Illinois State University works with IBM to equip students with 21st-century computing skills on the mainframe

Just over 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students attend Illinois State University, one of the leading higher education centers in the USA. The university employs 3,500 staff, running courses from applied technology to fine arts on a 970-acre campus.

Leading US companies, such as State Farm, Caterpillar, John Deere, Country Financial, CitiGroup, Charles Schwab and others, support Illinois State University, and there is a strong connection between academic study and the practical value of these courses developed at Illinois State University. Dr. Chu Jong, Enterprise Computing System Coordinator and Assistant Professor at Illinois State University’s School of Information Technology, College of Applied Science and Technology, identified the opportunity to create a series of courses focusing on enterprise computing systems, which would give students valuable skills for managing the IBM System z mainframe platform.

Dr. Jong comments, “In meetings with companies, they described how the market for programmers with IBM System z skills was tightening as baby-boomer generation professionals retired. Working with these companies, we created the plan for new courses in Enterprise Computing Systems which would solve the skills bottleneck and ensure that graduates had valuable expertise that would help them secure employment in this field.”

An essential part of the Enterprise Computing course would be hands-on programming and test and development experience on live mainframe servers. As part of the course design phase, Dr. Jong reviewed the available capacity on the installed mainframe systems used by Illinois State University for human resources, payroll and related administration.


Gaining real-world experience

To initiate the Enterprise Computing Systems education program at Illinois State University, virtual mainframe systems were provided for students to access remotely via the Internet. Each student was assigned a user ID on an IBM System z server, enabling them to gain hands-on experience on the mainframe platform. As the Enterprise Computing Systems program grew, the IBM Academic Initiative determined that it was time to provide an IBM eServer zSeries 890 mainframe server on campus—to enable Illinois State University to further expand its program and meet the growing expectations of the professors and students.

Dr. Jong comments, “Access to the z890 will provide students with an invaluable view into the demands of real-world business environments through the study of enterprise computing systems. Using the z890 will also offer students new opportunities to work in teams on virtual projects and lab assignments, and build skills on virtualization, enterprise-class Linux and the full mainframe architecture.”

Dr. Jeffrey A. Wood, Dean, College of Applied Science and Technology, Illinois State University, adds: “IBM is a world class company that realizes how important an investment into educational infrastructure can be. The investment by IBM in this collaboration demonstrates its commitment to providing future generations with opportunities to learn. This project stands as a model for education and industry collaboration to create mutually beneficial teaching, research and learning experiences.”


Building a pool of skills

The university plans to use logical partitioning to run multiple distinct environments on the z890, including project production and development and test/quality assurance areas. These will provide the students with experience closely aligned to real-world operations on the mainframe platform. The University will include disaster planning and recovery scenarios in the course as well, ensuring that students are fully prepared for commercial environments.

“From my perspective, the loan by IBM offers many benefits,” says Dr. Jong. “The IBM offer made the course financially viable for the School; for the companies involved the course will address a critical skills shortage; in addition students will gain hands-on experience of the capabilities of the IBM System z platform, such as simultaneous native support for multiple operating systems, dynamic load balancing and a host of advanced virtualization technologies available on the mainframe architecture.”

“The immense total computing capacity of the z890 also means we will be able to introduce distance learning programs, where students outside Illinois State can register and participate in the course. Ultimately, students graduating with mainframe skills will be an extremely valuable pool of talent for virtually every major enterprise around the world—the vast majority of which still run mission-critical workload on the mainframe platform.”


Creating benefits for all

The z890 server is easily expandable, and will enable Illinois State to add new elements to its Enterprise Computing courses in the future. The z890 offers the specialized Integrated Facility for Linux® (IFL) processor designed to run Linux applications, and a specialized Java™ execution environment with zSeries Application Assist Processors (zAAPs) designed to run Java technology-based applications on z/OS® V1.6 and subsequent releases.

Jai Menon, IBM Fellow and Vice President Technical Strategy and University Relations, IBM, comments, “The new mainframe resources at Illinois State University will help students better understand how enterprise-scale data warehousing, e-commerce, and business intelligence technologies work together.”

“IBM will supplement classroom lessons in operating environments, data communication and security with sponsored guest lectures and educational trips to local customer data centers. As businesses increase their reliance on technology, there is a greater demand for skilled employees to manage these complex processes and functions.”

“Our work with Illinois State University showcases how we are helping to create a smarter pool of potential hires for ourselves, our customers, our business partners and, of course, other local and global businesses.”


Mainframe at the heart of the infrastructure

Illinois State has fixed its IT strategy on open systems, running Linux on a variety of server platforms. Dr. Jong plans to use the z890 to manage very large databases and storage volumes, allowing the diverse server types to connect to the mainframe as a central integration point.

“The advantage is that we can connect other servers to the z890 for transactional workload and return the results to the peripheral system,” says Dr. Jong. “We can extend the useful working life of the remote server by reducing the workload, while the students learn how to program, integrate, test and deploy in preparation for the commercial world.”

He concludes, “Although it has roots stretching back several decades, the mainframe has perhaps never been more relevant. The stability and security of the platform make it indispensable in most large enterprises, so it is vital for their future employment prospects that our students have some experience of the mainframe. With help from IBM, we’re now able to give those students a firm grounding and commercially valuable skills on the IBM System z platform.”