Back on February 5, 2012, I published a blog post about the Mainframe Analytics Taxonomy, which divides mainframe software products along two dimensions: behaviors (the "what") and business value (the "why").
In that taxonomy, I briefly listed seven values along the "what" axis (numbered 1 to 7) and six values along the "why" axis (lettered A through F).
As I mentioned in the blog post, a given software product may have more than one value along each axis, though often its current primary focus will be in just one category.
So, I thought it might be of interest to do a quick series of brief blogs just explaining each value.
I'll begin with Data Handling, number 1 on the "what" axis:
Now, this is a very big category, and covers everything from storing and managing data in databases, to processing, combining, sorting, modifying and moving data. It's also one of the things mainframes do best.
Right from the beginning, the mainframe architecture was designed to handle massive amounts of data such as a world-class business might regularly process. One example is: all the records a national government has about its citizens' taxes. Another: all the information about a large financial institution's customers and their accounts.
One aspect of this category, databases, has deep roots that go way back. The theory of how to efficiently store and access large amounts of structured data led to the development of some of today's most important databases, including IBM's DB2 and IMS, CA Technologies' CA Datacom and CA IDMS, Software AG's ADABAS, and some distributed databases such as Oracle and Ingres which are available on Linux.
Another is data sorting, which was such an important utility that it was the first product of two important software companies that are still going strong today: Syncsort and their eponymous product, and CA Sort from Computer Associates, now CA Technologies. That was despite the fact that IBM already offered their own sorting utility for the mainframe, but the business need was such that these optimized alternatives were enough to launch their companies.
There are also many utilities designed to examine and modify and move data in many different ways. Interestingly, this is a good example of being in more than one category, since they often also have value 3: Applications and Automation. A good example of this is applications that take address data and turn it into validated mailing addresses printed on envelopes (or statements visible through windows in envelopes). But I'll get to that in another two blog posts.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Pricing Intangibles
How do you price intellectual goods that can be manufactured and distributed for no significant cost compared to the cost of their creation? Whether you're talking software, configurations, architectures, or written works, if it can be distributed virtually without ever being placed/printed on physical media (such as a book), what is the basis of value and pricing?
Back when I started working for Computer Associates International in the late 1990's, I tried to explain to my brother why mainframe software was so expensive. After all, it generally didn't have any more lines of code than PC software that sold for a few hundred dollars at the most. At the time, I suggested that the price was generally a fraction of the cost savings that it brought.
I still stand by that assertion, but over the years, I discovered just how hard that is to prove. Once a piece of software has become embedded in an environment over many years, there's no simple way of knowing how much cost it's saving, because removing it could bring everything to a halt, which would be a completely different order of magnitude of cost.
Interestingly, pricing written works can involve similar issues. If someone asks me to write up a white paper, article, or recommendation, should I be paid by the word?
I'm reminded of a joke, a quotation and an anecdote.
The joke is about a highly-experienced mechanic who is faced with a car that has stopped working, and no one can figure out why. They ask if he'll fix it, and he agrees to for $1,000. Eventually, his price is accepted, and he goes to work.
To the external observer, the mechanic appears to be dancing around the car in a manner reminiscent of Mr. Bojangles - crouching down low, leaping up high, and almost seeming to be performing a rain dance of sorts as he looks over every nook and cranny of the car. Then, he suddenly takes out a ball peen hammer, strikes the car engine with an exacting blow, and pronounces it fixed.
The owner tries it out and, sure enough: the car now works. Then the mechanic presents his bill for $1,000.
Skeptical, the owner asks for a price breakdown. The mechanic replies, "That's $1 for hitting the car, and $999 for knowing where to hit it."
The quotation, attributed to many people, but probably most famously to Mark Twain is: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
The anecdote is about the production of enameled steel pots and pans during the Soviet era. Apparently, it became harder and harder to find small ones while there was an overabundance of large ones. This was not because having larger ones somehow improved the cooking experience, but rather because the factories that produced them were incented by the amount of material used, rather than any measure of useability or rates of sales.
What all three of these have in common is that the value of things is not always connected to the simplistic, some might say "common sense," measures we apply to commodities. In fact, other than the most tightly-controlled and homogeneous commodities, I suggest size is rarely a good measure of value.
One of my favorite examples of this is the Windows operating system, which I've heard may be the largest software system ever created in terms of sheer number of lines of code. And yet, you can buy a copy for a few hundred dollars, and even get a PC thrown in (or vice versa). Compare that to z/OS, IBM's premier mainframe operating system, which costs a few orders of magnitude more than that. Yet, I doubt IBM would claim there's a commensurately larger number of lines of code; likely, there are fewer.
