For several years now supercomputer experts are a much searched after target in the German IT market since supercomputers for many enterprises constitute the backbone of their IT-environment. This is not very likely to change in the future, according to the beliefs of Andreas Hermelink, Head of Systems Information IBM System z: "The modern architecture of the current supercomputers benefits users, who increasingly consolidate distributed environments on state-of-the-art IBM systems z platforms, in order to optimize administration costs and energy and space restrictions in the supercomputing centres, as well as to gain stability and security."

The themes addressed in the one-week Mainframe Summit, held from 2-6 July 2007 at the Humboldt University in Berlin in co-operation with IBM, range from the modern architecture of state-of-the-art supercomputers to virtualization, Linux and Java. Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Spruth from the Leipzig University and the University in Tübingen, and educational staff from IBM will teach - apart from the basics of the architecture and professional z/OS system - the principles of virtualization with z/VM and Linux for System z, as well as of the transaction management, and show how Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) means are being applied to upgrade supercomputer applications. The week will end with practice-oriented presentations held by leading mainframe users from Germany (HUK-COBURG) and from Switzerland (UBS).

In addition GUIDE SHARE EUROPE (GSE), the large IBM User Group, will offer the Humboldt University a free GSE-Germany membership. "This will enable students at the Informatics Department to present interesting theses study themes in the framework of the events organized by the 52 German GSE professional institutions, to enter in discussion with enterprise representatives and to largely increase their professional opportunities", stated Dr. Michael Wei&szelig;, GSE Region Manager in Germany. The professional organizations are largely focused on the thematic software and hardware aspects of the System z, but also highlight other system platforms and their applictions, for example System p of SAP-tools.

Prof. Dr. Jens-Peter Redlich, Head of the Institute for Informatics and Head of the Department of System Architecture at the Humboldt University in Berlin, explained why such an educational offer in the academic programme can be very useful: "Mainframes and application systems based on these supercomputers are a very exciting topic for our IT students. This allows them to see how theoretical concepts can be transformed into practice and how they can be driven to the frontier of their implementation. In contrast with the general opinion, many of the current informatics themes already since decades have sprung from the mainframe environment and are now made ready for general public access thanks to ongoing developments in PC hardware. These exactly are the basic and long term informatics themes that we want to offer to our students for their future professional life. With IBM, a pioneer in this area, we have found a strong partner, who can impart to our students these concepts and also the professional users' viewpoints, in order to enhance our own education."