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Migrate your Mainframe Skills and Extend Your Career

cjdreher| July 7, 2010
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There was a really interesting post this week by John Pickett on one of our other HP blogs -- Legacy Transformation: The Cost of Doing Nothing that I want to draw your attention to since the job market continues to be really tough, the economy is still fighting its way back to health, and IT budgets are under high scrutiny (including staffing levels).  John takes a look at the realities of mainframe budgets and tough tradeoffs that are often considered.  He also looks at keeping skills fresh and relevant in the constantly evolving IT arena and presents some uplifting thoughts on how to parlay mainframe knowledge into some hot tech areas like bladed infrastructure.  Here's an excerpt from his post ....

 

Suppose you are currently a mainframe system admin, and are not ready to retire for another 5-10 years.  After all, the recent economic downturn did turn many of our 401K’s in to 201K’s.     As a system admin, you have acquired over the course of you career, two important, but different, groups of skills: 1) the ability to manage, monitor, and maintain a mainframe; 2) more importantly, you have intimate knowledge of your company’s business processes.     If you are looking to play out your career until retirement, you may be tempted to view the mainframe as your life preserver since you know the mainframe better than anyone else in your company, and because your group of mainframe enthusiasts inside your company may feel comfortable being isolated from the other computing platforms.   Let me suggest that holding on to the mainframe is more akin to hugging an anchor than a life preserver......

 

Read more of John's post Lengthen Your IT Career: Migrate from the Mainframe and please do share what you think!

 

 

~Cynthia

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About the Author
  • Kirk Bresniker is the Vice President/Chief Technologist for HP Business Critical Systems where he has technical responsibility for all things Mission Critical, including HP-UX, NonStop and scalable x86 platforms. He joined HP in 1989 after graduating from Santa Clara University and has been an HP Fellow since 2008.
  • I’m the worldwide marketing manager for HP NonStop. I’ll be blogging and tweeting out news as it relates to NonStop solutions – you can find me here and on twitter at @CarolynatHP
  • Cynthia is part of the HP ExpertOne team. ExpertOne offers professional IT training and certifications from infrastructure refresh to areas that span across the datacenter like Cloud and Converged Infrastructure.
  • I have worked with NonStop systems since 1982. I am a Master Technologist for HP and am part of the IT SWAT organization, the Cloud SWAT and work with HP Labs. I report into the Enterprise Solutions and Architecture organization.
  • Joe Androlowicz is a Technical Communications and Marketing manager in HP’s NonStop Product Division. Joe is a 25 year journeyman in information systems design, instructional technologies and multimedia development. He left Apple Computer for Tandem Computers to help launch G03 and hasn’t looked back yet. He previously managed the program management team for the NonStop Education and Training Center and drove the development and growth of the NonStop Certification programs.
  • Hello! I am a social media manager for servers, so my posts will be geared towards HP server-related news & info.
  • HP Editor-Enterprise Group: ISS, BCS, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Converged Cloud, Converged App Systems (CAS), and ExpertOne
  • Luke Oda is a member of the HP's BCS Marketing team. With a primary focus on marketing programs that support HP's BCS portfolio. His interests include all things mission-critical and the continuing innovation that HP demonstrates across the globe.
  • I’m the Worldwide Product Marketing Manager for HP Serviceguard Solutions for Linux in BCS. I’ll be blogging about the latest news and enhancements as it relates to this product.
  • Greetings! I am on the HP Enterprise Group marketing team focused on Content Marketing for Business Critical Systems. Topics I am interested in include mission-critical computing, scale up x86, and Converged Infrastructure, Converged Systems.
  • As a Managing Consultant for HP’s Enterprise Solution & Architecture group, I collaborate with client business and IT senior management to understand, prioritize and architect advanced use of data and information, drawing insights required to make informed business decisions. My current focus leverages event-driven business intelligence design techniques and technologies to identify patterns, anticipate outcomes and proactively optimize business response creating a differentiated position in the marketplace for the client.
  • Vinay Gupta is an HP Distinguished Technologist and the NonStop Manageability Architect. He joined Tandem in 1994 after graduating from Indian Institute of Technology. He has worked on many NonStop manageability applications over time. He works across various groups within NonStop and HP to ensure consistency and interoperability in manageability interfaces and applications. He is also a member of DMTF workgroups.
  • Wendy Bartlett is a Distinguished Technologist in HP’s NonStop Enterprise Division, and focuses on dependability – security and availability - for the NonStop server line. She joined Tandem in 1978. Her other main area of interest is system architecture evolution. She has an M.S. degree in computer science from Stanford University.
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