19th International GSE Conference

for VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z & LinuxONE

17 — 19 September 2025

Stuttgart Marriott Hotel Sindelfingen, Germany

Sponsorship Options

Agenda

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

08:30 - 10:45

Conference Registration

09:30 - 10:45

Welcome Snack

This session is dedicated to new interests and enthusiasts of the IBM Z and LinuxONE technology, covering capabilities like AI, scalability and flexibility, as well as Hybrid Cloud and Multi-Architecture solutions, existing industry environments and their implementations and all the questions that participants might have in this area. The details depend on the questions and interest. We can also highlight the Confidential Computing and Hyper Protect capabilities to host servers and applications on the most secure and scalable platform, IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE.

10:00 - 10:45

For Newbies: Introduction and Fundamentals of IBM Z & LinuxONE infrastructure and workloads

We can also highlight the Confidential Computing and Hyper Protect capabilities to host servers and applications on the most secure and scalable platform, IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE.

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

Gonzalo Muelas Serrano

21CS

10:45 - 11:00

Welcome

Peter Goth

President, GSE

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

This session provides an up-to-date overview of the latest hardware advancements in IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5, with a special focus on AI integration, security innovations, and key technologies such as the Telum II processor and the new IBM Spyre Accelerator. We will explore how these platforms are being optimized for AI-driven workloads, the latest developments in cyber resilience, and the role of these new hardware components in modern hybrid IT architectures.

11:00 - 11:45

IBM Z & LinuxONE Hardware News

Patrick Hempeler

IBM

This presentation will bring our z/VSE and VSEn customers up to date on new and important progress from CSI International. With the new announcement of the z17, CSI has been working hard to provide new and comprehensive advances. This presentation will highlight CSI International’s continued commitment to the z/VSE and VSEn platform. We will explore all the exciting changes and enhancements available for TCP/IP. Addressing stronger support for security, TLS, and dynamic adjustments to deal with internet attacks. Z/Cobol is our newest addition to our catalogue of tools and features available for the VSE. We will go over the progress of the Beta process and provide details of some of the advanced features available in this new language. Data Miner Dash is a fast and easy way to examine data or produce reports with a minimal effort. We will go through what is new with this product and discuss some of the many success stories from the industry. Network Folding has been incorporated into our new Network Appliance, allowing a wider range of implementation. This new product significantly reduces network congestion in VSE and many other adjacent platforms.

11:45 - 12:15

Updates on CSI International Development

We will explore all the exciting changes and enhancements available for TCP/IP. Addressing stronger support for security, TLS, and dynamic adjustments to deal with internet attacks.

Z/Cobol is our newest addition to our catalogue of tools and features available for the VSE. We will go over the progress of the Beta process and provide details of some of the advanced features available in this new language.

Data Miner Dash is a fast and easy way to examine data or produce reports with a minimal effort. We will go through what is new with this product and discuss some of the many success stories from the industry.

Network Folding has been incorporated into our new Network Appliance, allowing a wider range of implementation. This new product significantly reduces network congestion in VSE and many other adjacent platforms.

Barry Boyer

CSI International

John Rankin

CSI International

In this session we want to highlight new solution capabilities with Linux on IBM Z and HYbrid Cloud on IBM LinuxONE and the areas of value of the Vendor solutions and how you can take advantage of them or find discussion points regarding these solutions.

12:15 - 12:45

New Solution Capabilities and Vendor News

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

12:45 - 13:45

Lunch

Come and hear about the latest news from IBM, 21CS and its partners on the platform. This presentation provides an overview of everything that is new and relevant to z/VM, VSE, Linux and KVM on IBM Z and LinuxONE.

13:45 - 14:30

Overview and News of z/VM, VSE, KVM and Linux on IBM Z & LinuxONE

Stefan Raspl

IBM R & D

Gonzalo Muelas Serrano

21CS

In this keynote, Henri Kasurinen, Co-Founder and CEO of Nomain, explores how generative AI is transforming the landscape of mainframe modernization. While many solutions focus solely on automation, Nomain takes a human-centered approach—empowering users from developers to business analysts to understand, collaborate, and deliver faster on complex enterprise systems. Henri will share why placing people at the core of modernization unlocks greater speed, accuracy, and long-term resilience, regardless of whether organizations choose to optimize on the mainframe, encapsulate legacy systems, or migrate fully to the cloud.

