management: A New Edition of What On Earth is a Mainframe

In 2008, Longpela Expertise released the book What On Earth is a Mainframe (WOEIAM).

At the time, there were no resources explaining IBM zSeries (now IBM Z) mainframes in simple, easy-to-read English. We often saw people working with mainframes that just didn’t understand it: from managers and sales staff to lawyers and trainers. Even technical staff often didn’t understand the platform and operating system they were working on. Since then, WOEIAM has sold thousands of copies worldwide. We regularly come across people with one on their desk or library. We’ve heard of the book being a prize in competitions, and even autographed a few copies. We’ve been surprised (and pleased) at the success of WOEIAM, and the impact it has had.

You'd expect others to see the need and create content for beginners. And they have. IBM Redbooks have produced Redbooks and videos explaining the mainframe to beginners. Others have also contributed. But the sales of WOEIAM show that it is still the best resource for those wanting to quickly understand mainframes without wading through technical, boring material.

In fact, seventeen years on, people are still buying and benefiting from WOEIAM. Mere months ago, a group of people told how their lives would have been much harder without this book. But how can it still be relevant after so long?

Well, the mainframe basics haven't changed. Still have CPCs, DASD and tape all connected by channels. Still run z/OS, still have things like batch, JES2 and RACF. Still logon to 3270 terminals, still use TSO and ISPF to access (the same format) datasets. IMS, CICS, Db2 and IBM MQ still do the same job in much in the same way. Still have COBOL and PL/I, still use JCL. And many of the issues haven't changed: still need the same people to manage it, still worried about money, still worried about failures and crashes.

But that doesn't mean that the mainframe has stayed still. In fact, there have been some amazing changes in the past 17 years. REST APIs are now huge, Zowe has opened up the mainframe, and Docker Containers let Linux programs run in z/OS. Websphere Liberty is everywhere, cloud storage is now an option, and mainframe modernization is often the topic of choice when talking with clients.

So, this year we've updated What On Earth is a Mainframe. It's still the same, easy reading as the original. Same format, same purpose. Some of the book remains relatively unchanged as it discusses the basics. But we've updated it with new things that have happened and added a mainframe modernization chapter. We've updated names (for example, z/VSE is now VSEn), and added explanations for things like the hybrid cloud and REST APIs available on z/OS. We've also added a mainframe 'map' to help understand everything that makes up, and runs on, a mainframe.

We're very excited to offer the new edition, and hope it continues to help people, as the original book has for the past seventeen years.

David Stephens

LongEx Quarterly is a quarterly eZine produced by Longpela Expertise. It provides Mainframe articles for management and technical experts. It is published every November, February, May and August.

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