Z DevOps Talks

In this episode, Jennifer Velasquez and Kirk Chadrick return to discuss Git migration efforts as a mechanism to transform and modernize, getting you one step closer to embracing and fully implementing a cutting-edge, AI-ready pipeline.

In this episode, Nicolas Dangeville and Rich Larin are the guests of honor, leading a discussion about GenerativeAI and IBM's new watsonx Code Assistant. This episode was a blast, great conversation and really really interesting viewpoints shared. Learn more about IBM watsonx Code Assistant here, and make sure to like, subscribe, share, and reach out if you have any topics you want to hear about!

In the first episode of the new Today I Learned series, Shalini and  Chris bring their research on Shift-left testing to the table and  discuss what they've found.

In this episode, Gerald Mitchell talks about his patents, the products he manages, and the projects that he is passionate about.

In this episode, IBM’s Will Yates takes us along on a ride through the landscape of testing on z/OS and what the future looks like (pro tip: bring sunglasses, it’s bright). Will starts off by giving us a brief summary of what drew him to testing, the importance of testing early and how he uses his background and passions to push the envelope when developing cutting-edge tech to elevate testing efficacy, practices, ease-of-use, and accuracy. He even shares a short story about one of his favorite television shows growing up, and it’s pretty awesome! Topics: Will's education and opportunities to work as a student with IBM Will gives us a rundown of the work he and his team have done to impact new products and mechanisms to push DevOps practices forward Will discusses his role in Z VTP Galasa – what is it? How are Z VTP and Galasa related? How positive hiring practices and team dynamics around Neurodiversity have contributed to his team’s successes And be sure to check out past episodes of the Z DevOps Talks podcast. Links related to this episode: IBM Z Virtual Test Platform About Galasa and IBM Z Virtual Test Platform Galasa home page

In part two of the two-part series with Chris Trobridge, he picks up where he left off in part one, diving deeper into how HyperCube technology is accessed, used, and where it sits in the development pipleline. Chris explains how the shift in the developer base is bringing to light how important having modern analysis tools is, as well as the future of development of these tools at IBM. Listen through to get the inside scoop on how to stay ahead of the curve with HyperCube technology, Wazi Developer, and what the future looks like (spoiler alert: it’s looking pretty good!). Topics: Chris jumps in to a deep-dive discussion about how HyperCube technology is leveraged in Wazi Developer HyperCube’s place in the pipeline Static analysis: when, why, how, and who Extending HyperCube Eclipse plug-ins leveraging HyperCube And be sure to check out past episodes of the Z DevOps Talks podcast. Links related to this episode Wazi to accelerate hybrid cloud app development IBM Wazi Developer for Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces Introducing Wazi Developer for Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces video IBM Wazi Developer : Bring Your Own (BYO) IDE for Cloud Native Development Trial blog

In this episode, we get a chance to chat with IBM’s very own, Mark Indermaur.  Mark is a product manager for IBM Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence (ADDI) and IBM Wazi Analyze. We discuss how and where Wazi Analyze and ADDI fit into our devops pipeline.  Mark also explains how Wazi Analyze is not just a subset of ADDI, but rather a solution that allows developers to use key features of ADDI in a containerized environment. Stick around to the end, because we also get a sneak peak for what's in store, and what is on the horizon for ADDI and Wazi Analyze. And of course, no conversation with Mark is complete without a little bit of chess talk! Topics: Mark talks about his upbringing, education and early chess experiences Mark’s role at IBM and Wazi Analyze What ADDI does Where do Wazi Analyze and ADDI fit in the pipeline Distinction between Wazi Analyze and ADDI Future Integrations: ZD&T, Wazi Sandbox Where to learn more Drive to Modernize What's on the Horizon If you want to learn more about ADDI and Wazi Analyze, be sure to check out these resources: Wazi to Accelerate hybrid-cloud app development  IBM ADDI Essentials Badge  Introducing Wazi Analyze video  Swedbank case study IBM Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence for IBM Z 6.0 can help accelerate the application modernization process with rapid discovery and analysis solutions And be sure to check out our past episodes here.

