IBM Z and LinuxONE Ecosystem Podcast

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses need platforms that don’t just keep up—they need ones that drive them forward. IBM Z and LinuxONE rise to this challenge by combining open-source flexibility with enterprise-grade performance, security, and resiliency. By leveraging open technology solutions, these platforms are empowering industries around the world to innovate at scale. One of...

About the Podcast The road from junior professional to Subject Matter Expert (SME) is a long but rewarding journey, paved with learning, mentorship, and strategic career moves. This podcast serves as a guidepost for early-career professionals, tackling key challenges such as finding mentors, gaining visibility, and building expertise. Through engaging discussions and actionable strategies, we aim...

In this episode we talk to George Chudyk lecturer of Computer Science in Bergen Community College, New Jersey. His best advice is, “If you think of something you want to do, if you envision a solution to a problem, just do it! If you get 50 errors, fix the first two, run it again, fix the 2nd, 3rd, run it again and just try it out”!  Listen to a lecturer who disputes textbooks and will tell you wh...

Interskill Learning is the most awarded, widely delivered, and IBM-credentialed mainframe workforce training solution in the industry. It addresses critical mainframe skills gaps and empowers teams with scalable, cost-effective, on-demand access to an extensive, multimodal training resource-all year round. Join us as we explore how to build a strong skills pipeline and sustain the vitality of the...

Dr. David Woolbright Emeritus Professor of Computer Science talks about his passion for teaching programming languages and how he made learning assembler interesting and fun!!  His best advice “Be excited about what you're teaching and, if you're excited, the students will be excited!”. The biggest surprise reveal is that in his retirement he is a writer of mystery novels!   Listen to th...

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is officially in effect, bringing significant changes to how banks and financial institutions manage ICT risks and ensure operational resilience. In this video, industry experts Monica Sasso of Red Hat, PJ Di Giammarino of JWG, and Anne Leslie from IBM discuss some of the critical concepts banks need to know to stay compliant and secure in this new reg...

Virtel Web Suite is a powerful and highly scalable solution designed to extend the life and usability of legacy mainframe business applications—while cutting costs and simplifying infrastructure. According to Sebastian Dewar, CTO of Virtel, “It empowers application developers to create a modern web user interface (UI) experience with a no-code, drag-and-drop tool that requires no prior knowledge o...

“Get ready for the real world! One of the best practices in teaching is to bring in real world examples, think about the context not so much straight theory”.  A must not miss, fascinating talk with Dr. Alex Citurs on the January episode of “The z/Education! Podcast”. 

In this episode, Systemware CEO Frankie Basso shares insights on developing the next generation of mainframe talent. With over four decades of experience in creating content management services for the IBM Z platform, Systemware is dedicated to cultivating a new wave of professionals. Basso emphasizes the critical importance of establishing a skills pipeline and explains how they introduce new rec...

Episode 4:  Our guest for this episode of The z/Education! Podcast is Professor LeRoy Hardy, a lecturer at the University of North Texas, College of Business. As an alumnus of UNT, he’s thrilled to teach IBM Z at his alma mater. One of his best-known practices is incorporating IBM Z Xplore into his teaching. According to Professor Hardy, " IBM Z Xplore is an excellent opportunity for students...

“Customers are demanding faster time-to-market, and faster responses.  They want more flexibility in the way that they can process payments,” says Ray Caradine, ACI Worldwide’s product director. ACI has been helping clients manage payments workloads on the mainframe for decades, so they know where the ecosystem is heading. “We see IBM Z in the context of resilience and availability,” Caradine cont...

Our guest is Dr Cameron Seay a mainframe thought leader and adjunct professor at East Carolina University. He has been in mainframes since he saw the platform in 2005. He is a “mainframer” at heart!  who is passionate about teaching.  He loves the community and says, anybody that learns mainframe has a competitive advantage.  You don't want to miss this episode of z/Education Podcast!

