Atlanta is one of the key cities in the civil rights movement and the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr., and it easily attracts diverse talent. More recently, the city has expanded into new business areas, including cyber security and fintech. This walkable city is a natural fit for the next SHARE event because of its up-and-coming tech hub status and its diverse culture.

At SHARE Atlanta (March 5-8), there will be hundreds of technical sessions, and Steven Perva, senior mainframe innovation engineer at Ensono, offers some insight into his SHARE presentation and what he's most looking forward to in Atlanta.

In Perva's session, "ZOAU (Z Open Automation Utilities) From the Ground Up," attendees will see demonstrations on how to deploy and use the Z Open Automation Utilities (ZOAU) product in z/OS environments. IBM's ZOA Utilities can help developers automate tasks with JAVA, Python, and others, particularly for those tasks that need access to MVS resources by running traditional MVS commands, such as IEBCOPY, IDCAMS, and IKJEFT01. He adds that his session provides immediate practical use cases to gain value within the first few moments of having ZOA Utilities deployed. "I’m excited to share pragmatic information on ZOAU, and how it can be leveraged for a modern mainframe experience," he said.

In his second session, "I Caused a Total Outage in Production! So Can You," early-to-mid tenured professionals will learn the skills they need to gracefully handle failure in the corporate world. He says, "We'll also describe how to leverage problems as critical learning opportunities and how to ensure unanticipated issues don’t alter your career in a negative way. We openly invite others to come share stories, experiences, and questions." The practical advice should keep technologists from running to a deserted island the next time they cause a corporate pile-up.

From Technical to Cultural, SHARE Atlanta Explores It All

Perva recommends Ensono colleague Paul Buchanan's session, "The Need for Standards and Change Control: Why I Wear Hats — Hair Pulling Situations," to learn about how to apply industry standards to improve mainframe processes. Attendees will get a look at how a lack of change control can make operations harder and how having a diverse skillset can help them identify areas where standards are necessary.

Perva says, "My friends Darren Surch, Frank DeGilio, Joe Winchester, Luisa Martinez, and Ray Mullins also have in their library incredible topics sessions on mainframe education, modern mainframe thought leadership, and new languages available to the platform."

In the "Go: The Newest zSystems Language" session, Ray Mullins, senior software developer at Trident Services, Inc., and Glenn Hanna, principal software architect at PKWARE, will take a close look at the Golang (a.k.a. Go) compiler and run-time environment to z Systems. The mainframers may already be familiar with it, but there is always something to learn about the basics of language and comparing it to older languages that veterans are familiar with using, he explains.

Joe Winchester, z Systems senior technical staff member at IBM, will provide customer success stories about employing Zowe in the "Customer Success Stories Using Zowe to Make Their Mainframe IT Operations More Efficient" session. These success stories will demonstrate how Zowe solved issues from DevOps IT CICD modernization to simple ad-hoc script automation to make operations more reliable, repeatable, and require less specialist skills. Winchester's second session, "Zowe version 2 updates and beyond," is where users can learn about Zowe's new enhancements, as well as how user feedback led to other changes.

Frank DeGilio, CTO for DeClunkification, has multiple sessions at SHARE Atlanta, including "Using the Right Tool for the Job - When to use z/OSMF, Ansible, and Zowe" with Luiza Martinez, software engineer at IBM, "Building Efficient CICD Pipelines - Best Practices," and "Everything Everwhere as Code." DeGilio provides practical advice on using the right mainframe tools for the task and on building pipelines through which applications can be developed and delivered to customers effectively and efficiently.

Martinez and her colleagues will examine how the nearly 30-year-old Python language can be used to manage z/OS resources in a separate session, "Making z/OS Attractive to a New Generation of Sysprogs with Python," particularly as it applies to enterprises engaged in distributed platform management.

Let's not forget about the continuous need for training. In "Training, Engaging, and Retaining a Modern Mainframe Workforce!” with Darren Surch, CEO of Interskill Learning, event attendees will explore learning culture, lifelong learning, and synergy with digital credentialing and how it can dovetail with a blended and digital learning program.

Perva said, "I’m also very thrilled to be connecting with colleagues, sharing, and learning about how we can transform the platform not only technically, but also socially as a platform for the next generation of IT professionals."

According to Perva, "This abbreviated event really aims to give a full experience in a shorter time frame, and I am extremely thrilled!" SHARE Atlanta (March 5-8) offers a variety of sessions for all levels of mainframe technologist, and the city itself is buzzing with nightlife, simmering with soul food, and jamming with outdoor and indoor activities for everyone.