In episode three of our second season we had the pleasure of talking with Darren Surch, COO - Americas of Interskill Learning.  Fun fact, Darren has been named an IBM Champion for yet another year!  Check out the link below to learn more about this program. Being the education evangelist that he is, Darren shared with us how he first got into mainframes, everything there is to know about badges, new developments at Interskill Learning, and the future of computer-based training. We also talk about Stacked Badges, the surge in interest of Interskill learning in the era of the pandemic, and how badges can help augment on-the-job training and formal mentorship programs. And if you want to learn more about the relationship between IBM Z and Interskill be sure to check them out today!  A complete list of IBM badges are available on Interskill. And learn more about the IBM Champions program here. 

In our latest episode, we were able to talk with one of our Toronto-based design managers Tala El Hallak.  Tala has been with IBM Z for four years, and her journey has been incredible. Tala began her tenure as a visual designer in our Toronto lab (back then the team was just two).  Fast forward to today and she has been fortunate to work on a multitude of design projects for IBM Z, she recently served as a design coach at our Patterns program, and she's grown into the role of design manager at that same lab she began her IBM career at! Episode four traverses many topics, including: Tala's journey to design Life before IBM (one of the firs to join team). Her prior roles and projects in IBM Z What it means to be a "people manager" at IBM Managing teams in the "virtual workspace" The design culture at IBM Z The Patterns program How an aspiring young designer might join her team We're glad you stopped by to have a listen.  If you haven't checked out our previous episodes, be sure to give them a listen today!

In our latest episode, we had the opportunity to sit down with Elliot Rushton and Rosalind Radcliffe.  Elliot is an Engineering Manager at GitLab, Inc.  Beginning in 2019-2020 IBM Z had and continues to embrace a holistic approach to application development and delivery. And part of this strategy sees IBM Z tightly, seamlessly integrating open-source solutions alongside our other IBM-branded offerings.  That's where GitLab, Inc. joins the party.  Elliot and Rosalind spend some time talking about GitLab, and it’s CI (Continuous Integration) Runner.  And because of the interest in use of GitLab for SCM (Source Code Management) and CI in a z/OS environment, we’re aggressively meeting this demand.  Sure, understanding how this CI fits into the z/OS ecosystem can be tough to wrap your head around.  But we’re in luck, because both Elliot and Rosalind do an excellent job of distilling it down, making it much easier to understand. And why stop there?  Elliot also discusses some of GitLab's plans on the horizon.  So, stick around to the end to learn more about this blossoming relationship between GitLab, Inc. and IBM Z. And just for fun, we’re including some important links so you can learn more about this partnership: IBM Z and GitLab Tutorial  White Paper: Setting up the CI Pipeline Agent on IBM Z White Paper: Integrating IBM Z in GitLab CI pipelines GitLab and IBM Z documentation 

In this latest episode, we chat with Senior Software Engineer Jeff Douglas.  Jeff brings with him a 40+ year career in mainframe application development.  His most recent endeavor being a beautifully (written-in) Assembler solution called IBM Wazi Virtual Test Platform.  Jeff tells us that IBM’s Wazi VTP is actually about 650 programs, making up over 120,00 lines in code (with even more eloquent commenting throughout)! We’ll learn more about what it is and the history leading up to its creation.  But IBM Wazi VTP allows a user to record and then replay their applications, by virtualizing the data and eliminating the need to have any middleware. No changes are made to a developer’s applications and this allows teams to massively shift-left development and testing efforts. Jeff is very excited about this mostly because of how significant and ground-breaking this is.  We are entering a new frontier of application modernization and we get a front-row seat.  Watch the demo too! While you're here, consider checking out some of our previous episodes.  Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and giving a listen to our latest episode.  We are still remote, still very much in lockdown.  But the silver lining is that we have been fortunate to reach some really influential people in the DevOps world.  In this episode, we sit down to chat with John Willis and Rosalind Radcliffe.  John brings with him over 40 years of mainframe and DevOps experience.  And, fun fact, he attended the very first DevOps Days in Ghent. In this episode we discuss:  Where/How John and Rosalind first met John Willis discusses his over 40-year career  How he came to find himself at Red Hat How he came to be Senior Director of Red Hat’s Global Transformation Office The five elements (dev, ops, product, architecture, leadership) and the three economies  Why John likes the term “hybridity”  The dangers of ignoring “prior art” Real world examples of shift-left software development Why John is a fanboy for Red Hat and IBM And the future of automated governance Thanks for stopping by, come back soon!

