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Music, Meaning and the Mainframe
January 1, 2019
Since watching the Beatles debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Jeffrey Frey has been captivated by music. He paid his way through college as a drummer in various bands, where his musical interests expanded even further. “My interest in music was always expanding, not just in terms of playing the music and the artistry itself, […]
ArticlesDevSecOps Matters for the Mainframe
January 1, 2019
Today’s customers want new services and they want them now. To remain competitive and keep up with customer needs, organizations are seeking ways to innovate rapidly around some of their most valuable assets—customer data and enterprise data. At one time, the mainframe was viewed as an isolated system. Data was often moved to a different […]
ArticlesOpening up the Mainframe
January 1, 2019
Zowe, a new open-source framework, enables development and operations teams to securely manage, control, script and develop on the mainframe like any other cloud platform. The project was first announced Aug. 14 during SHARE in St. Louis by executives from IBM, CA Technologies, Rocket Software and the Open Mainframe Project. As the first open-source project […]
ArticlesBringing Security to the Cloud
January 1, 2019
Security, security, security. It’s been drummed into our heads a thousand times over. Not that it shouldn’t be. One breach can put a company out of business, whether it’s due to regulatory fines or the loss of customer confidence. This is especially true with the increasing adoption of cloud computing. And internal and external security […]
ArticlesAI-Driven Technological Progress
January 1, 2019
The rate of change for how most tasks in the world are done is accelerating. Like many readers of this publication, I have enough history to contemplate how life was four or five decades ago compared to today. Technological advances have dramatically transformed many life experiences as well as business operations. It’s fair to conclude […]
ArticlesEnabling Open-Source Continuous Delivery Pipelines
January 1, 2019
IBM Z* Open Development is an entry-level toolset for z/OS* development teams who plan to transform their software delivery practices around a common, automated delivery pipeline. It provides the essential link Z developers need to join a platform neutral, continuous integration and deployment pipeline that’s inclusive of z/OS application components. Neat and Lean Developers must […]
ArticlesFinding an Effective IBM Z DevOps Solution
January 1, 2019
DevOps solutions for traditional z/OS* application delivery in relation to IBM Z* modernization is a common topic that’s been explored in many whitepapers, such as “DevOps for IBM Z: Modernizing IT and Future-Proofing Current Investments” (ibm.co/2Dib9ZS). But it’s not always easy to determine the best DevOps strategy for your business. In this article, we’ll discuss […]
ArticlesCrowdsourcing Drones for Crisis Management
January 1, 2019
Dramatic weather events are becoming increasingly common, whether they’re hurricanes, extended periods of drought or out-of-season heatwaves. Understanding these phenomena is critical to (hopefully) helping reverse the cause. That, however, would likely require a coordinated global response, something that may not be possible. But quicker action can be taken on the local level, especially in […]
ArticlesThe Privacy Regulation Inflection Point
January 1, 2019
Congratulations! We’re all in a growth area—the ever expanding footprint of privacy compliance regulations around the world. We’re now about eight months into General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being live, and the world is still turning. Up ahead, we see the California Consumer Privacy Act due to go live in early 2020, along with Brazil’s […]
ArticlesGlenn Anderson on Why Mainframe Professional Development Skills Are Important
January 1, 2019
Reg Harbeck: Hi, I’m Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with Glenn Anderson who is a really well known IBM mainframer. He has been involved in education, various conferences and all kinds of other really neat stuff. Rather than telling you about him myself, Glenn, maybe you can tell us, how did you end up […]
ArticlesThree Innovative Middleware Solutions
December 17, 2018
A discussion of WebSphere Application Server, IBM Cloud Integration and IBM Automation Platform for Digital Business middleware offerings.
