Trends

Destination Z Is on the Move

We are excited to announce that starting Jan. 1st 2020, Destination Z will have a new home on the new IBM Z and LinuxONE Community.

Miao Zhang-Cohen of IBM Z Program Management on the IBM z15

Joseph Gulla does a Q&A with IBM Z Product Owner Miao Zhang-Cohen on the IBM z15.

The IBM Z Infinity Pool

Virtualization—or making a computer conceptually seem to have more resources than are actually available, causing the margin between near and far to become invisible—is similar to the experience of looking past the edge of an infinity pool and seeing the ocean.

Unifying the Platform: The IBM Z and LinuxONE Community

Jeanne Brooks, the Worldwide IBM Z Community Leader, and her team created the new IBM Z and LinuxONE Community—a user-centric community offering members an experience unlike any other.

Needed Innovations for the IBM Z Ecosystem

That solid foundation of innovation on the IBM Z platform continues to enable newer emerging features and applications, surpassing the distributed computing world in every way but one: humanity.

Master the Mainframe With Misty Decker

Joseph Gulla does a Q&A with Misty Decker to learn what's new with the IBM Z Academic Initiative and Master the Mainframe.

Overcoming IBM Z Inertia

Today’s mainframe legacies have often become stumbling blocks for moving to the future.

9 Questions About IBM Redbooks With Chris Rayns

Joseph Gulla talks with IBM Redbooks Manager Chris Rayns about IBM Redbooks, why they’re useful, how they’ve evolved and how audiences receive them.

IBM Z: Your Mother’s Mainframe

Our mainframe ecosystem has been built by so many world-class people of every description, including many great women in IT.

Why Millennial Mainframers Make Great Candidates for “Superjobs”

Joseph Gulla—IT thought leader, researcher and regular contributor to Destination z—explores how experience reconciling legacy systems with emerging technologies makes millennial mainframers super candidates for what Deloitte describes as “superjobs.”

2019 ECC: 4 Keynotes and a Student Panel

Joseph Gulla highlights compelling ideas, unexpected notions and real-world connections from the 2019 ECC conference.

Of Elephants and Mainframes

There are at least five (and probably a lot more) reasons why mainframers are like elephants.

Babbage, Hollerith, Turing: A Merging of Theory and Practice that Led to IBM Z

We have Babbage, Hollerith and Turing to thank for the fact that modern world-class computing keeps turning out better and better successors.

Cynthia Worrad on Student Involvement in the 2019 ECC Conference

Joseph Gulla talks with Cynthia Worrad, an assistant dean for the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Marist College, about student involvement at the 2019 ECC conference.

Practices You Should Follow if You’re in C# Development

If you’re a modern-day developer, it’s imperative that you learn C# and understand C# best practices.

Automation on IBM Z Has Never Been More Complete

The IBM Z Service Automation Suite is a collection of products used to automate and control a large range of system elements.

A Brief History of Mainframe Memory Technology

Teaching Through Gamification a Winning Strategy

Mainframe Mike: The Game teaches school-aged children about IBM Z hardware and software.

Z Architecture Improves Database Security, Storage and Performance

Security, storage and performance features in z14 are improving application functionality on IBM Z.

360 Henge: How the Mainframe Shapes Our Future

Much of the best of IT has come to a point of reliability where the innovation can build on top of it rather than changing foundational layers. One of the most important moments in IT history was the announcement of the System/360.

An Organic Analogy for Millennial Mainframe Career Models

James Stanger, CompTIA’s chief technology evangelist, explains how organic analogies like farming can illuminate the way to career success for millennial mainframers in the era Gartner describes as the “intelligent digital mesh.”

Z Architecture Continuously Improves Application Support

How do recent Z architecture enhancements support applications that run on IBM Z?

Secure Against Those You Trust Most

Instead of taking offense to the requirement that their security access be limited, take a fence and protect your key personnel, so they’ll still be there to help pick up the pieces if things do go wrong.

Why Millennial Mainframers Reconcile Today’s Digital Paradox

David Hyman, president, Center for Technology & Workforce Solutions, explains why millennial mainframers epitomize the professional skill set for reconciling the digital business world’s passion for invention with its angst over obsolescence.

