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December 2007 - Posts
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Re: Generation
For the past few years, and over the next decade, we're hearing about the retirement of the Baby Boomers, and in the world of mainframes, the even more imminent retirement of the majority of the mainframe technical workforce.
In both cases, right now it feels pretty theoretical - the impact has not yet begun to be seriously felt. In fact, in the case of the Baby Boomers, it may be another decade at least before things get really challenging.
However, in the world of mainframes, we are already starting to see the beginning signs of this wave. It would be even more obvious except for the fact that mainframes are getting more and more manageable while those remaining people, who haven't retired or departed for other reasons, are becoming increasingly expert and able.
If this were only about a problem, however, I could stop here. Fortunately, this blog entry is actually about good news: there's a new generation beginning to emerge to "take the reins" from the current generation of mainframers as they move to retirement, management and other pursuits that are non-mainframe and/or non-technical.
How do I know this? Because I've had the pleasure of being involved in some of the initiatives that support the development of this new cohort. And, I'd like to tell you about a few of them.
The first one is called "zNextGen" and it's a project in the SHARE mainframe user community. Now, if you're a mainframer, you're probably familiar with SHARE - it's a mainframe user-focused organization that holds conferences twice a year, and the educational sessions are offered by various programs, which are divided into projects.
Well, back in February of 2005 when SHARE met in Anaheim, California, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation on behalf of CA about the importance of what we called "Mainframe Continuity Planning." Within a year of that, a new SHARE project had sprung up whose goal was to support and nurture the development of a new generation of mainframers, and it was named "zNextGen". Today, it is a growing and going concern, led by a young mainframer named Kristine Harper who has her own blog, in which she writes about the experience of being a mainframe newbie (see http://www.neonesoft.com/blog/blogs/kharper/default.aspx).
CA is supporting the development of this new generation of mainframers in a number of ways, beginning in our own back yard. After all, some of our best mainframe technologists are also getting pretty experienced, so we've been investing in the building of a new generation of mainframe development and support personnel, including some university training for them and a new mainframe "Center of Excellence" in Prague.
Of course, every other mainframe-using organization will also need a new generation, so CA's Academic Initiative has been busy building our relationships with and support of universities and colleges that offer mainframe education, so they can also teach their students about CA's mainframe software.
Still, at the end of the day, what counts is getting this new generation on-the-job and productive as quickly as possible, and that's where CA brings a spectacular and proven advantage, with software, education and services to enable new mainframers to quickly and easily learn and undertake their responsibilities.
For example, one of the challenges for a new mainframer (especially one that grew up with point-and-click and GUIs) to get used to is the 3270 way of thinking. Why are PF7 and PF8 often up and down? Why is scrolling done using program function keys instead of in a local window? And why is it necessary to hit the "Reset" key?
That's why CA is offering graphical interfaces to our mainframe, and enterprise-wide, management products, from workload automation to network management to our Vantage GMI which gives a common interface to many of our mainframe solutions as well as our distributed Storage Resource Management
Another important way we're helping a new generation is with our installation and maintenance, which we're constantly working to make easier. One example of this is our CAMPUS support offering, which brings all the CA mainframe products you select on a single tape, at current maintenance levels for which they've been tested to run concurrently on a live system. As a result, a single, simple RECEIVE-APPLY-ACCEPT cycle is all that's needed to get your CA mainframe software current - and we even offer a menu interface to make it simpler.
In any case, what it all comes down to is that a new generation is dawning on the mainframe, and we're welcoming it with open arms.
So, the question is: what is your organization doing? Is the average mainframer at your shop closer to 55 or 25 years old? If you're like most organizations, the answer is probably 55, in which case it's time to start planning for the future, so you don't lose all your expertise when your best people begin retiring - which they probably have already begun to do.
And, by the way, what does your management think of this? Because if they believe they can just move off the mainframe and onto another platform in a matter of weeks or months once the last mainframer retires, they're in for a big surprise. As one of CA's customers told us about their key CA IDMS mainframe database, "We started sunsetting this system so long ago, the sun's rising again!" In other words, the logical conclusion of most organizations' efforts to move off the mainframe is to rediscover the value for which they moved onto it in the first place!
What do you think? I've already had one interesting comment on this topic on a previous blog entry. Join in: what are you and your organization doing to make sure your central computing environment doesn't accidentally "go unsupported" in a couple of years? What should you (and/or other organizations) be doing?
And what more would you like CA to be doing to support you?
I look forward to your comments!
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