Reg Harbeck
Contributor
Reg Harbeck is a mainframe enthusiast who has been working in IT and mainframes for over three decades. During that time, he has worked with operating systems, networks, computing security, middleware, applications and platforms ranging from Apple II Plus and MS-DOS PCs to leading edge IBM Z Mainframes. Reg has written, presented and consulted on mainframe-related matters around the world, visiting every continent but Antarctica (so far…), and is very involved in the mainframe culture and ecosystem, especially including SHARE and numerous articles and podcasts about the mainframe (such as zTalk). Reg is the chief strategist at Mainframe Analytics ltd.
A note from Reg:
“Two of my favorite things to do are reading and being with my kids—so I especially love reading to them. I read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy among many other things to my two oldest kids as they grew up, and I now have a grandson and son who are both under five years old, to whom I can start reading more and more complex literature as they grow up. That truly makes me happy.”
Counting the Benefits Part 2: IBM Z and the Global Economy
January 17, 2022
In Part 1 of this article, I set the stage for recognizing that the IBM Z mainframe has many relevant differentiators that need to be specifically accounted for in RPFs and cost-benefits analyses in order to create a fair playing field where implicit strengths of the mainframe are not assumed as being part of other […]
ArticlesThe History of Business Computing Part 1: Counting the Benefits
December 20, 2021
How did we go from the joy of the freedom that personal, commodity computing brought us, to unidimensional cynicism about industrial-strength computing, valuing everything by gross costs without a consideration of the nature and amount of what was being delivered? For that matter, how did we get to a place where requests for proposals (RFPs) […]
PodcastsCharles Mills on His Mainframe Journey and the Future of IBM Z
November 8, 2021
Reg Harbeck: Hi, this is Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with my friend and colleague Charles Mills who has written all kinds of applications both on the mainframe and talking to the mainframe and just been really involved in the whole journey of the mainframe. Well before telling you all about him myself, Charles why […]
ArticlesCOBOL and IBM Z Longevity
October 12, 2021
What do COBOL and IBM have in common? They have the same middle name: business! In an era when consumer electronics personal computing and the idea that everything computing “wants to be free,” it can be easy to forget the essential role of business in the very existence and relevance of computing. Of course, the […]
ArticlesSpecial Report: COBOL Survey Results Prove Pervasiveness, Value and a Bright Future
October 11, 2021
“Housework is something that nobody notices unless you don’t do it.” So the old saw goes. And it’s easy to see why—or rather to fail to see when you can just take it for granted. In the same way, looking at the limited general awareness of COBOL’s role in the world of digital commerce, one […]
ArticlesOf Wildcards, Regular Expressions and Mainframe Security
September 14, 2021
As Sigmund Freud might say if he were alive today, “Sometimes, a dash is just a dash.” Of course, if he did, he’d likely be talking about one of the two wildcard characters that do all the heavy lifting in CA ACF2. That’s right: ACF2 only has two wildcard characters—or actually, fewer than two: the […]
PodcastsElizabeth K. Joseph on Being a Developer Advocate and the Future of Mainframe Technology
September 1, 2021
Reg Harbeck: Hi. This is Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with Elizabeth K. Joseph who is a developer advocate at IBM and an increasingly well-known mainframer. I've kind of gotten to know her through various social media outlets and such. Elizabeth—Liz, I guess I can call you—tell us, how did you end up on the […]
PodcastsPhil Teplitzky on Structured Programming and Software
August 5, 2021
Reg Harbeck: Hi, this is Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with Phil Teplitzky, who is the managing director of the Teplitzky Associates, but that doesn't tell you nearly as much as you're going to find out about someone has been right there in the middle of the history of the mainframe in so many interesting […]
ArticlesSurvey Says: The Truth About COBOL and the World Economy
July 19, 2021
On June 14, 2021, the COBOL Working Group (CWG) of the Linux Foundation Open Mainframe Project (OMP) had the opportunity to present at the Marist Enterprise Computing Community (ECC) conference about a topic that shouldn’t be so surprising if people didn’t overlook how interesting and compelling it is—COBOL. Ah, COBOL: Common Business-Oriented Language—a name for […]
ArticlesOf Stacks, Binding and Other Ambiguous Computer Jargon
July 5, 2021
One of the strangest things about the mainframe is our jargon, sometimes shared with other parts of IT, and based, somewhat oddly, not in Latin, Greek, or even German or French, but in that messiest of common languages: English. Yes, despite valiant efforts by other languages to inhabit computer hardware, software and programming languages (for […]