14:30 - 15:00

Mainframe Modernization with GenAI: Why Nomain Chose the Human-Centered Approach

Henri Kasurinen

Nomain

15:00 - 15:30

Coffee Break

How do you bring the power of mainframe data into today’s open IT world? At Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung a.G. (SDK), we faced the challenge of making VSAM data available beyond the mainframe to support modern applications and analytics. Together with Rocket Software, we will share how we solved this challenge using Rocket® Data Replicate and Sync (RDRS). In this session, we’ll share our experience at SDK (Michael Tores) and explain from a customer’s perspective how we use the software. Together with Rocket (Axel Richter), we’ll give you a behind-the-scenes look at the technical solution and show how replicating VSAM data into MS SQL opens the door to new possibilities in daily operations and IT modernization.

15:30 - 16:15

Customer Experience: Bridging the Gap: Sharing Mainframe Data with the Open World using Rocket RDRS

Together with Rocket Software, we will share how we solved this challenge using Rocket® Data Replicate and Sync (RDRS).

In this session, we’ll share our experience at SDK (Michael Tores) and explain from a customer’s perspective how we use the software.

Together with Rocket (Axel Richter), we’ll give you a behind-the-scenes look at the technical solution and show how replicating VSAM data into MS SQL opens the door to new possibilities in daily operations and IT modernization.

Michael Tores

SDK - Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung

Axel Richter

Rocket Software

Stay one step ahead of even the most sophisticated threats to your organization by protecting against dangerous breaches and unwanted access. This new, end to end approach, combines the safeguards provided by the Security Risk Management implementation, with Privileged Access Management to fortify Administrative credentials, control user access, simplify MFA, monitor and record privileged user activity across the enterprise, and examine behavioral and risk analytics. So listen in and gain insights for combining rules of password management with the safety of a credential vault.

16:15 - 16:45

Protecting the z/VM Environment with a New Modernized Approach

Nick Minchenko

Broadcom

16:45 - 17:00

Short Break

This session will guide you through real client stories throughout the years which underpins the evolution, and the success achieved using Mainframe technology for traditional workloads and for the new waves of Open Source and Cloud services which could take advantage of the security and reliability when hosted on the mainframe.

17:00 - 18:00

Birds of a Feather (BoF): The Value of the Mainframe in the IT Landscape

Berthold Gunreben

DATEV eG

Markus Klein

PHOENIX

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

Michael Tores

SDK - Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung

19:00 - 21:00

Exchange of Experiences and Dinner in the Exhibition Area

Thursday, 18 September 2025

Join me in this slot as we show our latest updates around our products, people and locations around the world.

09:00 - 09:30

21CS: Investing in the “n”ext generation of people and products

Join me in this slot as we show our latest updates around our products, people and locations around the world.

Gonzalo Muelas Serrano

21CS

This year, the VSE platform is only 60 years "young"! Linux on IBM Z has a humble 25-year anniversary, and IBM LinuxONE, the largest scalable platform, reaches its 10-year anniversary. We want to celebrate with all of you, and go on a historical journey, reflecting on how it started, evolved, where we are now, and discuss where we might be going. So come on and join us to share your stories from the past and tell your current stories and what you wish for the future.

09:30 - 10:15

VSE: 60 Years, Linux on Z: 25 Years, LinuxONE: 10 Years – and still strong

This year, the VSE platform is only 60 years „young“! Linux on IBM Z has a humble 25-year anniversary, and IBM LinuxONE, the largest scalable platform, reaches its 10-year anniversary.

We want to celebrate with all of you, and go on a historical journey, reflecting on how it started, evolved, where we are now, and discuss where we might be going. So come on and join us to share your stories from the past and tell your current stories and what you wish for the future.

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

Stefan Raspl

IBM R & D

Gonzalo Muelas Serrano

21CS

10:15 - 10:45

Coffee Break

Forum for VSE
Forum for Linux, Virtualization and Containers

Join me in this session where I will share about what solutions Securex offers and how and why we rely on IBM Z, VSEn, z/VM and Linux on Z.

10:45 - 11:30

Customer Experience: Modern IT infrastructure that Securex and our customers can rely on

Join me in this session where I will share about what solutions Securex offers and how and why we rely on IBM Z, VSEn, z/VM and Linux on Z.

Johan Bruyneel

Securex

Join me in this slot as I show the challenges and solution I work out to implement Smart Card sign-on.

11:30 - 12:15

Customer Experience: Implementing Smart Card sign on with 21CS VSEn

Join me in this slot as I show the challenges and solution I work out to implement Smart Card sign-on.

