It seems like just yesterday that I was at SHARE Kansas City networking with colleagues and other speakers — then I blinked, and now I am past the new year. Like the cliché says, time flies when you are having fun.
With us kicking off 2025, I am thinking about what an interesting year it is going to be. Usually, you breeze through moments, and only in retrospect recognize its significance. I see 2025 as a pivotal moment like that for SHARE and — even more importantly — for the mainframe. As the chair of the Editorial Advisory Committee, I will make sure that SHARE’d Intelligence is right there with you, highlighting the events as they unfold and bringing you commentary and expertise around the hottest topics in 2025.
In February, we have SHARE Washington, D.C., from the 23rd through 27th. Once again, SHARE is bringing an amazing conference of technical sessions, vendor presentations, and networking opportunities to the mainframe community. I can’t think of a better way to kick off 2025 than meeting with colleagues, listening to world-class speakers, and increasing my knowledge about what this platform can do.
As evidenced by the number of discussions planned for D.C., I think 2025 is going to be the year of AI. You will see sessions from IBM, BMC, and others planning to go all-in on AI for their toolsets and platforms. 2025 could also see the release of the IBM z17, which is said to have increased support for AI with the new Telum II processor. 2025 is poised to see an explosion in AI and the mainframe platform is setting itself up to be perfectly positioned as a leader in the AI space.
I also believe that 2025 can be the year that the guard changes on the mainframe platform. For years now, we have been talking about the skills gap on the platform, the great retirement, and a dozen other staffing issues. In 2024, we started to see this being addressed. We are seeing more and more new developers moving on the platform, more early-career engineers learning the mainframe, and some colleges starting to embrace mainframe education.
In 2025, SHARE will be a leader in educating the next generation of developers for the platform. Between making the shows free for students, working with our vendors to sponsor students and new developers to attend, as well as our continuing education program, SHARE is moving the needle to bring a younger generation onto the platform. Here on SHARE’d Intelligence, we will be highlighting the voices of those in this younger generation, and spotlighting programs bringing them into the mainframe fold. If these descriptors fit you, please consider contributing an article.
DevOps is not a new topic in 2025; it has been around for years now. But I think 2025 will be the year for increasing DevOps maturity across organizations and toolsets. Between the adoption of Git on the mainframe to new patterns in DevOps, people are doubling down and starting to increase the amount of automation they have built into their DevOps pipelines.
Along with the myriad of sessions on these hot topics that will be available at SHARE Washington, D.C., and future events, as chair of our Editorial Advisory Committee, I am aiming to bring perspectives on AI, education, the skills gap, the future of mainframe computing, and many more topics to you via SHARE’d Intelligence. If you have expertise on one of these subjects, please reach out to our team and let us know you would like to write an article — or recommend someone who you think should share.
I look forward to seeing everyone in D.C., and personally cannot wait to network with everyone and attend the amazing sessions being offered with our government members, private members, and all our amazing partners and sponsors. I think the future has never looked brighter for the mainframe and SHARE. If you see me at the event, I encourage you to flag me down so we can discuss all of the topics I highlighted here today — especially if you would be interested in contributing to an article.