FOR years, businesses that use mainframe technology have been seeing their seasoned professionals retire. Now, companies are struggling to find new talent to fill a skills vacuum. When they do, it is difficult to properly train candidates in the absence of guidance from experienced resource persons.

According to Coursera's Global Skills Report, the Philippines is an emerging power in terms of technical skills in the creation, maintenance, and scaling of computer systems and software. In an online chat with The Manila Times, Praveen Kumar, senior vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific at Rocket Software explains the relevance of mainframes today, the emerging tech talent gap in mainframe and what companies could do to fill the vacuum.