Published: May 27 2009, 07:13 AM | 3 Comment(s)
by Reg Harbeck

Hello from CA's Prague Mainframe Center of Excellence! This week, I've had the pleasure of meeting with some members of our new generation of mainframers in person.

As you'll know from my blog of May 5, 2009 (see http://community.ca.com/blogs/execio/archive/2009/05/05/gdg-generations-doing-good.aspx) or our New Mainframers video (see http://www.ca.com/files/videos/mainframe-recruit_205295.asx), CA has been building a new generation of mainframers around the world, including here in Prague.

This is my first visit to Prague, and it has been a great experience to meet the outstanding people here. We even got together for a group picture:

 During my visit, in discussing what it means to be a new generation mainframer, we came up with a new term, or perhaps job title: SysPrague.

Of course, it's pronounced similarly to the more established title, "Sysprog" which is short for "Systems Programmer". But, being here where a new generation of mainframers is spreading their collective wings, I thought: maybe it would be good to come up with a definition for this term.

So here's my suggested definition (you're welcome to offer improvements to it if you wish). A SysPrague is a new generation mainframer that knows all about the Internet and distributed technologies, can program in newer languages such as Java, and is bridging the gap between the distributed world and the mainframe by learning all about the mainframe and making it accessible to a new generation that has never heard of a 3270. SysPragues are people on a journey of discovery, which will lead to them becoming in-depth technical experts on the mainframe, as well as a keepers of its culture and history, and who are already effective today with newer technologies, interfaces and approaches that truly bring out the hidden meaning of "legacy": "it works".

In other words, a SysPrague is the kind of person you get when you take a brilliant new-generation person and immerse them in the ways of the mainframe, and then let them take what they already know about modern interfaces and computing and bring everything together into a whole new paradigm for effective management of the most important business platform on earth.

Of course, it follows that you don't actually have to be based in Prague to fit this definition - indeed, new CA mainframers in the Dallas, Pittsburgh and Chicago areas, for example, could just as easily merit this title.

So, here's to a new generation of SysPragues, moving mainframe management to a new generation as well!

Share this post:  Email

Share

Published: May 20 2009, 07:52 AM | no comments
by Reg Harbeck

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that one of the subjects I often mention - and often give presentations about - is regulatory compliance (for example, see http://community.ca.com/blogs/execio/archive/2009/04/02/pci-and-other-compliance-related-tla-s.aspx).

In a way, it almost seems odd that a mainframer should spend so much time on this topic, when the mainframe is clearly the ideal platform for running in a manner that is compliant with all regulations - so what's the big deal?

Well, there are a few problems:

• Many regulations that have explicit technical requirements were written with PC's in mind, rather than mainframes, so it's necessary to translate their requirements to fit this context.
• Many auditors don't know the mainframe well enough to be able to figure out whether or not it's compliant, except to the extent that the very technical people who are responsible for the mainframe explain it to them.
• Even if the mainframe is being run in a compliant manner, proving it has been a very challenging task in the past.
• To complicate matters further, a new generation of mainframers is arriving, and they have yet to take the same journey of figuring out what is and isn't appropriate on the mainframe that we experienced folks took a few decades ago, so we can expect them to bump into and possibly occasionally knock over a few things on the mainframe while they figure things out. That can lead to accidentally coloring outside of regulatory lines.

So far, when I've talked or written about these issues, I've mentioned the value of cleaning up obsolete IDs and permissions, validating that your mainframe security directory contents support compliance, ensuring a compliant configuration of your OS environment, and encrypting data sent off-site. But that's all stuff that could be thought of as "below the line" - it supports compliance, but it doesn't actively pursue it.

That's why I'm so excited about something we're announcing today: CA Compliance Manager for z/OS.

This brand new mainframe product brings together your security, operations, systems and auditing groups with a single, real-time system that watches the behavior, use and configuration of your mainframe environment and security system (using any of the three external security manager products, or ESMs), and alerts you to any events or changes that could negatively impact your organization's compliance with relevant regulations.

And it does it all on your mainframe, so there's no "weak link" that could interfere with it. In fact, it even tells you if someone restarts your ESM. And all of it is so real-time that it doesn't even use SMF - it watches the system itself.

So, for example, if someone makes a change to an important PDS such as SYS1.PARMLIB, you'll know right away: when, who and what.

The idea here is, once again, to move from the technical to the business perspective. The business is the computer. You want accountability for changes that are made to your environment, measurability of what things have happened, and transparency, so there are no hidden behaviors that could provide unpleasant surprises later.

Best of all, with its web UI, it's so easy to use that less-technical personnel can be effective right away - including those auditors and managers who don't have a mainframe background, not just those that do.

