Tags
Azure, change, DB2, DIFFERENT, MAINFRAMES, RPA, SQL, technology
Many of my friends (including myself) have been hearing that Mainframe is going to go and to save our future, we must move to a different technology. We have seen posts other wise as well, where posts that all the major banks/corporations have been using Mainframe and we are no where to go. With 14 years of mainframe experience under my hat, and looking many of my friends/colleagues, I believe we will have Mainframes related jobs for a lot more time to come. But one thing to make a note is that the higher average pay that we see for latest technologies compared to Mainframes. If you have a chance/time to learn new technologies and improve your expertise, please do so, as it would help you career growth and lot of options to switch jobs when in need.
In my case, I have a wonderful opportunity of migrating a whole mainframe application to Azure SQL system where we used .Net technologies, SQL Server, Azure SQL Database. Initially I started mining mainframe code to pull business logic into User stories. Then explained these user stories to the developers. As I am much familiar with DB2, I started taking on tasks that involve only on SQL Server code. Most of our mainframe batch jobs are coded in stored procedures and run using Azure Webjobs. Most of the UI are done using C#, JavaScript, HTML, CSS. I took up the chance and started working on these and building my expertise along. With the business knowledge on the system, similar to mainframe production support, I am able to support the Azure processes and resolve any issues that occur.
Below are other successful stories of people moving from Mainframe to a different technology. See if this information gives you information that you are looking for.
Story 1
I changed my career from a legacy technology to RPA (r\Robotic process automation). You can automate any mainframe environment using this technology. Apart from mainframe, you can also automate windows, java and web applications. It doesn’t require any coding knowledge and have a lot of demand in market currently. Have a look at below video which demonstrates mainframe automation using one of the rpa tool called blueprism.
Below post describes how one can change career to RPA.
Changing technology to RPA – rpatraining.co.in
To gain significant knowledge in this technology, you can get trained in any good rpa training institutes out there. I got trained from rpatraining.co.in and they charge less too.
Story 2
There are several technologies you can opt for but try transitioning into a technology which you would enjoy working on .. If you are good in Maths(higher mathematics to be precise) and statistics data science would be a good domain to transition into given it’s increasing demand .. For that you need to learn few programming languages such as octave , R, python and possibly java .. The ones except java would be easy for you to learn given that you probably might have coded loads in COBOL , assembler , REXX,Eztrieve , quick job ,SQL,etc..
If you have a knack for RDBMS and have been working on DB2 for a while a db2 database admin or even a db2 system admin is another area you can transition into .. Since you have access to mainframe you can start with running few db2 utilities and then take it from there ..
Thirdly , if you are working in some banking domain and have a knack for understanding the underlying business you can go for a business analyst or domain expert kind of role …
Having said all of these you must determine the reason you what the change – is it just good pay, good role you would cherish doing or a mixture of both .. Once you make up your mind you can opt for the one that suits you ..
Story 3
What’s your role in Mainframe Technology..?
Are you a Mainframe Developer or Administrator. if you’re more clear on role it would easy to understand your nature of work which could be more sense to make a decision.
Well.. am a Database admin in Mainframe technology and interested in mathematics hence i preferred in moving to Predictive analysis and Big Data.
If you work on DB2, the future versions of DB2 are moving to analytics since analytics is being handled from very strong samples ( It is a low level strong data which effects the prediction term). samples are more sensitive word in analytics industry where they spend 90% work time to make a strong foundation. As a admin guy you would be a great person to handle such kind of data. In this way you could go ahead with SAS Enterprise Miner, Enterprise Guide or IBM SPSS or Tableau training and further you can switch for Data Analytics role. you should have a strong statistics background too.
If you’re a Programmer who plays with COBOL and JCL or a Prd support guy you can learn BIG data or SAP HANA where they handle only data part. so much of third party tools such OOZIE, SCOOP, Talend Open Studio, Skytree Server.
There are even more options available if you have any passion on a particular technology.
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