Do you think the mainframe is dead? A dinosaur, an ancient piece of technology that has outlived its usefulness like cathode ray tubes, rotary dial telephones, and dial-up modems? I have some news for you. The mainframe has adapted: it is alive and well with major...
Being in the mainframe business for about 10 years now, I hear interesting anecdotes from time to time, often from the most unlikely sources. I may have taken some liberty with the title, but it’s a true story, and it relates well to what I see in the mainframe...
My wife loves shopping – even for food; I don’t, but we need to get it done. Because we’re both busy with our jobs, we tend to do one big shop at the start of the month, to get much of what we need for the month. For the most part, that means the dry foods like pasta...
One of the challenges of working in the modern world is adjusting to a faster and faster speed of computing. Globalization and mobile technology mean instant communications and near-instantaneous reactions are the minimum benchmark a firm must meet to keep up....
It’s no secret that the dreaded “skills gap” is affecting the mainframe market. It’s getting harder and harder to find people who know COBOL or Assembler, and organizations that rely on these systems often have open job postings because there’s no perfect match for...
Hopefully all System z users are aware of the Monthly Licence Charge (MLC) pricing mechanisms, where a recurring charge applies each month. This charge includes product usage rights and IBM product support. If only it was that simple! We then encounter the...
Today, customers drive business and battle lines have been drawn. Organizations are now obsessed with their customers and are competing as never before to win, serve, and retain them. According to Forrester, by 2020 every business will be either a digital predator or...
It’s been a while since my last overly alarmist IT security rant, and with the holiday season just past—when millions of IoT devices flooded our homes and offices—I figure what better time to scare the crap out of the general public. But, in this instance, it’s not...
Having worked ‘on The Mainframe’ for almost 20 years at a variety of clients and sites I’ve come about a number of taboos within the Mainframe ‘ecosystem’ that are sometimes just doing my head in and just need to be broken. These taboos can be seen across the playing...
Wow, what an experience! I recently had the opportunity to attend the GSE UK conference, which is a part of Guide Share Europe and represents the UK Region. It was titled "Where Technology and Talent Meet Tomorrow." The event was a four-day extravaganza, and believe...
