Recent Articles
▶️ Don’t Let FOMO Drive Your AI Mainframe Strategy – 9 Leaders Weigh In
Purpose beats panic. Don’t let FOMO define your AI roadmap. Artificial Intelligence (AI) conversations are happening throughout the industry right now. With that momentum comes something less helpful: the fear of missing out, or FOMO. You may hear it in side...
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...
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...
NEWS – Expanded AI-Powered Data Quality, Strategic Partnerships, & more
IBM and Groq Partner to Deliver Faster Agentic AI Capabilities Precisely Expands Access to AI-Powered Data Quality with Natural Language Interfaces in the Data Integrity Suite IBM Announces Advancements to Help Enterprises Operationalize AI Mainframe Technology...
Don’t Buy More MIPS – Do This Instead
The Cost of the Wrong Choice The adage says, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” But in the world of mainframes, that’s not always true. You can often spend the same amount and still save money. For example, a 1% increase in your mainframe IT budget can yield...
Kev Milne Brings Mainframe Pen Testing to Life with open-source Gibson
In the second episode of The Mainframe Book Club, host Andrew (Andy) McCandless talks with Kev Milne, Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager at NatWest Bank, and one of the few professionals focused on mainframe penetration (pen) testing.A Platform Born from Missing Skills...
Latest
Fight ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ with Mainframe Security 101
With continuous innovation and new functionality developed for mainframe security, many organizations can lose sight of the basics, which means they may never achieve a Zero-Trust security stance. The mainframe continues to evolve as a critical piece of the...
How Important is your Db2 Data—(Mainframe Modernization from a Data Security viewpoint)
When talking about Mainframe Modernization, we usually discuss DevOps, Zowe, APIs, Java, Python, etc. But how often does anyone discuss how your security posture needs to be modernized? Do terms like ‘least privilege’ and ‘zero trust’ mean anything to your...
Cyber Security Awareness Trivia
October is Cyber Security Awareness month at Planet Mainframe, so over here at Trivia Challenge we’ll be focusing our trivia topics on the ever-evolving topic of mainframes and cybersecurity. Mainframes have long been the backbone of critical industries, particularly...
Fortify Your Legacy Systems
A Digitalised State We live in a hyperconnected cyberworld driven by AI and machine learning. The age of digitalisation influences how we behave. In this world, it is all too easy for states, corporations, or criminals to overreach and access information they should...
Ransomware isn’t really a problem, is it?
Even the news channels don’t make a big deal about cyberattacks these days. It’s happening all the time. It’s incredible how many people don’t recognize that there is a war going on right now between hackers and organizations with any kind of IT hardware. And when I...
The Mainframe is Not Secure
October is cybersecurity awareness month, and Planet Mainframe is kicking it off with interview insights from Mark Wilson, Technical Director at mainframe services company Vertali and Conference Manager for GSE UK. "Is the mainframe secure? No. But it is...
Get ready for DORA
In my last article about ransomware, I mentioned how important it was for chief financial officers (CFOs) to ensure that the IT in their organizations was as secure as possible—particularly now that attacks can come from artificial intelligence (AI) bots that could be...
Understanding Downtime – Quantifying the Impact of Mainframe Outages and the Value of Observability
No matter what your business is, chances are good that at least part of it is completed online. Whether that is records management, payroll, or customer purchases, the online portion of your business is most likely a very critical component of overall success. That is...
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Upcoming Events
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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 […]
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Virtual Db2 User Group | January 20, 2026
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Virtual IMS User Group | February 10, 2026
Zoom - Virtual Meeting
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...
NEWS – Expanded AI-Powered Data Quality, Strategic Partnerships, & more
IBM and Groq Partner to Deliver Faster Agentic AI Capabilities Precisely Expands Access to AI-Powered Data Quality with Natural Language Interfaces in the Data Integrity Suite IBM Announces Advancements to Help Enterprises Operationalize AI Mainframe Technology...
TRIVIA – Cybersecurity Month
For many of us, October is about falling leaves, shorter days, and cooler weather. It also happens to be Cybersecurity month, the time when we dial in on the never-ending (and ever-evolving) task of securing the mainframe. Mainframes have a reputation for being...
NEWS – Commercial Availability of Spyre Accelerator, Kyndryl Survey 2025, & more
IBM Introduces the Spyre Accelerator for Commercial Availability Kyndryl Survey 2025: Mainframe Modernization Projects Deliver 2-3X ROI BMC 2025 Mainframe Survey: Confidence, Generational Shift in Views on Mainframe Development Rocket Software Advances COBOL...