z/OS

How Collaboration and Education Can Help Close the IBM Z and COBOL Skills Gap

How do we maintain interest from new IBM Z and COBOL talent? The keys seem to be: education, collaboration and fun. Dr. Cameron Seay, for example, has taught both COBOL and IBM Z at different schools. It’s not that no one is interested in learning about them; it’s just that the information needs to be […]

Jeff Cherrington on Rocket Software’s Evolution and IBM Z Contributions

Reg Harbeck: Hi, this is Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with my friend and colleague Jeff Cherrington who is the vice president of product management, Z Systems—I think I missed a word or two there—at Rocket Software. So, Jeff, I guess what we're going to talk about today is just the whole journey that Rocket […]

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Rocket Software - IBM Z/mainframe

Send Messages to a Telegram Bot from a JCL Job that Executes on z/OS

A JCL Job that executes on z/OS actually can send messages to a Telegram Bot, and I’ll demonstrate how to achieve this through a series of steps.As a note, I worked on this proof-of-concept (POC) project on my Windows machine. Therefore, all instructions pertaining to this POC should be done on a system running Microsoft […]

A Simplified Approach to Understanding z/OS Performance

Knowing and understanding the performance of z/OS systems has always been important for enterprises as mission-critical business processes run in z/OS systems. Each mainframe shop has its own way of dealing with performance, which is a factor of in-house skills. As deep technical skills are becoming rare, a simplified approach to z/OS performance can help […]

Counting the Benefits Part 2: IBM Z and the Global Economy

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 […]

Hashes and How to Create Them on z/OS

Hashes can be really handy. Want to confirm that a file was received intact? Compare sender and receiver hashes. Want to see if a file has been updated recently? Compare hashes generated over time. Want a fast key for a lookup table? Use a hash as the key. But what are hashes, and how can […]

How RESTful APIs Streamline RPA Efficiency on the Mainframe

Enterprises are increasingly investing in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a software that automates repetitive tasks to save costs and increase productivity. RPAs are a beneficial way to modernize sequences that are running on the mainframe. However, current methodologies— namely, screen scraping—are proving an inefficient route. Luckily, Jerry Rackley, director of marketing, HostBridge Technology, has found […]

From Educators to End Users: Leveraging Holistic Approaches and the Importance of Belonging Across the Tech Ecosystem

Join us for our first 2022 webinar of the Making Our Strong Community, Stronger collaborative initiative on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the mainframe industry. Register here. We’re mixing up the conversation by sharing the perspective of IBM Z educators and end users. In keeping with our previous discussions, we are continuing our bold, open and […]

Are Containers on Mainframes Safe?

Let’s just start with some basics: What is a container? A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all of its dependencies, so the application runs quickly and reliably in different computing environments. In effect, this container can be taken from one computing platform to another, and it will still […]

Leveraging IBM Z for Digital Transformation

Some observers might doubt whether the mainframe can make any meaningful contribution to digital transformation. They might even view the mainframe as part of the problem, rather than the solution: an overly complex platform running decades-old applications. But that is a gross oversimplification. While it’s true that many of the applications running on the mainframe […]