Daniel Mikusa

I am beyond excited to be speaking at CodeMash 2026 this year! My talk: Model Context Protocol: A Systems Integration Perspective was accepted.

Abstract

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is everywhere these days. It’s often presented as a revolutionary new paradigm that’s going to replace everything, but at its core, it’s simply another interface for fetching data and performing remote actions—like REST or RPC. This session reframes MCP through a systems integration lens, demonstrating how to integrate it with your existing systems rather than replacing them entirely.

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Way back in 2015, I built a NAS. I’d had a “NAS” before, but it was old/spare parts cobbled together to approximate a NAS. This was the first NAS I built, where I bought parts specifically to make a NAS.

I remember doing some research, but ultimately just deciding to go with this wonderful guide from Brian C Moses. It was not the most powerful box, but it did what I needed and I got about 10 years out of it, so I’d say it was a success.

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After a long time of using Python & Flask as the base for my site, I’ve switched over to Hugo. My site doesn’t change very often, so this move makes a lot of sense. It’s easier to host and no more Python updates to keep up with.

The move was pretty easy. I created a new Hugo project and copied all my static resources from the old site to the /static directory of my Hugo project. Then I took my Python Jinja2 templates layout and used it for the base of my default layout in Hugo (i.e. baseof.html). I was then able to add content for the pages of my site, and lastly copy over the posts that I wanted to keep.

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I recently got the opportunity to talk with the amazing Josh Long on his podcast, Bootiful Podcast. It was a great time and a fun conversation. We started from the beginning and talked about all things containers, Docker, Buildpacks, Paketo, and of course, Spring & Native Images.

If you’re new to buildpacks or looking to give them a test run, this is a great place to start. We covered a lot of the concepts and questions people frequently ask. It was also great to talk about some of the improvements that we’ve recently added into the Java buildpacks. For example, we recently added support for UPX compression of native images and the ability to use Tilt with buildpacks for microservice development.

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I have over the years done a lot of work with buildpacks. Both on Cloud Foundry and now with Cloud Native Buildpacks. This year I’ve been fortunate enough to start a job at VMware working on them full time, which I’m pretty excited about.

I am primarily working to develop the Java-related Paketo buildpacks, as well as contribute to the Buildpacks project & to also maintain the Java Cloud Foundry buildpack.

To support this effort, I’m going to try and start writing more about these efforts. What’s new, what’s cool and more about how to use buildpacks.

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