So, how do you price mainframe software in a way that is fair? I suppose it makes sense to take a lot of factors into account, from the capacity of the mainframe (they vary greatly in capacity), to the cost savings and benefit that a typical customer is likely to derive, to the cost of creating, maintaining, and deriving a reasonable profit from a piece of code that is only installed on a portion of the 10,000 or so mainframes in use in the world today.
That's a very different approach from pricing generic consumer software, of which millions (maybe even billions?) of copies are sold.
Likewise, when pricing the generation and delivery of other intellectual property that has great value to a relatively limited but very economically significant audience, it seems to me that paying per word is like asking for excessively large cookwear, rather than looking for that perfect touché in as few effective words as possible.
Of course, like any good question, this is more of a journey than a destination. But it's one of the important questions in the mainframe world, and one that is of particular interest to me as I look to generate written works of significant value, and don't think it appropriate to charge by the word, since I can often achieve more with a small number of well-chosen-and-aimed words than with a 10-page white paper.
What do you think about the pricing of such intangibles?
Back when I started working for Computer Associates International in the late 1990's, I tried to explain to my brother why mainframe software was so expensive. After all, it generally didn't have any more lines of code than PC software that sold for a few hundred dollars at the most. At the time, I suggested that the price was generally a fraction of the cost savings that it brought.
I still stand by that assertion, but over the years, I discovered just how hard that is to prove. Once a piece of software has become embedded in an environment over many years, there's no simple way of knowing how much cost it's saving, because removing it could bring everything to a halt, which would be a completely different order of magnitude of cost.
Interestingly, pricing written works can involve similar issues. If someone asks me to write up a white paper, article, or recommendation, should I be paid by the word?
I'm reminded of a joke, a quotation and an anecdote.
The joke is about a highly-experienced mechanic who is faced with a car that has stopped working, and no one can figure out why. They ask if he'll fix it, and he agrees to for $1,000. Eventually, his price is accepted, and he goes to work.
To the external observer, the mechanic appears to be dancing around the car in a manner reminiscent of Mr. Bojangles - crouching down low, leaping up high, and almost seeming to be performing a rain dance of sorts as he looks over every nook and cranny of the car. Then, he suddenly takes out a ball peen hammer, strikes the car engine with an exacting blow, and pronounces it fixed.
The owner tries it out and, sure enough: the car now works. Then the mechanic presents his bill for $1,000.
Skeptical, the owner asks for a price breakdown. The mechanic replies, "That's $1 for hitting the car, and $999 for knowing where to hit it."
The quotation, attributed to many people, but probably most famously to Mark Twain is: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
The anecdote is about the production of enameled steel pots and pans during the Soviet era. Apparently, it became harder and harder to find small ones while there was an overabundance of large ones. This was not because having larger ones somehow improved the cooking experience, but rather because the factories that produced them were incented by the amount of material used, rather than any measure of useability or rates of sales.
What all three of these have in common is that the value of things is not always connected to the simplistic, some might say "common sense," measures we apply to commodities. In fact, other than the most tightly-controlled and homogeneous commodities, I suggest size is rarely a good measure of value.
One of my favorite examples of this is the Windows operating system, which I've heard may be the largest software system ever created in terms of sheer number of lines of code. And yet, you can buy a copy for a few hundred dollars, and even get a PC thrown in (or vice versa). Compare that to z/OS, IBM's premier mainframe operating system, which costs a few orders of magnitude more than that. Yet, I doubt IBM would claim there's a commensurately larger number of lines of code; likely, there are fewer.
So, how do you price mainframe software in a way that is fair? I suppose it makes sense to take a lot of factors into account, from the capacity of the mainframe (they vary greatly in capacity), to the cost savings and benefit that a typical customer is likely to derive, to the cost of creating, maintaining, and deriving a reasonable profit from a piece of code that is only installed on a portion of the 10,000 or so mainframes in use in the world today.
That's a very different approach from pricing generic consumer software, of which millions (maybe even billions?) of copies are sold.
Likewise, when pricing the generation and delivery of other intellectual property that has great value to a relatively limited but very economically significant audience, it seems to me that paying per word is like asking for excessively large cookwear, rather than looking for that perfect touché in as few effective words as possible.