Can you tell I'm excited about this?

But don't take my word for it - check it out for yourself. Your local CA mainframe team will be glad to tell you more - and see our press release (http://www.ca.com/us/press/release.aspx?cid=206928) for more details, too.

Why put up with complaints from your management, auditors, and potentially customers and business partners: now you can prove that you're compliant, and stay that way!

And, once you've checked it out, let me know what you think.

Share this post:  Email

Share

Published: May 05 2009, 08:34 AM | 1 Comment(s)
by Reg Harbeck

It's happening! I know because I've seen the video: http://www.ca.com/files/videos/mainframe-recruit_205295.asx.

A new generation is arriving on the mainframe!

This is some of the best news I've heard since I wrote my original whitepapers (http://ca.com/us/whitepapers/collateral.aspx?CID=64111 and http://www.ca.com/us/whitepapers/collateral.aspx?cid=78289) and article (http://zjournal.com/index.cfm?section=article&aid=248) about the need to get a new generation in place.

Over the past four years, I've seen signs that the mainframe world was starting to wake up and begin to deal with the need to get a new generation in place, starting with such things as the SHARE zNextGen project (see http://www.znextgen.org/), very ably led by 20-something new mainframer Kristine Harper Neely (see her blog at http://www.neonesoft.com/blog/blogs/kharper/default.aspx).

I've also seen CA establish new initiatives, such as hiring new mainframers in North America and around the world, including at our Mainframe Center of Excellence in Prague.

In fact, just today, CA has even issued a press release about the important role that new 20-something mainframers are playing in developing our Mainframe 2.0 initiative and other key things we're announcing this month as part of May Mainframe Madness.

Clearly, we're well on our way in the journey to get a new generation in place and effective on the mainframe, and that's great news!

Of course, that's just the beginning. Now it's time to use all this good news to start waking up the management of mainframe shops around the world to the value of their mainframes and the people that run them.

How about you? Does your management realize the importance of their mainframe environment and people? What will you do to make sure they do? Feel free to start by sharing this blog and the above links. Let's get the word out!

Share this post:  Email

Share

Published: May 01 2009, 07:43 AM | 1 Comment(s)
by Reg Harbeck

It's May first! May Day! And, for the first time ever, CA is beginning our month-long celebration of the mainframe that we're calling "May Mainframe Madness."

Now, if you don't live in the United States, or maybe just aren't a big basketball fan, you may not catch the reference to a popular American tradition called "March Madness." Suffice to say that it's a celebration of excellence that leads to the emergence of a single, best team at the end of a month of amazing efforts and results.

Which has inspired CA's mainframe team to likewise spend a month celebrating excellence on the mainframe with great educational and informative webcasts, new product and product enhancement announcements, a world "Mainframe Infinity Tour," and, most importantly, the official release of our Mainframe 2.0 strategy including the first cut of our Mainframe Software Manager, which will enable mainframe people, both new and experienced, to far more effectively and easily manage their CA mainframe software.

Of course, there is more to this than just a few announcements and webcasts. After all, the mainframe is the computer that keeps the most important organizations on earth running, and it's important to keep this platform alive, well, and moving forward.

That means adapting it to the emerging needs and opportunities of today's businesses that use the mainframe, beginning with the need for business-enabling simplification and cost-effectiveness. So we're standardizing the SMP/E installation of our mainframe products in a manner that not only makes it easier for both new and experienced people to maintain all their CA software, but also enables us to create and automated graphical user interface which can handle those tasks for you.

We're also taking advantage of IBM's Health Checker for z/OS, having written over 100 health checks already, with many more to come.

Then there are our other initiatives, such as Releasing Latent Value - a set of initiatives that span from our Mainframe Value Program and the Mainframe Solution Center to our Releasing Latent Value Articles and CA Know-How Knowledge Center, and now even a book titled "Releasing Latent Value." (If you'd like a complimentary copy, ask your CA rep or send me a note through this blog.)

And, if all the webcasts, announcements, new products and innovations, and Releasing Latent Value initiatives weren't enough, we're also doing something we call Out Tasking, an initiative to allow customers to get new business value without increasing their staff workload.

As you can tell, I'm pretty excited about what we're doing on the mainframe, and how we're letting the world know about it this month of May. And the even better news is, next year, and the year after, we're planning to do it again.

In other words, to complement the tradition of excellence inherent in the mainframe and the CA software that manages it, we're establishing a new annual tradition, this month of amazing announcements, efforts and celebration of the mainframe: May Mainframe Madness.

Enjoy!

Share this post:  Email

Share