Latest Articles
At 40 years old, is Db2 still relevant?
It’s the 40th anniversary of Db2, IBM’s family of data management products, which was first released in 1983 as DB/2 (Database 2). IBM Db2 was a successor to IBM's first relational database IMS, and as a response to competition from Oracle's database, which was...
Diving into the Depths of Data: Announcing Db2 Month
IBM Db2 is 40 years old this year. In celebration, I want to welcome you to a month-long journey that will explore the ins and outs of Db2! This month, we will feature a multi-part original series from Craig Mullins, hear from the next generation of Db2 experts, and...
The problem of orphaned data
Mainframes are renowned for their ability to store large amounts of data and being able to access that data. IMS, for example, has, for many years, been able to store huge amounts of data and access the records in that data very quickly. It’s what made IMS so popular...
Recap from Empowering CICS Performance Analysis with Advanced Tools
Recently, the Virtual CICS User Group hosted Ezriel Gross, a Principal Solutions Advisor at Rocket Software, specializing in IBM CICS tools. With a wealth of experience as a gold consultant and IBM champion, Gross co-architected the C\Prof product, a revolutionary...
Eastern Illinois University—a Renewed Hotbed for Mainframe Education
Bridging the Gap Pundits have been ringing mainframe technology’s death knell since the early 1990’s, but industry needs for information security and big data computing power have kept mainframes very much alive. Mainframes continue to be the workhorse for...
Modernization in the News
IBM z/OS upgrade will deliver mainframe AI services and support IBM has revealed further details about its imminent launch of a major z/OS upgrade, which will feature an infusion of AI. The operating system upgrade introduces AI support via a feature package called...
Operational Resilience Driven by AIOps and Automation
In today’s hyper-connected world, we expect apps to work flawlessly, ALWAYS be available, and respond in seconds. Behind the scenes of all these digital apps is exponential growth of data, transactions, and complexity. Traditional reactive approaches to managing apps...
CICS Programming Best Practices
ASRA Abend Code In discussing aspects of CICS Command level Programming, have you ever wondered why a Program Interrupt (S0C4, S0C7) results in an ASRA Abend code? Firstly, it is important to remember that the middle 2 characters of every Abend code tells us who...
Test your SMF knowledge and more with trivia this week!
As usual, this week’s trivia challenge will look back at two Planet Mainframe articles with different themes. This week, our first article will be most relevant for companies that outsource their mainframes to specialist outsourcers. The second should be highly...
Tackling the Tech Talent Challenge
At the core of technology, it's all about people! From developing hardware to crafting software and applications, it's the human ingenuity that fuels innovation. So, investing heavily in your workforce is not just an option, but an essential step towards success. Join...



