#ibmzday — Public Fediverse posts

While watching the sessions from #IBMZDay (you can still register at https://community.ibm.com/zsystems/events/ibm-z-day-2025/ and watch the recordings) I am reminded of just how nice and generally helpful the Z community are (both inside and outside of #IBM).

The Open Mainframe Project zopen Community ports over 200 well-known CLI tools to IBM z/OS Unix System Services to create a more dynamic (and familiar!) environment to folks using the platform. Enjoy vim,bash, sudo, git...

At #IBMZDay I'm sitting down with Igor, Jerry, and Darren to discuss the project, benefits to the ecosystem, and where the new z/OS runners from #GitLab fit in. I'm excited to be a part of it!

Free registration: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2025

It's a busy time as we prepare for #IBMZDay on Nov 12th, and when someone asked about whether it was appropriate to newcomers, I remember a piece of advice I was given early in my career and served me well:

"even being exposed to the terminology and concepts of a technology you're learning is beneficial for connecting the dots later"

So get some dots at IBM Z Day, even if you're just #mainframe curious! It's free & online, so you can drop in as your schedule permits 😁

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2025

This morning I had a great conversation with Aazam Thakur who will be joining Len Santalucia, Steven Perva, and me at the #IBMZDay virtual event to cut through common misconceptions that organizations have about #OpenSource software on the #mainframe

And of course we have great answers 😉 but you should really come because we all love what we do and it will be an enjoyable panel.

Free registration: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2025

The agenda for #IBMZDay coming up on November 12th is now online! https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2025-agenda 🎉

Lots of what you've come to expect, with client stories, AI, security, and I've been working on a couple panels about #OpenSource software!

"How Open Source is Redefining the IBM z/OS Experience" with updates from The Open Mainframe Project, zopen Community, and GitLab

"Open Source, Open Doors: Innovation on the Mainframe" where our panel is dispelling some myths about open source on the #mainframe

One of the events I'm working on for this fall is our virtual #IBMZDay on November 12th, and the tracks have just been announced!

- AI & Data
- IBM Z
- Security
- App Dev & IT Ops
- IBM Z Skills Acceleration
- Ecosystem in Action

Free registration is already open: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2025 🎆

Plus, I'm working on a few Journeys that take you on a path across tracks for other specializations. Maybe a Developer journey again? Maybe one for LinuxONE? 🤔 🐧 What specialization would you like to see?

Just watched an #IBMZDay session about the #COBOL Upgrade Advisor for z/OS (CUAZ), and it reminded me that the feelings people have about COBOL being old are so weird.

There are new Enterprise COBOL compilers being released on a regular basis, with new features. And new (first released in 2021, and continually improving) tools like CUAZ to help with upgrades!

Oh, and COBOL is still really good at what it does.

A thread in a lot of the #IBMZDay Launch sessions is skills, which is nothing new for the #mainframe space 😉

But something that is new is clients speaking up about how helpful some of the AI-driven tooling has been in helping get newcomers up to speed. From making documentation easier to find and search, to gaining a firm understanding of data & code architecture. Cool.

But we are still working on traditional training and skills too with the Mainframe Skills Depo! https://www.ibm.com/z/resources/mainframe-skills

Happy April 7th! Which is basically a holiday at my house, the IBM System/360 was released 61 years ago 🤩

And tomorrow we look to the future with #IBMZDay Special Edition! 🚀 The event is virtual and free to attend, and should have some exciting #mainframe surprises.

Registration: http://ibm.biz/ibmzday2025-se

Schedule: https://community.ibm.com/zsystems/events/ibm-z-day-2025-se/

The #IBMZDay schedule for April 8th is now up! https://community.ibm.com/zsystems/events/ibm-z-day-2025-se/

I worked on the Developer Journey 🧑‍💻 which takes you through everything from technical sessions related to the latest #mainframe hardware to direct application of both open source and proprietary tooling that can help you develop code more effectively, and even a session around getting that #COBOL 6 compiler upgrade done (it has some really cool features) ✨

The event is virtual and free, reg: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday2025-se

A big topic of the day at #IBMZDay was skills, so I'm happy to conclude my day by watching a session on "Inspire and Empower the Next Generation of IBM Z"

And it's worth mentioning a bunch of the resources out there in the Employer Resource Hub at https://ibm.biz/ztalent & the IBM Z Mainframe Skills Depot https://www.ibm.com/z/resources/mainframe-skills #skills #training #mainframe #IBMZ

All set for my Academic Symposium talk with Matt Germonprez about open source software at #IBMZDay coming up in about 15 minutes!

Join us! Ask questions! https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

Time for the #IBMZDay skills keynote! In particular, the focus is creating a successful cross-generational team ✨

Some tips: everyone's voice matters, continuous learning for everyone, ease burden of your experts through mentorship, respect different ways of engaging & learning, and be intentional about an inclusive culture, don't just assume it will happen.

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

Here we go! "Everything as Code - Sogei's Modernization Journey" at #IBMZDay #Linux

Given my background, I am partial to these kinds of talks. They describe their usage of the OpenStack-compatible IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center, and how it's helped them to build an infrastructure where they define images, services, and everything as code. It looks incredibly similar to the distributed systems I used to work on, but with the inclusion of #IBMZ in their hybrid infra 👍

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

A great comment to come out of "Insights From Experts on AI-Powered Coding Assistants" panel at #IBMZDay has been less around help directly write code (though they do), but the features that allow you to get a holistic view of a COBOL program that is much harder to do manually, especially for a newcomer 🎯

Then they can consider whether they want to do. Keep it? Break it up? Re-write in another language? Other?