Of course, like any good question, this is more of a journey than a destination. But it's one of the important questions in the mainframe world, and one that is of particular interest to me as I look to generate written works of significant value, and don't think it appropriate to charge by the word, since I can often achieve more with a small number of well-chosen-and-aimed words than with a 10-page white paper.
What do you think about the pricing of such intangibles?
Saturday, September 1, 2012
"F*** it, I'm buying a server" - the story of distributed IT
"The mainframe whisperer" - that's what my nephew Alex told me I should be after I described the culture of mainframers and explained why it clashes with the ambient business IT culture of immediate results.
Then his friend Stefan, who is tasked with getting results and has to deal with mainframers, told me of his experience of frustration with rigid behavior, leading to the memorable assertion: "F*** it, I'm buying a server." I told him that phrase was the history of IT since the 1980's.
The problem, of course, is that the rigid behavior that frustrates people so much is the reason why mainframes work so well while every other platform keeps crashing, being hacked, and generally failing the test of trustworthiness.
For me, this is the fractal meeting point of ocean and shore, of new and old, of aspiration and reality. And, somehow, mainframes have become a part of experiential reality, shoring up the world economy, while most of IT has continued to float on the waves of aspiration.
As I begin to spin up Mainframe Analytics, our blog, our website, and our business activities again after the passing of my wife earlier this year, this seems like a good leaping off point for this blog.
What can be done to bring together that which works with those who plan? Well, at SHARE in Anaheim, I had the opportunity to give the MVS Program keynote, in which I talked about this topic. And my answer, as you can see in the presentation posted at https://share.confex.com/share/119/webprogram/Handout/Session11474/2012-08-06%20Harbeck%20MVS%20Keynote.pdf, is to get to know your mainframe environment ("know thyself"), optimize it for current needs ("get a haircut") and enthusiastically tell the world how great it is ("fall in love").
And that's what I'll be doing on this blog and in my role as Chief Strategist for Mainframe Analytics. Stay tuned!
Then his friend Stefan, who is tasked with getting results and has to deal with mainframers, told me of his experience of frustration with rigid behavior, leading to the memorable assertion: "F*** it, I'm buying a server." I told him that phrase was the history of IT since the 1980's.
The problem, of course, is that the rigid behavior that frustrates people so much is the reason why mainframes work so well while every other platform keeps crashing, being hacked, and generally failing the test of trustworthiness.
For me, this is the fractal meeting point of ocean and shore, of new and old, of aspiration and reality. And, somehow, mainframes have become a part of experiential reality, shoring up the world economy, while most of IT has continued to float on the waves of aspiration.
As I begin to spin up Mainframe Analytics, our blog, our website, and our business activities again after the passing of my wife earlier this year, this seems like a good leaping off point for this blog.
What can be done to bring together that which works with those who plan? Well, at SHARE in Anaheim, I had the opportunity to give the MVS Program keynote, in which I talked about this topic. And my answer, as you can see in the presentation posted at https://share.confex.com/share/119/webprogram/Handout/Session11474/2012-08-06%20Harbeck%20MVS%20Keynote.pdf, is to get to know your mainframe environment ("know thyself"), optimize it for current needs ("get a haircut") and enthusiastically tell the world how great it is ("fall in love").
And that's what I'll be doing on this blog and in my role as Chief Strategist for Mainframe Analytics. Stay tuned!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
x30 Years of Great Ideas and Counting
Today is the 48th anniversary of IBM's announcement of the System/360 mainframe on April 7, 1964, if you count in decimal like many mainframe applications and users do. However, if you count in hexadecimal, or base 16, like many computer scientists, including mainframe systems folks, do, then today is the 30th (or "x30"th) anniversary of that announcement. This seems like a good opportunity to reflect on some of the great innovations and ideas that have continued to come from the mainframe, up to and including the most recent SHARE conference in Atlanta.
First, though, let me offer a tip of the hat to Pandoria13 for comments received on the last blog. Also, I'll point out that I've enable monetization of this blog, and would be interested in feedback on this step.
Of course, the System/360 mainframe did not emerge in isolation - rather, it arose as the culmination of many years of advancement and culture, drawn fom earlier mainframes and ideas, and being the "love child" of IBM, SHARE, and the organizations that were taking the journey of defining what an ideal business computer should do and be.
In fact, unlike UNIX, Linux, Windows and MacIntosh, technologies around which a culture formed, the mainframe was the manifestation of an already-existing culture which has continued to be a core part of that platform.
