Talk about TLA's - start talking regulatory compliance and you'll get TMI PDQ. Of course there's SOX, which refers to Sarbanes-Oxley. Then there's CIA, for Compliance Information Analysis, a feature of CA ACF2 and CA Top Secret in r12 and later.
But the compliance TLA that I've been most focused on recently is PCI, which is shorthand for two TLAs together: PCI DSS, or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
It turns out that the average consumer is quite touchy about their personal information getting into the wrong hands, and the folks who issue payment cards, such as the credit card you likely use every day, have put together a set of regulations to respond to such concerns.
The cool thing is, on the mainframe, we've had solutions that can respond to these needs for a long time, and those solutions are growing and changing to respond even better (for example, the CIA feature I alluded to above).
So, when I had the opportunity to work with the folks at Swiss Colony Data Center, Inc. on a webcast about achieving PCI compliance on the mainframe, I couldn't refuse. It was a lot of fun, and I'm inclined to think that it was pretty informative too. I'd be interested in what you think of it - it's available at http://www.ca.com/us/events/item.aspx?e=199059&eis=1.
Once you've had a chance to view it (or even before if you wish) let me know your thoughts on regulatory compliance, PCI and the mainframe. I think this is a pretty important topic, and I'd value your insights on it.