At the recent Z Design Council (ZDC) event in Portland, Oregon, we had a very successful conference with many of the top Z customers, where we explored ways to leverage innovations to the platform in several areas such as Infrastructure, Data & AI, Application and Security Architects.
The event was opened by Armon Dadgar, who introduced the audience to HashiCorp and modern application development with IBM. Without any slides and using only a whiteboard and a pen, Armon Dadgar gave us a very insightful session where he kept the attention of the whole audience.
The core of the ZDC event takes the form of Design Thinking sessions that help us develop breakthrough ideas for innovation. Those sessions are also referred to as “collaborative sessions” where customers and IBMers collaborate towards solutions. At the event, Akiko Hoshikawa and I, with Julia Bulgannawar as our designer, had the privilege of working with representatives from seven customer companies. Our goal was to identify key areas that would most help customers in database management along with their applications. Although we primarily explored ways to involve AI, the targeted solutions would not be restricted to that approach.
Our customers were very eager to explore this topic. The team immediately agreed and worked on the basis that although application development and DBAs jobs are interrelated, the teams do not always have the same goals and communication between them is sometimes difficult. Automated solutions in key areas would help application availability as well as the database server health. The key areas were grouped into the following silos:
• Workfile Storage management
• Db2 System management
• System Profiles
• Resource Limit Facility (RLF) settings
• Utilities
• Real Time Statistics (RTS)
• Application & Data Definition Language (DDL)
Some of the items within those silos are interrelated with other key areas, such as Db2 parameters and DDF.
The Data & AI track had three product briefing sessions: Data Gate and watsonx, the latest progress and futures in Db2 & AI exploitation, and enhancing Db2 maintenance experience with watsonx Assistant for Z. Besides sharing our plans with customers, we also gathered important feedback on the next steps and prioritization.
Even the breaks during the ZDC event are precious time for networking, and they also provide opportunities to visit the Z Design Fair, where designers and technical leaders brainstorm ideas with customers in diverse subject areas such as:
• Configuration collection program
• Agentic AI in watsonx Assistant for Z
• Spyre AI accelerator
• Impactful Data Virtualization: InteliiMagic Vision for z/OS
• Next generation z/OS experience
• Sensitive data tagging for z
Customers also shared their own experiences and insight into some , including Rabobank on Regulatory Compliance with IBM Z Security and Compliance Center, Citi and VISA on transforming workloads with container technology on z/OS, and Finance Informatik and DAVEV on Simplifying Mainframe Availability Management.
Together with Rabobank, Theresa Ramsey and I had a Birds-of-a-Feather session on Simplifying Pipeline Standards for the Modern Mainframe Application, which drove high interest from customers, and we scored a perfect 10.
Customers and IBMers worked together in the same space, with passion for the continuous success of the Z platform.