So, some of the original innovations associated with the mainframe in the 1960's and 1970's were also present, at least as concepts, in other earlier and competing platforms at the time. But they generally received their most enduring manifestation in what became today's leading-edge mainframe, including:
And, of course, many, many more.
Which leads us to the latest and greatest insights at SHARE. Though I must confess that some of the best ones I got were from an excellent interview with John Ehrman, a father of modern mainframe assemby language, for the mainframe history book that Dr. Steve Guendert and I are working on. Learning about the sources and outcomes for decisions about how the underlying language of the machine grew and adapted was fascinating.
The keynote about how "Boring Meetings Suck" by Jon Petz followed by a session later in the afternoon where he elaborated was also of interest, and a motivator to be more effective in business, including mainframe IT.
Of course, there were many interesting technology keynotes, sessions and discussions.
Two of the sessions that most grabbed my attention were a Wednesday morning one for new mainframers, where a room full of high school and university students got to learn about the mainframe thanks to the IBM Academic Initiative and some related presentations (including a quick one I was able to give about zNextGen), after which they got to check out the Technology Exchange; and a session about local mainframe user groups - which I hope leads to further discussion.
The evening receptions were great opportunities to network and share and learn information about the latest and greatest on the mainframe.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that many of the sessions make good starting points for future blogs, so I think that's where I'll leave it for today... stay tuned!
First, though, let me offer a tip of the hat to Pandoria13 for comments received on the last blog. Also, I'll point out that I've enable monetization of this blog, and would be interested in feedback on this step.
Of course, the System/360 mainframe did not emerge in isolation - rather, it arose as the culmination of many years of advancement and culture, drawn fom earlier mainframes and ideas, and being the "love child" of IBM, SHARE, and the organizations that were taking the journey of defining what an ideal business computer should do and be.
In fact, unlike UNIX, Linux, Windows and MacIntosh, technologies around which a culture formed, the mainframe was the manifestation of an already-existing culture which has continued to be a core part of that platform.
So, some of the original innovations associated with the mainframe in the 1960's and 1970's were also present, at least as concepts, in other earlier and competing platforms at the time. But they generally received their most enduring manifestation in what became today's leading-edge mainframe, including:
- Virtual memory
- Virtual machines
- Full system integrity and security
And, of course, many, many more.
Which leads us to the latest and greatest insights at SHARE. Though I must confess that some of the best ones I got were from an excellent interview with John Ehrman, a father of modern mainframe assemby language, for the mainframe history book that Dr. Steve Guendert and I are working on. Learning about the sources and outcomes for decisions about how the underlying language of the machine grew and adapted was fascinating.
The keynote about how "Boring Meetings Suck" by Jon Petz followed by a session later in the afternoon where he elaborated was also of interest, and a motivator to be more effective in business, including mainframe IT.
Of course, there were many interesting technology keynotes, sessions and discussions.
Two of the sessions that most grabbed my attention were a Wednesday morning one for new mainframers, where a room full of high school and university students got to learn about the mainframe thanks to the IBM Academic Initiative and some related presentations (including a quick one I was able to give about zNextGen), after which they got to check out the Technology Exchange; and a session about local mainframe user groups - which I hope leads to further discussion.
The evening receptions were great opportunities to network and share and learn information about the latest and greatest on the mainframe.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that many of the sessions make good starting points for future blogs, so I think that's where I'll leave it for today... stay tuned!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Leading Big Iron Edge
SHARE in Atlanta last week was an excellent event. Not only did I catch some great keynotes and many other valuable sessions, not only did I get to be with hundreds of my friends and favourite mainframers including many of the key players in the mainframe ecosystem, but I had the opportunity to see some of the many ways that the mainframe continues to be the most technologically-advanced business computing platform around.
But before I dig into the details, a couple of other notes, beginning with thanks for the comments on last week's blog post from my friend Marcel den Hartog (zMarcel) in the Netherlands and from my colleague Jerry Seefeldt with whom I attended a great session/discussion about local mainframe user groups at SHARE. It's inspiring to see the growing interest in local mainframe user groups, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they connect up and what role SHARE is able to play in it.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that I met with my friends and colleagues from key mainframe publications at SHARE, including MainframeZone and the associated magazines z/Journal and Mainframe Executive, and IBM Systems Magazine (mainframe edition). I'm looking forward to continuing to publish articles and such with all three. And, I'd like to take the opportunity to refer you to the video series "Big Iron: The Mainframe Story (so far...)" which I worked on with the folks at CA Technologies, IBM Systems Magazine and various mainframe luminaries to produce. It's a great way to get more familiar with the mainframe.
