About me

I love programming since I was 12 years old, when I learnt the BASIC programming language in my MSX computer.

TL; DR; (highlights)

• Ph.D. in Computer Architecture
• Senior software engineer at Grafana Labs since 2023
• University teacher since 2009 to 2019
• Spanish book writer: Programación en Go (2nd edition) (2022), Introducción a Apache Spark (2015), Del bit a la Nube (2014, free on Google / Kindle / iTunes)
• Enthusiast speaker

Talks and lectures

• Grafana Beyla: Zero-code distributed traces and metrics for your microservices with eBPF
  • GrafanaCON 2024. Amsterdam, Netherlands. April 9th, 2024.
• Curveballs: Learnings from Instrumenting Managed Runtime Applications with eBPF
  • Cilium+eBPF day. Event co-located with KubeCon+CloudNativeCon Europe. Paris, France. March 19, 2024.
• Instrumenting distributed traces with eBPF
  • FOSDEM 2024. Brussels, Belgium. February 4-5, 2024.
• OpenTelemetry metrics for Python without the remorse i.e. with eBPF
  • PyCon Ireland 2023. Dublin, Ireland. November 11-12, 2023.
• Zero-code application metrics with eBPF and Prometheus / Video (2:17:00)
  • Promcon EU 2023. Berlin, Germany. September 28-29, 2023
• Lies, damned lies, and request times (lightning talk) / Video (7:47:00)
  • Promcon EU 2023. Berlin, Germany. September 28-29, 2023
• Grafana Beyla: Instrumenta tu aplicación sin añadir una sola línea de código
  • Grafana and Friends Barcelona Meetup. September 19th, 2023
• Use of eBPF in OpenShift network observability
  • Red Hat Summit. May 10-11th, 2022
• The Go Concurrency Model: a tour on simplicity
  • Assembler School. February 12th, 2020
• Pointers vs Values: digging into the Performance War
  • Barcelona Golang Meetup. January 29th, 2020
• Summoning the Go memory manager
  • Barcelona Golang Meetup. January 31st, 2019
• Servicios de Supercomputación
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center. February 12th, 2015
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center. October 30th, 2015
• La tecnología detrás del Big Data
  • Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. September 9th, 2014
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center. December 16th, 2014
• Big Data: ¿Qué hay de big?
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center. June 11th, 2014
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center. July 10th, 2014

Professional Experience

Senior Software Engineer at Grafana Labs. 2023-

• Joining the eBPF squad of the Application Observability team
• Developed Grafana Beyla from scratch

Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat. 2021-2023

• Openshift Network observability team
• Deep dive into eBPF CO-RE
• Deep dive into Kubernetes concepts: Custom Resource Definitions, Operators, Controllers...

Senior Software Engineer at New Relic. 2017-2021

• Mastering Go programming language
• Data acquisition APIs for System Monitoring: Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes...
• Best practices for client-side software
• Working closely with clients in technical support and critical escalations
• Microservices architectures: Docker, Kubernetes, Kafka...

Part-time Lecturer at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. 2009-2019

• C & assembly programming for first-year students
• Java and Object-Oriented programming for first-year students
• Software architecture for Ms.C. students

Systems Software Engineer at Midokura. 2016-2017

• Network monitoring
• Performance-critical Java and Java Virtual Machine
• Testing and code quality: unit testing, integration testing, code coverage
• Basics of CI/CD: Jenkins, Ansible, Vagrant, Docker...
• Scrum (certified by Agilar)

Co-founder, coder and technical coordinator at Betroop. 2015-2017

• Coordination with the contractors for building a mobile app
• Build of our own intranet
• Lesson learn: I love engineering. I don't like management

Senior Researcher at Barcelona Supercomputing Center. 2006-2016

• Ph.D. thesis: Business-Based management of Cloud Environments
• Research buzzwords: Big Data, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Green Computing...
• Technical and academic writing
• Day-by-day management of the work in big consortiums

