David Baldon

About David Baldon

I have been working on the IBM mainframe (MF) since 1985. As expected, things in the MF area have changed dramatically. Far from being a dead platform, the MF is alive and doing quite well. I think IBM has done a masterful job at making the MF fit in with all the other servers out there in the cloud or on the farm. Today I can communicate with the MF from RESTful APIs, a GUI, a command line, a batch job (aka script), a web site, or an ATM. And that\'s just a few of the ways I can do it. Nearly 100% of the large banks and insurance companies in the world still run significant portions of their business on the MF. I\'m very interested in the transition from green screens (which are semi-interactive because you must press enter after entering data) to a full GUI in the mainframe space. This transition has already begun but is struggling to gain traction with the old guard. At the same time, mainframe vendors are struggling with the time-line for the transition and trying to figure out when there will be enough customer demand to justify writing only GUI front-ends and what is the best way to retain their investment in ISPF while replacing it with a GUI. One thing is clear. As the mainframe workforce ages, the green screen will be replaced with a GUI.While the previous paragraph was true at the time I wrote it, it is no longer true or completely true. With the introduction of the Open Source Project, Zowe, access to data on the MF has been made as easy and natural as access to the data on any other platform whether it be Windows, Linux, or macOS. Nearly every tool that can be used on those platforms can be used on the MF via a rich set of APIs. While the Zowe project is new, we\'ve been accessing data on the MF from our workstations for the last 15-20 years at BMC. Using cross-platform compilers and assemblers, we\'ve been able to use the rich text editors that are available on our workstations to write the (mostly) utility programs that have been the backbone of BMC since it\'s inception. Now with Zowe in the picture, we\'ve got even more ways to write our software including the use of Agile practices and DevOps technology and all that it brings into the picture.Needless to say, I\'m extremely excited to still be a part of BMC and a part of the ever-changing MF world. It\'s a great time to be alive and to be working on the MF whether I\'m actually logged onto the MF or my workstation banging away in a command window. Yes, sometimes it\'s great to go back and use the CLI.

Experience

1. Solution Architect, Db2 Backup & Recovery

   BMC Software

   Apr 2017 — Present · Austin, TX, US

   Responsible for coordinating implementation of new features and responding to changes in DB2 for z/OS that impact the products in the Recovery Management for DB2 solution. I have been working with DB2 for z/OS since version 2.2. I started as a DB2 SYSPROG with Electronic Data Systems. In 1994 I joined BMC Software, Inc. as a Support Rep on RECOVER PLUS for DB2. After a year I joined the original Log Master for DB2 team as a developer helping to launch what would become a very successful product. I left the Log Master team to start a new product that was designed to fully automate the backup and recovery of SAP systems that used DB2 for z/OS on the backend. After that I worked on several infrastructure teams designing and developing systems and APIs that are used by multiple products.Now I\'m back to my roots in backup and recovery. It\'s good to be back home!

Education

• Parks College

  Associate, Computer Science

  1981 — 1983

Skills

• Xml
• Mainframe
• C#
• Ibm Mainframe
• Performance Tuning
• Z/Os
• Os/390
• Web Applications
• Ispf
• Systems Management
• Enterprise Architecture
• Unix
• Software Development
• Jcl
• Management
• C++
• Db2
• Data Center
• Relational Databases
• Rexx
• Cloud Computing
• Tso
• Mvs