As
usual at this time of year, I thought I’d take a look at the previous year,
with the spotlight on what was happening at iTech-Ed Ltd.
The exciting
news in January was that Trevor Eddolls, CEO of iTech-Ed Ltd, was recognized by
IBM as a 2023 IBM Champion. IBM said: “On behalf of IBM, it is my great
pleasure to recognize you as a returning IBM Champion in 2023. Congratulations!
We would like to thank you for your continued leadership and contributions to
the IBM technology community. This recognition is awarded based on your
contributions for the 2022 calendar year.”
On 10 January,
the Virtual CICS user group had a fact-packed
presentation from Todd Havekost, Senior z/OS Performance Consultant at
IntelliMagic. He was discussing, “New Ways to Analyze CICS Transaction and
Statistics Data”.
On 17 January,
the Virtual Db2 user group enjoyed a really
interesting presentation from Craig S Mullins, President & Principal
Consultant at Mullins Consulting Inc. He was discussing “Understanding Your
Rolling 4 Hour Average to Tune Db2 and Lower Mainframe Costs”.
In addition,
Trevor’s article, “Mainframe, Security
and More: A Review of 2022 and a Look at 2023”, was published on the
TechChannel website in January.
Also, January
saw the publication of the always popular Arcati Mainframe Yearbook 2023. You
can download a copy here – it’s FREE. Last year’s edition was
downloaded around 21,000 times during the course of the year, and Trevor is
Editorial Director for this highly-respected annual source of mainframe
information.
On 7 February,
the Virtual IMS user group had a fascinating
presentation from Scott Quillicy, Senior Director for Precisely. He was
discussing, “Lessons Learned – IMS Application Modernization to the Cloud”.
At the
beginning of March, Trevor’s article, “How Successful is Zowe?”, was published on the
Open Mainframe Project website.
On 7 March,
there was an in-depth presentation to the Virtual CICS user group from Larry Strickland,
Chief Product Officer at DataKinetics, who was discussing, “Making the case for
developers to use In-Memory tables”.
Also in March,
Trevor’s article, “All You Need To Know
About Mainframes”,
was published on the Planet Mainframe website.
On 28 March,
the Virtual Db2 user group enjoyed an informative
and entertaining presentation today from BMC Software’s Chad Reiber, Principal
Software Consultant. He was discussing “Db2 z/OS Recovery – How Best Practices
Have Changed to Address New Threats”.
Dusty Rivers,
Senior Director, US Systems Z at Mainline Information Systems, was on top form
on 18 April, when he presented to the Virtual IMS user group. He was discussing,
“Mainframe Systems (IMS, CICS, etc) As Clients in the New World”.
Colin Pearce
gave a great technical nitty-gritty presentation to the Virtual CICS user group on 9 May. He was
discussing “How to define CICS Maintained Data Tables to the Coupling Facility
Resource Manager”.
On 23 May,
Tori Felt, Associate Technical Enablement Specialist in the IBM Z Washington
Systems Center, and Keziah Knopp, Db2 for z/OS Specialist at the IBM Z
Washington Systems Center, were discussing “Db2 for z/OS and REST Services”
with the Virtual Db2 user group.
Also in May,
Trevor’s article, “Looking Out for the
Well-Being of Mainframers”, was published on the TechChannel website. And his article
“Explaining Mainframe
Pricing to the Cloud Guys” was published on the Planet Mainframe website.
Lastly, in May, Trevor
Eddolls was awarded an IBM Z and LinuxONE Community Contributor - 2023 (Level
1) badge, an IBM Z and LinuxONE Community Advocate - 2023 (Level 2) badge, and
an IBM Z and LinuxONE Community Influencer - 2023 (Level 3) badge. It says,
“The IBM Z and LinuxONE Community Influencer badge earner is an active and
passionate member of the IBM Z and LinuxONE Community. They are a thought
leader and viewed as a technical expert by their peers. This individual
contributes to the community regularly.”