Software Engineer at Gameloft. 2005-2006

• Videogame-oriented software patterns and tooling
• Mastering Java Micro Edition
• Deepen into the Java platform for low-end devices

Software Engineer at iSOCO - Intelligent Software Components. 2003-2004

• Java & JSP programming
• SQL
• HTML, CSS, Javascript... the unfancy way it was used in 2003

Technical assistant at NetMouse SL. August 2001 - September 2002

• Public customer facing

Sporadic, study-combined jobs at factories 👨‍🏭. 1997-2001

• Working at high intensity, in high exigency environments
• Learnt how lucky I am now for having a job I love

Badminton trainer 🏸 for diverse clubs and institutions. 1996-2000, 2005

• Basics of teaching
• Transmitting physical skills and enforcing proprioception of children and adults

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Architecture. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. 2014.

• Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management: efficiency in quality, time and cost. UPC School of Professional & Executive Development. 2010

• Master of Advanced Studies in Computer Architecture, Networks and Systems. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. 2009

• Master's degree in Computer Engineering. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. 2005

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. 2002

Teaching

From 2009 to 2019, I've been part-time lecturer at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. These are the subjects I taught during this period, with some selected projects:

• Software Architecture (2019)

• Fundamentals of computers (2012-2019)

  • Watch some online lessons about managing 2-D arrays in C (in Spanish)
  • Is printf too boring for you? Put some color to your UNIX console
  • Watch some online lessons about managing lists in C (in Spanish)

• Object-Oriented Programming (2010-2019)

  • Sample videogame: Limerick - Snake Escape (in Spanish)
  • Sample videogame: ¡Escapada! (in Spanish)
  • Learn how to program a simple shooter videogame with my Marcianitos playlist on Youtube (in Spanish).
  • Sample videogame: MOO Pang! (in Spanish)
  • Create and windows, draw something into them, and manage the user interaction easily with the Ventana Java class! (in Spanish)

• Cloud Business and Virtualization (Coordinator of Postgraduate course, 2016)

• Introduction to Computer Systems (2009-10)

  • Scribble your screen with the Tortuga C library!

Publications

Books

• M. Macías. Programación en Go. Editorial Marcombo, 2020. ISBN: 9788426732330

• M. Macías, M. Gómez, R. Tous, J. Torres. Introducción a Apache Spark. Editorial UOC, 2015. ISBN: 9788491160373

• M. Macías. Del bit a la Nube. e-Book, 2014

  • Google Play
  • Amazon
  • Apple iTunes
  • Barnes & Noble

• M. Macías. Falacias, Juegos y Universos Paralelos. Lulu.com publisher, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-4466-4391-4

• J. Torres, I. Goiri, M. Macías. CLOUD COMPUTING: Some of the relevant issues in current Execution Environments for Distributed Computing. Lulu.com publisher, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-4092-1787-9

Journal Articles

• A. Carbó, E. Oró, J. Salom, M. Canuto, M. Macías, J. Guitart Experimental and numerical analysis for potential heat reuse in liquid cooled data centres. Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 112, pp. 135-145. March 2016

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. Analysis of a trust model for SLA negotiation and enforcement in cloud markets (online). Future Generation Computer Systems. March 2015

• K. Djemame, D. Armstrong, J. Guitart, M. Macías. A Risk Assessment Framework for Cloud Computing. IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, vol.PP, no.99, pp.1,1. July 2014

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. SLA Negotiation and Enforcement Policies for Revenue Maximization and Client Classification in Cloud Providers. Future Generation Computer Systems, Vol. 41, pp. 19-31, 2014. December 2014

• I. Goiri, F. Julià, J.O. Fitó, M. Macías, J. Guitart. Supporting CPU-based Guarantees in Cloud SLAs via Resource-level QoS Metrics. Future Generation Computer Systems, Vol. 28 (8), pp. 1295-1302. October 2012

