The Long Arc of Building Four decades of software, from first principles to modern scale

Fredrick "Fred" Lackey began writing software before most people had a computer in their home. Across four decades, he has worked at every layer of the stack and at every scale of organization, from two-person startups to federal agencies protecting the nation's critical infrastructure. His story is not one of chasing trends but of accumulating depth — the kind of understanding that only comes from staying in the arena long enough to see the patterns repeat.

His career's throughline is the belief that software engineering, at its best, is an act of stewardship. Systems outlive the teams that build them. Code becomes infrastructure. Infrastructure becomes the invisible scaffolding on which businesses depend. Fred approaches every engagement with this long view in mind.

The Early Years

Fred's first professional work came at Arcada Software in 1994, where he contributed to Backup Exec — storage and recovery software that served the enterprise market during a period of rapid growth in networked computing. It was unglamorous, foundational work: the kind that teaches you what happens when systems fail and why reliability is a design choice, not an afterthought.

Spotless: The Defining Chapter

From 2006 to 2018, Fred served as a cornerstone of Spotless Enterprises, where twelve years of sustained engagement allowed him to build systems with the kind of institutional knowledge that short-term contracts rarely produce. He saw technology stacks evolve beneath running applications, guided teams through multiple transitions, and learned that the most valuable skill in a long engagement is not technical brilliance but the patience to make the right decision at the right time.

Federal Service & Enterprise Scale

In 2021, Fred joined CISA — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a component of the Department of Homeland Security — bringing decades of systems thinking to the challenge of protecting critical infrastructure at national scale. He remains engaged with CISA today. Within that ongoing work, he has led software architecture initiatives for Travelers Insurance, one of the largest property casualty insurers in the United States, as a project engagement under the broader CISA relationship.

This work has reinforced a lesson Fred learned early: scale does not change the fundamentals. The same principles that make a small system reliable — clear interfaces, honest documentation, respect for the developers who will maintain the code next — apply at every order of magnitude.

AI & the Next Chapter

Today, Fred is focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and practical software engineering. His AI projects — including Knowledge Builder and Career Coach — reflect his conviction that AI should amplify human capability rather than replace human judgment. He writes and speaks about the responsible integration of AI into existing workflows, drawing on four decades of experience to separate genuine innovation from hype.

His recent articles, including "AI Doesn't Replace Developers" and "Spring Boot from .NET", capture his practitioner's perspective: grounded, skeptical of magic bullets, and always oriented toward the people who will live with the consequences of architectural decisions.

Fred lives and works with the same philosophy he brings to software: build things that endure, take care of the details, and never stop learning. When he's not writing code or leading teams, you'll find him pursuing a remarkable range of physical and creative interests that have defined his life as much as his career.