Finally! We were able to get together and spend some time with two greats in the DevOps world: Rosalind Radcliffe and Gary Gruver. No doubt you know Rosalind, if not, you must show us the rock you have been living under. And it would be equally impressive if you’d not heard of our very special guest – Gary Gruver. Many familiar with The DevOps Handbook will recognize the name from the prominent HP case study and discussion surrounding his role in transforming HP’s LaserJet FutureSmart Firmware division. Gary has had quite the career and since his time at HP he has begun a new chapter with his consulting firm – Gruver Consulting. He’s even penned a few books of his own in that time: Engineering the Digital Transformation Starting and Scaling DevOps in the Enterprise Leading the Transformation: Applying Agile and DevOps Principles at Scale A Practical Approach To Large Scale Agile Development However, Gary didn’t come to talk to us about books. In this episode we traverse many topics, but here are a few of the highlights: Where the idea of continuous delivery really began for Gary (hint, while at HP) Systematic approaches of engineering the Digital Transformation The challenges with organizational inertia and how it impedes change Stable quality signals and automated testing How micro services isn’t always the right answer The importance of “fast feedback” and building quality into your code How Gary’s training and certifications are enabling organizations to optimize their software delivery practices This is just the tip of the iceberg though. We covered a lot more ground in this (just shy of an hour) episode; too much to list. So we encourage you to stay through to the end. And if you have any stories you’d like to share, Rosalind would love to hear from you. Email her today. Want to learn more about Gruver Consulting and the training and certification opportunities? Well, you’re in luck, you can check that out here too! And in case you haven’t heard, we’ve got a full archive of episodes right here. And remember, we’re available on all the popular podcasting platforms; just search for “Z DevOps Talks”. Enjoy the show! Link for the transcript. 

Welcome back to another episode of Z DevOps Talks. We are still very much in lockdown status, but not deterred!  And as we continue to deliver these remotely, we hope to be reaching you in good health and high spirits. We have an exciting episode this time around. We caught up with Dr. Peter Haumer, one of our IBM Z Senior Software Engineers.  Presently he is serving as Development Lead for IBM Wazi for CodeReady Workspaces and the IBM Z Open Editor teams.  And that's a big deal, because just this week we made generally available (GA) our new Wazi capability. This episode is jam-packed with content and Wazi is in the spotlight.  The overarching themes we discuss are focused around the Wazi Sandbox, Wazi  Workspaces, and how they both support IBM Z's continued mission of enabling enterprises to achieve a complete DevOps end-to-end pipeline. But we've jotted down a (non-inclusive) list of some of the finer details, so take a look:  How the IBM Wazi platform provides enhanced capabilities and z/OS development on the cloud Wazi sandbox, Wazi workspaces and the end-to-end pipeline, what are they/what do the meant? The continued evolution of Wazi and how it has been two years in the making The convergence of our new open technologies and capabilities and Red Hat's CodeReady Workspaces Seriously Peter...with the click of a button? z/OS on x86 (Intel) servers, huh? How Wazi makes the developer's life and the programmer's life easier! How Wazi supports the idea of Bring Your Own IDE (BYOI)  If you can't tell by reviewing the content that we covered, Peter is passionate about the work he and his team are doing.  And if you've listened to the podcast, you'd agree that he is earnest when he says he wants to hear from our users.  So, if you want to try for yourself, Peter has provided us with a great many resources:  Read the Wazi Announcement Letter Visit the IBM Wazi marketplace page Download the Wazi Solution Brief Watch a Wazi Video Demonstration Read the "5 Things You Should Know..." about Wazi And once you've spent some time in the driver's seat, please let us know your impressions!  What do you like, what don't you like, what do you want to see more of, what are we missing? Be sure to email Peter directly, he really wants to hear from you!   Stay safe out there and enjoy the weekend!

