SHARE’s events are known for cutting-edge technical education, as well as highly coveted networking opportunities, and they also have garnered a reputation for thinking outside the classroom to deliver sought-after education in more competitive and fun ways for attendees. SHARE Orlando showcased this creative thinking with some game-show formatted sessions.
PKWARE’s Sarah Fellner, vice president of global marketing, and Tait Hamiel, chief product innovator, IBM Systems, leveraged the popular game show, Jeopardy!, to create their session on mainframe security, encryption, and data discovery.
IBM Lifetime Champion for Z Dusty Rivers, senior director for U.S. IBM Z at Mainline, John Pinkowski, product owner for mainframe security at Broadcom Software, and Len Santalucia, chief technology officer and the business development manager for Vicom Infinity, Inc. (A Converge Company) joined PKWARE as contestants of PKWARE’s “Jeopardy! – Mainframe Edition: Navigating the World of Data Discovery, Security, and Encryption,” a session where mainframe security education becomes a lively collaborative discussion.
“For SHARE Orlando, the PKWARE team worked with information from SHARE New Orleans to develop a more interactive and engaging session for the contestants and audience. We wanted to push the envelope by including more in-depth mainframe knowledge,” says Fellner. Tait adds, “Like Broadcom’s Mainframe Family Feud-style session, we wanted to model a different style of content delivery.”
Friendly Competition Surfaces New Knowledge
SHARE attendees were able to test their knowledge in this interactive session with industry experts regarding data security, discovery, and encryption in peer-to-peer learning, discussion, and through Jeopardy! questions and answers. Some of the topics in the session covered encryption algorithms and best practices, data security protocols, automated data discovery tools, regulatory compliance, and mainframe security legends, including infamous data breaches.
The mainframe mysteries category focused on the fundamentals of mainframe architecture, common data storage methods, and the unique challenges in data discovery. Any contestant or audience member could have aced this category, but some of the questions were tricky. Fellner says, “For example, one question asked was - what unit of work runs at a higher priority than a task? This could have been too easy for the SHARE audience, but the possible answers were listed as acronyms. If you were up on acronyms, then you probably would have crushed that category, but if you weren’t, it would have been more of a challenge.”
According to Fellner, some of the topics were crafted to test the knowledge of experts and the audience and may not be widely understood, such as quantum computing and its intersection with cryptography or how quantum computers could impact current encryption methods. Not all the questions, however, were technical or about the mainframe, because references to Star Trek, Star Wars, and Quantum Leap were a natural fit.
Also noteworthy were the contestants – Rivers, Pinkowski, and Santalucia – some of the most recognizable mainframe experts in the field. “For them to offer their time to come in, have a little bit of fun, and engage with the audience on a new level, was memorable,” says Fellner. “We took away some key learnings that we will use to improve the session for SHARE Kansas City.”
According to Tait, encryption generated a lot of debate among contestants and the audience, but it was clear from some of the categories that quantum is an area where many attendees needed a bit more education. “There was a lot about quantum that the audience and contestants didn’t know, and this led to a piecing together of answers and level of engagement that we could not have planned for,” says Fellner. Tait adds, “When the contestants were stumped, that’s when audience participation ramped up.”
The session “was a dual exercise in having fun and learning what you know and don’t know,” Tait explains. “Even with about 140 years of expertise on the stage, it was clear there were knowledge gaps where quantum was concerned, which was no surprise given the quasi-new nature of the topic.” In the quantum category, the questions asked about qubits, structures, and algorithms, probing into the “guts” of quantum.
When contestants were stumped, some of the younger audience members began raising their hands and offering insight into quantum and algorithms. “The conversation was great, and we were able to hear everyone’s perspective on it, which was insightful,” says Fellner. Tait recalls, “It was kind of a raucous audience, but it was nice to see.”
Contestant Pinkowski says, “A great, entertaining format for sharing mainframe security information. The audience participation was a nice addition.” Fellner adds, “Yes, even if we were leveraging fake funds.” Contestant Rivers may have been $8,000 in debt before final Jeopardy!, but, according to Tait, “he put himself out there for every single category.” Rivers says, “Great session and great way to convey technical information in an entertaining format, both fun and humbling.”
No matter the contestant’s final financial status, everyone made it to the final round where audience members and contestants were challenged with questions about IBM’s watsonx and the legendary Cheryl Watson.
Full-Circle Education
Santalucia says, “PKWARE’s ‘Jeopardy! Mainframe Edition’ session at SHARE Orlando was a lot of fun and showed all those who played and attended just how robust the security of the IBM Z mainframe really is, and how much further PKWARE can enhance its security. There has, and still is, no better time to be on the IBM Z mainframe, especially if you are seeking the most securable platform on the planet.”
Tait recalls that the initial onsite feedback was positive, with many saying they had a really good time. Fellner adds, “Our hope is that SHARE members who attended, at the very least, will do more research, particularly around quantum and its impact on mainframe security.”
According to Tait, “the audience learned first-hand that quantum is relevant to the mainframe today. Quantum is here, now. It’s not just about quantum computing, but also quantum algorithms and quantum encryption. It’s about what quantum-level encryption can do for an organization.” He adds that the session gave the contestants and the audience ideas on what they can do now to secure their mainframe data, but it also shined a light on what they don’t know.
“Every single person can be an expert in their part of the mainframe world. Sessions like this expose experts to new ideas that they can leverage to utilize the mainframe in different ways, whether it’s for data protection, data discovery, or as a bolt-on to what they are already using to increase efficiencies or expand on what they do daily,” says Fellner. Where not every answer was given in Jeopardy!’s answer form, contestants and the audience were thoroughly engaged throughout the session. At SHARE Orlando, attendees faced some healthy competition even as they were exposed to new aspects of mainframe security.
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