Mastering Mainframe

Ammar Farooqi
Nov 2 · 3 min read

I have always been fascinated by Sci-Fi movies. Usually, they try to portrait the different possibilities and forms of the future. I remember the Terminator 3 movie where they created an AI (Artificial intelligence) which was named “sky net”. So, the basic aim of the sky net was to enhance security and protect humans from any kind of possible vulnerability. The sky net was hooked up to a network and every machine was connected to it. In a certain scene, they showed some huge boxes with blinking lights doing some processing and making decisions for the sky net. That certain scenes sparked the curiosity in me to know about those boxes and blinking lights.

Mainframe Computer (Image source: Creative Commons)

So those huge boxes with blinking lights were actually mainframe computers. The mainframe computers are mainly used for critical applications by large organizations; data processing in bulk, such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, corporate resource planning and transaction processing. These are really expensive computers and a common person can’t even think to have one.

The main hurdle that I faced was that I wasn’t very clear about these machines and usually no one really talks about them in Pakistan and most of the people in Pakistan are unaware of these machines.

IBM is the major entity working in the field of mainframe computers and turned out they encourage students to learn mainframe computing. I started exploring and found about IBMZ and their master mainframe contest and training. Fortunately, a workshop related to this topic happened at my university and it opened more doors for me.

Confirmation Email
  • The first step was to apply for the contest to get the training courses which I did and received the confirmation email.
  • The second step was the activation of credentials so that you could access the mainframe computer.
  • The third step was to install VistaTN3270 client for the session and activating it.
  • The fourth step was the learning process. The learning process comprises almost 4 weeks and I have successfully completed the first-week tasks.
IBMZ login screen

This was a really interesting experience for me, finally able to do something on the magical machines I used to watch in childhood. The process of mastering it requires time and effort and I am really excited to complete the training and get the ability to use it for my future endeavours.

Ammar Farooqi

Written by

An enthusiastic researcher, observer, student and artist. Trying to spread awareness about social issues and taboos.

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