[Colloquium] Talk by Michael Spertus on May 5, 2005 at 4:00 p.m.

[Margery Ishmael]

Department of Computer Science
Forum for Computer Professionals

Thursday, May 5, 2005
4:00-5:00 pm in Ryerson 251
(reception at 3:30 pm in Ryerson 255)

Title: Improving software reliability through fault tolerance and 
forensics

  MICHAEL SPERTUS
  Chief Technologist, Application Performance Products
  VERITAS Software Corporation

THE TALK: Intermittent, irreproducible software failures, which often 
depend on timing details, high load levels, or specific environmental 
factors, are perhaps the leading cause of application failure. We 
describe how new software fault tolerance and forensic architectures 
can help resolve such difficult-to-diagnose intermittent failures in 
both custom and COTS software, keeping critical systems up and meeting 
service levels in a wide variety of end-user scenarios. This talk will 
also include a live demonstration of these technologies.

THE SPEAKER: Michael Spertus is Chief Technologist for VERITAS 
Software's Application Performance Products division. In past lives, he 
codeveloped one of the first commercial C compilers for the IBM PC, 
implemented process control systems, and founded Geodesic Systems, a 
software reliability management company subsequently acquired by 
VERITAS. He has spoken and written widely in both academic and industry 
settings. Michael's graduate work was at University of Chicago, 
Princeton, UC Berkeley, UCSD, and Stanford. His primary areas of 
interest include application reliability, performance, and scalability, 
along with language design and implementation.

Host: Leo Irakliotis