Tips on the HMC, VIOS, LPAR and More
April 20, 2022
It’s always nice to hear from readers. Even better is when I can confirm that my information is helping techies in the real world. My colleague Eric Hopkins recently put my invscout script to work for one of his clients. Here’s his story: I have a customer who has smartly blocked outbound traffic to the […]
ArticlesIBM Aims for the Hybrid Cloud and Increases Security With the New z16
April 5, 2022
IBM today unveiled the z16 enterprise server, the latest release in its line of IBM Z mainframe systems. The new z16 delivers a slew of embedded, advanced capabilities aimed at hardening security, boosting performance, delivering greater value and cost efficiencies, and making analytics accessible and easy to use for non-data scientists to deliver immediate value. […]
PodcastsSeeing the World Via the Mainframe
April 4, 2022
Reg Harbeck: Hi, I'm Reg Harbeck, and today I'm here with my colleague and co-author Karl-Erik Stenfors, who has been in the mainframe space for a very good long time. Well Karl-Erik, let's start by telling us about how did you end up on the mainframe? Karl-Erik Stenfors: Well, a bit of a point. […]
ArticlesThe Importance of Mainframe Documentation
April 4, 2022
The discovery of Egyptian hieroglyphics was the event that led to the definitions of the formal writing system that was once used in ancient Egypt as part of the native language. Egyptian hieroglyphics had more than 1,000 distinct characters that were used to tell the stories associated with the time. In the same vein, telling […]
ArticlesMainframe Insights: Storage and Performance
March 24, 2022
Legend has it that when Michelangelo was asked how he managed to sculpt the statue David out of a block of marble, he responded that he chipped away at everything that did not look like David. Legend notwithstanding, this is a simplified description of Kyndryl’s approach to managing systems. Only instead of marble, we concern […]
The Benefits of Transformation Engines for z/TPF
March 22, 2022
As large V8 engines are replaced with smaller, four-cylinder turbocharged engines, the mainframe will not be excluded. A transformation engine is like a zSeries Information Parallel Processor (zIPP) or an Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL), an engine for running Linux operating system (OS) on zSeries. It is a specialty processor that moves specific types of […]
ArticlesA New Home for the RFE Community
March 18, 2022
I’ve written about the Request for Enhancement (RFE) process in the past, but recently, Brian Veale notified us of the new IBM Power Systems Ideas portal. This is a site where you can present your ideas about improving products and services and interact with IBM developers. You’ll need an IBM ID to submit suggestions, comment and vote. […]
ArticlesPandemic Pressures, and Mainframe User Insights
March 2, 2022
For many mainframers, the arrival of Arcati Mainframe Yearbook’s latest edition brightens up the dull winter months. The 2022 volume of this fascinating publication is now available and completely free. Let’s take a look at highlights from 2022. Mainframers’ Pandemic Pressures The past two years have been strange times for everyone, with people working from […]
ArticlesUnderstanding Power Supplies for Power Systems
February 28, 2022
In 2018, I published an article on planning for power that explored the requirements for power connections and the rules about power distribution units (PDUs) when implementing IBM servers. IBM publishes maximum power usage for each of their servers in the technical overview manuals’ operating environment sections. Whenever installing new servers, it’s important to reassess […]
ArticlesWazi aaS: The Next Step in Modernization
February 24, 2022
Last week, IBM announced the next step of its roadmap to bring IBM Z and IBM Cloud closer together: Wazi as-a-Service (Wazi aaS), which will bring z/OS development and test as-a-service to the public cloud for the first time ever. To get more insight on what this announcement means for the future of IBM Z […]