Why Organizations Should Reconsider Their Current Chargeback Systems
April 1, 2017
Imagine Mary, Fred and George are gathered for a budget meeting with Ellen, their company’s CIO, to discuss another budget shortfall. Ellen asks, “What caused this million-dollar shortfall?” George says, “We think it’s related to the decision by accounting to shift one of their major workloads from our Power Systems* platforms to our VMware tower. […]
ArticlesTrend Watch: Open-Source Software
March 20, 2017
This is the fifth post in a multi-part series with a focus on trends that are interesting and important, specifically in enterprise computing. In this post, I’ll continue my point-in-time analysis of trends, this time looking at open-source software. Open-source software with mainframes is not an uncommon pairing. If in your everyday job you work […]
PodcastsBarry Schrager Looks at the State of Mainframes
March 20, 2017
Reg Harbeck talks with Barry Schrager who recounts his career and explains what’s missing among today's mainframe operators and administrators. Listen to the interview via the orange play button or read the transcript below. Reg: Hello. This is Reg Harbeck and I'm here today with Barry Schrager, who is the author of ACF2 and the […]
ArticlesLinux on z Systems Accelerates New and Traditional Workloads
March 1, 2017
Savvy businesses know that tackling challenges requires IT strategies that serve today’s needs and provide room to grow to handle future demand. They also know that embracing open-source solutions is a smart way to add capabilities. Clients with mainframe environments are well-positioned to take advantage of new opportunities because of the IBM z Systems* platform’s […]
ArticlesTrend Watch: Linux
February 27, 2017
This is the second in a multi-part series with a focus on trends that are interesting and important with a focus on enterprise computing. In this post, I’ll continue my point-in-time analysis of trends with a focus on Linux. According to the Linux Counter*, there are about 89,365,600 Linux users in the world. Linux Computing […]
IBM Machine Learning for z/OS Announced
February 15, 2017
Organizations wanting to use machine learning to help solve their toughest business questions are challenged by the complexity of the tools involved and the skills needed. Business rules are changing, application developers can’t always keep up and models constantly need to be tuned. To stay ahead of this rapid pace, IBM today announces machine learning […]
ArticlesWhat Skillset Is Needed for Enterprise Systems Success?
January 30, 2017
This is the first in a multi-part series on the key skills needed for success in enterprise computing. As research for this post and the ones to follow, I have gathered and analyzed information from job postings from companies looking to hire programmers, programmer/analysts and developers for jobs in mainframe computing. All Job Postings […]
ArticlesEasily Modernize Applications to Stay Competitive
January 9, 2017
This is the second of a two-part series on modernization of legacy systems. The specific focus of this article is application modernization tactics that don’t require a complete replacement of the application either by rewrite or replacement by a commercial off-the-shelf package. Since companies maintain an application when business needs change, doesn’t it makes sense […]
ArticlesWays IT Teams Work: What Makes Them Effective?
January 6, 2017
This is the last post in this series on the ways that IT teams work. I complete this series by examining the characteristics of teams that make them effective regardless of the way they are organized to carry out their work. About the Team Teams work best when a number of factors are optimized. For […]
ArticlesIT Leaders Cite Cloud Computing as Top Priority for 2017
January 4, 2017
To gauge the technology directions its readers plan to take in 2017, we conducted an online poll in fall 2017.