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Workforce & Training
Can you future-proof mainframe IT Careers? Scott McFall says yes.
At SHARE Cleveland, I sat down with Scott McFall, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at ProTech IT Training & Consulting. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in IT training and development and is a multi-year IBM Champion, so it was no...
SHARE Cleveland 2025: Mainframes, Music, and Milestones
We declare SHARE Cleveland a rockin’ success! The rock ‘n roll theme permeated the city, exhibitor booths, and giveaways, culminating in a live music reception at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Have you seen someone wearing a leather kilt play bagpipes to AC/DC? Now...
Top 10 Steps to Building the Right Indexes
One of the constant struggles with Db2 development, and indeed developing for any relational DBMS, is designing and creating appropriate indexes. Perhaps the most important thing you can do to assure optimal application performance when accessing data in a...
Mainframe Coaching & Mentoring: a simple, modern method.
There is a priceless mainframe computing resource that will, if not properly treated, disappear from your mainframe organization and reduce productivity, increase error and leave you more vulnerable to disaster! It's a critical resource that your organization relies...
Earn and share your mainframe badges today!
IBM open badges are making a difference by building your personal brand and advancing your career. With IBM open badges, you can easily and quickly share verified proof of your achievements both within IBM and externally. Where applicable, your IBM credentials are...
The new IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Migration Assistant is live to guide you through COBOL migration
The IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Migration Assistant (CMA) has been very popular among COBOL migration users. It is a step-by-step wizard and an interactive checklist that guide users through the information along their migration journey from COBOL 4 or earlier to...
Basics of VSAM
This article will take you inside VSAM and explain the environment of Virtual Storage Access Method. VSAM has been around since the 1970s and provides a way of storing large amounts of data for 3 types of access. Random Sequential Skip Sequential VSAM has a number of...
Accelerating Your Db2 Database
Your Db2 database The IBM mainframe and its Db2 database is the transaction processing workhorse for the world’s biggest banks, insurers and financial services companies. It was designed to execute their high-intensity transaction processing workloads very...
Latest
How to solve the Data Privacy issue for test data
You may be aware of data privacy regulations such as Europe’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) or California’s CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) that, among other things, ban you from using production data with personally identifiable information, such...
Four Essential Features for a Database Security Strategy to Take on a Growing Threat Landscape
For a considerable time, many organizations have used three to five on-premise databases to manage their workloads, and many teams have tried to funnel every application into using those databases. Today, as the pressure to innovate while keeping costs low...
CICS Security – ADCD and Dallas Z ISV RDP
In RACF security terminology, CICS is a resource manager. Resource manager security can be enabled or disabled. Dallas Z ISV RDP provided CICS security is disabled. Why? CICS manages many resources where enabling security requires decisions about which specific CICS...
Cyber security and cyber resiliency for financial institutions (and everyone else)
For everyone with a mainframe, cyber security and cyber resiliency are important. For financial institutions, a major breach could, potentially, not only lead to the company going out of business, but, as we saw in 2008, could also lead to significant parts of the...
Ill winds: Why Mainframe Security Should be Heading Your 2021 Priorities List
It’s an ill wind that blows no good, and profits nobody. That old nautical phrase popped into my head when I first heard about the SolarWinds supply chain compromise. We’ll return to that later, and its implications. But first I wanted to take a look at a few of the...
Zero Trust Architecture Mobilizes Organizations to Safeguard Mainframe
Tried and true, the mainframe is here to stay as the backbone of our digital economy. Even as we advance to include new storage systems, all of our data exists on a mainframe somewhere. In fact, by 2030, there will be 40 trillion mobile transactions per day and the...
IT Security is Business-Critical: And I Hate it…
Okay, that's it - I hate IT security. And I really think that many folks in IT are actually like Mordac, the Preventer of IT, from the Dilbert comic strip. Okay, that’s not fair... Allow me to back up just a bit to explain where I'm coming from. Recently, one of my...
Security complacency: is your mainframe at risk?
This has been a fine summer. And I’m not talking about the weather: I mean the whopping fines proposed for infringements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by Marriott Hotels and British Airways, followed by an even bigger fine in the US for Equifax –...
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Upcoming Events
Events
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Virtual IMS User Group | February 10, 2026
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SHARE Orlando 2026
SHARE Orlando is where mainframe superheroes come together for five days of deep technical learning, collaboration, and networking. It’s the only industry conference dedicated entirely to delivering expert insight and […]
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Virtual CICS User Group | March 17, 2026
Zoom - Virtual Meeting -
Virtual Db2 User Group | March 24, 2026
Zoom - Virtual Meeting
❓ History of Artificial Intelligence Trivia
November at Planet Mainframe is all about AI, and you don’t need us to tell you that artificial intelligence has now been integrated into many of our daily routines. But long before AI became a household term, IBM was shaping the foundations of this increasingly...
IBM’s decision to discontinue support for the zPDT standalone offering threatens the mid-tier ISV market
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...
Data Integrity Award Winners, Workload Automation in Industry Report, and more
IBM Announces New Platform for Financial Institutions and Regulated Enterprises Entering the Digital Asset Economy Precisely Announces 2025 Data Integrity Award Winners Driving AI Innovation, Business Impact, and Societal Good BMC Selected as Overall Leader for...
Mainframe Artificial Intelligence Quiz
At Planet Mainframe, we’re spending the month of November focusing on AI and the mainframe. Once viewed as separate worlds, AI and IBM Z now work hand in hand to deliver real-time insights, predictive analytics, and intelligent automation across enterprise-scale...
NEWS – Granite 4.0, Free Cybersecurity Labs, and more
IBM Announces Granite 4.0 Free (Cybersecurity) Labs! Upcoming IBM Z Day Chase Card Decommissioning All Mainframe Code, with AI Assistance IBM z/OS Core Collection v1.15.0 GA ReleasedIBM Announces Granite 4.0 IBM has introduced Granite 4.0, initiating a new era for its...
TRIVIA – Penetration Testing
Mainframes have long been known for their unmatched reliability and security—but even the most trusted systems can hide surprises beneath the surface. As technology evolves, so do the tactics of those trying to exploit it. Penetration testing (pen testing), or...