IBM Z Wins Design Awards for AI and Mainframe Modernization Work

In the design world, external awards are the icing on the cake of a job well done. It’s validation for the excellence of our work and can inspire other teams to elevate their game and drive even further innovation and business impact. So, I can’t say I’m surprised to see the top-tier designers from IBM Z getting recognized again. It’s a testament to their tireless efforts to understand our users in this very technical space, and it’s usually a sign the entire three-in-a-box team (design, development, product management) is aligned as well. We are all in the same boat, rowing in the same direction.

Thus I’m extremely proud to share that IBM Z recently received awards from three prestigious design competitions. The Machine Learning for IBM z/OS solution won an AI Excellence Award and the z/OS Management Services Catalog and Change Tracker team won an iF Design Award and an International Design Award.

Machine Learning for IBM z/OS Wins AI Excellence Award

The Business Intelligence Group’s 2024 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards program recognizes unique solutions that stand out in a crowded AI space and honors those dedicated to utilizing AI advancements to be a force for good.

I’m proud to share that Machine Learning for IBM z/OS (MLz) — an enterprise machine learning solution — was named an AI Excellence Award winner. When coupled with the latest IBM Z hardware, this product allows clients to achieve real-time inferencing for mission-critical business applications, creating opportunities to inject intelligence into every single transaction. MLz includes a suite of tools and capabilities designed to evaluate, monitor, and enhance the trustworthiness of deployed AI models. With this feature, a user can access visualized explanations for why a decision was made by AI on their system.

While this AI Excellence Award celebrates the contributions of the entire product team, I want to specifically recognize the outstanding work of the following MLz designers:

• Colton Cox
• Stefanie Lauria
• Thalia Barry
• Olivia Gardella
• Lexi Landis
• Julia Bulgannawar

Mainframe Modernization team wins iF and International Design Awards

Congratulations to the z/OS Management Services Catalog and Change Tracker team for winning both an International Design Awards silver medal and an iF Design Award for their work on modernizing mainframe management. The International Design Awards (IDA) exists to recognize, celebrate, and promote exceptional design visionaries and discover emerging talent in all design disciplines worldwide, while iF Design hosts one of the most prestigious and relevant design competitions in the world. This year, a jury of design experts selected award-winning designs from almost 11,000 entries and 72 countries.

The z/OS Management Services Catalog and Change Tracker tools simplify and streamline the management and configuration tracking of mission-critical systems and application software for system programmers. Instead of relying on decades-old processes, with workaround solutions that are documented in multiple places, these tools make it possible and easier for system programmers to standardize, document, and pass institutional knowledge to the next generation of colleagues.

The design team managed to not only simplify the user experience, but also reduce manual processes and make mainframe modernization a less daunting task. The design improves how z/OS programmers process information about their systems and complete tasks. The products transform existing z/OS management and offer new opportunities for programmers to visualize and collaborate on their work.

I want to congratulate the z/OS Management Services Catalog and Change Tracker Design team on this significant recognition.

· Seul Rhee

· Kate Yzurdiaga

· Rolando Perez

· Brian Le

· Caroline Turner

· Scott Marcella

· Iris Rivera

I’m very proud of the work our teams are doing in IBM Z and look forward to more posts of this nature in the near future.

Jeff Neely is VP of Design for IBM Z and LinuxONE, based in Austin, Texas. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.