• M. Macías, G. Smith, O. Rana, J. Guitart, J. Torres. Maximising Revenue in Grid Markets using an Economically Enhanced Resource Manager. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, Vol. 22 (14), pp. 1990-2011. September 2010

Conference proceedings

• K. Meth, E. Raichstein, K. Barabash, R. Schaffer, J. Takvorian, M. Macías. Smart network metrics derivation from flow logs (poster). 15th ACM International Conference on Systems and Storage (SYSTOR'22). Haifa, Israel. June 13-15, 2022

• M. Canuto, R. Bosch, M. Macías, J. Guitart. A methodology for full-system power modeling in heterogeneous data centers. 9th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC'16). Shanghai, China. December 6-9, 2016

• K. Djemame, R. Kavanagh, D. Armstrong, F. Lordan, J. Ejarque, M. Macías, R. Sirvent, J. Guitart, and R. Badia. Energy Efficiency Support through Intra-Layer Cloud Stack Adaptation. 13th International Conference on Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services (GECON'16). Athens, Greece. September 20-22, 2016

• M. Macías, J.Guitart. A Risk-based Model for Service Level Agreement Differentiation in Cloud Market Providers. 14th IFIP International Conference on Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems (DAIS 2014). Berlin, Germany. June 3-6, 2014

• M. Macías, J.Guitart. Trust-aware Operation of Providers in Cloud Markets. 14th IFIP International Conference on Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems (DAIS 2014). Berlin, Germany. June 3-6, 2014

• J. Guitart, M. Macías, K. Djemame, T. Kirkham, M. Jiang, D. Arsmstrong. Risk-driven Proactive Fault-tolerant Operation of IaaS Providers. 5th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom 2013). Bristol, UK. December 2-5, 2013

• J.O. Fitó, M. Macías, F. Julià, J. Guitart. Business-Driven IT Management for Cloud Computing Providers. 4th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom 2012). Taipei, Taiwan. December 3-6, 2012

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. Cheat-proof Trust Model for Cloud Computing Markets. 9th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems and Services (GECON 2012). Berlin, Germany. November 27-28, 2012

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. Client Classification Policies for SLA Enforcement in Shared Cloud Datacenters. 12th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGrid 2012). Ottawa, Canada. May 13-16, 2012

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. A Genetic Model for Pricing in Cloud Computing Markets. 26th Symposium on Applied Computing (ACM SAC 2012), special track on Cloud Computing. TaiChung, Taiwan. March 21-25, 2011

• M. Macías, J. O. Fitó, J. Guitart. Rule-based SLA Management for Revenue Maximisation in Cloud Computing Markets. 6th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM 2010). Niagara Falls, Canada, October 25-29, 2010 (download poster)

• J.O. Fitó, M. Macías, J. Guitart. Toward Business-driven Risk Management for Cloud Computing. 6th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM 2010). Niagara Falls, Canada, October 25-29, 2010

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. Using Resource-level Information into Nonadditive Negotiation Models for Cloud Market Environments. 12th IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2010). Osaka, Japan, April 19-23, 2010, pp 325-332

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. A Non-Additive Negotiation Model for Utility Computing Markets. XX Jornadas de Paralelismo (JP 2009). A Coruña, Spain. September 16-18, 2009

• T. Püschel, N. Borissov, M. Macías, D. Neumann, J. Guitart, and J. Torres. Economically Enhanced Resource Management for Internet Service Utilities. 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems Engineering (WISE 07). Nancy, France, December 3-7, 2007

• T. Püschel, N. Borissov, D. Neumann, M. Macías, J. Guitart, and J. Torres. Extended Resource Management Using Client Classification and Economic Enhancements. 17th eChallenges e-2007 Conference and Exhibition (e-2007). The Hague, The Netherlands, October 24-26, 2007

Workshop proceedings

• K. Djemame, D. Armstrong, R. Kavanagh, A. J. Ferrer, D. Antona, D. Garcia Perez, J. C. Deprez, C. Ponsard, D. Ortiz, M. Macías, J. Guitart, F. Lordan, J. Ejarque, R. Sirvent, R. Badia, M. Kammer, O. Kao, E. Agiatzidou, A. Dimakis, C. Courcoubetis, L. Blasi. Energy Efficiency Embedded Service Lifecycle: Towards an Energy Efficient Cloud Computing Architecture. Joint Workshop Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on ICT for Sustainability 2014, co-located with ICT4S 2014. Stockholm, Sweden, August 24-27, 2014.

