LongEx Mainframe Quarterly - November 2025
Longpela Expertise have released a second edition of our mainframe for beginners book "What On Earth is a Mainframe" (WOEIAM for short). When the book was first released, there wasn't much information for the beginner about mainframes. So, is it any different 17 years later? IBM ResourcesYou would expect IBM to lead the way in introducing its mainframes, operating systems and associated information. And they haven't been idle. From the time WOEIAM was written, IBM have released some great Redbooks introducing mainframe, including IBM System z Strengths and Values (2008), Introduction to the New Mainframe: z/OS Basics (2012), and CICS Transaction Server from Start to Finish (2011). These are great books, but haven't been updated in the past 13 or more years. More recent Redbooks include the IBM Z Connectivity Handbook (2025) and IBM GDPS: An Introduction to Concepts and Capabilities (2024). The ABCs of Systems Programming is a collection of 13 books with great technical detail about z/OS and how to support it. These aren't too old: volume 1 was last updated in 2018, volume 8 in 2012. However, some are showing their age: volume 7 is the oldest (2008), and has been archived by IBM. VSAM Demystified was originally released in 2013, but fortunately was updated in 2022: an excellent VSAM introduction and reference. There is a new technical guide published by IBM Redbooks for every new mainframe with detailed knowledge about the mainframe and its features. The latest is the IBM z17 Technical Guide (2024). You may be surprised, but IBM documentation today has some great information for beginners. The z/OS Basic Skills webpages are brilliant for those starting out with z/OS. Every Db2 has an Introduction manual as part of IBMs documentation, and CICS documentation has a What is CICS TS section. The IBM Z Xplore site is a learning platform with courses about all aspects of mainframes and z/OS, advertising over 700 hours of self-paced IBM Z learning. BooksAside from WOEIAM, there are some other good books around. Tom Taulli's Modern Mainframe Development (2022) is a solid introduction for application programmers, including more modern issues like AI and mainframe modernization. Dinesh Dattani's IBM Mainframe Security: Beyond the Basics (2013) is aimed squarely at the new RACF security administrator. IBM have also released some other great books, though you may need to look hard to find them. Some of these are free, like IMS for Dummies (2020). Others can be purchased, like DB2 Developer's Guide: A Solutions-Oriented Approach to Learning the Foundation and Capabilities of DB2 for z/OS (2012). VideosIt's not all printed stuff. IBM Redbooks have a set of 27 short video courses (released in 2018) that introduce z/OS: each around 5-10 minutes. Another 17 (released in 2017) introduce CICS. The IBM Media Centre also has a set of short videos (2019-2020) introducing IMS. IBM Developer have a host of z/OS related videos. A search of YouTube can find lots of videos, including many from IBM. For example, IBM Developer include a video explaining how IBM MQ stores messages on z/OS. A Bigger RangeThere's no doubt that there is a lot more content for the mainframe beginner than there was when WOEIAM was first released 17 years ago. And that's great news. However, much of this is technical, or covers only a single issue or area. We believe that WOEIAM is still the best single reference for those facing mainframes and z/OS for the first time. |