Once you've seen those videos, you're ready to find out about just how leading edge today's mainframe is. I certainly was as I roamed the Technology Exchange Expo floor, and I was impressed with what I saw.
As always, IBM had the biggest booth, and in addition to having an actual mainframe running on the floor, they had other techology and plenty of people and stations to tell the world about all the great things happening on the mainframe that are keeping it at the forefront of high-end business computing, including Linux-on-z/VM cloud computing. One of IBM's biggest emphases was on their Smarter Planet initiatives.
Fortunately, the mainframe is much more than just IBM: it's an ecosystem with many technology vendors and the largest organizations on earth as the customers. So, each vendor had one or more (sometimes many more) things to show the world about how they're making the mainframe better all the time.
Many of the products are about enabling the mainframers of today and tomorrow to be more effective, including CA Technologies' role-based CA Mainframe Chorus workspace, and Chicago-Soft's Application Knowledge Capture™ service to retain valuable understanding from imminent retirees.
Of course, forming and educating a new generation of mainframers is a key focus, so Interskill was there, and CA Technologies announced scholarships for their Mainframe Academy.
There were also solutions for bringing greater end-to-end integration and functionality between the mainframe and the rest of the computing world, such as the Mainframe Event Acqusition System™ (MEAS™) which provides integration of real-time mainframe event information with McAfee's Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms.
One company, UNICOM® Global, even had their Founder, President & CEO Corry Hong at their booth, and giving presentations, in order to introduce everyone to all the solutions - both established and new - that they're involved with.
In addition to the content on the exhibit flor, there were also various other news and articles in the SHAREnews Dailies. And there were many discussions, including a focus group about "Big Data."
Of the many interesting sessions one of my favourites was Cheryl Watson's Hot Flashes, which has many of the latest and greatest tidbits about how to make mainframes run even better.
After a week at SHARE, it's clear that the mainframe is constantly staying ahead with world-class functionality and all the most modern technology to respond to the business needs of the largest organizations on earth, today and for the foreseeable future.
And SHARE is the place where it all connects.
Next blog post, I plan to share some interesting thoughts and insights from the various sessions and discussions I enjoyed at SHARE.
But before I dig into the details, a couple of other notes, beginning with thanks for the comments on last week's blog post from my friend Marcel den Hartog (zMarcel) in the Netherlands and from my colleague Jerry Seefeldt with whom I attended a great session/discussion about local mainframe user groups at SHARE. It's inspiring to see the growing interest in local mainframe user groups, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they connect up and what role SHARE is able to play in it.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that I met with my friends and colleagues from key mainframe publications at SHARE, including MainframeZone and the associated magazines z/Journal and Mainframe Executive, and IBM Systems Magazine (mainframe edition). I'm looking forward to continuing to publish articles and such with all three. And, I'd like to take the opportunity to refer you to the video series "Big Iron: The Mainframe Story (so far...)" which I worked on with the folks at CA Technologies, IBM Systems Magazine and various mainframe luminaries to produce. It's a great way to get more familiar with the mainframe.
Once you've seen those videos, you're ready to find out about just how leading edge today's mainframe is. I certainly was as I roamed the Technology Exchange Expo floor, and I was impressed with what I saw.
As always, IBM had the biggest booth, and in addition to having an actual mainframe running on the floor, they had other techology and plenty of people and stations to tell the world about all the great things happening on the mainframe that are keeping it at the forefront of high-end business computing, including Linux-on-z/VM cloud computing. One of IBM's biggest emphases was on their Smarter Planet initiatives.
Fortunately, the mainframe is much more than just IBM: it's an ecosystem with many technology vendors and the largest organizations on earth as the customers. So, each vendor had one or more (sometimes many more) things to show the world about how they're making the mainframe better all the time.
Many of the products are about enabling the mainframers of today and tomorrow to be more effective, including CA Technologies' role-based CA Mainframe Chorus workspace, and Chicago-Soft's Application Knowledge Capture™ service to retain valuable understanding from imminent retirees.
Of course, forming and educating a new generation of mainframers is a key focus, so Interskill was there, and CA Technologies announced scholarships for their Mainframe Academy.
There were also solutions for bringing greater end-to-end integration and functionality between the mainframe and the rest of the computing world, such as the Mainframe Event Acqusition System™ (MEAS™) which provides integration of real-time mainframe event information with McAfee's Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms.
One company, UNICOM® Global, even had their Founder, President & CEO Corry Hong at their booth, and giving presentations, in order to introduce everyone to all the solutions - both established and new - that they're involved with.