Announcing the 2018 Master the Mainframe Winners

The winners of the 2018 Master the Mainframe contest were announced at Think 2019 in San Francisco.

A New Way to Modernize Applications

There’s a rich set of alternative tools you can use to explore new approaches to application modernization.

The Need for Specifics in Simplifying IT

When you understand the specifics, you can help your organization avoid a great deal of difficulty.

Lessons Learned From Early IT Planning

Reg Harbeck highlights wisdom shared in the early days of computing and explains how we can still learn from these principles today.

Traditional Modernization Shouldn’t Be Overlooked

Modernization is not free or without risk but nevertheless it’s essential to keeping an application responsive to business needs.

Peaceful, Easy Mainframe

From security, to optimized configuration, to cost benefits, the mainframe has proven its relevance and reliability time and again.

Modernization Is an Ongoing Strategic Activity

Application modernization is about reworking or updating an application to better meet current needs. It’s such a simple idea—so, why is it challenging? Modernization can be perplexing for any number of important reasons.

Preserving Valuable IT and Mainframe Practices

There are a lot of things the mainframe has that are worth preserving, understanding and building on: business and technical practices, cultural attitudes, tricks and techniques, and more.

A True Cost Benefit Approach to IT Architecture

The first step to a more business-focused outcome on the mainframe is to identify the costs and benefits of solutions in place.

The Future of IT Roles and Jobs

Joseph Gulla discusses the future of IT jobs, the availability of skilled human resources and the impact of innovation.

Today’s IT Roles and Responsibilities

Joseph Gulla discusses IT architects and IT specialists along with other key IT roles—including analysts, consultants, IT security and IT support.

Mainframe Continuity Planning 3: Fully Understand Your Platform

The opportunities for the mainframe are unlimited, especially once you’ve understood the weaknesses, threats and strengths that fill in the context. Together, these factors make SWOT. This article conducts a SWOT analysis of the mainframe platform.

VM's CMS: An Elixir for Mainframe Productivity

From humble beginnings as part of IBM's 1960s pioneering virtualization research project, VM's Conversational Monitor System (CMS) component was an experiment in OS design explicitly created as a single-user system; it provided what would later be called "personal computing."

Continuous Availability for Non-Data Sharing Workloads

Parallel Sysplex on IBM Z provides a highly reliable, redundant and robust environment by clustering together multiple z/OS systems with one or more coupling facilities to achieve near-continuous availability.

Ensuring Data Storage Longevity

Backup isn’t archive. It's wonderful having robust near-term data storage recoverable from the worst possible disaster, error or malfeasance. But that's not the same as being able to recover and process your data in a month, year or decade.

Mainframe Continuity Planning 2

New mainframers are finally beginning to arrive, and the mainframe shops that take fullest advantage of the mainframe’s strengths. So why aren’t more mainframers getting the word out about this important career choice?

The Future of IT Project Management

Project management is a growing field and IT project managers are one dimension of this developing profession.

How to Keep up With Z

So, you’re working on the mainframe platform. Some of you may have just started working with mainframes, and some of you might be experienced mainframers wanting to know more about specific topics or areas. Where do you start?

Where Are We and How Did We Get Here?

The mainframe community is still standing—though many of our mainframe colleagues have now begun to move on to other pastures. And thanks to initiatives such as zNextGen, a new generation on the mainframe is slowly beginning to form.

IT Trendz Topic Diversity and Future Direction

Joseph Gulla points out his most valuable and informative IT Trendz series—including IT consolidation, things they didn’t teach him in school and pivotal ideas in IT such as programming languages and middleware.

Four Stunning Keynotes From the ECC Conference

Joseph Gulla explains the four keynote talks from the Enterprise Computing Community (ECC) conference.

Hybrid Cloud for IBM Z

A multi-cloud strategy can provide a mechanism to migrate away from centralized IT to get to the cloud fast. It will also help integrate old and new platforms and leverage new cost and consumption models to achieve IT transformation.

Ten Thousand Mainframes Today: A Million Tomorrow

After three decades, competing systems still haven’t caught up with what the mainframe was doing before it was a decade old. So why isn’t the mainframe universally perceived as the top computing platform?

