In this episode of the “I Am a Mainframer” podcast, Steven Dickens is joined by Eddy Ciliendo, VP of Worldwide Strategy & Technology at Model9. Their conversation explores how the movie “WarGames” sparked Eddy’s early passion for computers, the early opportunities he was given in the mainframe space, and his genuine love of the work he does. Eddy also has a very positive outlook for the future of the mainframe platform. This is an insightful conversation you won’t want to miss!
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TRANSCRIPT
Voiceover
This is the “I Am A Mainframer” podcast, brought to you by the Linux Foundations Open Mainframe Project. Episodes explore the careers of mainframe professionals and offer insights into the industry and technology. Now your host, senior analyst and vice president of sales and business development at Futurum Research, Steven Dickens.
Steven Dickens:
Hello and welcome. My name’s Steven Dickens, and I’m looking forward to today’s conversation because I’ve got a dear friend and former colleague on the show, Eddy Ciliendo from Model9. Hey Eddy, welcome to the show.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Hey Steven, good to be here.
Steven Dickens:
So, our listeners may not know we worked together pretty hand in glove for three years when we were both at IBM so, I think I’ve probably known you, probably a little bit longer than may… I was thinking this morning, maybe five years or so? As I say, I know you, but just to get our listeners and viewers orientated, just give a brief introduction and tell people a little bit about what you do today for Model9.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah, sure. So, I’m the Global Vice President for our Strategy and Technology. So I do everything in Model9 from defining, and which markets we should go in, who we should partner with, kind of our strategic alliances, but then also, where do we want to go long term with our product, with our technology, evolution so, all that kind of stuff.
Steven Dickens:
You didn’t mention you’re the public facing face of Model9, and carrying on your tradition of being the best looking man in the mainframe space.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Well, you said that, but yeah, it’s funny, right? Because I always consider myself to be more of a shy guy, but I’m very passionate about the mainframe platform. I’m very passionate about what we do so, that’s why I like to speak up, it’s why I like to be talking to young people, be talking to analysts and just bring the message out there.
Steven Dickens:
Well, there’s a backstory that we may or may not share at some point, if you bump into us in a bar about that inside joke, but I’ll let Eddy off that one for the purposes of this podcast.
Eddy Ciliendo:
I appreciate that, Steve.
Steven Dickens:
So, tell some of the listeners about Model9. What do you guys do? Conscious you’re a relatively new name in the mainframe space. So, let’s go there first and then we’ll come back to you and your history through the platform.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah. Which is funny, if you say we’re relatively new in the mainframe space, right? Because I mean that is, and we probably will get into it later on during this conversation here. I think everything that isn’t two decades old is relatively new in the mainframe space, but you’re right, we’re a startup company, we’re founded six years ago in 2016. And, I mean I could give you the marketing answer, but let me rather give you a technical answer because I think we’re going to have more of a technical audience here. I think our unique value proposition is that we connect mainframes, IBM mainframes running z/OS was the whole cloud/object storage world right? And I think a lot of mainframers don’t know a whole lot about object storage.
So it’s more probably the cloud people that know about object storage. But object storage… And honestly, I was the same until Gil Peleg our founder and CEO approached me, I didn’t really have a understanding of object storage. But object storage, I mean, that’s currently the big thing out there. It’s very quickly evolving into the standard storage architecture for all cloud/containerized applications. So it really is a big thing. There’s a ton of innovation going on in the object storage space and until Model9 introduced a concept to the IBM mainframe world, the mainframe really was disconnected from all that cool stuff from all of that innovation.
So that’s a claim to fame for Model9 and by using object storage, we then enable a couple of really cool use cases like using object storage for long term retention for backup restore, for third copies and cyber resiliency, using it for, as a platform for AI and Machine Learning. So there’s a lot of cool use cases, but the underlying technology really is just, bringing object storage and attach it to a z/OS system.
