CROZ mainframe adventures in Middle East and South Africa

Let’s go from the start – how did CROZ get in this story?

Thanks to our great cooperation with IBM we were invited to join this educational project covering the Republic of South Africa and Saudi Arabia. The Republic of South Africa and Middle East region are also facing the global problem – lack of experts trained to work with mainframe technologies, both hardware and software. Therefore, IBM started a project called zUniversity for apprentices in order to ensure education for them and provide trained staff to its users. The course attendees are apprentices from the Universities or individuals who have a strong will to work with mainframe technologies but doesn’t have the necessary experience. On the other hand, CROZ has a vast experience with mainframe technology so we were a perfect match for this project.

What are some education topics/areas?

Education is covering basic and specific courses about mainframe technology. Detailed courses include labs (practical) and hands-on exercises. Some of basic courses are: zVM & Linux Bootcamp, CICS Fundamentals, z/OS and DB2 Basics for DB2 for z/OS DBA Beginners, IMS Fundamentals, etc. Dedicated courses are dealing with: Technical Introduction to IBM MQ, IBM MQ V8 System, Administration for z/OS, Introduction to z/OS Unix System Services, z/OS Facilities, Blockchain on Z, IBM KVM and z/OS JCL and Utilities.

What about feedback – what attendees say?

Feedback is very good so far. Basically, attendees are very happy with this type of education when lecturers can demonstrate and explain purpose of every feature, show what are the most common problems and how to solve them on a practical example. I hanged out with participants outside the classroom and I can say that they are really interested in mainframe technology, they asked me countless questions that they probably wouldn’t ask during the education.

Apart from this official education part I had a great opportunity to sightsee the Republic of South Africa. The country is really beautiful. There are so many things you can see and visit: the safari in the lion’s park, the street where Nelson Mandela lived and the only street in the world where two men awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize lived (Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu), Top of Africa, etc. Great experience in total.