No Stumps, No Chumps

Maturing mainframe culture in time for the future

First Encounters of the Z Kind

She started on Interskill, she went to SHARE and she’s starting to master the mainframe. What’s next?

Blockchain for IBM Z

When blockchain first emerged as the next big thing, it arrived as the technology behind bitcoin. At that time, blockchain was an x86 phenomenon. Today it has moved to Linux and runs on multiple platforms, including IBM Z and LinuxONE. From the start, blockchain naturally benefitted from the legendary scalability, reliability, security and flexibility of Z.

Three Tsunamis and a Boat

Be prepared for disruptions that will affect the mainframe

Application Enablement

Db2 12 helps adapt to modern application development paradigms.

Future Mainframers

To educate those around you to the mainframe, explain its value, answer questions and provide resources.

Eight Reasons to Use Java

Java with IBM Z modernizes through integration, support, tools and more.

The Future Today

IBM Machine Learning offers opportunities for various industries and business solutions.

Planning for the Future

Java is at the heart of application modernization on the mainframe.

Mainframes Span the Globe

Clients share variations in worldwide IBM Z usage

Improved Performance for New Workloads in DB2

DB2 V12 improves the performance of analytical queries on IBM Z.

Reflecting on Technology Progress

As IBM Z advances and evolves, varied skills are needed.

Enterprise Computing Community Conference 2017 Recap

Variety of sessions, topics and speakers is high.

Get to Know Quantum Computing

Learn what sets apart quantum computing, what its future holds and use cases.

Improved Access Path Management in DB2

IBM DB2 V12 provides dynamic SQL plan stability.

A Valuable System

Blockchain on IBM z Systems and LinuxONE provide security, performance and a business advantage.

All About Algorithm 2 With DB2 12

The insert algorithm reduces time per transaction while increasing the number of inserts.

Genealogy of COBOL and HLASM

Tracing the roots of the 'Syntacticized Assembler' and other computer generations.

Looking at In-Database Analytics

High-performance data transformation on DB2 for z/OS is possible.

Cognitive Computing Comes to z Systems

IBM’s new system provides a revolutionary way to keep up with and act upon data.

Performance Strategy

Exploit in-memory computing on DB2 12 for z/OS to realize gains.

A Contained Project

Docker is an open-source project that automates the deploying of Linux applications inside what is known as software containers.

Enhancement Highlights

IBM DB2 12 for z/OS is ready for Hybrid Transactional/Analytical Processing.

Lessons Learned

More seasoned mainframers advise their younger selves and Generation Z workers.

The Best Things in Life Are z

Innovation challenges help bring ideas together to engage creative solutions.

Checklists Bring Order Out of Chaos and Enhance Reliability

Systematic procedures help avoid and solve problems.

IBM Redbooks Collaborates With SHARE on Publication

IDCAMS Redpaper focuses on modern issues and tips.

Spotlight on Our Community

Destination z members discuss what the mainframe community means to them.

As Cool as z

The people are key to the mainframe community.

Blockchain 101: A Quick Briefing

The shared-ledger technology Blockchain helps digitally track and move assets securely.

A Rewarding z/VSE Community

Fans of the z/VSE system focus on participation and knowledge sharing to build and maintain a user community.

Never Trust a Computer You Can Throw

IBM z Systems offers unmatched security.

Emerging IT Challenges

A Diverse Set of Skills Needed for Technical Roles

Building on Opportunity

Integrate cloud and existing in-house systems.

Develop With Docker

Using the Docker container on the z Systems platform is easy and efficient.

What the Heck Is JCL and Why Does It Look So Funny?

It’s important to give job control language its due respect helping others.

Mainframes Have a Long History of Accessibility

With tools, IBM z Systems is inclusive to all.

Community and Communication

z Council groups bring together customers and IBMers to form a two-way street of discussion and learning.

SHARE Adds DevOps Track to Winter Event

New topic to offer helpful tools and tips to enterprise professionals.

Millennials Grow on the Mainframe

People newer to the workforce gain skills through mentors and experiences.

Best System Programmer Attributes

Mainframers give advice and lessons learned on what helps in the real world.