David Wakser

US Army Europe

Would it be advantageous to have the technology to assist new people coming into the VSE world, with limited time to learn JCL and its Utilities, or experienced Engineers who just want to keep things simple? Well, we may just have the answer. Several VSE Products have a 'fill-in-the-blank' methodology, to create and execute some Utility Jobs, such as, VSAM Backup/Restore, VSAM Catalog Management and Hardcopy Reports without knowing much about the JCL or their parameters. This session will go over these panels and explain how they can be easily used to improve the efficiency and productivity of your Sys Progs and Operators.

12:15 - 13:00

So you want an easy way to create VSE JCL?

Would it be advantageous to have the technology to assist new people coming into the VSE world, with limited time to learn JCL and its Utilities, or experienced Engineers who just want to keep things simple? Well, we may just have the answer. Several VSE Products have a ‚fill-in-the-blank‘ methodology, to create and execute some Utility Jobs, such as, VSAM Backup/Restore, VSAM Catalog Management and Hardcopy Reports without knowing much about the JCL or their parameters. This session will go over these panels and explain how they can be easily used to improve the efficiency and productivity of your Sys Progs and Operators.

Nick Minchenko

Broadcom

13:00 - 14:00

Lunch

Join me as I show how to setup VSEn Crypto Services ( based on OpenSSL), to use networking application securely on VSEn.

14:00 - 14:45

VSEn with OpenSSL enabled in practice: How to set it up for application and connectors

Join me as I show how to setup VSEn Crypto Services ( based on OpenSSL), to use networking application securely on VSEn.

Aleksa Medakovic

21CS

Join me in this presentation where I will explain the parts involve to have Multi-factor authentication with VSEn and if the times allow, provide a demonstration.

14:45 - 15:30

Multi-Factor Authentification with VSEn

Join me in this presentation where I will explain the parts involve to have Multi-factor authentication with VSEn and if the times allow, provide a demonstration.

Meriem Briki

21CS

15:30 - 16:00

Coffee Break

At Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung a.G. (SDK), maintaining a modern and resilient mainframe infrastructure is key to supporting ongoing and future IT projects. In this session, we will present how SDK has continuously modernized its mainframe infrastructure by renewing the entire hardware landscape and expansion of environments. We’ll show you how we achieved the balance between project requirements, regulatory constraints, and security. This includes for example VLAN separation, the implementation of DS8K Copy Services, and a production-near Hotfix Stage – all designed to ensure secure and efficient operations while enabling future modernization projects.

16:00 - 16:45

Customer Experience: Continuous Mainframe Modernization: Ensuring Security and Future-Ready IT

At Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung a.G. (SDK), maintaining a modern and resilient mainframe infrastructure is key to supporting ongoing and future IT projects.

In this session, we will present how SDK has continuously modernized its mainframe infrastructure by renewing the entire hardware landscape and expansion of environments.

We’ll show you how we achieved the balance between project requirements, regulatory constraints, and security.

This includes for example VLAN separation, the implementation of DS8K Copy Services, and a production-near Hotfix Stage – all designed to ensure secure and efficient operations while enabling future modernization projects.

Julius Mehl

SDK - Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung

Michael Tores

SDK - Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung

Join us in this slot well we will cover news and 21CS and Customer experiences and lessons learned working with 21CS VSEn. This session also serves for discussion and a casual exchange of experiences between the participants. The contributions are translated into German and English.

16:45 - 17:30

Hints & Tips to VSEn | Discussion, Requirements and Customer Experiences

Join us in this slot well we will cover news and 21CS and Customer experiences and lessons learned working with 21CS VSEn.

This session also serves for discussion and a casual exchange of experiences between the participants. The contributions are translated into German and English.

21CS Team

Michael Tores

SDK - Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung

Markus Klein

PHOENIX

Gonzalo Muelas Serrano

21CS

An overview changes introduced with z/VM 7.4, the most recent release of z/VM as well as an overview of recent functional enhancements of z/VM 7.3 and published statement of directions for the next z/VM releases. In addition, an update and discussion on the current z/VM focus and strategy, planned enhancements and upcoming changes.

10:45 - 11:30

z/VM Platform Update & Outlook

Thomas Immel

IBM R & D

Frederik Hartmann

IBM R & D

Ansible is a popular Open Source system management framework that can be used to manage a huge array of different types of equipment, from network switches to storage subsystems to operating systems. Terraform is also popular in system administration circles for providing "infrastructure-as-code", often as part of a development team's CI-CD environment. This session will cover some of the "good, bad, and ugly" of using Ansible and Terraform to manage z/VM systems, the guests that run on them, and the partitions and machines on which they run. It is based on the presenter’s experience with customer installations, as well as his own work in developing an automated z/VM installation platform.