More sessions are coming up, including mine at 2:30 ET! https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

To this end Eric has a high-level 6 step process for making sure models make it to the point of effective deployment to actually make sure this whole AI project is worthwhile:

1) Establish the deployment goal
2) Establish the prediction goal
3) Establish the metrics
4) Prepare the model
5) Train the model
6) Deploy the model

His slides are available here: https://www.predictionimpact.com/IBM-Z-Day-2024/

Miss it? Replay will be up shortly: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024 #IBMZDay

Now watching the #IBMZDay session on "IBM Z Data, Analytics and Mastering the Rare Art of AI Model Deployment" with Eric Siegel where I'm pleased to see him step back to explain terms and problem space, before diving into model deployment and implementation. That can often get lost so we fail to fully understand why we're doing certain things as the model goes to implementation.

I was also quite pleased his slides included a mechanical calculator 😁

The #IBMZDay keynote led by IBM Fellow Elpida Tzortazotos is providing an excellent overview of the AI technologies built into the IBM Z platform these days, from hardware to software to the broader infrastructure that may include training done elsewhere.

It's also clear if you look closely that all these efforts have been in the works for a LONG time at IBM, some tools are still branded as Machine Learning 😉 AI/ML work isn't new, it's just popular and mainstream now.

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

Popped over to the #IBMZDay Academic Symposium track to see the "Why Hybrid Cloud?" session, and presenters Torrie Mclaughlin and Hillary Hunter brought up the very important point that working in tech means continuous learning, so yes! Learn about hybrid cloud in school! But also know that the technologies will continue to evolve, and you'll always have to refresh your skills.

How many times have you had a major change of role in tech? I've done it at least 3 times, depending on how you count.

#ChatOps has come a long way since we had notifications in IRC 😅

In "Leveraging an Intelligent Chatbot for IBM Z Operations at Dutch Tax Office" at #IBMZDay they're demonstrating (on desktop and mobile!) how use of #IBMZ ChatOps has helped new employees get up to speed more quickly as they integrate tons of features into their ChatOps environment (application status, restarts, etc), which simplifies basic (and some more complicated!) interaction with the #mainframe

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

Very interesting "DATEV Use Case: Extending Business Critical COBOL Applications with Java" #IBMZDay session now, which is a follow-up on DATEV's progress since their 2023 presentation.

Truth is, I fell in love with #COBOL, but a lot of orgs want to add the flexibility of Java in their pipeline that ultimately feeds into a series of microservices, which I understand. They're still writing and calling trusty COBOL programs, but they're adding interoperability statements.

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

Director Julie Trevisan of BMO brings her electrical engineering degree and 27 years experience on the #mainframe to #IBMZDay on a #keynote with IBM VP Skyla Loomis ✨

Love hearing about her experience (Y2K!), but also modernization efforts that begin with modern IDEs, but now into improvements driven by AI with usage of IBM ADDI to help visualize how an application works. Having that view of how an (often older) application works helps folks at all levels. #IBMZDay

https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

Here we go! Time for IBM Z Day! ✨

Over 250 speakers across 100+ sessions from the comfort of your own cozy desk.

Or my incredibly chaotic desk 😂

Event is free, virtual, and runs until 4PM US Eastern. I'll be mostly following the Developer Journey, with a peek into a few hardware sessions 😉

Register: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024 #IBMZDay

Tuesday, October 1st is our annual IBM Z Day! It's free and virtual, so you already have everything you need to attend 😄 💻

We have various journeys across tracks we put together, along with a trio of badges that attendees can earn by attending a series of sessions the event. Really excited about hardware sessions, real-world AI implementation, and other client stories across key technologies on the mainframe.

Registration: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024 #IBMZDay #s390x #mainframes

Catching up on Terminal Talk, just listened to one with Marcel Mitran from June: https://www.terminaltalk.net/e/simplifying-the-mainframe-with-marcel-mitran/

Great episode about IBM's vision for continued simplification of mainframe tooling, processes, and more.

Marcel will also be at #IBMZDay on Tuesday, October 1st 🎉

He'll be in "Can You Trust Your AI?" with Peter DeMeo of Phoenix Technologies AG and "Computer Engineering - How Mainframes Really Work?" with student ambassador William Zhang of UC San Diego.

Free reg: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

On October 1st I have invited Matt Germonprez of @chaoss to join me at #IBMZDay to chat about open source software!

How important is it in tech today? How does that role present itself when it comes to work on #mainframes?

We'll provide background & a tour of open source tools that folks industry-wide will find familiar, from bash to Python and a whole world of CI/CD tools, both in #Linux and IBM z/OS environments.

The event is online and free!

Registration here: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

In the Developer journey I included some of the hardware-specific sessions, including "Supercharged AI: A Look at the Telum II Processor and Spyre Accelerator" and "Exploiting Cryptographic Accelerator for the IT Services Applications" to give a hands-on view of what the systems are capable of today.

It's really cool stuff #IBMZDay

I'm super excited to share that the #IBMZDay agenda is now live! 🎉

I've been working on this for months.

This year we added the option to favorite sessions ❤️ to create a custom agenda, and we put together a few Journeys that highlight some of the content specific to various communities, I worked on the one for Developers.

Anyway, it's an online event and free to register, you can drop in to sessions as you please!

Registration & agenda link available via: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024

One of the big projects my team has been working on is our #IBMZDay virtual event coming up on October 1st.

The schedule isn't public yet, but I've had a sneak peek so I can help put together a Developer Journey and we've brought in some new track leads this year to make it a fascinating event for all levels of folks interested in #mainframes (and those who work in hybrid cloud environments with mainframes).

Anyway, it's all free, so if this sparks your interest: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2024 ✨

All settled in at the Red Hat office for #IBMZDay and already have some great sessions in the #Sustainability track in the history books!

The event is going on all day, and registration is open: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday-2023 (plus, replays are available!) #IBMZ #LinuxONE