“IBM Z is the only platform we run on,” says Bob Biggs, an engineer with Altera Digital Health. “It’s always up, and it’s always available.”  When one of their clients moved to a Web-based platform, it was vital that Altera’s HealthQuest medical-records solution continue to access data from the secure, reliable mainframe. Altera responded with a faster, more-efficient solution utilizing TCIP/IP an...

“Teaching is not just about delivering content, but it's also about understanding and responding to the student needs!"  Listen to this inspiring conversation with Germanas Samrickis an IBM Z educator from Lithuania as he passionately shares about how education can have profound impact on a person's life and shaping their future and broadening the horizons. What about “Butter Chicke...

The mainframe data landscape isn’t pretty. “It’s a mess,” admits Jesse Sedler, 1touch’s product VP.  “It's sprawled. It's all over the place. You have sensitive data on the mainframe that folks want to unlock and start using. They could be using that data in all sorts of places. A single record could be modified and copied and changed, and a thousand copies could be made.” 1touch is in t...

A conversation with IBM Z educators around the world about their journeys, success stories, best practices and more!

Data volumes are always increasing, and that can cause bottlenecks. “Typically, our customers come to us because they run into a wall,” says Alebra Technologies CTO Bill Yeager. “They have a lot of data that they need to move within a certain window. Pretty soon, you’ve run out of time.” Alebra creates more time for mainframe customers. Bypassing traditional TC/IP, its solution enables rapid data...

Tool-sprawl is a major headache. “When you look at the amount of automation tools out there, it's literally hundreds of different ones,” says Stonebranch CTO Peter Baljet.  “You can't manage each one individually. Service, Orchestration, and Automation Platforms can do the automation themselves, with everything on that one back plane, so you don't have to watch every tool individual...

Get ready to certify in IBM Cloud Financial Services specialty - the quick and easy way. Tune in to our one-hour webinar for a speedy Flash Jam exam preparation session with tips and tricks on the certification exam. Our host, Natalie Brooks Powell from the IBM Center for Cloud Training, will be joined by FS Cloud expert Dave Kliemann. What to expect:  An explanation of the 45-question, 75-minute...

Data-Centric Security: Protecting the Mainframe “Data-centric security follows two principles,” explains Felix Rosbach, Comforte’s product VP. “Protect the data as early as possible, and then deprotect only when it’s absolutely necessary.” Comforte has been safeguarding mainframe data for more than 20 years. As threats grow, so does the challenge of effective cybersecurity. “Companies want to shar...

Summary Get ready to certify as an IBM Cloud Technical Advocate--the quick and easy way. Tune in to our one-hour upcoming webinar for a speedy Flash Jam exam prep with tips and tricks on the certification exam. An explanation of the 66-question, 90-minute certification Approximately 60 flashcard questions that may appear on the exam Watch the replay for more study and exam prep Resources For the o...

“Time is ticking once you receive an instant payment,” says Thorsten Völkel, CEO of PPI AG. “You only have ten seconds for the round trip, sending the instant payment to the receiving bank and getting back a notification, and then sending back a notification to your customer.” Speed is about to become very important in the European Union, where instant payments will become mandatory this year.  Th...

Data belongs on the mainframe, and new modernization tools are making it easier to give the right people access. “Everyone has an analyst who's not a technical user that needs to get to the data,” explains Greg Weinheimer, product manager with Cloud Software Group’s ibi business unit.  “We take care of that piece, and they can just worry about analyzing the data.” Given that 70% of the world’...

Learn more at the Flash Jam exam prep session for certification as an IBM Cloud Professional Architect v6, our most popular certification. This webinar will help prepare you to succeed on the certification exam.  An explanation of the 66-question, 90-minute certification  60 flashcard questions that may appear on the exam An opportunity to take the Professional Architect v6 exam for FREE Learn mor...

“Speaking about financial institutions, up-time is really important,” says Sapiens senior system programmer Giora Bar. “If you want a system that actually never fails, I would take the mainframe.” Over four decades, he’s seen first-hand how IBM Z plays a pivotal role in maintaining operational stability and efficiency. That’s why 92 of the world's top 100 banks rely on mainframes to host thei...