Niall Ashley

Outside of work, Niall’s an IBM Z Champion and has been widely recognized as an influential mainframer in the industry, supporting the next generation of talent in the field.

Playing a new role

“Working in engineering generally, you have this mentality of: how is something broken or inefficient? how can we make it more efficient? how can we fix it? Working in security is a kind of the inversion on that. It’s: how is something vulnerable, how might it be exploited? And then, can we fix that? can we patch that? Also, as someone who has a deep love for video games, you’re constantly looking at—especially in role-playing games—which enemies have resistances and immunities and what are they vulnerable to,” says Niall.

“Fusing all that together for security consulting, as we conduct assessments and penetration tests, it’s all about finding these vulnerabilities, exploiting them, almost making a game out of that in some ways. You’re trying to gain access to a system, and you’re trying to exploit the vulnerabilities yourself. But then for a good security assessment, you want to then follow that with a remediation. That then ties in with your engineering perspectives. You’ve identified the vulnerabilities, you may have even found out how and where they can be exploited. Now it’s the patching, now it’s the resolving of that. So, I think these three mentalities—being an engineer, being a gamer, and then now being a security consultant—they coalesce. They bounce off each other so well.”

Mainframe muscle

“Comparing mainframe technology to traditional desktop computers is like comparing a supercar to a hatchback. The IBM Z platform is remarkably powerful, and its potential is near limitless. With the right skills and knowledge, an incomprehensible number of transactions can be processed each second, and wildly complicated tasks can be completed via batch jobs,” says Niall.

“With the introduction of the IBM zSecure Suite products, there are so many opportunities for enhancing your security, your resiliency opportunities, in a way that I’ve never seen on other systems. The fact that you can have these zSecure alerts popping up, you can even have them sent directly to emails, directly to pagers, that’s just so incredibly useful from a security perspective. With zSecure Admin, you’ve got a convenient and intuitive means of managing the RACF setup, while zSecure Alert and Command Verifier allow CISO teams to track and restrict changes on the system. The amount of joy I experience when finding out a client has zSecure products on their systems is a telltale sign of how geeky I am.”

The mind meld

“This industry is truly something special. You will scarcely find an industry with more people who want to see you grow and thrive. One of the best things I experienced during my change in career was to have a mentor who I could always ask questions. My direct manager has consistently been really reassuring, really supportive and encouraging. I wouldn’t be where I’m now without him. I just want to do the same for new talent: reassuring them, supporting them, encouraging them, and fostering that next generation of wisdom and drive,” says Niall.

Niall encourages those exploring mainframe not to let imposter syndrome stop them. “If they don’t feel confident or they don’t feel like the smartest person in the room, that’s okay; you are not expected to be. But at some point, people will want to listen to you and people will start taking you seriously, and they won’t do that unless you take yourself seriously and you believe in yourself.”

Niall stresses that the mainframe offers varied career options. “There’s a vast amount of opportunity in this industry, regardless of which company and which specific field you want to work in. Maybe it’s as a consultant, it’s as an architect, a stress test engineer. There’s so much opportunity, and the world really is your oyster. Across industries and across continental borders, there really is no limit to what the mainframe can provide to you and what you can provide back to the mainframe.

“For those who are interested in a mainframe career, I would recommend becoming an IBM Z Student Ambassador. There are also so many opportunities to learn, such as the IBM Mainframe Skills Depot and IBM Z Xplore, which is just a fantastic platform for learning. There are also articles, blogs, and community groups like the New to IBM Z User Group chapters all over the world, started and organized by people just for the love of it.”

Influential advocate

Supporting upcoming talent is something that Niall is very passionate about. He is a Co-Chair of WAVEZ, a group within the GS UK community of enterprise IT professionals that is dedicated to supporting aspiring and early-career mainframers. Niall is also active with the New to IBM Z User Group. He says that the mainframe is a platform with a soulful community that works together: presenting at conferences, getting involved on panels, collaborating on articles, and participating in podcasts.

“I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for the advocacy that I’ve done and the credibility that it’s given me in return,” says Niall. “Now I have this opportunity to influence more people and to educate more people. I think advocacy has made me who I am.”