Mainframe Matters

In my newsletter this week, I wanted to share an update on our upcoming event which we are planning to bring to you in June, where we will be looking at the mainframe itself, we will explain how the mainframe works and the major components you will find.

I am sure some of you may have interesting stories about using or installing products and we always enjoy hearing your stories and it's great to see a community coming together at our event, where we can answer questions and help each other.

In my last newsletter I shared how you can find our event and how you can interact with our event, this time I am sharing a few personal favourite links and websites I have visited. {Feel free to add your own suggestions, preferably your personal favourites and not just links to where you work, please in the comments}.

Q. Do you like the format I am using is there any item you would add or change, to the next edition of the newsletter ?

Useful Links

Often when we are starting in the mainframe it can be confusing where to go to find information and help, you can feel bombarded with advice and places to visit to find out more. I have created below a small list of just four links I think may be interesting if you are starting out in your mainframe journey.

I would love to hear from you about what your favourite link is and why, how could this help someone starting out and in the comments it would be great if you could post your links in the comments section; if you prefer you can always connect with me and message me in private and I will add them anonymously to the next edition of the newsletter.

1. The first link contains a number of links shared at a previous Mainframerz Meetup Event on the topic of 'Mainframe modernisation', the link is to a post in our slack channel which captures links posted during the event and can be found here: https://app.slack.com/client/TEA1REZU1/CEAGHDD6X/thread/CEAGHDD6X-1638468420.014100
2. The second link contains a number of interesting topics with white papers and talks being found here. The site is based in America, many of the white papers and talks are available after being shown live. I like this site as it is similar in nature to the Mainframerz Meetup event but here the talks are normally longer in nature and given by only one speaker. Link to the site is here: https://zexchange.info/
3. Choice three is a website that publishes various topics including interesting ways you can use the mainframe and is a little different. We have seen articles they have published shared in our 'General channel', I think they are quite interesting, the link to the site is here: https://techchannel.com
4. My final choice is a site with lots of helpful tips and training available for free with video recordings on topics and is a great resource if you are starting out as a relative newbie on the mainframe, the link to the site is here: https://mainframe-forum.blogspot.com

Q. Do you have an interesting website, link, Facebook page, LinkedIn page, Twitter or other site, I can add to the next edition of the newsletter ?

Getting Involved

During our events we always ask if you would like to get involved, we have various ways you can get involved. We are always happy to hear about new topics, new speakers, suggestions and feedback. If you would like to get involved and help organise our events we would love to hear from you.

At the end of our event we normally share a short ‘Question & Answer’ which we capture as a survey, we look at your feedback to see if there is any way we can improve our event for you.

To capture your feedback we normally use survey monkey.

Just for Fun

HAL 9000 or HAL features in a series of books and films written by Stanley Kubrik the most famous and well known is 2001 a Space Odyssey which featured Hal and his big red eyed lens (film released in 1968), despite the assistance of IBM during filming and Hals capabilities of: speech, speech recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting emotional behaviours, automated reasoning, spacecraft piloting and playing chess; or what Jeremy Clarkson self-confessed number 1 super fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey suggested during "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" to Alexander Armstrong, the fact HAL is one letter away from IBM it is not the reason HAL was chosen and Stanley Kubrik stated it was an unplanned coincidence. Fact supplied by (Me) Andy McCandless, Beta Systems Ltd.

One more fact I heard recently came in a discussion with Trevor Eddolls CEO of iTech-Ed Ltd, he mentioned I noted a number of benefits in the comments of my last newsletter about the new IBM Z16, and said he had another fact not so widely mentioned, I have tried to capture his comments: "For organizations running z16 mainframes at different sites, IBM has introduced Z Flexible Capacity for Cyber Resiliency as a way to guarantee service delivery, improve customer satisfaction, and be prepared to operate round the clock. It allows clients to initiate an automated site swap – dynamically shifting production workloads from one IBM z16 system to another z16 system in seconds. IBM allows customers to perform this operation up to 12 times a year, i.e. six round trips".

I thought after the recent Mainframerz event on 'Zero Trust' and talks about 'Resiliency' it was an introducing benefit added by IBM.

Q. Do you have an interesting fact or story, I can add to the next edition of the newsletter ?