Welcome back to another episode of what we are now referring to as our "Lockdown Series" of Z DevOps Talks. This time, we welcome back one of our previous guests, Bruce Armstrong. If you aren't familiar, Bruce is our resident expert on all things Zowe™. You can check out his previous episode here. Not to be outdone, Bruce is back for round two. And like last time, we're talking about Zowe™: Zowe™ Active Long-term Support updates Zowe™ Conformance program and conformance criteria Squad reorganizations in Zowe™ IBM announces the IBM Z Distribution for Zowe™ (and why its a big deal) General updates on Zowe™ If you're new to the podcast, you can always find our archived episodes here. And for those listening on the go, you can find us on your favorite platforms via Anchor as well as iTunes podcasts. Stay safe and enjoy the show!

Welcome back.  Our latest episode has us sitting down with (in a manner of speaking) Roland Koo.  Roland is a Program Director in Offering Management and Strategy for Enterprise Products and Compilers on Z and he joins us from The Great White North – Canada.  If you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Roland well here is your chance! In our second installment of what we are referring to as our “Lockdown Series”, we chat with Roland on some of the new developments with compilers on Z.  Here is a list of some of the things we cover: How do compilers work? The IBM COBOL Compiler family IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS Packed decimal arithmetic and formats Arch levels and COBOL Compilers Source code and object code LLVM Technology…what is it and where to learn more? Python compilation on Z Reaffirming our commitment to Java 11 And that’s not even the complete list! While you’re here, be sure to check out the COBOL Migration Portal. There you can learn about all the great benefits of migrating to the latest version of COBOL and also learn best practices from the experts. And if you want to put a face to the voice, Roland has a featured video on the main page too. We certainly had a lot of fun (with a few technical difficulties) with this episode, and we hope you come back for more.  For now leave you with a little spoiler…our good friend Bruce Armstrong is back for our next episode. He’ll be updating on what’s new with Zowe™. So stay tuned!

On this episode we were able to sit down with our final guest before the lockdown/quarantine went into full effect. In Episode 10 we were able to chat with Andrew Tram, based out of RTP, NC, US. Andrew is an IBM Developer for z/OS Advisory Software and DevOps Release Engineer. Andrew has spent much of his career with IBM and has been with the mainframe from the start. He has a very technical background, and that gives him a really great perspective when it comes to our continuous delivery releases. In this episode he talks about our release schedule, the overall process, and so much more. We covered such topics as: What a Release Manager is and what do they do? Aqua Products – what are they and where can I learn more? The ECU Jazz Ensemble Band and Saxophones When a developer interacts with the mainframe without even knowing it All about CD releases in Z DevOps If you could go back in time, what “current” Andrew tell “then” Andrew Just as a reminder, we’re on all your favorite podcasting platforms now! Enjoy on the go now: Breaker Google Podcasts Overcast PocketCasts Radio Public Spotify iTunes And finally, in case you hadn’t seen the news, the State of New Jersey still has their “Tech Talent Call to Serve” page up. Consider dropping your name if you think you can help. Who knows maybe you could save a few lives! Link here. Also consider joining the COBOL conversation over at the Open Mainframe Project forum. Say safe out there folks! And remember to practice good social distancing and take the proper hygiene precautions.

