Stephen K. Johnson Systems EngineerTrident Services, Inc. Chehalis, Washington, USAThis piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series.For over 20 years, Stephen Johnston’s professional world was defined by the fast-moving landscape of...
Ezriel Gross Senior Technical Staff Member and Product Evangelist Rocket Software Wayne, New Jersey, USAThis piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series.Ezriel Gross, a Senior Technical Staff Member and Product Evangelist at Rocket...
Shelly J. Meierarend, PMP IBM Z and LinuxONE Client and Academic Global Skills LeaderIBM Z Ecosystem – InfrastructureIBM Buford, Georgia, United StatesThis article features Shelly J. Meierarend, one of the top four 2026 Influential Mainframers.Editor’s Note: We often...
If you've ever been to a SHARE conference, you know the energy. There's this buzz of people who are genuinely passionate about what they do. Orlando was no different, and sitting down with Tony Anter in the middle of all that felt right at home. Tony and I have had...
Training Downtime Is Costly. Cloud Monitoring Prevents It. Workforce training remains a significant topic in the mainframe ecosystem. The trend has shifted from workforce training as a nice-to-have support function to a necessity for operational infrastructure....
2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers Nominations Now Open The search for the next class of Influential Mainframers starts now. Nominations for the 2026 Influential Mainframers award are officially open. We’re looking for practitioners, leaders, educators, and...
I’ve always been a bit obsessed with computers—especially niche hardware. Growing up, I recall my dad having a collection of old systems from companies that no longer existed. They were different from the standard beige DOS and Windows boxes that had taken over, and I...
Mainframe careers don’t suffer from a lack of interest, but a lack of pathways. EMMA was built to remove barriers to training, scaling, and hiring mainframe apprentices. This update revisits the program one year later, with results that tell a more nuanced workforce...
Why the workforce conversation needs updating Workforce conversations in the mainframe community often default to a familiar concern: who will be left to run these systems in the future? While that question still surfaces, early signals from our 2026 Mainframe User...
I graduated virtually with my Master’s degree in 2020, about two months after COVID-19 shut down much of the world. Behind the scenes, I had been working for Enterprise Performance Strategies, Inc. (EPS) since 2017, so I had a supportive professional environment while...
