TechChannel: IT Content Written By and For IT Experts

In January 2021, IBM Systems magazine transitioned to TechChannel, a purely digital, independent communications channel. Featuring IT content written by and for IT experts alike, TechChannel now has the ability to amplify more voices, including business partners across the SMB and enterprise ecosystems. 

We know transition is hard—so almost nine months into our journey as TechChannel, we wanted to share a bit more about us, our content strategies, our regular contributors and what to expect from us in the future.

21+ Years of IT Content Expertise

Leveraging the same expertise and talent who brought you IBM Systems magazine, TechChannel boasts over 21 years of IT content development expertise, and regularly looks to feedback from readers and collaborators alike when it comes to content creation and planning. 

As the senior content director at TechChannel, for example, Evelyn Hoover uses her expertise and leadership to expand the innovation and community-driven content readers see today. Since joining IBM Systems magazine in 2000, Hoover has authored, planned and edited countless articles around trending technology innovations to give readers reliable resources to lean on. 

Keelia Estrada Moeller, formerly the managing editor of IBM Systems magazine, IBM Z, now leads the TechChannel editorial charge across both audience segments as senior editor. She leverages the connections she’s made over the years to generate both technical and high-level content ideas, and is always seeking to expand her network by speaking to others in the technology sector to amplify voices and bring attention to the people behind the platforms.

Claire O’Leary, formerly the senior editor of IBM Systems magazine, Power Systems, also brings her technology content strategy and marketing experience to the TechChannel team. In addition to leveraging her knowledge base, she offers a fresh perspective on how to drive continuous audience engagement and expand TechChannel content into new areas. 

Same IT Audiences, New Names

Following the transition, TechChannel maintained our same IT audience sectors and highly developed, worldwide digital IT subscriber base—but they exist under new names:

• Formerly labeled as the IBM Z or mainframe audience, TechChannel’s “enterprise” audience focuses on larger businesses, including resources that are most relevant to that target sector. 
• The “SMB” audience, formerly known as Power Systems, targets small to mid-sized businesses and is inclusive of both IBM i and AIX.

A Visual Transformation

TechChannel also focused on creating a refreshed redesign of our website and newsletter. With a bold, elevated new color palette, both the TechChannel website and weekly TechBeat (formerly EXTRA) and TechVoice (formerly Marketplace) newsletters give IT readers a visually elevated experience that pairs perfectly with our engaging, new content. 

Even though TechChannel now has a new look and feel, our IT content is still the same—featuring IT expertise from the technical SMEs, consultants, IBMers and IBM Champions you know so well, in addition to SMEs from business partners across both the SMB and enterprise ecosystems.

Keeping up With IT Podcasts 

TechChannel continues to publish podcasts brought to you by IBM Champions, including:

• Paul Tuohy, expert in IBM i application development and training, hosts iTalk with Tuohy­, featuring interviews with industry professionals on trending topics in the world of tech. 
• Charlie Guarino, president of Central Park Data Systems, hosts TechTalk SMB, which features guests and topics ranging from programming, to IBM resources, to open source and more. 
• Reg Harbeck, who has more than three decades of mainframe experience, hosts TechTalk Enterprise (formerly zTalk). This monthly podcast features a wide range of guests and topics—from industry advice to the language of code. Harbeck draws from his own experience in enterprise IT to be a resource to others. 

TechChannel podcasts are now on Apple, and you can subscribe here.

Regular Blogs 

TechChannel continues to host IT blogs, leveraging expertise from bloggers who wrote for us as IBM Systems magazine. Our IT blogs include:

• IBM i consultant Dawn May’s i Can blog. Since its inception in 2009, May’s blog has been highlighting topics around systems management advice, tools and techniques, new technology and personal antidotes from her career. 
• IBM Business Architect Jesse Gorzinski’s Open Your i blog. With Gorzinski’s programming experience dating back from when he was 18, his knowledge and expertise has only grown since then, making him an enormous asset to the team of creators at TechChannel. From integration tools to IBM i enhancements to even the future of open source—Gorzinski’s blog covers it all. 