Steven Dickens:
So it’s changing the paradigm. I mean, we’ve all heard of DASD, Direct Attached Storage Device, the sort of classic paradigm for probably since that mainframe was launched, that’s over your left shoulder there in your office, back in the sixties has been to attach the storage directly to the box itself. And that’s evolved over the years, obviously EMC, Hitachi and IBM have evolved what that means but, fundamentally the model’s been, direct attached storage to the box. You guys come along and change that paradigm. Is that a sort of simple way of thinking about it?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it’s kind of funny if you say that, right? And we’re probably going to talk about this in a couple of minutes. But when I joined the mainframe team at IBM over two decades ago, I had a book on my table, we still had desks and I wanted to look smart, so I had a couple of really big books on my table. And one of them was about TCP/IP. And I remember one of the old mainframe guys coming to me and saying, oh look boy, you don’t have to learn anything about TCP/IP because you know what? SNA is this thing nobody ever would want to have a protocol that is not controlled by the mainframe. And same thing right now, over two decades later. The storage paradigm in the mainframe world is still all direct attached, right?
FICON attached tape, FICON attached virtual tape, FICON attached DASD, and I think there’s still some, a bit of a reluctance in people to say, hey, now I can actually attach storage via TCP/IP right? I mean, the network has gotten so darn fast, the OSA cards in the mainframes are now so capable. And again, all the development that happened in object storage and cloud object storage now is so evolved that you really get great performance levels out of it so, yes, it is a paradigm shift and it just reminds me about the paradigm shift between SNA and then later TCP/IP.
Steven Dickens:
Well, that gives me a perfect segue, you’re the perfect host Eddy, the perfect guest as always. Let’s go all the way back. The show’s called I’m A Mainframer, let’s get a little bit of your journey on the platform you mentioned there. I think, where you’ve ended up, from the roles that we’ve worked together in and where you’ve started, that’s a great career trajectory so. Maybe let’s just wind all the way back. You’ve finished college, in Europe, where does that take you from there on it?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah. And it actually, I think my passion for the mainframe started way before college. It started with movies like WarGames, if you remember that one.
Steven Dickens:
I do, I do. I love that.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Exactly. For me, it’s funny for me, in that movie, so for all the younger kids, listening to this show here, you probably have to look that movie up, but, for me, it was less about a story for me, it was really about the computer. I was just fascinated by this, this big computer
Steven Dickens:
WOPR was it? That was it, WOPR, wasn’t it?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Exactly. I was just fascinated by that. And then later on, I got introduced, I think it wasn’t actually… It wasn’t a z/OS mainframe, I think was an AS400 system at the time, but still, I was introduced to that system because my mother worked in a company, had one of those boxes and the IT guys, they just loved having me around. And I was just intrigued by a system where you would have to interact with the system via a very strange command line interface. And there wasn’t anything graphical, you couldn’t use a mouse or anything and I was just fascinated by that.
And then later on after finishing college, and I thought, okay, so where should I go? And I sent my resume to Microsoft and sent my resume to IBM and really decided to go for IBM because they had this obscure system that nobody really knew anything about, and it was really this fascination that got me started in the mainframe world.
Steven Dickens:
So tell us a little bit about that first job. You come out of college, you’ve sent your resume around. What was that first career step on the platform?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah, I kind of lucked out, right. Because, I think it… And you may remember this right? I think back in the late 90s, early 2000s, I had this first wave of trying to rejuvenate the mainframe right? They brought Java to the platform, WebSphere to the platform, all the new stuff, Unix System Services right? So the Unix compatibility, which is a big thing. I mean, Linux was still very much in its infancy back in the late 90s.
But that was kind of the time where I came in and I really lucked out, because I was able to get on board as a performance specialist. I was able to replace a gentleman who was on the platform since its original days back in the early 60s and takeover from him, being introduced and learning, and that’s what I still love about this platform. I was able to learn so much and that’s how I got started. I started as a system engineer, a performance specialist. I did all the good RMF and SMF stuff and that’s how it got started in the platform.
