About Michaela Light
Michaela Light is a distinguished figure in the world of Adobe ColdFusion, with over two decades of CF experience and four decades in programming overall. Her hands-on work has made her a prominent voice in the community, as the host of the CF Alive Podcast and the founder of TeraTech, a company specializing in legacy ColdFusion modernization and maintenance.
Throughout her career, Michaela has been a driving force behind the modernization and revitalization of ColdFusion. She has interviewed 90+ ColdFusion experts to answer the question, “What would it take to make CF more alive this year?” Her findings shaped the CF Alive book. For organizations evaluating upgrades, you can start with a modernization assessment.
Michaela is also the founder of the former CFUnited Conference and the curator of the annual State of the CF Union community survey, both pivotal to the ColdFusion ecosystem. Explore recent survey insights in the 2023 results series.
As seen in
- Apple Podcasts, ColdFusion Alive
- Adobe ColdFusion Community Blog, State of the CF Union
- Ortus Solutions blog, community feature
- CFUnited Conference archive
Events
More episodes:
ITB 2025 with Daniel Garcia |
Modernizing CF apps with Guust Nieuwenhuis |
FusionReactor 9 with David Tattersall
Key accomplishments
- Host of the CF Alive Podcast
- Over 25 years of experience in ColdFusion programming
- Founder of TeraTech, specializing in legacy ColdFusion modernization and maintenance
- Founder and organizer of the CFUnited Conference
- Curator of the annual State of the CF Union survey
Experience Highlights
- Modernized and maintained mission-critical ColdFusion applications for enterprises, with a focus on security hardening, performance tuning, and technical-debt reduction. Consider a quick assessment to identify fast wins.
- Interviewed 90+ industry experts on modernization patterns, architecture choices, and CF community health.
- Authored the CF Alive book, a roadmap to keep ColdFusion vibrant, modern, and secure.
- Built community momentum via the CFUnited Conference and the State of the CF Union survey series.
Featured Work, Outcomes and Client Stories
Lindsey Wilson College
Result: Reduced memory usage from 24 GB to 9.5 GB, eliminated peak-period crashes.
Fidano
Result: Brought a legacy CF app into SOC 2 Type II compliance and removed critical vulnerabilities.
Artistic Finishes
Result: Stabilized fragile CF code, integrated site and production systems, and delivered new features.
See all ColdFusion Case Studies
State of the CF Union Survey, Methodology
The State of the CF Union is an annual, community survey that publishes openly available, multi-part results and a downloadable PDF. Topics include server environment, frameworks, tooling, community activity, and deployment patterns. Results are posted as a series for each year, with discussion episodes on the CF Alive podcast.
Contact Information
TeraTech Inc
451 Hungerford Drive, Suite 119
Rockville, MD 20850
Tel: +1 (301) 424 3903
Fax: +1 (301) 762 8185
Book a free modernization assessment
