A mobile banking app begins timing out. The cloud operations team sees API failures. The IBM Z team sees Db2 lock contention. Both teams launch separate investigations, even though they are troubleshooting the same outage. When a customer transaction spans distributed...
What happens when Workload Manager can anticipate batch demand instead of simply responding to it? The latest issue of Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter leads off with findings from testing IBM AI-powered Workload Manager (WLM). The test used an AI model trained on 30...
What happens when an IMS logger fills up in production? How do you prepare for z/OS 3.2? Is Coupling Facility encryption worth the effort? And what does AI really mean for the future of the mainframe workforce? The latest issue of Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter tackles...
The Rise of UNIX and Portable Computing “OS/2” There. I said it. And I’ll say it again… but not right away so I don’t seem too fixated on something that inexplicably became an “also ran.” You know what it proved? A bunch of things, beginning with the fact that IBM is...
This article offers a practical USS tuning primer for new mainframers, developers moving into z/OS UNIX, and technical leaders who need to understand the basics before changing system settings.z/OS UNIX tuning can feel familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. USS...
Pasquale “PJ” Catalano IBM Z & LinuxONE Test ArchitectIBM Infrastructure, EST&IPoughkeepsie, New York, USAThis piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series.IBM Z & LinuxONE Test Architect and Master Inventor, Pasquale “PJ”...
In today’s always-on environments, changes to z/OS systems are happening constantly—often dynamically, and often under time pressure. While most organizations have formal change management processes in place, these processes are frequently reactive rather than...
Introduction Over the last few years there has been an ever-increasing number of widely publicised problems involving notable corporate organisations and the failings of their IT systems. Incidents of ransomware, hacking and phishing are becoming worryingly...
My career has, over the nearly four years of working in this field, predominantly been comprised of RACF Administration and Engineering, interspersed with other opportunities that I foolishly volunteered myself for. Such opportunities have included writing articles,...
IBM’s zPDT Decision Risks Mid-Tier ISVs and Mainframe Innovation I’ve been a passionate mainframe (System z) advocate for over 45 years and a staunch supporter of IBM and most of their decisions. However, when I received an email from IBM on 30 September 2025...
