Influential Mainframers
Influential Mainframer – Gareth Copplestone-Jones
Today, meet a man who is engineering mainframe resilience. Gareth Copplestone-Jones Head of Infrastructure Services, Triton Consulting Ltd England, United Kingdom Connect with Gareth on LinkedIn: View the entire 2025 Influential Mainframers group here. With nearly...
Influential Mainframer – Javier Estrada Benavides
Today, we celebrate someone who is shaping the future of the mainframe workforce—one hire and one automation project at a time. Javier Estrada Benavides Senior Lead, Systems Administration, Kyndryl Prague, Czechia (Czech Republic) Connect with Javier on: View the...
Dr. Cameron Seay: Elevating Inclusive Mainframe Education
If you want to know what’s going on in the world of COBOL, Dr. Cameron Seay is the expert to turn to. As a semi-retired adjunct professor at East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, North Carolina, he calls himself a “practicing technology evangelist.” He...
Pink mainframes and a condiment cannon: Meet PJ Catalano
Penney Berryman from Planet Mainframe connected with PJ Catalano to uncover how he’s using humor to elevate the mainframe into the mainstream. Pasquale “PJ” Catalano has two passions: mainframe test engineering and mainframe social media humor. A self-identified class...
Meet the man securing mainframes: Mark Wilson
Penney Berryman from Planet Mainframe connected with Mark for a few minutes between his work in the UK and his hobby of restoring motorcycles.Mark Wilson’s energy and easy laugh infuse the conversation in person or on the phone. He throws his head back and guffaws,...
Most Influential Mainframes – Week 1 Wrap-up
Welcome again to our month-long journey through the History and People of Mainframe. Since our launch this week, we've already introduced a diverse array of individuals who have significantly contributed to the evolution and enhancement of mainframe technology. ...
Cheryl Watson: Mainframe Influencer
Cheryl Watson’s career success, which spans more than 60 years, can be attributed to her relentless pursuit of knowledge, inquisitiveness, and her steadfast belief that the customer always comes first. Fondly known as “the Mick Jagger of the mainframe” and “the...
Latest
Hide your privates
My mac had turned into a bit of a mess. I had ssh private keys (that use Passphrases of course!) in a variety of places and I wasn’t very happy about it. I have several different servers that I connect to. There are a few GitHub systems, a Linux system, and of course...
Recover Quickly With Surgical Precision
Resiliency is an integral part of the IBM Z platform. The IBM Z Cyber Vault solution is a concept for addressing data corruption whether through malicious intent, human error or failure of hardware or software. It provides an air gapped backup of the operating...
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...
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Upcoming Events
Events
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Virtual IMS User Group | April 14, 2026
Zoom - Virtual Meeting -
European Mainframe Technical Exchange – Prague – April 21-23
Prague, Czech Republic Prague, Czech RepublicRegistration is open for the 2026 European Broadcom Mainframe Technical Exchange! This year’s event will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, from April 21 - 23. Register today to reserve […]
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Virtual CICS User Group | May 12, 2026
Zoom - Virtual Meeting -
Virtual Db2 User Group | May 19, 2026
Zoom - Virtual Meeting
❓Mainframe Professional Skills Trivia
Our last trivia quiz explored the legacy of mainframe pioneers, and this week we’re going to continue looking into the lineage of skills in mainframe professional practice, examining how early design and operational decisions shaped the way mainframe expertise is...
❓ Workforce and Training Trivia
Happy 2026—and welcome to a whole new year of Planet Mainframe Trivia! As our January theme focuses on Workforce and Training, this quiz looks at mainframe pioneers and the early decisions that shaped how mainframe skills are learned and passed on. Mainframe expertise...
Newest Virtel Release, SHARE Orlando Tickets, and more
VIRTEL announces release of Virtel 4.63: a major new version to better connect, secure, and simplify access to any mainframe application SHARE Orlando Early Bird Tickets Available Hitachi Vantara's Virtual Storage Platform One Wins CRN 2025 Products of the Year Award...
❓What 2025 Taught Us About Mainframes: A Trivia Quiz
As the year closes, and the year-end reflections roll in, we’re taking a closer look at key findings from the latest BMC, Kyndryl, and Planet Mainframe Arcati surveys. The results point to a platform that is evolving in response to cost pressures, skills gaps,...
Real-Time Data Replication, Quantum Safe Assessment Service, and More
Precisely Accelerates Mainframe Modernization with Real-Time Data Replication to Amazon S3 Kyndryl Unveils Quantum Safe Assessment Service to Enable Enterprise Readiness for the Quantum Era IBM Turbonomic and IBM Kubecost unite to optimize Kubernetes performance and...
Mainframe Miscellaneous Trivia!
As the year draws to a close (whether your days are growing shorter and darker or longer and brighter), December tends to invite a little reflection. Over the past year, Planet Mainframe Trivia has dished out a veritable smorgasbord of topics, from the early days of...