Steven Dickens:
So maybe wind us forward. So you’re coming on, you’re sort of hands on with the platform in a performance role, what’s next? What was some of those steps that get you maybe, join the dots from there, to when we started working together and you’d kind of more moved into a sort of business and management type space.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah. So again, I was a system engineer expert for many, many years then evolved into more of a systems architect, designing larger systems. Had some sort of a CTO functionality, I can recall it at that time called it CTA, but it really was a CTO functionality for large accounts, and I covered the financial services sectors, covered a large account in the financial services sector. And then I got asked by a former client of mine, whether I would like to take… Their head of mainframe retired. Again, I think I wasn’t really good at what I did. I think it was just at the right place at the right time right? So again, another retirement. That customer calls me up and asks me whether I would want to become the Head of Mainframe, take over the mainframe department.
And after, as an IBMer, talking for years about how customers should implement their systems, best practices and all those nice PowerPoint charts, I just really was intrigued about the chance of, okay, now I can prove it. Now we can really do all this stuff that we were talking about and took that position and that was very, very eye opening, just to see how such a large environment works in practice, all responsibility that is on you as a Head of Mainframe, as a mainframe in general, because, if those systems go down, it’s not like you just reboot the server underneath your desk. A company really is in bad trouble.
So, I started to understand that better. And then also worked with a lot of young kids during that time. One of the things that I did at that Swiss Re, which was the company that hired me as a Head of Mainframe was, onboard young talent, get kids from college, sort of apprenticeship into the mainframe department, which was also very, very eye opening just to see how those young kids adapt to that decades old technology. So that’s what I did for a couple of years and then I get a phone call after I think, four years at Swiss Re, I get a phone call from an old friend at IBM, and that they said that they were looking for somebody to lead the mainframe business in Asia Pacific.
And I always had a love for Asia. My wife and I, we always wanted to go to Singapore and sure enough, the job was in Singapore. Took the opportunity, relocated the whole family to Singapore, lived there for a couple years, made a lot of great friends in Asia, was really again, mind opening, just the speed, the business culture in Asia Pacific.
And after that, I was asked by a dear friend of both of us, Jose Castano, whether I would like to join the worldwide team, the worldwide IBM Z hardware sales team. And that’s where the two of us really worked closely together right?
Steven Dickens:
Well, I think that’s fascinating and I’ve had the pleasure of hosting the show now for a number of years, and it’s really interesting. You’ve been in one technology space, your entire career, but you’ve been able to travel the world. You started in Switzerland, you spent time in Singapore, you end up ultimately working for a startup in Raleigh. But that one constant has been that mainframe. You’ve done technical roles, you have done client roles where you’ve actually ran the platform for a big organization, you’ve done leadership roles. Is that something… Has that mainframe been that constant throughout? It sounds like it has, but I suppose, the point I’m trying to illustrate is, you can build a diverse career across multiple countries on this platform and that’s my shared experience.
Eddy Ciliendo:
No, absolutely. And I listened to your show previously, and I think some of the other people that you had on the show, had exactly the same experience, right? So yeah, the technology was really that constant, and it’s also nice because, in a lot of technology areas, you have to completely forget, every couple of years, you have to completely forget what you’ve learned before, right. I mean, take the Linux Foundation and the Linux Kernel, just as one example, right? I mean, Linux reinvents itself every couple of years. That there’s a brand new Kernel and everything is different. And the nice thing from a technology point of view, the ISPF that I worked on, the mainframe interface that I’ve worked on 20 years ago still looks very, very familiar to this day, yet, as you stated correctly, I’ve done everything from very hands-on system engineering, working on the customer’s data center to being a manager, being in sales, being an architect, and now working at a startup.
