For years I have told mainframe security newcomers the same thing: If you want to learn how to attack and defend a system, you need to use that system. Unfortunately, z/OS is not something you spin up on a laptop over lunch or throw into your home lab. Mainframe...
Mainframe modernization is often discussed in broad strategic terms, but for the teams responsible for keeping core systems running, the challenge is much more practical: How do you make change faster, safer, and more repeatable without disrupting critical...
In an era defined by AI hype and cloud-first declarations, the mainframe environment, in contrast, appears quiet and refined. Organizations running IBM Z continue to anchor revenue, enforce governance, and modernize on their own timetable. Nothing is happening...
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...
Open Mainframe Project Security Concerns I was chatting with a mainframer buddy the other day, and he expressed some concerns about the overall code security of the Open Mainframe Project (OMP), particularly around member vetting. So, I spent a bit of time digging...
In October 2025, Planet Mainframe published the first article of this two-part series on IBM z17 Time Synchronization Enhancements. That article focused on time synchronization resiliency and accuracy enhancements introduced on IBM z17. This article continues with a...
My career has, over the nearly four years of working in this field, predominantly been comprised of RACF Administration and Engineering, interspersed with other opportunities that I foolishly volunteered myself for. Such opportunities have included writing articles,...
In a Planet Mainframe podcast, Amanda Hendley, Managing Editor at Planet Mainframe, sat down with Venkat Balabhadrapatruni, a solution architect at Broadcom Software and 2025 IBM Champion. They discussed the company’s strategy for bringing modern AI capabilities to...
Mainframes have always had a bit of a superhero reputation: rock-solid, ultra-secure, and always up. They’ve powered banks, airlines, and governments for decades without so much as blinking. But I want to share an uncomfortable truth: even the most secure systems in...
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...
