podcast #openmainframeproject…

People in this episode

Guest: Sarah Julia Kriesch

Topics covered

• mainframe
• open source
• Linux
• women in tech
• blockchain
• AI

Keywords

• mainframe
• open source
• Linux
• Kyndryl
• blockchain
• AI
• women in tech
• s390x
• Kubernetes
• LinuxONE

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kyndryl, Open Mainframe Project, IBM, Axians

Products: Kubernetes, LinuxONE Community Cloud

Places: Germany

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