Introduction
While we’re no strangers to SHARE, our customers are entering unfamiliar territories in many ways so it’s fitting we should all pitch up somewhere new for this year’s event. And if this song gets stuck in your head for days and days – then welcome to my world.
It’s the first SHARE event of 2017 and a great platform for meeting the mainframe community. It’s also a classic 1960s song, so I thought I’d reference it to look ahead to what SHAREgoers can expect this year.
Our best people are there with good news on digital transformation. Here’s what it all means. Just imagine Dionne Warwick singing it.
“I’m going back to find some peace of mind in San Jose”
Peace of mind. Important for every IT organization, business-critical for the enterprise mainframe world. Risk-averse, security conscious, presiding over their must-not-fail core systems. Oh – and they must also find the bandwidth and resources to support innovation. Peace of mind? Good luck with that.
A few things, there. First up, we’ll be demonstrating how we’ve added greater security provision to the mainframe and terminal emulation environments to ensure the critical data remains protected, secured.
Second, peace of mind is about knowing what the future has in store. And that’s digital transformation. Transformation is essential for remaining competitive in a digital world. The ‘new speed of business’ shifts up a gear every year. Enterprise software innovation on the mainframe can improve speed, efficiency, collaboration, and customer engagement. You just need to know how to do it.
For many of our customers, enterprise IT and the mainframe are almost synonymous. Connecting the two to create the forward-thinking innovation needed to compete in the digitally-enabled marketplace is why people are coming to SHARE.
SHARE is where you taste the Micro Focus flavor of innovation. New is good, but realizing extra value through increased efficiency, agility and cost savings from the data and business logic you already own is even better. If you’re looking to make some smart IT investments this year, then SHARE participation could realize a pretty good return.
I spoke to Ed Airey, Solutions Marketing Director here at Micro Focus, about finding this peace of mind. “As we hear often, keeping pace with change remains a challenge for most mainframe shops. In this digital age, expectations for the enterprise couldn’t be higher. Transforming the business to move faster, improve efficiency and security while modernizing core applications are key. Success requires a new strategy that delivers on that digital promise to delight the customer. Our Micro Focus solutions supporting the IBM Mainframe, make that happen – helping customers innovate faster and with lower risk …and peace of mind.”
“I’ve got lots of friends in San Jose”
This one is as simple as it is literal. Lots of our mainframe friends will be in San Jose, so share a space with seasoned enterprise IT professionals, hear their successes and lessons learned.
The full lineup includes more than 500 technical sessions. Check out these highlights:
- Lead with Linux: Deploy New Enterprise Workloads to Linux on z Systems Using Flexible Application Development Solutions on Monday, March 6 at 11:15 am
- Mainframe DevOps in Action on Monday, March 6 at 1:45 pm
- Mainframe IDE Shootout on Tuesday, March 7 at 10:00 am
- Top 3 Reasons to include Terminal Emulation in your Security Strategy on Tuesday, March 7 at 1:45pm
- Request, Repair, Release, Repeat – Effective DevOps at enterprise scale on Tuesday, March 7 at 4:30pm
- End to End DevOps: Seamlessly integrate your DevOps toolchain from build to deployment on Wednesday, March 8 at 7:15am (breakfast on us!)
- This Is Not Your Father’s Terminal Emulation on Thursday, March 9 at 3:15pm
- Improving software development process efficiency using Kanban on Thursday, March 9 at 3:15pm
It’s good to see the EXECUForum back for San Jose. This two-day, on-site event unites enterprise IT leaders and executives for strategic business discussions on technology topics. We address key business challenges and share corporate strategies around business direction with industry peers. Micro Focus will participate, having put the topic of ‘new workload’ on the agenda – the growth opportunities for z systems remain impressive, as we recently mentioned. Check out the agenda of EXECUForum here.
“You can really breathe in San Jose”
The final lyrical metaphor for me is about taking time to understand, to witness all that the technology has to offer. To really breathe in the possibilities. To think about what digital transformation might look like for your mainframe organization – and how Micro Focus might deliver that vision.
We all want to use resources wisely, so save time and money and decrease the chance of error by talking to the product experts at the user- and vendor-led sessions, workshops and hands-on labs. Our booth will be full of mainframe experts ready to talk enterprise IT security, DevOps, AppDev, modernization and more. Stop by the SHARE Technology Exchange Expo, take a breather, maybe even play a game of Plinko.