Welcome back for another episode of Z DevOps Talks. We know things are a bit hectic now and most people are probably stuck indoors. So maybe take a listen to our latest episode to help break up the monotony! In our latest episode, we talk with Matt Cousens, a Developer Advocate for IBM Z and LinuxONE. Matt flew into the RTP campus for a (post-quarantine) Developer Advocate event. And while he was here, he carved some time out of his schedule to discuss the work he and other Developer Advocates are doing in IBM Z and LinuxONE. You’re probably wondering what a Developer Advocate does. Well we certainly discuss this during the episode, but to give you a bit of background on Developer Advocates; they are our globally federated IBM developers, the ones actively working with and alongside our clients. Our Developer Advocates are responsible for developing our Code Patterns, actively working on more than 100 open source projects, and a curating our library of knowledge resources. The Code Patterns deserve some special attention though. As a library of complete solutions to problems that developers face every day, these patterns leverage multiple technologies, products, or services to solve issues that our developer advocates have recognized as common use cases across multiple industries. You can check out our library here. Our Developer Advocates are collaborators too! Maybe you need to better understand where blockchain technology fits in your company’s transactions. Maybe you are moving towards an Omnichannel customer support structure and you want to build a chat bot to interact with your customers. Whatever it is, Developer Advocates exist to help clients understand and take advantage of cutting edge, open technologies and to accelerate that next great project. Transcript of this episode available here.

In our latest episode, we had the chance to sit down with one of our newer developers, Kaleb Porter. At only 23, Kaleb is making quite the name for himself. He is an avid open-source contributor and was once quoted saying, “Python is perfection.” Kaleb has only been with IBM for two years, but in that time, he’s poured his heart and soul into the Z mainframe. With one patent already under his belt, he’s only getting started. Kaleb sure does like to stay busy too; he’s an avid writer on Medium. There he writes about his time in Z, and some of the really amazing things you can do with the most recent offering he is working on: Z Open Automation Utilities. What is Z Open Automation Utilities (ZOA Utilities)? ZOA Utilities supports the execution of automation tasks on z/OS via Java, Python, and Shell commands. Previously, developers programming in their native tongue (Python or Java in this case) would in some cases have to enter the ISPF 3270 terminal, use Job Control Language (JCL) to submit a job, and then return to the work they were doing in their IDE or Shell. It can be very challenging to get work done if you don’t have somebody around who is knowledgeable in JCL. Now, in a matter of seconds newer Z developers can continue to deliver value to the enterprise at the speed of Z. So, that’s the (very abridged) background. Kaleb actually has a few pretty neat use cases that he’s documented; and they can be found on his Medium page. We were really fortunate to be able to sit down with Kaleb and learn what the world of Z is like through the eyes of a newer developer. And if you want to learn a little more about ZOA Utilities, we are providing a few links to peruse over morning coffee (or afternoon “Tea, Earl Grey, hot.”): Background, how it works, benefits IBM ZOA Utilities article by Mike Fulton, DE Part I IBM ZOA Utilities article by Mike Fulton, DE Part II Visit ibm.developer.com to read the full transcript.

Welcome back folks. In our latest episode of Z DevOps Talks, we bring you yet another special episode from sunny California. This time we spend some time with IBM Silicon Valley Labs’ Gary Mazo. Gary took some time out of his busy schedule to teach us a thing or two about some of the great things coming out of SVL, namely ADDI or Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence. Gary is a veteran IBM-er and ADDI team member. He is an international patent holder, and long-time software developer serving on many teams, including most recently with ADDI. In case you aren’t familiar, ADDI is an analytical platform used for modernizing enterprise applications (you check out this short video for more info). ADDI allows you to analyze enterprise applications and determine commonly used business terms and rules. You can analyze programs, conduct impact analyses, and even use it to better understand control & data flows. Gary says if it’s a data provider on Z, we can cross-correlate and provide end users with some really powerful reporting and documentation. Well, Gary says more than that, but you’ll have to listen to the rest of the episode! Fancy kicking the tires? Well great, you can find ADDI on our Z Trials Program too. Core scenarios include: Root-Cause Analysis, Business Rule Discovery, and Static Analysis too! A big thanks to Gary for coming to talk to us this episode. He’s a real passionate guy, and you can really hear that come through! For more ADDI news you can listen in on an interview between Sherri Hanna and ADDI Architect Rami Katan. And, as always, for full podcast transcripts go to developer.ibm.com.