11:30 - 12:15

Practical z/VM Automation using Terraform & Friends

Ansible is a popular Open Source system management framework that can be used to manage a huge array of different types of equipment, from network switches to storage subsystems to operating systems. Terraform is also popular in system administration circles for providing „infrastructure-as-code“, often as part of a development team’s CI-CD environment. This session will cover some of the „good, bad, and ugly“ of using Ansible and Terraform to manage z/VM systems, the guests that run on them, and the partitions and machines on which they run. It is based on the presenter’s experience with customer installations, as well as his own work in developing an automated z/VM installation platform.

Vic Cross

IBM, Australia

As the Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE environments continue to grow, the need for software and solutions to manage these environments also grows. This session focuses on operational monitoring and automated operations across multiple z/VM LPARs, with or without SSI. It includes live demos of one or more of the following: (1) taking actions on other LPARs based on events on one LPAR, (2) automatically take action based on messages on z/VM service machines, on Linux guest consoles, and/or in Linux syslog data (3) view and interact with live consoles, for both monitoring and debugging purposes (4) monitor and manage spool space (5) send alerts to a central alerting system, such as IBM Netcool/OMNIbus or other systems that accept SNMP traps (6) send e-mails based on console messages, spool usage, etc. (7) automatically archive logging data when a disk approaches full.

12:15 - 13:00

Operational Monitoring and Automation of Multiple z/VM LPARs with Linux Guests

Tracy Dean

IBM, USA

13:00 - 14:00

Lunch

The last years have been highly focused on technology enablement for applications bridging different Architectures. We have now great capabilities to develop, run and manage centrally, applications and environments running Linux and containerized RH OpenShift workloads in different clouds including public clouds, in different Architectures and operate with high flexibly.

14:00 - 14:45

Multiarchitecture Container Solutions

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

The Retail customer is using DB2 on z/OS with Cobol applications besides their x86 Kubernetes clusters (Rancher) for Logistics and their online shop on Google Cloud. They want to add Rancher on zLinux besides their z/OS environment, connect their DB2 for z/OS for data exchange and add Java applications (transferred from Cobol) on it. In this presentation you will receive an overview about the different existing Linux distributions and the re-introduction of SUSE Rancher (and how the support will work in the first year). You will receive an overview, how the zLinux with Rancher part can be used with Multi Arch Kubernetes for connecting the internal network with the Public Cloud.

14:45 - 15:30

Introduction to an Open Source based zLinux solution with Rancher for Hybrid Cloud for Retail

Sarah Julia Kriesch

Kyndryl Deutschland

15:30 - 16:00

Coffee Break

This lab lets you choose from several monitoring, automation and backup/recovery scenarios for z/VM and Linux guests. You can choose from separate hands-on labs using IBM Operations Manager for z/VM or IBM Backup and Restore Manager for z/VM. Lab exercises include viewing and interacting with service machine and Linux guest consoles, taking an action based on a console message, monitoring user IDs for logoff, monitoring spool and page space, and backing up and recovering z/VM data.

16:00 - 16:45

Hands-on Lab: Managing z/VM and Linux on IBM Z or LinuxONE (Bring Your Own Device)

Karishma Deole

IBM, India

This session serves for discussion and a casual exchange of experiences between the participants. The contributions are translated into German and English.

16:45 - 17:30

Discussion, Requirements and Customer Experiences

This session serves for discussion and a casual exchange of experiences between the participants. The contributions are translated into German and English.

Berthold Gunreben

DATEV eG

Oliver Röthinger

SVA

Stefan Raspl

IBM R & D

Wilhelm Mild

IBM R & D

18:00 - 22:00

Get Together, Exchange of Experiences

Friday, 19 September 2025

Open Source is a huge topic on Mainframes, and IBM is heavily investing in the area. With RedHat, IBM also invested substantially and has a major partner with Redhat for the support of the Mainframe Platform. Still, many of today’s publicly available projects focus on x86_64 and ARM64 architectures and exclude any other architecture. This talk will give an overview of our efforts to utilize existing Open Source technologies in a controlled way on our existing Mainframe environment to provide an Open Source Kubernetes operating platform on top of KVM.

08:30 - 09:15

Customer Experience: KVM and Open Source in the Enterprise

Berthold Gunreben

DATEV eG

Discover why the mainframe is the workhorse of the enterprise computing from an IT economics perspective. IBM Z handles 70% of transaction workloads accounting for only 8% of total IT spend. With exceptional processing power, security, reliability and availability, IBM Z is a cost-effective option to consolidate workloads and optimize IT budgets. For the current AI-driven digital transformation, the new generation of IBM Z will play a critical role in extending the value of data with cost effective inferences with the on-chip or PCI-e attached accelerators.