The People’s Group

SHARE attributes 60 years of success to its members and looks to the event in August.

2015 Mainframe Mobile App Throwdown Is on

Submissions from IBM clients and business partners are being accepted through April 12.

A Big Piece of Cheese?

Interesting analogies help explain the mainframe.

Turn Experiences Into Wisdom

Testing, planning and sharing with others helps ensure professional success.

Mainframe Work, Then and Now

The issues and transitions mainframers faced in the past help us improve today.

Leading the Enterprise IT Community

New SHARE president James Vincent looks to keep group as the mainframe resource of record.

Join the Computer Artifacts Contest

We want to see what artifacts the Destination z community has. We are looking for the most unique and the oldest artifacts, and will award a $50 prepaid Visa card to the first place winner in each category.

Cherished Computer Memories

Holding on to keepsakes can teach us about a certain time in computing and help us relive our experiences.

Holding on to History

We've all seen technologies come and go. Some vanished too soon, good riddance to others. It's always interesting learning computing/career artifacts people have.

Growth Accelerates in Africa

IBM sees potential in the African market, and is investing time and resources in the continent.

New Product Makes Cloud Accessible

During the 50th anniversary celebration of the mainframe, IBM announced on April 8 new cloud and mobile offerings, increased security, and big data and analytics solutions.

50 Years of Improvement and Innovation

In a few months the mainframe turns 50. And what this means to IT buyers is that when you buy a mainframe, you’re buying 50 years of continuous improvements in performance and in manageability. A great example of these types of improvements can be found in one of the mainframe’s operating systems, z/OS.

Advice on How to Thrive in Your Career

Author Denise Kalm shares advice and an excerpt from her new book, "Career Savvy: Keeping and Transforming Your Job."

IBM Business Process Manager Can Improve Business Agility

An introduction to the concept of a process hub that uses IBM Business Process Manager and leverages IBM z/OS quality of service and collocation with systems of record to automate straight-through processing at the core of an enterprise for enhanced business agility.

Strolling Down Memory (Core) Lane

It’s instructive to tour real-world and virtual computing museums, lovingly created and maintained by generations of professionals—many of whom designed, built and used the equipment written about and displayed.

IBM Extends zEnterprise Capabilities

The IBM zEnterprise BC12 is designed to be the entry point into enterprise computing for mid-sized organizations that are seeing growth in a variety of workloads. It provides availability, performance and security in data analytics, consolidation, virtualization, cloud solutions and mobile applications.

Good Question

As part of IBM’s strategy for mainframe simplification and modernization, the User Experience team has studied the needs of our end users, both experienced and entry-level users. Resulting solutions have included: z/OS Management Facility, CICS Explorer, and IBM Explorer for z/OS V2.1.

Breaking Through CPU Roadblocks

The Warning Track implementation on the zEC12 and the Blocked Workload Support in z/OS provide mechanisms to clear lower-priority work out of the way without violating z/OS priority dispatching to any great extent.

Never-Mind the Gap

zNextGen is doing its part in bridging the gap and erasing the differences between younger mainframe professionals and the veterans. This way, both groups can learn from each other and, ultimately, keep up the level of interest in mainframe careers.

Mainframe Meets MobileFirst

IBM isn’t the only vendor working the System z mobile market. MobileFirst, however, might be the most comprehensive.

Tip of the Iceberg

IBM zAware is a program designed to automatically assist in mainframe troubleshooting by analyzing minute details in systems logs as well as other data relevant to systems and application performance to isolate problems and help discover the cause of anomalous behaviors.

Don't Reinvent Mainframe Wheels

No matter whether called conventional wisdom, best practices or wisdom of the ages—if not formalized, documented, preserved and passed on through generations of mainframers, lessons painfully learned are diluted and lost.

Big Data Demands Big Iron Skills

The effects of a mass exodus from the mainframe ranks could affect a number of computing trends, not the least of which is big data.

Warning Track

First implemented on the IBM zEnterprise EC12 processor, Warning Track helps maximize physical CPU utilization without causing the so-called “short engine” effect.

Making Mobile Manageable

As every business is populated by consumers, the mobility wave washing over enterprise computing is a foregone conclusion. Sessions at SHARE in San Francisco reflected this sense of urgency for mainframers.

Don't Leave Your Successors Adrift

The mainframe community largely wants to protect its enterprise-computing legacy. So it's important to facilitate generational transition with documentation and staff overlaps.

What Is Flash Express?

Included in last year’s announcement of the zEnterprise EC12, IBM introduced the optional Flash Express. So, what is Flash Express? It’s all about using solid-state drives to improve the performance of certain mainframe tasks.

‘Never Say No to a Challenge’

With 53 percent of the vote, Philip Yeo’s mainframe advice dominated the field in the latest IBM Destination z Tips and Techniques Challenge. The Destination z community forum, the contest asked mainframers to share their best mainframe advice for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card and an IBM Heritage T-shirt.

Voting Deadline Extended!

The voting deadline has been extended to Nov. 11 in the second Destination z Tips and Techniques contest—which asked Dz members to share their best mainframe advice.

The Mobile Revolution

“Part of the challenge of mobile computing is describing the issues and opportunities,” says Ray Sun, SHARE marketing director. “And we believe SHARE as an organization has the experience and insight to lead the discussion of where mobility meets the mainframe and beyond to the whole of enterprise computing.”

The Changing Face of Mainframe Computing

“For the first time, there are four generations in the workforce,” said keynote speaker and best-selling author Jason Dorsey at the August SHARE conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Mainframe Goes Mobile

The proliferation of mobile devices and the number of transactions that consumers are ringing up through them will have subtly and profound impacts on the mainframe.

Ready, Set, Mobile!

A growing expectation among employees is the ability to use their own mobile devices for basic productivity tasks. Increasingly, they expect to be able to access sensitive corporate data via their smartphones.

Take 2—The Destination z Challenge!

What’s the best mainframe career advice you’ve ever received? Share it on the Destination z forum page for a chance to win an IBM Heritage T-shirt and a gift card.

And the Winner Is …

BYOD Joins the Mainframe Party

BYOD is an irresistible trend. So it's worth exploring to learn what it can provide—not necessarily to economize but to make it secure, integrate it into mainstream IT and avoid costly technology dead ends.

Get out the Vote

Voting is now underway for the first Destination z Tips and Techniques contest. Out of nearly 40 entries, our expert panel selected three finalists. Now Destination z members have until May 18 to vote for their favorite.

Staying Connected While Working Remotely

While telecommuting has been discussed widely for years, rarely has it been practiced successfully. Consider these tips to address cultural and technical stumbling blocks.

Destination z Tips and Techniques Challenge

IBM Destination z wants your expertise! Submit a mainframe-related tip or technique in our community forum for a chance to win the first Destination z Challenge.

Tell IBM What You Think

IBM is actively soliciting System z user reviews. Customers who bought System z products are invited to write reviews and leave ratings on the product and their experience.

Smart Optimization Assessments

The IT Systems Rationalization or Scorpion study produces a set of prioritized recommendations to assist a client in defining a new server-optimization strategy, identifies a more highly optimized alternative enterprise and/or distributed-server architecture, and evaluates the cost and benefits of those alternatives.

A Mainframe for the Masses

Even though the entry price is lower, the zEnterprise 114 is nevertheless a mainframe-caliber system that’s just as capable as its bigger counterparts when it comes to workload processing, security and reliability.

Old Iron, New Markets

The mainframe entices customers in emerging economies.

Your Final Destination z

IBM Vice President Ray Jones—a founding force behind Destination z—talks about how the community was conceptualized and initially delivered, its evolution, and his vision for its future.

Growing the Mainframe

The majority of students are unaware of what an IBM System z mainframe is, much less how important the computing platform is to industry and to their daily life. They don’t realize the future employment opportunities for those who pursue an education that includes mainframe topics.

Academic Initiative Helps Students Embrace IBM System z

For IBM clients, ISVs and Business Partners with an interest in the future of the System z platform, the IBM Academic Initiative System z program offers a wealth of resources

Cloudy, With a Chance of Mainframe

"Cloud computing" is one of the hottest terms being bandied about today.

Reports of Its Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

The world was supposed to end on May 21, according to a crazy fringe radio personality and his followers.