How did your journey with Atruvia begin?
In 2018, I dropped out of college and started looking for an apprenticeship in Germany. I had a high school diploma and didn’t want it to go to waste. Atruvia was one of the few companies that offered an apprenticeship requiring a high school diploma. I applied without knowing much about what they did, but once I joined and learned more about the company, I was honestly blown away by what they were doing, what technologies they were employing and how advanced everything was.
What do you do at Atruvia today?
I'm a system programmer now mostly on the transaction manager side, but over the years I’ve picked up some experience on the database side as well. My main focus has always been the system-heavy side, which I took over from my mentors as they approached retirement. That includes maintenance, troubleshooting cases, working on automation, etc., which are things I really enjoy doing.
I’m especially interested in automation and working in Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF). Whereas most people see ISPF as outdated, for me, it’s a challenge and a chance to improve things for others using newer tools and ideas. At this point, I’m right at the core of IMS, managing the system side and keeping everything running.
Had you worked with mainframes before?
Not at all. I grew up around Linux and Windows but never even heard of mainframes. Atruvia sent me through a mandatory training program, and that's where I was first introduced. Everyone I talked to about it said that mainframes were dinosaurs, legacy systems that were on their way out and would be phased out in a couple of years. But throughout the mandatory training, I found out that these "dinosaurs" actually power huge parts of the banking industry in Germany and that really piqued my interest because it was something I never heard about, and I wanted to learn everything I could about it.
Which project have you found most interesting and/or are proud of?
When I joined, the team was already deep into a year-long project focused on the IMS Dynamic Resource Definition (DRD) management tool. Atruvia had already adopted managed ACBs, so I never had to deal with legacy processes like online changes or mod block generation, I only saw those later in test environments. Our main goal was to build an ISPF application to standardize and simplify how we define and generate transactions, databases, and program definitions dynamically across sysplexes. It was a complex, multi-year effort, especially as I was still learning IMS at the time.
As the DRD tool matured, demand grew. We kept adding features—most recently, support for managing all online regions and Message Processing Programs (MPPs). It’s been a rewarding project that brought together ISPF, REXX, APIs, system automation, and IMS to reduce complexity and do more with fewer resources.
I never imagined myself working on something like IMS, but once I got into it, I realized how much impact it has and how few people know about it.
How does IMS fit into cloud or hybrid IT environments from your perspective?
For us, especially in finance, cloud adoption is tricky due to compliance and regulations. We do use cloud services for some things, but our core systems, like IMS, remain on-prem. And honestly, I think that’s a good thing. I genuinely enjoy being in data centers, seeing the mainframe, and knowing that the infrastructure is in our hands. There’s a certain satisfaction in the sense of ownership and responsibility.
How are Java and modernization efforts showing up in your work?
We’re already using a COBOL-Java mix in our production environment and we’re currently running Java 17. In terms of modernization efforts, we're fairly active in testing programs and have regular monthly meetings with IBM to stay aligned with our progress, which helps us keep pace with ongoing developments.
What's the team structure and dynamics like on your team?
It’s a really fun and collaborative setup. Right now, we’re a team of eight in IMS with two of my colleagues who are dedicated DBAs. My role is more on the core systems side, with some scripting and automation mixed in. We have a couple of team members managing BMC tools and configuration, handling a lot of the DRD configuration changes and performance tasks. We also work closely with a dedicated performance analytics team that monitors transaction rates to give us actionable recommendations. There’s also someone fully focused on security and compliance, which, as you can imagine, is a big job these days. We meet twice a week just to share insights, learn from each other and build stronger connections.
The Mainframe isn’t dead — it’s just misunderstood. It’s an image problem. People don’t know what they are or how much they still matter.
What’s the vibe like for younger people in the mainframe world at Atruvia?
Surprisingly positive. Our mainframe team is now roughly a 50/50 split between the younger and older generation. Most younger hires are brought in to learn from the veterans before they retire. Overall, there are quite a few motivated younger people on the team who are mostly under 40.
What’s the biggest challenge facing mainframes today?
It’s definitely an image problem. People don’t know what they are or how much they still matter. Until I joined Atruvia, I had no idea what a mainframe was. Even my family and friends still don’t fully understand what I do. Mainframes are often dismissed as outdated, but they’re incredibly powerful and essential in everyday life. If people knew what was really powering their credit cards, flights, or bank accounts, I think they’d look at mainframe tech very differently.
The mainframe is quite advanced and, in my opinion, still unparalleled by other technologies.
If you were in charge of changing the perception of the mainframe, how would you do it?
I would focus on visibility and outreach, especially to the younger generation. Back when I was still in training, our company used to visit schools and invite students over for internships, and the mainframe was part of that. But once COVID hit, all those efforts stopped, and I haven’t seen any of those programs come back in the last five years.
I was lucky to give a presentation to school kids once, where I tried to make the mainframe applicable to their everyday lives. I tried showing examples like comparing mainframe performance to gaming consoles and other everyday things to find something comparable to just how big this technology is, and how big a mainframe can be, especially for a banking group like ours, which serves half of this country [Germany].
I think the wow effect is what catches a younger generation and it's important that they know that something like that [the mainframe], exists.
You attended IBM’s IMS Customer Internship—how was that experience for you?
Amazing! I never imagined I’d travel that far just to see this technology up close and meet with the experts. It’s the kind of event that’s missing in Europe, so I’m glad we’re starting to build something similar with GSE with the IMS Information Day meetings held in Spring.
Honestly, the [IMS Customer] Internship with IBM was one of the best experiences in my career”
Can you share your experience with the IMS Advocacy program?
Overall, it has been a really positive experience. I can recall a case that was focused on finding a quick and effective solution that worked for everyone involved. What stood out most was having someone from the IMS lab who really understands both the technical and business perspectives.
Having that direct connection with someone [an IMS advocate] who knows the internal workings of IMS is incredibly valuable, and it made all the difference in resolving the issue efficiently.
What do you hope for IMS in the future?
I’m really looking forward to ZDDL and the next IMS release. I’ve done maintenance, but never installed IMS myself, so it'll be an exciting learning curve. We are very excited about the future of IMS and are excited about anything that helps make IMS easier to understand for people who are new to the field.
I hope to see the same energy, the same power and continuous improvements that make IMS easier and more approachable for anyone new to it.
What advice would you give someone thinking about mainframes or IMS as a career?
Stay curious. Sometimes the most fascinating tech is hidden in plain sight. I never imagined myself working on something like IMS, but once I got into it, I realized how much impact it has and how few people know about it.
Be curious because you never know what’s behind the smallest things that define everyday life.
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