09:15 - 10:00

The Value of the Mainframe in the IT Landscape

Discover why the mainframe is the workhorse of the enterprise computing from an IT economics perspective.

IBM Z handles 70% of transaction workloads accounting for only 8% of total IT spend.
With exceptional processing power, security, reliability and availability, IBM Z is a cost-effective option to consolidate workloads and optimize IT budgets.
For the current AI-driven digital transformation, the new generation of IBM Z will play a critical role in extending the value of data with cost effective inferences with the on-chip or PCI-e attached accelerators.

Christian Miemiec

IBM

10:00 - 10:30

Coffee Break

Mainframes are the backbone of enterprise computing. However, integrating these mission-critical systems with modern observability tools has long been a challenge. A year ago, the Open Mainframe Project (OMP) and OpenTelemetry teamed up to bridge this gap, enabling advanced observability capabilities for the mainframe ecosystem. In this session, we will explore the work to enable OpenTelemetry for mainframes, empowering users with an enhanced experience to observe and innovate on these platforms. We will discuss key topics including contributions to OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions tailored for mainframes, the progress in porting core OpenTelemetry components to z/OS and Linux on IBM Z, and the valuable insights we obtained from collaborating with the mainframe community to address unique user needs. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of OpenTelemetry as a leading observability framework and discover how these advancements unlock new opportunities for observing and optimizing mainframe systems. Join us to discover how OpenTelemetry brings modern observability to the heart of enterprise computing.

10:30 - 11:15

Unveiling Mainframe Insights with OpenTelemetry

In this session, we will explore the work to enable OpenTelemetry for mainframes, empowering users with an enhanced experience to observe and innovate on these platforms. We will discuss key topics including contributions to OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions tailored for mainframes, the progress in porting core OpenTelemetry components to z/OS and Linux on IBM Z, and the valuable insights we obtained from collaborating with the mainframe community to address unique user needs.

Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of OpenTelemetry as a leading observability framework and discover how these advancements unlock new opportunities for observing and optimizing mainframe systems. Join us to discover how OpenTelemetry brings modern observability to the heart of enterprise computing.

Rüdiger Schulze

IBM R & D

There is an exciting new technology that has begun to emerge from the crypto world. Like the decentralization of currency, decentralization of data is now a reality with the use of blockchains, distributed apps (DAPPs) and Web3 infrastructure. This presentation will explore how this new technology functions, and how it can be harnessed to provide a wilder range of solutions for mainframe customers. While Web3 is a completely new method of managing websites, tablets, and other mobile devices, the concept of moving data ownership into the hands of the end user is an extremely powerful one. DAPPs represent a revolution in software that is provided, and distributed, over the blockchain, and can be executed within servers, browsers, and many other hand held devices. When these programs are combined with access to a complete range of data sources, these modern solutions are dynamic.

11:15 - 12:00

Decentralized Data with Blockchains and Web3

John Rankin

CSI International

This session will give an technical overview on IBM Self Managed Vault on IBM Z and LinuxONE, followed by various use-cases where Vault can be used as the Identity based Secrets management and Certificate management solution. Following the technical deep dive, the session will cover a live demo on Vault with Databases credential management and certificate management use-cases.

12:00 - 12:30

Identity based digital Secrets management on IBM Z and LinuxONE with HashiCorp Vault

Pradeep Parameshwaran

IBM R & D

12:30 - 13:15

Lunch

We will provide a general update over the IBM Storage portfolio. Then we will focus on new developments for some key storage products and related solutions from an VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM zSystems point of view.

13:15 - 14:00

Storage for the Data Center and Hybrid Cloud

Alexander Warmuth

IBM

The presentation will give a brief overview of the development of AI and the different forms of AI. First, examples of machine learning, both supervised and unsupervised, will be presented. This is followed by a brief explanation of the theoretical foundations of neural networks and deep learning. The explanations are always based on practical examples. A significant focus will be on the ease of use and feasibility of AI use cases.

14:00 - 14:45

AI: Principles and how to use it

Prof. Dr. Jonas Offtermatt

Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Stuttgart

14:45 - 15:00

Closing Session

GSE IC 2025

19th International GSE Conference

17 — 19 September 2025

Stuttgart Marriott Hotel Sindelfingen, Germany

Agenda