Steven Dickens:
And it’s really interesting, we’ve got a lot of young listeners to the show and I think that’s the key part and why I was so keen to get you on the show. You’ve got such a diverse career across three big continents on this platform. What’s been some of the learnings, what’s been some of the key takeaways? You are very humble and say that it’s always good to work for somebody who’s close to retirement age, but I don’t think it’s just pure luck Eddy. What are some of those key takeaways that you’ve seen?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Well, I think in general, the mainframe world is ideal for that. Just listen to other people, be open to learn. I remember, I joined during the dotcom bubble and I think in general, we in IT have the problem that we always think the new stuff is the best thing there has been since sliced bread. And there’s a lot of people that go out there, and was the same, back in the 90s, I thought I’m the smartest kid on the block and whatever we do is new and great. And, as I started in mainframe world, it was really humbling experience. I was working with people who were doing IT in some shape or form for 40 years. Even though it looked different 40 years ago, again, you had real punch cards to do your batch processing and stuff like that.
I mean, the architectural principles, a lot of the IT principles that our modern cloud world is based upon, go back 40, 50, 60 years. So, just be open, have an open mind and be open to listen, because I think that is a unique thing in the mainframe world. We have so many people with such great experience. When I was working at IBM in my last job where the two of us met, we had the pleasure of working with so many great people out of [inaudible 00:17:44] and have been with the platform for decades, and there’s just so much of a learning experience. My suggestion to people joining the mainframe world, younger kids is really, have this open mind and be open to listen and to learn because there’s so much to learn in this space.
Steven Dickens:
And I think that’s been consistent as I’ve been the host of the show and had the pleasure of interviewing so many sort of luminaries in the mainframe space. Everybody is really keen to bring new talent onto the platform. That’s pathways to do that through skills, through learning. But I think it also comes down to people like you and people like me who are… And just people like us across the whole community. Who are just really keen to act as mentors, act as mounting guides, as people look to build a career in this platform. It’s been my key takeaway that the community as a whole is invested in bringing new talent through, is that what you see?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah, absolutely. And I remembered, during the early days of my career, I also worked in other platforms. The Linux space, Unix space and Wintel space. Oftentimes I got the… Perhaps it was just my gut feel to it, but I got the impression that the people that were closer in age wise, I was in my early twenties, people that were in their early thirties, would be more reluctant to share their knowledge and just be open [inaudible 00:19:23] and say look, this is how you do it. Whereas in the mainframe world, everybody from day one was just, okay, I got to tell you everything, I got to tell you every little secret, every little tweak, every little hint, which makes it just so much easier for somebody to start and grow.
Steven Dickens:
Well, I mean I think there’s a reason why the big user conference in the US is called SHARE.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah.
Steven Dickens:
Because people genuinely want to share their knowledge, expertise and share the cheat codes. And I don’t get that same impression that, that’s how other communities… It’s kind of a bit more competitive in its space. So it’s interesting. I mean, that kind of leads me onto one question. One of the questions always ask I guess on the show is, you get the opportunity to go back. We’ve invented a time machine and we give you the opportunity to go back and talk to 22 year old Eddy who’s just starting out on his career, looks even more good looking than middle-aged Eddy does today, but what advice would you give? What’s your experience and how would you condense that and impart that to your younger self?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah. So I think there’s two things. So first, there’s going to be the dad advice. Which is probably broader than technology and that the dad advice is just read more. And it sounds stupid, but there’s really just, out of books, out of reading, out of experience of other people, you can just get so much knowledge and wisdom around anything. Whether it’s how to lead your life, how to be better at sports, everything. So just read more, everything has already been written down by somebody smart than you, so read more, that’s kind of my dad advice.
And then the mainframe dad advice, I guess would just be stick with it. There were many times during my career where I thought, there was the next hot thing come up and I thought, well, I really have to get into this Unix thing. I should really just fully embrace Linux and ditch that whole z/OS stuff and do something completely different. And I think the best thing, and it’s probably just pure dumb luck, the best thing was sticking with the platform, sticking with the mainframe environment and just growing in that ecosystem.
