Stress Less, Achieve More: CBT at Work

In today’s high-pressure IT landscape, stress isn’t just an occasional nuisance—it’s a productivity killer, a morale sapper, and a major contributor to burnout. Enter CBT. Not Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, but “Connecticut Bank & Trust Mods Tape,” free, community-contributed utilities for IBM mainframes dating back to the 1970s—providing source code, tools, and virtual tape downloads. It continues to be a vital supplement to physical media and serves as a hub for mainframe developers and administrators.

This session explores CBT Tape’s history, its evolution from magnetic reels to modern web access, and the astonishing breadth of mainframe wisdom it contains—from PDS maintenance to arcane assembler gems. Along the way, we’ll reflect—cheekily—on how having the right tool at the right time can feel a lot like therapy.

Whether you're new to the platform or still hoarding JCL from 1986, come discover how CBT can help you stress less, debug faster, and achieve more—without paying a therapist or lying on a couch.

And now for something completely useful... Python meets Db2

In the spirit of doing something completely different—but incredibly practical—this session dives into using Python with IBM Db2, whether you're working on the mainframe (z/OS) or on Linux/Unix/Windows (LUW). Using the ibm_db library, we’ll explore how Python can simplify and supercharge your database interactions.

Through hands-on examples, live code walkthroughs, and a collection of field-tested hints and tips, you’ll learn how to connect, query, and manage Db2 databases using Python. This session is designed for both developers and DBAs looking to modernize their workflows, automate routine tasks, or integrate Db2 into broader Python-based applications and scripts.

Whether you're a mainframe veteran or a Python enthusiast, come prepared to laugh a little and learn a lot. Because when it comes to Python and Db2, it’s not just a flesh wound—it’s a full toolkit.

Claims, Drains and Automobiles

Picture a bustling metropolis: thousands of people crossing streets, driving cars, and getting to work. It would be chaos without traffic lights, police officers, or laws. In Db2 for z/OS, that metropolis is data, transactions, utilities, queries, Units of Work. Claims, Drains, Locks, and Latches are the silent traffic controllers keeping the peace.

This presentation explains these concepts using memorable, amusing, everyday illustrations, and with examples, shows why they matter.

1. To understand the concepts of claims, drains, locks and latches, and see examples of each.
2. Learn the different parameters that affect the mechanisms, such as tablsespace DDL, BIND parameters, and SQL clauses.
3. How to improve application performance through lock avoidance techniques.

“Your data or your life!” - What DORA means for your Db2 Database

How much data could your organisation afford to lose?

Is your current backup and recovery strategy good enough?

With the mainframe being the system of record for 80% of the world’s data, it is imperative that your data resilient under any scenario, including the dreaded ransomware attack. Please join us as we walk through what the impending DORA legislation means for you. You will gain an understanding of the current state of Db2 Security and Backup and Recovery strategies, an awareness of DORA, its implications to your recovery strategy, and the consequences of not being prepared for it.

Db2 under siege: real-world exploits and defence strategies

This talk examines the evolving threats to IBM’s Db2 database, including SQL injection, privilege escalation, and misconfigurations. The paper highlights real-world attacks and offers practical defense strategies like patch management, encryption, and role-based access controls. It aims to equip IT professionals with the tools to safeguard Db2 environments from emerging cyber threats.

Driving Down Database Development Dollars

Application developers and database administrators alike are under constant pressure to drive down costs and reduce CPU cycles. This talk suggests some technical tips and cultural changes to Developers, DBAs, and Operations, to address this ubiquitous challenge facing mainframe enterprises world-wide.

Tips for DBAs and Application Programmers to help reduce costs

Squeeze your Data with Db2

This intermediate level presentation quickly covers the history of compression in Db2 for z/OS, from V3.1 to Db2 12. We will review the original tablespace row compression, index compression, LOB compression, and Huffman compression, with a glance at some application performance considerations.

A Row's Life

Rows in a DB2 z/OS database get mauled and moved and wholly and partially duplicated. There are different ways to find them and different surroundings. And most DBAs find they need to understand these transformations thoroughly to manage performance and recovery and even security. In this presentation, we take a light-hearted view of one row’s life to emphasize some of the internals of DB2 on the z/OS platform.

Explaining the lifecycle of a row in a Db2 table, from insertion to deletion, via updates, alters and reorgs.

Express Yourself!

A regular expression is a sequence of characters that define a search pattern. They have been around since the '60s, but only recently have adopted more ubiquitously across platforms. This session hopes to enlighten the user to the history, use and implementations of regular expressions, and how they can be used in Db2.

DevOps vs. DBAs

The role of the DBA has evolved over the years. As businesses across the globe embrace digital transformation, and customer expectations increase, the traditional rules of engagement must be reconsidered, and the DBA remains a key lynch-pin in the Agile journey to DevOps. This presentation will review the old rules of engagement, and express the importance of communication, trust, embracing change, and automation tools in modern software development.

How Dev, Ops and DBAs can not only co-exist, but cooperate effectively to drive business value in an Agile way.

Db2 by the back door

We are very familiar with the traditional methods of getting at Db2 and your data. This presentation guides you through new and exciting way of accessing Db2.We will consider the Java Command Line Program via ZSS, the Zowe CLI and other Db2 extensions, how to build and invoke your own REST services, and how to access Db2 using the Python programming language, whether on or off the mainframe.