Introduction
The common perception of the IBM Mainframe as a technology of the 70's and 80's continues to baffle me. The word "mainframe", as rooted in the past, used to mean:
Large rooms, full of closet sized expensive hardware Enormous cooling towers to maintain subzero temperatures in the datacenter Specialized skills that are not relevant today Dumb terminals with green characters Only COBOL applications which cannot be understood because no one knows COBOL anymore
In this 3-part blog series, I aim to dispel some of the misconceptions about the mainframe and get the Gen Z generation excited about good-paying jobs with game changing technologies on IBM Z.
I started my career, fresh out of college, as a Systems Programmer for the IBM 3090 in the mid 90’s. It was a heady feeling to be able to write code in Assembler. The power of being the closest to the hardware, the subsystems, wading into cross-memory functions, was all too exciting. One of my earliest project on the mainframe was for a Freight Operations Information Systems — an online transaction processing system (OLTP). A failed program in this application meant delivery trucks lining up causing a big logistical nightmare.
The latest edition of the mainframe, called the IBM Z16 , has ground breaking "AI acceleration" technology built-in. It not only supports all the workloads of yesteryears, but also modern workloads that work in and alongside popular cloud and open technologies of today. It not only runs the traditional z/OS workloads, but also supports Linux workloads. The IBM LinuxONE , an enterprise server optimized for Linux applications, offers unmatched server-farm consolidation with an ever decreasing footprint in terms of square-footage, carbon emissions, etc; a perfect server for the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) sensitive corporations.
IBM Z16 — the newest flagship machine
Do you interact with IBM Z?
Who carries wads of cash any more? All we need today is plastic - ATM or Credit Card. Some of us have even given up that as well in favor of cash apps like Venmo / PayPal, etc. What fuels these tools of financial transactions work is the ability to "process" millions of these transactions every day with sub-second latency. Ever wonder what is behind all this? An IBM Mainframe, of course. Most major banks and card-processing companies have an IBM Z at the core of their financial infrastructure.
If you have ever made an insurance claim for your medical bills, automobile
Yes, if you have an insurance policy — health, auto, home, etc
Why is the mainframe still around?
The IBM Z, as the mainframe is called today, continues to revel with it’s RAS (Reliability, Availability, Sacalability) capabilities:
99.99999% availability jaw dropping scalability up to thousands of transactions per second
Almost five decades later, IBM Z is a transformed environment, common perception not withstanding, it is being used for advanced programming using cloud native technologies, making available the best technology has to offer. Let’s list out some fun facts:
Up to 30 billion transactions flow through IBM Z everyday, including 400 million retail transactions. IBM Z is used by 67% of Fortune 100 enterprises IBM Z handles 87% of global credit card transactions with about 29 billion ATM transactions 90% of airline transactions are handled by IBM Z IBM Z is used by 7 of top 10 global retailers, 85 of top 100 worldwide banks and 8 out of 10 of world’s top insurers An IBM Z15 machine, for example, can handle 19 billion transactions per day
What keeps IBM Z around, even after 5 decades, is that it can run a combination of workloads - legacy and modern, with the same alacrity and responsiveness, that is expected out of IBM Z. To list a few, IBM Z supports:
Flagship operating systems like z/OS, virtualization platforms like z/VM, KVM with all the flavors of Linux like SuSE, RHEL, CoreOS, Ubuntu, etc Supported programming languages like COBOL, C++, Python, Java, Node.js, Application support environments like CICS, Redhat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) Databases like Db2, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc
While the IBM Z legacy started primarily as a strong hold of large corporations, it is possible today to provision a virtual server instance (VSI) of a Linux server on IBM Z, in a virtual private cloud (VPC) environment in IBM Cloud . This makes IBM Z accessible to small and big corporations alike. IBM LinuxONE. The best of IBM Z security features are available in cloud consumption model, i.e. pay-as-you-go, with Hyper Protect Crypto Services (HPCS)
Can applications built for x86 run on IBM Z?
IBM Z is built on the proprietary s390x chipset. Having said that, application code written for the x86 platform (aka Intel / AMD) can be compiled for the s390x platform, thus making lift-and-shift operations fairly easy. Modern compilers, like GOX for GO, can do a cross-compile for any hardware platform, including IBM Z s390x.
What is anything without AI?
It should not come as a surprise that IBM Z can leverage the latest in AI technologies as well. Listing everything that IBM Z Telum processor can do is beyond the scope of this blog, but suffice it to say that the AI-enabled transition from legacy COBOL applications to modern programming languages like Java, has gotten a big shot in the arm with IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z (WCA).
Can you use modern IDE’s with IBM Z?
Absolutely! Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code has downloadable extensions which will enable today’s developers code seamlessly for the IBM Z platform, like they would for any other platform. Imagine a VSCode extension like “IBM Z Open Edito r” that can edit files on a remote IBM Z machine:
Using VScode with IBM Z Open Editor to edit a COBOL program on IBM Z
What about starting a career in Enterprise Computing with IBM Z?
The five important things to consider for a career in enterprise computing technology are:
Superior compensation — average reported salary for enterprise computing is $70100 Work-life balance Working on cutting edge of technology — like Hybrid Cloud, Analytics, Blockchain, InsurTech, AI, IoTs Job security/role versatility — 90% of professionals in enterprise computing careers say the job market for their skill set is growing
Conclusion
This blog was meant to get Gen Z’ers excited about the IBM Z platform and think about career options in Enterprise Computing which will be rewarding in many ways. For ways to stay connected,
And most importantly, to find out more about “How can modern applications interact with IBM Z”, look out for IBM Z for Gen Z — part 2