IT Articles By and For IT Experts 

TechChannel also hosts IT articles written by and for IT experts. Some of our contributors include:

• Jon Paris and Susan Gantner (either in collaboration, or individually), both IBM Champions, give readers news and updates on the trending topics in the tech industry relating to IBM i.
• Trevor Eddolls, CEO of iTech-Ed Ltd. and IBM Champion, draws from his extensive 40-year long career in mainframes and IT to give TechChannel readers an easily digestible insights on anything ranging from CICS, to security, to modernization and more.
• Starting as an IBM customer for 22 years to then working with two business partners, IBM Champion Jaqui Lynch now works as an independent consultant, where she focuses on enterprise architecture, and performance and delivery of Power Systems with AIX and Linux. With Lynch’s specialty in operating systems and platforms, her content highlights security and systems management for TechChannel readers. 
• Subhasish Sarkar, senior SQA engineer at BMC software and IBM Champion, shares his expertise of working in mainframe and how his technical skill led him to discover quantum computing. As a regular contributor and IBM Champion, Sarkar shares his comprehensive and highly technical tutorials on a variety of programming systems and platforms. 

• TechTalk Enterprise host and IBM Champion Reg Harbeck also regularly writes articles on COBOL, mainframe history, application development and more.

• AIX expert and IBM Champion Rob McNelly provides a monthly article to TechChannel spotlighting what’s new and next, tools and resources the Power Systems ecosystem can use, documentation updates and more. He also recently premiered a TechChannel video tutorial series.
• IBM Champion Chris Gibson, an AIX and Power VM specialist and co-author of several IBM Rebook publications, regularly posts content on AIX 7.2 OpenSSH updates, creating bootable AIX OVA images and more. 
• Cayla Jenkins, Red Hat hybrid cloud solutions specialist, writes on the latest Red Hat technologies along with cloud and containerization trends. 

Reengaging With IBM Authors and SMEs

Although we’ve transitioned to an independent IT communications channel, TechChannel still features expertise from IBM authors and SMEs, and strives to cover the latest IBM-related announcements.

• Patrick Stanard, chief mainframe architect for Kyndryl US and IBM GTS executive IT architect, often contributes his knowledge of IBM applications, COBOL, storage and cybersecurity to the ever-growing resources at TechChannel. 
• As IBM GTS executive IT architect, John Shuman has shared his extensive knowledge on IBM Z, cybercrime, storage, data management, up and coming tech trends, and more.
• Since 2005, Jose Luis Ortega has worked with IBM Power Systems with AIX, Linux, IBM Informix, and Db2 databases. His expertise focuses on systems management and technical support, which he has shaped his TechChannel written resources around. 

TechChannel also leverages insight from IBM SMEs in content, including but not limited to:

• IBM’s Steve Will, Scott Forstie, Alison Butterill, Douglas Gibbs and Grace Liu on IBM i 7.4 TR4 and 7.3 TR10 software and hardware enhancements. 
  Read here.
• IBM’s Carl Burnett, Nigel Griffiths, Petra Bührer, Maria Ward and Ann Detjen on how AIX has helped clients navigate the pandemic, and what’s next in the AIX roadmap. Read here.​
• Eric Herzog, vice president, Business Development and Evangelism and Vice President of Global Storage Channels, IBM Storage Division, on how container-native Spectrum Fusion leads IBM announcements along with ESS updates. Read here.

New IT Content and Audience Opportunities

All of this is to say that, here at TechChannel we are still leveraging much of the same IT expertise that we offered as IBM Systems magazine. We provide informational, trusted content for IT professionals—it just looks a bit different. In fact, this transition has also enabled us to look for opportunities to further improve our content strategy.

For example, TechChannel is expanding our IT content strategy in response to results from our recent readership survey—including the addition of video content to our portfolio. In addition to writing regular AIX-oriented systems management articles, for example, McNelly has launched a new technical video tutorial series covering anything from program installation to system maintenance. 

TechChannel will also host IT video conversations focused on women of COBOL, moderated by Misty Decker of Micro Focus. This series will launch in September, but you can get details on it here.

This enhanced IT content strategy also applies to expanding TechChannel’s current audiences, as we’re really looking at expanding how we’re covering content in terms of storage and cloud virtualization tools to give people a broader view of the entire technology ecosystem.

With that in mind—if there’s something we’re doing on TechChannel that resonates with you, or anything we can improve upon, we’d love to hear your feedback. Send an email to Senior Editor Keelia Estrada Moeller with your thoughts.

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