In addition to the content on the exhibit flor, there were also various other news and articles in the SHAREnews Dailies. And there were many discussions, including a focus group about "Big Data."
Of the many interesting sessions one of my favourites was Cheryl Watson's Hot Flashes, which has many of the latest and greatest tidbits about how to make mainframes run even better.
After a week at SHARE, it's clear that the mainframe is constantly staying ahead with world-class functionality and all the most modern technology to respond to the business needs of the largest organizations on earth, today and for the foreseeable future.
And SHARE is the place where it all connects.
Next blog post, I plan to share some interesting thoughts and insights from the various sessions and discussions I enjoyed at SHARE.
Monday, March 12, 2012
SHARE
Back in the earliest days of business computing, when all printing and displaying of text was uppercase, it became apparent that the users of this technology would benefit from getting together to share their innovations and lobby for the improvements that would best respond to their business needs. Thus it was that, in 1955, nine years before the announcement of the System/360 mainframe, SHARE was born.
57 years later, the semi-annual SHARE conference has now opened in Atlanta with a great keynote by Jon Petz about how to survive and improve business meetings, to be followed by a week full of technical and how-to sessions.
When SHARE was founded, the name was what they did - not an acronym, but uppercase because computers didn't offer lowercase letters back then. One of the most important things that emerged from their first nine years of lobbying for their business computing requirements was the announcement of IBM's System/360, the epitome of business computing and progenitor of today's mainframe.
In keeping with SHARE's business orientation, the Monday and Tuesday of the conference now also include a parallel ExecuForum for key IT decision makers to meet and discuss issues from a business perspective. Many of these folks started their careers as mainframe technical experts before moving eventually to their current responsibilities.
One of the most important things SHARE has always offered above and beyond its sessions is an opportunity for business computing professionals - particularly those reponsible for large-scale business IT that includes mainframes - to network and do dynamic problem solving among peers. This hearkens back to the origins of SHARE, and it's something you'll see and hear in the hallways between sessions, at the various receptions, on the exhibit floor, in the session rooms before and after the presentations, and at meals and coffee meetings between colleagues who only ever see each other at SHARE - sometimes even if they work for the same organization!
While SHARE was the first computer user group ever founded, it didn't take long for others around the world to follow suit, so sister organizations in Europe and Pacific Rim countries have also existed for most of SHARE's history.
However, SHARE is the pinnacle - or, as I prefer to think of it, the nexus - of mainframe and large enterprise computing user organizations. And it's where you'll meet the key players - both people and organizations - in the ecosystem.
Interestingly, while SHARE is now 57 years old, it's actually getting younger. The number of first-time attendees seems to increase each time. Many of these newbies will associate with the zNextGen project at SHARE, but regardless of whether or not they do that, you'll see them taking every opportunity to chat with and learn from the many highly-experienced attendees who are delighted to be able to mentor them.
Of course, the session content is of significant value all by itself, so many people who can't be at SHARE in person are virtually attending SHARE Live! from Atlanta to benefit from the keynotes and other valuable sessions.
However, the opportunities that come from attending in person are even greater, and they include not only networking and mentoring, but also building lasting friendships that can be there for you at a time of need. I have personally experienced this.
Being at SHARE in person has yet another benefit: the Technology Exchange Expo, where you can meet people from just about any organization that wants to be seen as a credible part of the mainframe ecosystem, and learn about the latest in business information technology.
For those who wish to take their benefits even further, there are many volunteering and speaking opportunities, as SHARE is a volunteer-run organization (with the paid assistance of an organization that handles many of the logistical details, of course). That means that, whether you'd like to develop your speaking, people, or organizational skills, there are ways to do so with SHARE.
SHARE also has its share of traditions, from pins and ribbons on badges, to receptions, to group dinners and networking events, to special sessions that everyone tries to attend. One of my favourites has always been "Cheryl Watson's Hot Flashes" which is at 9:30 am on Friday morning, and contains a summary of everything significant happening in the mainframe ecosystem, much of which she has gleaned from the content of the week leading up to her session.
Why all this detail about a user group and educational conference? Because, until you've understood the mainframe community and culture, you can't possibly understand the platform. The mainframe is much more than merely technology: it's at the beating heart of the key organizations in the world economy, and the beating heart of the mainframe is the people that make it run. And those people can be found at SHARE.
In my next blog post, inspired by all the leading-edge technology being announced and displayed at SHARE, I intend to write about some of the important innovations currently happening on the mainframe.
