Latest Articles
CICS and AI in Practice What Is Shipping and What Matters Now
Artificial intelligence (AI)is no longer something CICS teams discuss in the abstract. In a recent Planet Mainframe CICS Virtual User Group, the AI conversation focused on three points: What is already available? What is already running in production? How is AI being...
Beyond the Demo: Testing IBM Bob AI with COBOL, PL/I, Assembler, and JCL
IBM introduced IBM Project BOB at TechXchange 2025 as “an AI software development partner that understands your intent, repository, and security standards.” Positioned as an agentic AI tool, Bob aims to bring modernization expertise directly into developers’ daily...
Building What’s Next: A Journey Through Mainframe Vitality Training
I’ve always been a bit obsessed with computers—especially niche hardware. Growing up, I recall my dad having a collection of old systems from companies that no longer existed. They were different from the standard beige DOS and Windows boxes that had taken over, and I...
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™...
Inside EMMA: How a Mainframe Apprenticeship Scaled in Its First Year
Mainframe careers don’t suffer from a lack of interest, but a lack of pathways. EMMA was built to remove barriers to training, scaling, and hiring mainframe apprentices. This update revisits the program one year later, with results that tell a more nuanced workforce...
Mainframe Workforce Signals Are Shifting in 2026, Says Early Arcati Workforce Survey Data
Why the workforce conversation needs updating Workforce conversations in the mainframe community often default to a familiar concern: who will be left to run these systems in the future? While that question still surfaces, early signals from our 2026 Mainframe User...
Why Ongoing Education Matters for the Mainframe Skills Gap
I graduated virtually with my Master’s degree in 2020, about two months after COVID-19 shut down much of the world. Behind the scenes, I had been working for Enterprise Performance Strategies, Inc. (EPS) since 2017, so I had a supportive professional environment while...
❓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...
AI Development Tools on the Mainframe: What It Means for CIOs and Talent
AI-driven development tools have arrived on the mainframe. They analyze existing code, support refactoring efforts, structure decades-old applications, and promise productivity gains that many organizations urgently need. For CIOs, the key question is no longer...
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....
