Hit Mainframe Series ‘Big Iron Bits’ Uses Humor to Win Over the Masses
Broadcom Mainframe Software's mockumentary has racked up millions of views since debuting in November; its creators provide a glimpse behind the scenes
The mainframe is serious business, relied upon for mission-critical workloads across the globe. But that doesn’t mean mainframers don’t appreciate a good laugh.
A new short-form mockumentary series is here to supply those yucks, and the IT community is paying attention. When “Big Iron Bits” hit 15,000 views on YouTube within a week of its launch in November, the Broadcom Mainframe Software marketing team behind the project was “feeling real good,” John Kaplan, head of brand and events at Broadcom Mainframe Software, told TechChannel at the time. A few weeks later, that figure would look paltry compared to the 5 million views garnered by Episode 5.
While basking in this runaway success, the series’ creators stress they’re trying to lift up the entire mainframe community, competitors and all. “That’s always been our priority, to unify and rally the mainframe ecosystem and find something that everyone can get behind, whether it’s partners, whether it’s competitors, new folks, everyone,” Kaplan said.
New Boss, Bad Ideas
“Big Iron Bits” centers around Chaz, the new CIO at Techutex Technologies, a company that has long relied on the mainframe to faithfully process its mission-critical workloads. With a crazy-eyed swagger, Chaz arrives with his own plans, gleefully proclaiming his intention to “pull the plug” on the mainframe, in his words a “cringy siloed uncle” that’s not worth the investment. “We are not gonna spend that kind of money on technology that no one uses,” he declares in the first episode.
Chaz, played by actor Pete Postiglione, is quickly corrected. As the series progresses, this becomes a pattern, and bit by bit, Chaz begins to see the light. As they try to set the record straight regarding the world’s platform of record, the team behind “Big Iron Bits” is hoping real-life mainframe doubters follow a similar character arc.
These marketers observe that every mainframer has heard of a “Chaz,” the mainframe skeptic that comes in and wants to put their own stamp on things. That kind of wayward, insulated, mainframe naysayer is such a common archetype that “we kind of just fell into this idea of our Chaz character,” Kaplan explains.
In Chaz’s orbit is a trio of tech workers constantly trying to keep him tethered to reality. They, too, are modeled after the types of techies that can be found at any company that uses the mainframe.
“You have Larry, the mainframer who’s been around for decades; you have Ravi, the new person who comes in with a fresh perspective; and then you have Alice, who becomes a mediator, like this middle ground,” says Keelia Estrada Moeller, marketing content specialist at Broadcom Mainframe Software.
Also helping Chaz appreciate the mainframe are cameos from real-life mainframers—well-known mainframe enthusiast Reg Harbeck and Broadcom’s Greg Lotko, Michael Jordan and Ravi Patil. Appearing as themselves, they didn’t need acting lessons, but each of these non-actors spent time with the show’s writer, Josh O’Dell, to make sure their on-screen personas were true to life.
The Lightbulb Goes Off
The makers of “Big Iron Bits” had little doubt that their new show, based on the tried-and-true format popularized by the “The Office,” would be a hit. “When we got the first scripts back, we all said, ‘Oh, this is going to work. This is going to be good,’” Kaplan says.
But first, they had to teach the cast about the mainframe, a rewarding experience in itself as they saw those performers experience their “aha!” moments. By the end of shooting, “they were spitting facts, they were doing improvisation lines. It was so funny to just watch them learn about it just through the acting process,” Estrada Moeller says.
The performers were so taken by the sheer scale of the mainframe that they had to question what they were hearing. At one point, seeing in the script that the mainframe processes over 1 trillion secure web transactions a day—more than all social media companies combined—the actors had to be assured the statistic was real.
Once they were satisfied with the veracity of that figure, they pondered the mind-boggling scale. “I think we lost half a day mapping out how big a trillion is,” Kaplan jokes.
Spreading the Mainframe Gospel
Seeing the actors enthusiastically absorb all that mainframe knowledge, the “Big Iron Bits” team was confident their audience would also take the show’s lessons to heart. The show’s goal is not just to preach to the choir, but to cast its message beyond the mainframe ecosystem.
Considering all there is to know about the mainframe, these lessons just scratch the surface, but Kaplan says that will be sufficient. “Let’s face it, for our industry, getting the world exposed to just the tip of it is enough,” he says, noting that even his 7-year-old laughed at Chaz’s zany exploits. “I said to him, ‘You don’t even know what any of these jokes mean.’ He just said, ‘But that guy’s funny.’”
At the very least, mainframers now have something to show family and friends who have trouble understanding what they do for a living. All it took was a little platform-agnostic humor.
After all, Estrada Moeller says, “You don’t have to be a mainframe expert to know that these videos are funny.”