57 years later, the semi-annual SHARE conference has now opened in Atlanta with a great keynote by Jon Petz about how to survive and improve business meetings, to be followed by a week full of technical and how-to sessions.
When SHARE was founded, the name was what they did - not an acronym, but uppercase because computers didn't offer lowercase letters back then. One of the most important things that emerged from their first nine years of lobbying for their business computing requirements was the announcement of IBM's System/360, the epitome of business computing and progenitor of today's mainframe.
In keeping with SHARE's business orientation, the Monday and Tuesday of the conference now also include a parallel ExecuForum for key IT decision makers to meet and discuss issues from a business perspective. Many of these folks started their careers as mainframe technical experts before moving eventually to their current responsibilities.
One of the most important things SHARE has always offered above and beyond its sessions is an opportunity for business computing professionals - particularly those reponsible for large-scale business IT that includes mainframes - to network and do dynamic problem solving among peers. This hearkens back to the origins of SHARE, and it's something you'll see and hear in the hallways between sessions, at the various receptions, on the exhibit floor, in the session rooms before and after the presentations, and at meals and coffee meetings between colleagues who only ever see each other at SHARE - sometimes even if they work for the same organization!
While SHARE was the first computer user group ever founded, it didn't take long for others around the world to follow suit, so sister organizations in Europe and Pacific Rim countries have also existed for most of SHARE's history.
However, SHARE is the pinnacle - or, as I prefer to think of it, the nexus - of mainframe and large enterprise computing user organizations. And it's where you'll meet the key players - both people and organizations - in the ecosystem.
Interestingly, while SHARE is now 57 years old, it's actually getting younger. The number of first-time attendees seems to increase each time. Many of these newbies will associate with the zNextGen project at SHARE, but regardless of whether or not they do that, you'll see them taking every opportunity to chat with and learn from the many highly-experienced attendees who are delighted to be able to mentor them.
Of course, the session content is of significant value all by itself, so many people who can't be at SHARE in person are virtually attending SHARE Live! from Atlanta to benefit from the keynotes and other valuable sessions.
However, the opportunities that come from attending in person are even greater, and they include not only networking and mentoring, but also building lasting friendships that can be there for you at a time of need. I have personally experienced this.
Being at SHARE in person has yet another benefit: the Technology Exchange Expo, where you can meet people from just about any organization that wants to be seen as a credible part of the mainframe ecosystem, and learn about the latest in business information technology.
For those who wish to take their benefits even further, there are many volunteering and speaking opportunities, as SHARE is a volunteer-run organization (with the paid assistance of an organization that handles many of the logistical details, of course). That means that, whether you'd like to develop your speaking, people, or organizational skills, there are ways to do so with SHARE.
SHARE also has its share of traditions, from pins and ribbons on badges, to receptions, to group dinners and networking events, to special sessions that everyone tries to attend. One of my favourites has always been "Cheryl Watson's Hot Flashes" which is at 9:30 am on Friday morning, and contains a summary of everything significant happening in the mainframe ecosystem, much of which she has gleaned from the content of the week leading up to her session.
Why all this detail about a user group and educational conference? Because, until you've understood the mainframe community and culture, you can't possibly understand the platform. The mainframe is much more than merely technology: it's at the beating heart of the key organizations in the world economy, and the beating heart of the mainframe is the people that make it run. And those people can be found at SHARE.
In my next blog post, inspired by all the leading-edge technology being announced and displayed at SHARE, I intend to write about some of the important innovations currently happening on the mainframe.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Easy Does IT
In my last blog post, I discussed the generations of mainframers, and called the current new generation of the technical experts that will act as the beating heart of this platform "Generation Easy." The problem is, getting this generation fully in place before the previous ones depart is not turning out to be particularly quick or easy. This post is about how to make it so.
First, though, I should mention that I also had some nice and appreciated comments from friends of mine in generations Charlie and Easy - thanks!
In 2005, I wrote a whitepaper and an article, and gave a presentation at SHARE, about the need to get a new generation in place on the mainframe, and what steps were necessary to do so. Since then, I've continued to develop my thinking and experience on this, and am continuing to write more articles on the topic as well.
So, this blog post is a good opportunity to sketch out the basics. To find out more, you can read my articles at MainframeZone.com and the related magazines (z/Journal and Mainframe Executive), or contact me for a consultation or presentation.
The first step is to hire new people while you still have experienced ones around to teach and mentor them, and do a proper transfer of responsibilities.
