John Rhodes, CTO at CM First Group, joins Andy Wig on IT Social Hour to look at the Q1 survey results of TechPulse, TechChannel's new micro-survey program. Rhodes provides insights on the rapid rise of AI as an essential technology, how technologies that lower barriers to entry help address the skills gap, and why some organizations put security on the back burner ... until they get burned.

Mike Schuett, marketing director at TL Ashford, joins Andy Wig to look at the first three months of TechChannel's new micro-survey program, TechPulse. As he inspects the results, Schuett provides his thoughts on the predominance of hybrid cloud, the challenges of posed by the skills gap, and the value of having a trusted centralized data source.

Niall Ashley, a technical consultant at Vertali, shares his unique perspective on the mainframe industry in this episode of IT Social Hour. Ashley describes his professional origins in the aerospace industry, the value of challenging the “because we’ve always done it this way” mentality, how mainframers are like bakers, and the mainframe’s past—and potentially future—role in the video game industry.

IBM i consultant Marius Le Roux joins Charlie Guarino on TechTalk SMB to discuss the friendly community surrounding IBM i, why authoring the IBM i 7.6 Redbook made him feel like a spy, why AI might one day be seen as an OS, and more.

Coming from an array of unique backgrounds, this collection of standout early-career technologists explain the keys to their success on IBM Power and IBM Z systems.

'IT Social Hour': Meet the 'Big Iron Bits' Team (Including Chaz and Reg!) by TechChannel

PC Richard & Son, an appliance and electronics retailer with 60 stores in the northeastern U.S., has about 35 developers on its IT team. And in this current age of job-hopping, they have an average tenure of just under 17 years with the company. Steve Wolk, the company's CTO and a distinguished IBM i evangelist, goes on TechTalk SMB to explain how other companies might enjoy similar success in attracting and retaining IBM i talent. Speaking with host Charlie Guarino, Wolk divulges some of his favorite—if unusual—interview questions and explains what IBM i shops should be looking for in new hires. (Hint: It has nothing to do with coding skills.)

Megan Olson, software engineer and product manager at Fortra, joins Charlie Guarino on "TechTalk SMB" to discuss the critical role of mentorship in the IBM i community and the importance of building "unicorns," among other topics.

For this episode of TechTalk SMB, Charlie Guarino interviews worldwide thought leader on AI for IBM Power, Dr. Sebastian Lehrig. Dr. Lehrig describes unique value the Power platform provides for AI workloads and discusses the challenges many organizations are facing in moving pilots to production and achieving measurable ROI.

Dr. Joe Gulla, author of TechChannel's "z/OS and Friends" series, joins Andy Wig on IT Social Hour to discuss how he went from music theory major to mainframe devotee, why he still gets emotional about the mainframe, and why, at age 72, "z/Architecture Principals of Operation" still fills him with wonder.