On 13 June,
James Martin, Senior Solutions Advisor, Rocket Software was discussing
“Simplifying IMS performance problem identification and determination” with the
Virtual IMS user group.
Also in June,
Trevor’s article, “Defining Data Security
Posture Management”,
was published on the TechChannel website.
In July,
Trevor’s article, “Top API Security Risks in 2023”, was published on the
TechChannel website.
On 11 July,
Ezriel Gross, Principal Solutions Advisor, Rocket Software, was discussing
"Problem Analysis and Performance Tuning for CICS" with the Virtual CICS user group. And on 18 July, Susan
Lawson, Db2 z/OS Specialist, YL&A, was discussing “Db2 12+ and 13 for z/OS
Database Design and Application Performance: Features and Usage” with the Virtual Db2 user group.
On 8 August,
Tracy Dean, Product Manager, IMS Tools and z/VM Tools, IBM, was discussing
“What does IBM Z Cyber Vault mean for an IMS environment” with the Virtual IMS user group.
Also in
August, Trevor’s article, “Mainframe Security in
the Age of AI”,
was published on the TechChannel website. And his article “The problem of orphaned data”, was published on the
Planet Mainframe website.
At the Virtual CICS user group meeting, on 12
September, James Alexander, Software Engineer, Broadcom, discussed “Using CICS
Artifacts to Build Web Service APIs”. On the 26th, Leila Hosseini,
Senior DBA for Db2 on z/OS, discussed “Db2 Level Up” with the Virtual Db2 user group.
Also in
September, Trevor’s article, “An Early Warning
System for Ransom Attacks and Mainframe Breaches”, was published on the
TechChannel website.
In October,
Trevor’s article “Mainframe
security—Early Warning needed to beat back hackers”, was published on the
Planet Mainframe website, and his article, “The Complete
Beginners’ Guide to Hacking a Mainframe”, was published on the TechChannel website.
On 10 October,
Stan Muse, Consulting Services Account Manager, Edge Solutions and Consulting,
was discussing “System z (Mainframe) as the Enterprise Information Server” with
the Virtual IMS user group.
Trevor started
November by speaking to the new AI stream at the GSE
conference
in the UK. His presentation was called “A look at human intelligence and how
the human brain works”, and looked at the hardware (the brain) and ideas in
psychology about what intelligence was, This was intended to give a greater
understanding of what artificial intelligence was trying to emulate.
Also in
November, Trevor’s article, “The Value of
Open-Source Software on the Mainframe”, was published on the TechChannel website.
On 14
November, Andy Wright, IBM Master Inventor, discussed CICS and recovery with
the Virtual CICS user group. Then, on the 21st,
Todd Havekost, Senior z/OS Performance Consultant at IntelliMagic, discussed
“Gaining Insights from Db2 Statistics and Accounting Data” with the Virtual Db2 user group.
At the start
of December, Trevor’s article, “More on Mainframes and
Open-Source Tools”,
was published on the TechChannel website.
In December, Trevor
Eddolls was awarded a GSE-UK23 speaker badge. They said: “As a speaker at
"Where Technology and Talent meet Tomorrow", you showcased profound
expertise and in-depth knowledge. Your engaging presentation style and ability
to foster interactive discussions left a lasting impression on the
participants, making your session a valuable and enriching experience to our
conference.”
The Virtual IMS user group met on 12 December,
when Santosh Dorge, Lead Product Developer, BMC Software, discussed “IMS
Connect Reimagined: Leveraging SQL to Access IMS Data in Today's Digital
Ecosystem”
Looking forward to this year, the
Arcati Mainframe Yearbook 2024 will be published in January. The Virtual IMS,
Virtual CICS, and Virtual Db2 user groups will continue to meet six times a
year. We’re very grateful to the synergy that has developed over the past year
with Planet Mainframe, and the fact that they have handled much of the heavy
lifting recently. And look forward to working more closely with them in the
future.
