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From Classroom to Community: Geoffrey Decker’s Mainframe Impact
Geoffrey Decker Instructor, Northern Illinois UniversityCo-Founder and Lead Instructor, Eli Madison Memorial Apprenticeships (EMMA) DeKalb, Illinois, USA This piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series.The Maestro of the Mainframe...
Making the Invisible Visible: How PJ Catalano Connects Mainframes to the Next Generation
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”...
Mainframe trends, strategies and opportunities
Six talking points for 2026 and beyond A decade ago, who could have predicted we’d be living in a golden age for the mainframe, with major investment and the platform acting as the backbone of today’s hybrid IT strategies? This article summarizes some of the issues...
Mainframe’s New Era: AI, Youth, and the Future of SHARE
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...
Open Tools, Modern Workflows: A Next-Gen Mainframe Quiz
This week, our Planet Mainframe quiz continues the “Next-Gen Mainframe” theme. For decades, mainframe development operated in its own world—but as the broader industry converged on open-source tooling, Git-based collaboration, and cloud-style DevOps pipelines, the...
From the Super Bowl to the System of Record: Why Winning Runs on Data Integrity
The Super Bowl looks like a game of skill and instinct: a quarterback scans the defense, the coach makes a call in seconds, a receiver adjusts a route in motion. All while 70,000 people hold their breath. From the outside, it feels like improvisation under pressure....
Modernize Security with ACF2 and Top Secret Version17.0
In the world of security, many things have changed since the last release of ACF2 and Top Secret. Credential-based attacks are up - compromised credential-based attacks cost organizations $4.67m annually, while being the initial attack vector 10% of the time¹....
The Need for Effective Change Management
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...
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Why It’s Finally Time to Retire Your TN3270 Emulator
For decades, TN3270 terminal emulators have been a staple for accessing mission-critical mainframe applications. However, as cyber threats evolve and legacy systems strain under new compliance demands, it is becoming increasingly clear that traditional...
Why Human Error is the Mainframe’s Biggest Risk
Mainframes have always had a bit of a superhero reputation: rock-solid, ultra-secure, and always up. They’ve powered banks, airlines, and governments for decades without so much as blinking. But I want to share an uncomfortable truth: even the most secure systems in...
Collaborating for Modernizing Mainframe Data Protection: A Privacy-First Approach
Collaborating for Modernizing Mainframe Data Protection As enterprises accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, mainframe environments face unprecedented challenges in balancing mainframe data protection with modernisation. Traditional approaches to...
Modernizing Mainframe Security: RACF and MFA Misconceptions
Passwords Aren’t Enough to Modernize Mainframe Security Security is the backbone of any organization’s control environment. In today’s hyper-connected economy, protecting against IT threats is not just a technical requirement—it’s a business imperative. A single...
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...
Mainframe Security: The Quiet Frontline of Enterprise Defense
For decades, the mainframe has been viewed as one of the most secure computing platforms on Earth. With tightly controlled access, centralized data management, and unmatched reliability, it earned its reputation as the “fortress” of enterprise IT. But, as evidenced in...
From Mainframe to Cybersecurity: Experience Is the New Superpower, Ladies
From Mainframe to Cybersecurity: Experience Is the New Superpower If you’ve written COBOL, debugged Assembler, or know how to resolve an S0C7 abend, chances are you belong to an older—and increasingly rare—demographic in tech. If you’re a woman, that group is even...
The Heat is on. What 2025 Cyber Attacks in the UK Teach Us About Mainframe Security
Vertali’s Leanne Wilson reflects on a year of cyber attacks and what needs to happen now. 2025 was quite a year for cyber attacks. The UK in particular experienced a significant surge, with 43% of businesses reporting at least one incident and an astounding 91% of...
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Virtual IMS User Group | April 14, 2026
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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
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Virtual Db2 User Group | May 19, 2026
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Kyndryl Readiness Report, Precisely and Matillion Partnership, and more
Kyndryl Readiness Report reveals misalignment between infrastructure investment and preparedness for converging modernization demands Precisely and Matillion Partner to Accelerate Data Modernization and Agentic AI Readiness IBM Completes Acquisition of Confluent,...
Open Tools, Modern Workflows: A Next-Gen Mainframe Quiz
This week, our Planet Mainframe quiz continues the “Next-Gen Mainframe” theme. For decades, mainframe development operated in its own world—but as the broader industry converged on open-source tooling, Git-based collaboration, and cloud-style DevOps pipelines, the...
2026 X-Force Threat Index, Expanded Data Integrity Suite, and more
IBM 2026 X-Force Threat Index: AI-Driven Attacks are Escalating as Basic Security Gaps Leave Enterprises Exposed Precisely Expands Data Integrity Suite with New AI Agents for Enhanced Data Quality, Data Enrichment, and Location Intelligence BMC Signs Five-Year...
Hybrid by Design: The Next-Gen Mainframe Quiz
If you’ve been in the mainframe ecosystem for any time at all, you’ll know that the mainframe has long been associated with stability and staying power. But today’s conversation increasingly centers on the evolution of the next-gen mainframe, and how it fits into...
New Survey Findings, New FlashSystem Portfolio, and more
New Rocket Software Survey Finds 69% of IT Leaders Report Data Security Keeps Them Up at Night Kyndryl Named a Leader in 2025–2026 IDC MarketScape for Mainframe Modernization IBM Introduces Autonomous Storage with New FlashSystem Portfolio Powered by Agentic AI...
2026 Arcati Survey Results Trivia
Welcome to this week’s Planet Mainframe trivia quiz! On the heels of the 2026 Arcati Survey Results release, this round of trivia focuses on changes underway. Workforce demographics are shifting, new generations are entering mainframe computing fields (and through...