Mighty Mainframe is Sold out with No Doubt

Dear fellow mainframer,

I was still a university student when I got an opportunity to apply for a job at IBM. I was totally impressed. Those were the years of war in Croatia, time before emergence of Internet giants – even Microsoft was a small company back then – and I wanted that job!

During the interview, I told my future manager I had enough of my small PC, and I want to put my hands on some “real computer”. Eventually, I got my first job as “MVS system engineer”. Years later, my manager admitted that they were totally surprised to find a young student willing to work on mainframe. Little did he know, I was surprised as well when I found out how “real of a computer” mainframe was.

Just last week, mainframe celebrated its 60th birthday, and I’m thrilled to say that after three decades in my professional career, the mainframe platform is still going strong. 

Speakers who will set a spark at the Mighty Conference

Take a look at the Mightiest Conference of the year →

The Mighty Mainframe Conference is SOLD OUT and while I can’t introduce you to all the speakers, I would like to take this opportunity to announce two IBM aficionados who will be speaking the conference. Tobias Leicher is probably a familiar face to most of you, as we had an interesting conversation about mainframe modernization a few months ago. He is a recognized expert on modern technologies on IBM Z. Tobias keeps an eye on the ever-evolving IT landscape. You can also listen to him at the „Mainframe – What the Heck?“ podcast where he has been covering a wide range of mainframe topics for over three years. If you want to learn more about this talkative mainframer, take a look at his web page. 

Tim McKeoun is also a familiar face, he’s super-star speaker from last year’s QED conference. He shared his unique insight on Developer Experience on mainframe platform, and how to overcome resistance when introducing new developer tools. Tim started his IT career straight out of university in 2016 – to say he was surprised when he got his hands on a COBOL textbook is an understatement! However, almost 8 years later, he has developed a passion for the mainframe, for empowering developers and for helping businesses get the most out of their technology. 

Based on my personal and very objective experience with both, I can say that you can’t make a bad decision if you choose either session. 

Asian bank transition journey from VSE operating system to z/OS

Mainframe modernization is essential for large banks and other major mainframe users to remain competitive and meet growing demands. A large Asian bank is at the beginning of a critical mainframe modernization, moving from the VSE operating system to z/OS with CROZ support. This transition is imperative to improve performance, scalability and security to meet the bank’s long-term business goals and compliance requirements. 

As mainframe technology consultants, we’re committed to making this migration seamless and ensuring that strict deadlines are met, and the highest quality standards are adhered to. Working with IBM and the client, we conducted detailed project planning sessions to identify challenges, allocate resources efficiently and set clear milestones to monitor progress. If you’re interested in the story, check out this blog for more details and stay tuned as we share more insights into this transformative journey with our valued client in Asia. 

Thomas Liechti, on the other hand, is not a “fanboy” himself, but could have fans, because the mainframe is not his only passion. When he’s not playing guitar with his hard rock cover band, Thomas Liechti is on the road in various roles. A director at UBS, he is also a Distinguished Engineer, COBOL developer and Chapter Lead, as well as a teacher for the COBOL apprentice training program IT-Way-Up. This versatile guitarist said he would like to call Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking together and ask them to tell him about the universal laws of physics, why the speed of light is the limit and why time can be bent. If that sounds like an interesting thought, check out the Mighty Mainframe Conference program to see his session.

Industry Insights

While browsing, I ran into quite an interesting take on the future of COBOL. Erika Morphy at Techspot is talking about why is COBOL irreplaceable and why not to put all of your eggs in the generative AI basket yet is one of the realest points of view I’ve seen recently. This is surely one of the topics we’ll be discussing at the conference!