Despite the predominance of mainframes in the business world, these machines are largely invisible to the general public, the academic community, and indeed many experienced IT professionals. Instead, other forms of computing attract more attention, at least in terms of visibility and public awareness. That this is so is perhaps not surprising. After all, who among us needs direct access to a mainframe? And, if we did, where would we find one to access? The truth, however, is that we are all mainframe users, whether we realize it or not.

Most of us with some personal computer (PC) literacy and sufficient funds can purchase a notebook computer and quickly put it to good use— running software, browsing Web sites, and perhaps even writing papers for college professors to grade. With somewhat greater effort and technical prowess, we can delve more deeply into the various facilities of a typical Intel-based workstation and learn its capabilities through direct, hands-on experience— with or without help from any of a multitude of readily available information sources in print or on the Web.

Mainframes, however, tend to be hidden from the public eye. They do their jobs dependably— indeed, with almost total reliability— and are highly resistant to most forms of insidious abuse that afflict PCs, such as e-mail-borne viruses and Trojan Horses. By performing stably, quietly, and with negligible downtime, mainframes are the example by which all other computers are judged. But at the same time, this lack of attention tends to allow them to fade into the background.

Furthermore, in a typical customer installation, the mainframe shares space with many other hardware devices: external storage devices, hardware network routers, channel controllers, and automated tape library "robots," to name a few. The New Mainframe is physically no larger than many of these devices and generally does not stand out from the crowd of peripheral devices.

So, how can we explore the mainframe's capabilities in the real world? How can we learn to interact with the mainframe, learn its capabilities, and understand its importance to the business world? Major corporations are eager to hire new mainframe professionals, but there's a catch: Some previous experience would help.

Would we even know a mainframe if we saw one, given that these machines have evolved to flourish in the twenty-first century IT organization? What we need is an experienced guide to lead us on a dinosaur safari, which is where the z/OS® Basic Skills Information Center comes in!