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Client Communications Newsletter - September 2023

  

Thank you to those who visited the IBM booth in SHARE’s Technology Expo, attended an IBM Lunch & Learn session or enjoyed our IBM Z Reception at Rock‘n’Bowl to learn and network with our IBM Z experts. 

 

More exciting conferences to come with IBM TechXchange taking place in Las Vegas this month and IBM Z Day virtual conference October 18.

 

Hope to see you there!

 

- Brian Milkes, VP System Z National Market

Announcements

IBM TechXchange Conference Americas

11–14 September 2023 | MGM Grand Conference Center | Las Vegas, NV IBM TechXchange 2023 will be IBM’s premier technical learning event designed with technologists for technologists who use IBM products and solutions. Attendees will participate in deep guided education through hands-on practical experience with the latest IBM tech. They will hear best practices from real practitioners, interact with IBM experts around product roadmaps, hang out with their peers in a casual and creative environment and advance their skills through hands-on labs and certifications. You will be able to learn through 60+ IBM Z/LinuxONE technical breakout sessions, 20+ hands-on experiences/labs delivered by more than 40 IBM Z SMEs and third‑party speakers on topics such as Enterprise AI, Resiliency, Sustainable Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Mainframe Application Modernization and Automation, AIOps, Quantum-safe and many more. IBM Z Day

18 October 2023 | 8:00 AM–5:00 PM EST | Virtual IBM Z Day is a free 1-day enterprise computing virtual conference for anyone and everyone! Hear the latest about IBM Z and LinuxONE and join our lineup of global thought leaders who will highlight industry trends and innovation spanning Hybrid Cloud, AI, Quantum-safe Security and more.Connect, learn and be inspired by what's brewing in the labs, hear from community members as they share experiences, discover new and exciting innovation, learn how to adopt a hybrid cloud infrastructure that integrates data and AI for real-time insights, accelerate your digital transformation and modernization journey and hear what’s on the minds of thought leaders.

Upcoming Events

  • September 11-14 | IBM TechXchange Conference 2023 | Las Vegas, NV | LINK
  • September 20 | DevOps on IBM Z Hands-On Workshop | Chicago, IL | LINK
  • September 20 | Cloud Native DevSecOps powered by Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE Wildfire Workshop | Virtual | LINK
  • September 20 | IBM CICS Insight Series – CyberVault and CICS VR | Virtual | LINK
  • September 26-29 | Wildfire Workshop: Securing and Encrypting Network Traffic to z/OS Communications Server with Policy Agent | Coppell, TX | LINK
  • September 28 | Unleashing the Power of Hybrid Cloud with Red Hat OpenShift and IBM LinuxONE | Virtual | LINK
  • October 10-13 | WW IBM Z Security Conference | Amsterdam, NL | LINK
  • October 18 | IBM Z Day | Virtual Conference | LINK
  • October 19 | Unlocking Cybersecurity’s Future on IBM LinuxONE and z16 | Virtual | LINK
  • November 16 | Accelerate Digital Transformation with MongoDB and IBM LinuxONE | Virtual | LINK

 Tech Corner

By Gregory Sechuga

IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z

IBM has announced a new generative AI-assisted product called watsonx Code Assistant for Z that will help enable faster translation of COBOL to Java on IBM Z and enhance developer productivity on the platform. This product will be generally available in Q4 2023 and is being designed to help accelerate COBOL application modernization. The product will be enabled by a 20 billion parameter large language model (LLM) for code.

 

IBM watsonx Code Assistant product portfolio will extend over time to address other programming languages, improve time to value for the mainframe application modernization projects, and address growing skills challenges for developers. These solutions will be powered by IBM’s watsonx.ai code model, which will support 115 coding languages having learned from 1.5 trillion tokens. At 20 billion parameters, it is on target to become one of the largest generative AI foundation models for code automation [1].

Why should IBM Z clients care?

There are several inter-related reasons why IBM Z clients should consider implementing IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z:

  • Accelerating mainframe application modernization projects – throughout the complete lifecycle – beyond the results possible with traditional tools.
  • Addressing the issues of the retiring mainframe resources and lack of legacy applications knowledge by expanding access to a broader pool of IT skills and shortening developer onboarding.
  • Optimizing costs, complexity, and risks associated with application modernization projects, including performance optimization of the existing IBM Z applications and translation from COBOL to Java.
  • Achieving higher code quality and application maintainability through model customization and implementation of the best practices.

The potential of a disruptive and positive impact of implementing Generative AI tools on the speed and quality of software development is not only IBM's opinion. Recent analyst reports stated that Generative AI code assistants are becoming essential to the developer experience and recommended that software product leaders and leaders in any industry must capitalize on generative AI that can be used to scale and accelerate their software and application development. According to Gartner, Generative AI-based code generation has the potential to revolutionize software development workflow and developer productivity [2].

 

In its most recent annual Global Survey on the current state of AI, McKinsey stated that generative AI tools have seen explosive growth. Less than a year after many of these tools debuted, one-third of survey respondents say their organizations regularly use generative AI in at least one business function [3].

References 

1.  IBM announcement: https://newsroom.ibm.com/2023-08-22-IBM-Unveils-watsonx-Generative-AI-Capabilities-to-Accelerate-Mainframe-Application-Modernization

2.  Gartner analysis: Emerging Tech: Generative AI Code Assistants Are Becoming Essential to Developer Experience

3.   McKinsey survey: The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year

Additional Resources: