The integration of AI with mainframes presents new opportunities to help manage systems and resources better. In this episode, Andrew Sica, Senior Technical Staff Member and Evan Rivera, AI Software Engineer at IBM, discuss the impact of AI on mainframes and its potential benefits. They highlight different use cases, IBM’s AI investments on the mainframe, and the work of the Open Mainframe Project (OMP). Sica says, “When we leverage AI on the mainframe, it gives us that ability to get insights quicker, whether it’s business insights or operational Insights on the mainframe in place.”

AI and mainframe relevance, AI opportunities for mainframe workloads

• Sica emphasizes mainframe’s relevance in the modern-day world since it still runs mission-critical workloads across a multitude of industries.
• Sica discusses the impact AI can have on enterprises enabling them to make better decisions by managing systems and resources better. He explains how AI is being leveraged on the mainframe.
• Rivera discusses the importance of embracing open-source and cutting-edge technologies for model training and deployment, and the need for an ecosystem of tools for deploying AI on the mainframe.

AI on mainframes, use cases, and system monitoring

• Sica explains how IBM is investing in AI, for example with the IBM Telum processor. He highlights the benefits of enhancing mainframe operations to enable faster business decisions.
• Sica emphasizes that the suitability of the mainframe for AI workloads depends on specific cases.
• Sica discusses the significance of the IBM Telum processor, which is utilized on the z16 mainframe and its relevance in use cases such as fraud detection for faster decision-making.
• Some of the lesser-known use cases of AI on the mainframe are for deploying chatbots and image processing. Sica underscores the broad potential for AI to address various business problems on the mainframe. 
• Sica discusses AI’s potential in areas like AIOps for system monitoring and anomaly detection, and how it can foster a better understanding of complex systems.

AI on mainframes, resources for getting started

• Rivera highlights some of Open Mainframe’s Projects related to AI that aim to foster a community to help educate developers about open source technologies on z/OS and Linux on Z.
• Rivera talks about an Open Mainframe initiative recently released around AI solution templates on IBM Z and LinuxONE and how they can serve as a starting point for AI projects.
• Sica highlights the importance of the Open Mainframe Project for AI collaboration and resources.
• Sica shares his advice for those getting started with AI on the mainframe highlighting their GitHub 101 page which outlines optimized libraries like TensorFlow and ONNX.
• Open Mainframe Project also hosts workshops at no charge and interested parties should reach out to Sica for further information.
• Rivera reassures viewers about the compatibility of open-source technologies like TensorFlow with mainframes. He talks about the added benefit of these optimized technologies on the mainframe.

Guests: Andrew Sica (LinkedIn) | Evan Rivera (LinkedIn)
Project: Open Mainframe Project (Twitter) | Organization: IBM (Twitter)
Show: Mainframe Matters

This summary was written by Emily Nicholls.