Steven Dickens:
I think that’s interesting. I mean, you are a case in point of somebody who’s built a career across more… You’ve been able to change the location where you do your job, change what the job is, change how technical the job is, whether it’s strategy, sales, technical, hands-on, whether it’s been vendor side or customer side, but you’ve kept consistent on that mainframe platform and kept consistent on the technology.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And again I think that the last piece of advice is, which is again, probably back more of a dad advice, is just do what you love. I think that the one consistent thing is, I always have this passion, this wonder, this love for the mainframe platform. And I stick with it. And I always say, I’m a really bad salesman. I remember being in so many sales calls where I had to sell something that I didn’t believe in. And, I start blushing, I start stuttering. So, I’m really bad salesman, but I believe in what I do, and I love to share that. So once you have something that you love, then yeah, stick with it.
Steven Dickens:
So as we start to wrap up here, I ask this of all the guests on the show. And I think you’ve got a pretty unique perspective. Where do you see the platform, three, five years out? We both know IBM’s working on [inaudible 00:23:12] 17, so there’s no point talking what that next box is going to look like. I’m thinking more across the industry, more across the landscape. Where do you think we’ll be three, five, maybe some time even beyond that?
Eddy Ciliendo:
Yeah. So, I mean, on a high level perspective, I think the mainframe will be alive and kicking. Even though there’s naysayers out there, there’ve always been naysayers out there, but I think the mainframe will be, will be alive and kicking. I think just from an architectural point of view, there’s just certain workloads that benefit from a extremely consolidated architecture with high levels of security, low latency, and I think there’s just nothing that will replace it for certain workloads, for other workloads yes, there are other architectures that are better. So, I mean from an architectural point of view, I think that will continue, large banks will continue to run very large mainframe installations, airlines, insurance companies, governments. So I think just generally I think the platform has a very bright future, but I think even more so, and I guess that’s also kind of a hint to our friends over at IBM.
I think that the future could be, will be even brighter if IBM continues that journey of opening up the mainframe. I mean, we’re here on the open mainframe podcast, so I think it makes a lot of sense, but if we go back to how we started the podcast and you asked about Model9 and what we do, there’s so much innovation out there. And innovation, whether it’s technology innovation or innovation just in young people that have bright ideas, great ideas, you have to open up the ecosystem. You have to get those bright ideas in, and then the mainframe ecosystem is just a great place for those great ideas. Again, whether it’s people or just technology to grow and make the platform even better than what it is today.
Steven Dickens:
I think, I feel that way about the platform as well. I think particularly what the Open Mainframe Project to doing, what you’re doing to transform some of those paradigms that have been there since the very early days of the platform. I think that’s how the platform evolves and survives. I couldn’t think of a better way to start to wrap up here Eddy, so it’s been great chatting to you as always.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Likewise.
Steven Dickens:
And look forward to catching up sometime soon. So thanks very much for being on the show.
Eddy Ciliendo:
Thank you Steven. Was a pleasure, take care.
Steven Dickens:
We’ll speak to you next time. You’ve been listening to the, I’m A Mainframer podcast. Please click and subscribe, and we’ll catch you on the other side. Thanks very much.
Voiceover
Thank you for tuning in to “I am a Mainframer.” Liked what you heard? Subscribe to get every episode or watch us online at openmainframeproject.org. Until next time, this is the “I am a Mainframer” podcast, insights for today’s mainframe professionals.
The “I Am A Mainframer” podcast explores the careers of those in the mainframe ecosystem. Hosted by Steven Dickens, Senior Analyst at Futurum Research, each episode is a conversation that highlights the modern mainframe, insight into the mainframe industry, and advice for those looking to learn more about the technology.
The podcast is sponsored by the Open Mainframe Project, a Linux Foundation project that aims to build community and adoption of Open Source on the mainframe by eliminating barriers to Open Source adoption on the mainframe, demonstrating the value of the mainframe.
