Abstract: Have we really been in the desert of reputed deprecation for forty years? Certainly, since the beginning of the 1980’s, the “legacy mainframe” has had a reputation for imminent extinction, while continuing to be the system of record for the most critical business and personal data on Earth. The time has come to come into our own, as all the RAS qualities of service that have continued to make the IBM Z mainframe great are now becoming explicit mandates – just on time for the mainframe to offer a new set of features that meet and exceed the critical requirements expected of every production-quality platform, from pervasive encryption and prospects for quantum-resistant security to Linux containers and gossamer-thin increments of reliable, available, secure, and super-scalable cloud offerings. And it all began in 1964 with a deliberate design for the ages. Now that we’re rediscovering all these legacies of wisdom and excellence, this session will discuss what these established and emerging virtues mean for the future of production-quality computing.

Speaker Bio: Reg Harbeck, IBM’s Champion for Z mainframes in Canada, has been involved in IT and mainframes for over three decades across the entire spectrum of business computing. He has written, presented, consulted and taught courses on mainframe-related matters world-wide, and is heavily involved in the mainframe ecosystem, and especially with user groups such as CMG and SHARE. He is currently working on the thesis for his Master’s degree in humanities, with a tentative title of “The Humanity of the Mainframe.” Reg is Chief Strategist at Mainframe Analytics ltd.

Speaker Interview

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