Recent Articles
PowerTerm End-of-Life: Why Organizations Must Act Now – And Why the December 10 Webinar Is Critical
In March 2025, Ericom PowerTerm, a terminal emulator still used by thousands of organizations to access mainframes, IBM i systems, Unix hosts, VMS machines, and other mission-critical environments, officially entered End-of-Life (EOL). For decades, PowerTerm provided...
📰 Top 100 Most Loved Workplace, Workload Automation in Industry Report, and more
Kyndryl Cloud Readiness Report: Hybrid Cloud Shapes the Future of AI and Enterprise Agility BMC Selected as Overall Leader for Workload Automation in Industry Report Kyndryl Named a Top 100 Most Loved Workplace® by the Wall Street Journal IBM and Groq Partner to...
🎧 Today’s Modernization is AI and Mainframes – featuring Venkat Balabhadrapatruni
In a Planet Mainframe podcast, Amanda Hendley, Managing Editor at Planet Mainframe, sat down with Venkat Balabhadrapatruni, a solution architect at Broadcom Software and 2025 IBM Champion. They discussed the company’s strategy for bringing modern AI capabilities to...
Is Your AI Modernization Tool a Match? Take the Quiz
A 5-Minute Quiz to Cut Through the Hype Mainframes remain pillars of the global digital economy, clearing transactions, securing data, and keeping industries like banking, insurance, and healthcare running 24/7. While the hardware stays rock-solid, the legacy...
What’s Inside – Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter
The latest Tuning Letter, 2025 No.3, is out now! Subscribers to Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter can find the latest issue, 2025 No.3, on our Tuning Letter website. If you are not a current Tuning Letter subscriber, check the website for information about subscription...
The Spectrum of Trust: How Mainframers Are Embracing Agentic AI
A few years ago, the idea of letting artificial intelligence (AI) tweak a production mainframe system on its own would’ve made even the most daring system programmer break out in a cold sweat. We would have heard, “Let the machine make the change? Not on my watch.” ...
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...
Latest
Future-Proof Your Mainframe: Highlights from Vanguard 2025 and Enhancing Security with ACF2 TM and Top Secret®
At the recent Vanguard Security & Compliance 2025 event (VSC 2025), security leaders came together to address today’s toughest mainframe security challenges, ranging from credential theft to Zero Trust adoption. As a Platinum Sponsor, Broadcom highlighted how...
The Hidden Cybersecurity Battle Inside the Mainframe 🎧
Mainframes remain the backbone of enterprise IT—but as cyber threats evolve, so must the defenses. In this podcast, Ken Chism, Head of Worldwide Cybersecurity Sales at BMC Software, shares an inside look at the changing landscape of mainframe security. Ken discusses...
Mainframe Penetration Testing: Why It Matters More Than Ever
The goal is not disruption but discovery. For decades, mainframes have been at the heart of critical industries such as finance, healthcare, government, and retail. Since IBM introduced the System/360 in 1964, these systems have earned a reputation for being reliable,...
The Top Four Infrastructure Capabilities for Enterprise Security and Compliance
Rising Stakes of Data Protection As our modern world becomes increasingly digital, data’s value has never been higher—and the challenge of protecting it has never been so great. While the global average cost of a data breach dipped 9% in the past year due to advances...
Australia Gains First Real-Time Mainframe Ransomware Defense with Vertali APAC and MainTegrity CSF
Australian organizations running IBM z/OS systems can now access a new defense for mainframes in the Asia-Pacific(APAC) region. In news welcomed by all enterprises battling cybersecurity threats – which is all of them – MainTegrity Inc. appointed Vertali APAC as its...
A Breakthrough in Mainframe Storage Efficiency
Broadcom has delivered a first in mainframe storage with the Virtual Storage Adapter (VSA) enhancement to CA 1™ Flexible Storage™. This new feature lets you have your cake and eat it too – achieve high-performance virtual tape storage without the traditionally higher...
Mainframe Security Isn’t What It Used to Be – How CICS and LE Are Fighting Back
This article updates a 2022 piece in Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter, “LE Non-Executable HEAPS and CICS User Experiences” by Mario Bezzi. Current Tuning Letter subscribers can read the original article online. Think your mainframe is immune to modern cyber threats?...
Time to Rethink Db2 Disaster Recovery
For a long time, disaster recovery (DR) in Db2 z/OS environments was mostly about getting systems back online after a major outage. Whether it was a hardware failure, a data center problem, or a natural disaster, the focus was on full system recovery, bringing the...
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Upcoming Events
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Redefining Legacy Modernization Around Customer Outcomes
Zoom - Virtual MeetingWhy modernization success requires a flexible, outcome-driven approach Legacy modernization continues to rank among the top priorities—and pressure points—for CIOs. Gartner’s Top CIO Challenges 2024 highlights application portfolio modernization as […]
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Webinar: Ericom PowerTerm End of Life
Bottom Line: EOL Has Already Arrived, and the Window to Act Is Narrow Ericom’s EOL announcement created a hard stop. From March 2025 onward, every month of continued reliance on […]
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Virtual CICS User Group | AI and CICS with Steve Wallin, IBM
Zoom - Virtual MeetingIn today's fast-paced digital landscape, businesses demand seamless, efficient, and secure transaction processing to keep up with evolving customer expectations and market dynamics. On IBM Z, a platform renowned for […]
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Virtual CICS User Group | The IT Stairway to Heaven. CICS Testing Pyramid: From Unit to Integration to Production-Like Environment
Zoom - Virtual MeetingEffective testing is essential for building robust systems. Dive deep into a structured approach to the testing pyramid for CICS applications. Using Test4z, we will demonstrate how unit tests form […]
❓ 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...