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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...
Mainframe Careers Are Changing, Not Disappearing: What to Expect
Mainframe careers aren’t disappearing. They’re narrowing, deepening, and becoming more demanding. If you spend any time in tech conversations, you’ve heard the claim that mainframe careers are fading, the talent pool is aging, and the jobs tied to IBM Z won’t survive....
Agentic AI on the Mainframe, Greater Delivery Flexibility, and more
Agentic AI for Smarter Mainframe Modernization with IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z The Open Mainframe Project's Zowe 3.4 PopUp Mainframe Announces Even Greater Delivery Flexibility For Mainframe Developers Precisely Achieves FedRAMP AuthorizationAgentic AI for...
Career Resilience Is the New Job Security in the Mainframe World, featuring Darren Surch
Career resilience in the mainframe world sounds like jargon—until change hits. Reorgs, new technologies, leadership shifts, or surprise opportunities don’t reward the fastest scramblers. They reward the people who were already ready. That’s the core idea Darren Surch,...
❓ 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...
Extending the Security Stack: Red Teaming, Scenarios, Risks, and Reality
Mainframes hold the heart of the most critical business processes in finance, healthcare, and government. Yet many security programmes still draw a neat line around them, treating z/OS as out of scope for red teaming, scenarios, and cyber risk quantification. This...
Missing Mainframe and IT Skills: How Enterprises Can Respond
Attendees at GS UK 2025 noticed a new track, WAVEZ 101, dedicated to early-career and undergraduate mainframers. I was delighted to be invited to speak on mainframe skills and what I see for the industry’s future employees. A Gloomy Skills Outlook The IT skills topic...
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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...
What You Said – (ClownStrike) CloudStrike
According to The Guardian, the Crowdstrike outage crashed an estimated 1% of all Windows PCs worldwide—or about 8.5 million—and is estimated to have cost the US Fortune 500 USD $5 billion. We asked you, Planet Mainframe readers, to share your thoughts on the...
Share Your Thoughts — What Does a Global Blackout Mean for Mainframe Companies?
Calling Crowdstrike’s global technology outage “inconvenient” is the understatement of the year. From airlines to banking, 9-1-1 emergency services to grocery stores, and hospitals to telecommunications, millions are maddeningly stuck. The technology blackout began...
The Most Important Part for Cybersecurity
The relationship between education and security The digital age is a double-edged sword. While it offers unprecedented connectivity and innovation, it also presents a vast and ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. From the devastating "mother of all breaches" in...
Cybersecurity in the Age of IoT: Safeguarding the Internet of Things
The emergence of the Internet of Things, or IoT, as it’s commonly known, has been a massive boon to just about every aspect of our society. It allows a multitude of physical objects in our everyday lives to connect us to the Internet. Popular products include home...
Total Network Failure on your Production System – What are the Chances?
Perhaps higher than you may think. Total loss of network connectivity is a critical event that can be hard to diagnose and recover from, especially if the systems specialists cannot connect to the system. The three mostly likely causes for total network failure on a...
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Upcoming Events
Events
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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
Zoom - Virtual Meeting
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...
Business-Driven Automation, AI Confidence Outpaces Readiness, and more
BMC Advances Business-Driven Automation and Mainframe Transformation with AI-Powered Innovations Precisely’s State of Data Integrity and AI Readiness Study: AI Confidence Outpaces Readiness Rocket Software to Acquire Vertica Analytics Database Platform from OpenText...
❓Python Programming Trivia
We often describe Python as a “modern” language, but its story spans decades of technological change, cultural shifts, and unexpected platforms. What began as a small side project in the Netherlands evolved into one of the most widely used programming languages in the...
Rocket Software and K2view Partnership, 2025 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice, and more
IBM Introduces New Software to Address Growing Digital Sovereignty Imperative Rocket Software and K2view Partner to Accelerate Mainframe Modernization with Governed, AI-Ready Test Data for Testing, Analytics, and AI BMC is recognized as a 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™...
❓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...