From Paper Tape and Punch Cards to the Cloud: Data Sets and How They've Evolved

Project and Program: MVS, MVS Storage Management

Tags: Proceedings , SHARE Dallas 2022

We'll start with paper tape and punch cards, and move through all sorts of data set formats and the media they inhabited as we work our towards todays cloud offerings on z/OS. On our journey will, stop by some old disk and tape technology, an explanation of basic data sets versus large format, EAV versus non EAV, a bit of basic SMS, and some VSAM. Additionally, we’ll explore what data sets look like at the track level. We’ll also give a shout out to round tapes, squares tapes and ‘tapes what tapes’ also known as virtual tapes. For some this will be a walk down memory lane and for others an exploration in history of the z/OS platform and how data storage evolved. It will contain allot of images from the past, will hopefully be highly interactive, with attendees encouraged to participate with questions and ‘quick’ anecdotes. And we’ll leave enough time at the end to have an overview of current cloud solutions offered on z/OS.

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