Venkat Balabhadrapatruni
Distinguished Engineer, Broadcom Mainframe SoftwareAdvocating for the boundless possibilities for business innovation with the mainframe
Advocating for the boundless possibilities for business innovation with the mainframe
“The mainframe is a continuous learning experience, and there is nothing more satisfying than that.”
As a master’s student at Northern Illinois University, Venkat Balabhadrapatruni learned how important mainframes are to industries like finance, banking, insurance, retail, and travel. He studied mainframe programming languages including COBOL, High Level Assembler, and JCL, which are the backbone of the applications that run the world. But during his studies, Venkat found that the lack of common development tools such as IDEs or debugging aids presented a challenge. Solving that challenge motivated him to pursue a career in mainframe.
Venkat’s interest in IT began at a young age. His father worked at a scientific organization near his school, and Venkat would spend time there in the afternoons. He got a first-hand view of how IT was starting to reshape scientific research and saw the first computer executing assembly instructions. That experience laid the foundation for his future career.
From graduate student to mainframe expertAfter earning his degree, Venkat hit the ground running at IBM. During his first job as a software developer, he integrated a static analysis product with a source configuration system running on mainframe in order to help customers analyze the relationships between the source code. Venkat went on to become the team lead and then the chief architect of the product, eventually also taking on the role of engineering manager. After wearing two hats for six years, he switched his focus to the technical track as an architect, eventually getting promoted to the role of Distinguished Engineer. After 17 years with IBM, he accepted a position as DevOps Solution Architect with CA Technologies, which was later acquired by Broadcom.
Read moreBroadcom’s Mainframe Software Division delivers a portfolio of tools used by mainframe teams to leverage contemporary, hybrid development practices without disruption. As a technical architect, Venkat is responsible for designing and architecting solutions that enable customers to transform how they develop and maintain mainframe applications. A typical day involves technical conversations, reviews of the technical implementations of new features with teams, customer calls, and writing code for new proof-of-concept prototypes. He enjoys partnering with customers to create solutions that drive meaningful outcomes. “That’s the part I love most: understanding their challenges, brainstorming, and then transforming those ideas into a solution that can bring value to our customers,” says Venkat.
Advantage: Mainframe“The technical capabilities that I view as a differentiator when it comes to IBM Z are all of the ‘ilities,’ which include reliability, availability, securability, and scalability,” says Venkat. “The thing that motivates me the most is keeping up with the evolution of the IBM Z® platform and enabling our customers to take advantage of that. IBM Z is the most modern platform, preserving the quality of service that enterprises want while enabling new workloads such as AI processing in a seamless fashion,” says Venkat. “The obvious benefit is performance, but the most important benefit is security. Organizations are able to run these models without having to worry about their data, their crown jewels, or their IP leaving the platform.”
Advice to new mainframersFor someone considering a career in mainframe, Venkat has some words of wisdom: “Focus on what drives you. What kind of challenges are you ready to take on? The set of challenges, the opportunities are immense. So, if you have a mindset of solving problems, that's what matters. And IBM Z technology provides a perfect platform to feed the problem-solving capability while giving you an opportunity to drive more and more innovation with the latest set of technologies and trends coming to the platform.”
When he was just starting out, Venkat had the luxury of many mentors who were eager to welcome the new kid and share their experience and expertise. “The people and the wonderful ecosystem are what make IBM Z special,” says Venkat. “My colleagues helped me translate the building blocks of the knowledge that I built as part of my master's program into something that I can use to do my job in an effective way.”
Venkat’s commitment to community engagement and skills development shines through his work with the Broadcom Mainframe Vitality Program cultivating future-ready mainframe talent and infusing new perspectives and energy across the ecosystem Venkat highlights the B. He also recommends the IBM Z and LinuxONE Community, IBM Z Xplore, the IBM Mainframe Skills Depot, and the Open Mainframe Education initiative. “A combination of these will help anybody who's looking to either restart or jump into a new mainframe career,” says Venkat.
“The first and foremost resource that anybody can leverage is the mainframe ecosystem. It’s a very vibrant and extensive community. Anybody can just jump in and ask a question saying, ‘Hey, I want to start.’ And then you'll see a lot of people jumping in to help you,” he adds. “I mentor mainframe professionals and also students who are thinking of pursuing a career in the IT world. I learned so much from my mentors, and I like being able to help the next generation of mainframers.”
“Advocacy for mainframe means a lot to me as a way to build the next generation of talent for this platform. It’s an enabler, it’s an opportunity to mentor, to educate, to guide, not just people who are thinking of starting a career, but also from a customer's perspective.” says Venkat. “Like any other organization, our customers are now proactively building workforce resiliency for the mainframe. Roles are changing, new people are coming in, different mindsets, different technical understanding and expertise are coming in. So, being an advocate enables me to educate people about the importance of the mainframe and the qualities of mainframe, the modern technology that is available on the mainframe, and the innovation possibilities of mainframe across the entire ecosystem.”
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