Recent Articles
SQL & SQL PL Enhancements in Db2 12 and 13 — Technical Insights from the Virtual Mainframe User Group with Chris Crone
In this session of the Mainframe Virtual User Groups, Broadcom Distinguished Engineer Chris Crone provided a practical walkthrough of SQL and SQL PL enhancements across Db2 12 and Db2 13. Drawing on 35 years of experience working in Db2 internals, including SQL...
From Mariner to Mainframer: The Reinvention of Uday Prasad | Tech Sharmit Podcast
Amit Sharma, Content Creator at Tech Sharmit and Host of The Tech Sharmit Podcast, interviewed Uday Prasad, co–founder of ZedInfo Tech, about Prasad’s pivot from mariner to mainframer. Catch the full podcast on YouTube.Q: You have been in this industry for 30+ years....
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...
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...
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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...
Surveys, security and spaghetti
Mark Wilson reflects on the findings of a recent mainframe survey, explaining why security should be the number one priority, and why we need to start talking about complexity and observability. I read with interest the highlights of the Arcati Mainframe survey 2024,...
Vertali zTrust: Detect Network Activity and Control Traffic to Enhance Cybersecurity and Compliance
Vertali’s zTrust is a unique software solution that dramatically reduces the time, effort and costs needed to secure your operations and prove compliance with data standards and industry regulations. zTrust reveals network activity to and from your mainframe,...
Ransomware Attacks and your Health
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more common place, and many people have used things like ChatGPT, a popular generative AI (GenAI) that can answer questions, write essays and poems, or summarize a book. However, like most things, AI can also be turned to the...
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Upcoming Events
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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
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Virtual CICS User Group | March 17, 2026
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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...
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...