In-house projects and mentoring, including tracking down and updating obsolete configurations and programs, are important activities to get them going.
However, before that happens, you'll likely need to get your new people introduced to the mainframe, unless you're lucky enough to hire people have have done some initial learning at universities and colleges working with the IBM Academic Initiative. Even in those cases, though, some additional training can be helpful. There are a number of good options for this. Three that I'm familiar with (though this is not an official endorsement) are:
1) Have them join the z/NextGen project of SHARE (free). This will give them the opportunity to start connecting and learning, and also give them access to a select number of mainframe introductory eLearning courses made available for free to z/NextGen members by the folks at Interskill.
2) Go for the whole meal deal and sign them up for the complete selection of eLearning courses from Interskill.
3) Sign them up for CA Technologies' Mainframe Academy.
Of course, there are other options for introductory courses as well - and, ideally, if your organization is big enough to have its own mainframe, you should also have some of your own in-house introductory courses to help people get familiar with your particular context.
I can also strongly recommend self-study to complement this, and IBM's Red Books are excellent resources for this purpose.
Now, once your new people have the basics in place and have begun being mentored, getting to know your environment and doing introductory projects, the next important thing is to get them connected and acculturated into the mainframe culture. If you've already signed them up for z/NextGen, you've made a good start. Getting them involved with such communities is important. The follow-on step is to send them to a mainframe educational conference such as SHARE.
In fact, if you happen to be in the Atlanta area (or have the financial and schedule flexibility to make a last-minute travel booking), I can strongly recommend sending your newbies to attend SHARE in Atlanta next week. Or, you can sign them up to attend virtually with SHARE Live! from Atlanta.
In addition to the above, you'll want to update your local mainframe technology and culture to be more compatible with this new generation, and the one that follows it. I intend to dig into that in future blog posts. And, of course, there's room for plenty of elaboration on the above basics.
Next week, however, I plan to blog more about SHARE.
First, though, I should mention that I also had some nice and appreciated comments from friends of mine in generations Charlie and Easy - thanks!
In 2005, I wrote a whitepaper and an article, and gave a presentation at SHARE, about the need to get a new generation in place on the mainframe, and what steps were necessary to do so. Since then, I've continued to develop my thinking and experience on this, and am continuing to write more articles on the topic as well.
So, this blog post is a good opportunity to sketch out the basics. To find out more, you can read my articles at MainframeZone.com and the related magazines (z/Journal and Mainframe Executive), or contact me for a consultation or presentation.
The first step is to hire new people while you still have experienced ones around to teach and mentor them, and do a proper transfer of responsibilities.
In-house projects and mentoring, including tracking down and updating obsolete configurations and programs, are important activities to get them going.
However, before that happens, you'll likely need to get your new people introduced to the mainframe, unless you're lucky enough to hire people have have done some initial learning at universities and colleges working with the IBM Academic Initiative. Even in those cases, though, some additional training can be helpful. There are a number of good options for this. Three that I'm familiar with (though this is not an official endorsement) are:
1) Have them join the z/NextGen project of SHARE (free). This will give them the opportunity to start connecting and learning, and also give them access to a select number of mainframe introductory eLearning courses made available for free to z/NextGen members by the folks at Interskill.
2) Go for the whole meal deal and sign them up for the complete selection of eLearning courses from Interskill.
3) Sign them up for CA Technologies' Mainframe Academy.
Of course, there are other options for introductory courses as well - and, ideally, if your organization is big enough to have its own mainframe, you should also have some of your own in-house introductory courses to help people get familiar with your particular context.
I can also strongly recommend self-study to complement this, and IBM's Red Books are excellent resources for this purpose.
Now, once your new people have the basics in place and have begun being mentored, getting to know your environment and doing introductory projects, the next important thing is to get them connected and acculturated into the mainframe culture. If you've already signed them up for z/NextGen, you've made a good start. Getting them involved with such communities is important. The follow-on step is to send them to a mainframe educational conference such as SHARE.
In fact, if you happen to be in the Atlanta area (or have the financial and schedule flexibility to make a last-minute travel booking), I can strongly recommend sending your newbies to attend SHARE in Atlanta next week. Or, you can sign them up to attend virtually with SHARE Live! from Atlanta.
In addition to the above, you'll want to update your local mainframe technology and culture to be more compatible with this new generation, and the one that follows it. I intend to dig into that in future blog posts. And, of course, there's room for plenty of elaboration on the above basics.
Next week, however, I plan to blog more about SHARE.
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