ArticlesThree Innovative Middleware Solutions
December 17, 2018
This week, I am finishing up this three-part series on middleware. In the first post in the series, I discussed the roots of middleware in what I referenced as the real history of middleware, with the real roots being in centralized enterprise systems. Last week, I discussed the taxonomy and market size of middleware. This […]
ArticlesInvestigate Prestart Jobs
December 6, 2018
Collection Services is always running on your system and you can use the Performance Data Investigator with Collection Services data for insights into your prestart jobs
ArticlesClearly Defining Project Completion
December 1, 2018
My first contract as an independent consultant was with a large, multinational bank. They were attempting a processor-to-processor application that exchanged banking information nightly, and trying to implement a new IBM function called IBM Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC)—something new to them, but not me. I was initially delighted to take the project. I met with […]
ArticlesMichael Stack on SHARE, Assembler and the Mainframe’s Future
December 1, 2018
Reg Harbeck: Hi. I'm Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with Michael Stack who is a mainframer of some significant contribution through SHARE and other things; I'm really excited to have him here. He has talked about Assembler and all kinds of other neat stuff at SHARE. Michael, before I start trying to tell everybody […]
ArticlesAll Hail the Midnight Commander!
November 27, 2018
Jesse Gorzinski explores Midnight Commander. What (or who?) is it, and why is it important?
ArticlesPrestart Jobs and QPRTJOBs
November 16, 2018
What happens when you generate a spooled file from a prestart job? Where does the output go and is there an easy way to find it?
ArticlesWatches and Job Log Messages
November 5, 2018
Watches make life easier if you need to track down an intermittent error or a difficult-to-find issue in a prestart job
ArticlesFlexibility Is Key in Project Estimation
November 1, 2018
So often we hear of projects—especially government funded projects—exceeding their budget, and for a long time my knee-jerk reaction was that hanky-panky was afoot. I’m sure sometimes that’s true, but when consulting became my career and sizing a project became a necessary skill, I realized it wasn’t so clear cut. In most cases, there are […]
ArticlesSecure Service Containers and Consumption-Based Pricing Enable Opportunity
November 1, 2018
Organizations are eager to capture opportunities that beckon in the marketplace. They know that new and modernized applications are necessary to better serve customers. Organizations also realize that, now more than ever, security remains crucial to business success. In October, IBM announced IBM Secure Service Containers, a new offering that provides benefits for security, as […]
ArticlesThe Right KPIs for Mainframe DevOps
November 1, 2018
To compete in fast-moving, disruption-prone digital markets, enterprises must aggressively embrace DevOps on the mainframe. DevOps is becoming increasingly important, and without it—along with associated agile best practices—delivery on these digital initiatives will be too slow and infrequent to keep pace with escalating customer expectations. To successfully drive adoption of DevOps on the mainframe, IT […]
ArticlesCompanies Are Taking a Fresh Approach to Private Cloud
November 1, 2018
Businesses turn to the cloud for myriad reasons. Chief among them are accelerating and streamlining processes in environments such as the IBM Power Systems* platform, which enable increased speed of execution, agility for applications and better cost efficiency. “Organizations are concerned about time to market and how long it’s going to take to get IT […]
ArticlesA Virtual Tape Primer
November 1, 2018
The word “virtual” is used to describe something that doesn’t physically exist, but is made by software to appear to do so. Virtual tape is an enterprise data storage solution that imitates physical tape drives by storing information on disk drives. In reality, the data is saved in tape format but is actually stored on […]
ArticlesIBM Tech Re-Entry Program Inspires Confidence
November 1, 2018
Jennifer Howland, an engineer and Pathways program executive, is on a mission to bring skilled women back into the IBM workforce. Starting from scratch, she created a program in 2013 to help those who had taken a career break gain skills to re-enter the workplace. During that two-year program, the women received on-the-job training with […]
ArticlesIBM Helps Developing Nations Harness Safe Water
November 1, 2018
Developed nations largely take clean water for granted. Open the tap, and there it is. Many developing countries, unfortunately, don’t have that luxury. Kenya, for example, has a population of approximately 46 million people, with an astounding 41 percent relying on unimproved water sources such as ponds, shallow wells and rivers (bit.ly/2HkljYo). Additionally, only nine […]