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. Client Classification Policies for SLA Negotiation and Allocation in Shared Cloud Data centers. 8th International Workshop onEconomics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services (GECON 2011). Paphos, Cyprus. December 5, 2011

• I. Goiri, F. Julià, J.O. Fitó, M. Macías and J. Guitart. Resource-level QoS Metric for CPU-based Guarantees in Cloud Providers. 7th International Workshop on Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services (GECON 2010). Ischia, Italy, August 31, 2010

• M. Macías, J. Guitart. Influence of Reputation in Revenue of Grid Service Providers. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on High Performance Grid Middleware (HiPerGRID 2008). Bucharest, Romania, November 21-22, 2008

• M. Macías, G. Smith, O. Rana, J. Guitart, and J. Torres. Enforcing Service Level Agreements using an Economically Enhanced Resource Manager. 1st Workshop on Economic Models and Algorithms for Grid Systems (EMAGS 2007) In conjunction with the 8th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Grid Computing (Grid 2007). Austin, Texas, USA, September 19, 2007

Book chapters

• M. Macías. Towards the Pocket Workstation: Powering Mobile Applications in the Cloud. In: J. Torres, I. Goiri, M. Macias (Eds.), "Execution Environments for Distributed Computation Issues", Chapter 3, Pages 61-83. Lulu.com publisher, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-4092-1787-9.

• J. Guitart, M. Macías, O. Rana, P. Wieder, R. Yahyapour, W. Ziegler. SLA-based Resource Management and Allocation. In: R. Buyya, K. Bubendorfer (Eds.), "Market-Oriented Grid and Utility Computing" Chapter 12. Wiley (publisher). June 2009. ISBN: 978-0-470-28768-2

Magazines

• I. Goiri, J. Guitart, M. Macías, J. Torres, E. Ayguadé, J. Ejarque, R. Sirvent, D. Lezzi, R. Badia. EMOTIVE: the BSC's Engine for Cloud Solutions. Zero-In eMagazine: Building Insights, Breaking Boundaries Issue 3, Successful Case Studies of eScience/eResearch Projects in Europe and Globally, pp. 15-16. October 2009

Other documents

• M. Macías, J. Guitart (advisor). Business-Driven Resource Allocation and Management for Data Centres in Cloud Computing Markets. Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Architecture. Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. May 2014

• M. Macías, J. Guitart (advisor). On the Use of Resource-level Information for Enhancing SLA Negotiation in Market-based Utility Computing Environments. Thesis for Master of Advanced Studies in Computer Architecture, Networks and Systems. Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, June 2009

• M. Macías, A. Trujillo (advisor). Diseño y creación de aplicaciones de entretenimiento para aplicaciones Móviles. Final project for Master's Degree on Computer Sciences. Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, July 2005 (sorry, no English version available!)

• M. Macías, D. Rexachs (advisor). Implementación de una controladora VGA en un CPLD XC9500. Final project for Bachelor's Degree on Computer Sciences. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, September 2002 (sorry, no English version available!)

Public research projects

• RenewIT: Advanced concepts and tools for renewable energy supply of IT Data Centres (2013-2016)

• ASCETiC: Adapting Service lifeCycle towards EfficienT Clouds (2013-2016)

• OPTIMIS: Optimized Infrastructure Services (2010-2013)

• VENUS-C: Towards an interoperable Scientific Cloud for Europe (2010-2012)

• Nuba: Normalized Usage of Business-oriented Architectures (2009-2012)

• SORMA: Self-Organising ICT Resource Management (2006-2009)