Written by Keelia Estrada Moeller, Senior Editor at TechChannel
Mainframe environments are continuously evolving—from the shift toward hybrid cloud, to accelerated application development processes and more. This movement toward optimization has left enterprises poised to better address the mainframe skills gap. And, these innovations are possible because of the brilliant technologists on the platform.
With the movement towards optimization, these enterprises are putting themselves in a better position to deal with the mainframe skills gap. Open Mainframe Project Governing Board Member Meredith Stowell and Open Mainframe Project Marketing Committee Chair Yvette LaMar share more details about how to close the skills gap through mainframe optimization.
“We have seen a significant progression from a skills gap perspective,” says IBM’s Yvette LaMar, director of the IBM zSystems Influencer Ecosystem—a collection of programs, initiatives and online resources that aims to connect employers with people (not just traditional students) who are interested in mainframe. She points to the findings from the 2021 BMC Mainframe Survey, noting that, for enterprises that say they are committed to the platform now and going forward, their priorities “are around faster application development times, DevOps initiatives and increasing security. You no longer see skills on there because they are actively engaging to build a sustainable workforce and we are helping these enterprises with growth and retention initiatives.”
Of course, the skills gap remains a daunting challenge, but in an expanding mainframe world, that challenge is becoming more manageable. Naturally COBOL continues to be taught and learned, but now employers can, for instance, hire programmers to code in Python or bring on developers to work in Visual Studio. The possibilities are growing for those willing to explore them.
“There’s a lot of talent that wants to work on this platform,” Meredith Stowell, vice president of the global IBM zSystems Ecosystem team adds, “but it requires employer engagement to attract and retain that talent.”
In this TechChannel e-book, Yvette LaMar and Meredith Stowell explain how mainframe optimization is helping to close the skills gap. Don’t miss these latest mainframe insights from industry experts.
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