Planet Mainframe

Why These Numbers Matter While these statistics represent a successful award cycle, they also represent workforce sustainability. When 50% of your top influencers are new to the list, it means the skills gap bridge is under construction, led by passionate advocates who are redefining what it means to be a mainframer in the 2020s and beyond.

This piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series. In the world of enterprise computing, “legacy” is often used as a polite synonym for “outdated.” But for Scott Brod, a Product Manager at Broadcom and a first-time Influential Mainframer honoree, that definition is ripe for a rewrite.

This piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series. For Scott Chapman, performance is not just a metric. It is a lens for understanding everything. With more than three decades of experience in the IBM mainframe environment, Chapman has built a career focused on one central question: how do you truly understand what your system is doing?

Mainframe Insight Matters IT evolution is moving at such a pace that our collective fear of missing out is a genuine concern. As AI hits the mainstream, no organization is exempt, and no legacy technology is off limits. Mainframe modernization and AI have been converging for some time, causing significant market shifts and ever-evolving usage patterns. But what this opportunity means for each organization, and how to embrace it, may vary widely. Are incumbent suppliers a safe bet?

Influential Mainframers 2026, Innovation, Leadership Mainframe technology continues to evolve because of the dedicated professionals, educators, mentors, and innovators who drive it forward. We’re shining a spotlight on the individuals who are making waves—whether they’re advancing technology, mentoring new talent, sharing knowledge, championing modernization, or quietly keeping mission-critical systems running every day. These are the people shaping the future of mainframe.

IBM is excited to announce IBM® SQL Data Insights Pro, a new AI-powered capability that uncovers hidden patterns in mission-critical data directly inside Db2 for z/OS. IBM Z has served as the trusted system of record for high value transactional processing for decades. Within this transactional data are behavioral patterns that can reveal fraud risk, customer intent, operational anomalies and more.

This piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series. The mainframe still powers a vast portion of the world’s critical infrastructure—financial systems, healthcare platforms, and government operations. But for years, it has remained largely absent from the broader cybersecurity conversation. Kev Milne has been working to change that. With more than 30 years in cybersecurity, Milne didn’t set out to specialize in mainframe security.

Influential Mainframers 2026, Innovation, Leadership Mainframe technology continues to evolve because of the dedicated professionals, educators, mentors, and innovators who drive it forward. We’re shining a spotlight on the individuals who are making waves—whether they’re advancing technology, mentoring new talent, sharing knowledge, championing modernization, or quietly keeping mission-critical systems running every day. These are the people shaping the future of mainframe.

This piece is part of the 2026 Planet Mainframe Influential Mainframers series. For Emma Skovgård, the path into the mainframe ecosystem has been anything but traditional, but that may be exactly what makes her impact so significant. An IT Security Engineer at Danske Bank, Skovgård represents a new generation of mainframers—one shaped by curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to challenge assumptions.

Influential Mainframers 2026, Innovation, Leadership Mainframe technology continues to evolve because of the dedicated professionals, educators, mentors, and innovators who drive it forward. We’re shining a spotlight on the individuals who are making waves—whether they’re advancing technology, mentoring new talent, sharing knowledge, championing modernization, or quietly keeping mission-critical systems running every day. These are the people shaping the future of mainframe.