Görkem Gülmez
System Engineer at Garanti BBVA TeknolojiEnsuring that the heart of banking operations doesn’t miss a beat
Ensuring that the heart of banking operations doesn’t miss a beat
“There are a lot of new technologies on IBM Z like on-chip AI accelerators and AI solutions for fraud analysis and detection. In some cases, you may be the first person in your country to use these new technologies, and that’s exciting.”
Banks are at the heart of the world’s economy, processing billions of transactions each hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a process that runs so smoothly, we rarely think about it. For Görkem Gülmez, however, keeping those transactions flowing smoothly is nearly all he thinks about. In his role as a Mainframe System Engineer at Garanti BBVA Teknoloji, Görkem is responsible for ensuring that the Turkish bank’s transactional systems, which run on the IBM Z® platform, are always available and running at optimal performance for their customers.
A typical workday in the life of Görkem Gülmez begins by checking the IBM Z performance analytics and reports to make sure that the mainframe is running efficiently. If any problems arise, Görkem quickly goes into problem-solving mode to correct them. Throughout the day, he also looks for ways to optimize system performance and joins his colleagues in meetings to discuss issues and future plans for their server system infrastructure. In a real sense, Görkem is responsible for making sure that the transactional heart of the bank doesn’t miss a beat.
Always something new to learnGörkem didn’t initially set out on a career as a mainframe engineer. Instead, it was during an internship at an IT company while he was still in school that Görkem was exposed to mainframes. That experience intrigued him enough to learn more about IBM Z online through the IBM Z Xplore challenge-based learning platform, and to engage with the active user community at the IBM Z and LinuxONE Community. According to Görkem: “IBM Z Xplore is a great place for anyone to start. It makes learning a lot more fun and much easier.”
Read moreLearning is a lifelong skill as a mainframe engineer. There’s always something new to learn, whether it’s new applications, automation tools or AI. “You’re always learning new things and solving new problems,” Görkem shares. “It’s like solving a mystery. I think that’s the most exciting part about the mainframe: there are always things to learn and solve.” For Görkem, his days are filled with discoveries as he updates software, troubleshoots problems, aligns systems with new security requirements, maintains performance levels and ensures that the mainframe is running at maximum efficiency.
Solving the challenges of tomorrowWhen the mainframe is running smoothly and efficiently, the bank is able to operate at peak performance, even on the busiest days. Customers enjoy fast, uninterrupted service and transactions are processed quickly and securely. While mainframes may run invisibly in the background from a customer perspective, Görkem is keenly aware of how important they are.
“I think the mainframe’s biggest feature is reliability,” he says, “because we have so many important workloads in our company that need to run seamlessly without a problem. IBM Z can run the most critical workload with zero downtime and has security features that can help us create secure containers and run secure applications.”
Görkem is excited for the future of the IBM Z platform. The IBM Z’s adaptability to new and emerging technologies opens the door to even more possibilities for performance improvements and new capabilities. “There are a lot of new technologies on IBM Z,” he says, “like on-chip AI accelerators and AI solutions for fraud analysis and detection. In some cases, you may be the first person in your country to use these new technologies, and that’s exciting.”
Looking ahead, Görkem adds, “I think people will be talking a lot about IBM Z... especially with the new advancements. I think a lot of companies will need to use those features to solve their problems.”
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