Biography

Jim Elliott
Consultant at GlassHouse Systems Inc.

Jim works as a consultant at GlassHouse Systems Inc. supporting their mainframe (IBM zSystems and IBM LinuxONE) customers across Canada and the USA.
Click here for a high-res photo
He spent most of his career at IBM in technical roles and from 1992 had been the Product Manager for the mainframe operating systems in Canada. From May 1998 to December 2001 he was a mainframe Product Manager for IBM Americas where he led the launch of Linux on the mainframe. From January 2002 to May 2007 he was the Linux and Open Source leader for IBM Canada and then moved to mainframe sales in May 2007. He took on his final role at IBM as Canadian mainframe technical sales leader in January 2015 and retired in January 2016.
He is a graduate of the BC Institute of Technology, has co-authored over 20 IBM Redbooks, and is a speaker on information technology across the US and Canada. Jim is also the Virtualization Project Manager in the Linux/VM Program at SHARE. He splits his time between Toronto, Ontario and Vittoria, Ontario. 

Detailed time-line of my IT career: 
  • From June 1973 through August 1976 he was in operations then a systems programmer in the IBM Canada Computing Centre in Vancouver, BC.
  • From August 1976 through November 1978 he was a branch systems engineering rep in the retail sector in Vancouver.
  • From November 1978 through December 1981 he was an application developer working at the IBM Toronto Lab.
  • From December 1981 through August 1984 he was a systems analyst at the IBM Americas/Far East HQ in White Plains, NY.
  • From September 1984 through June 1992 he was a technical specialist supporting VM and VSE in the Canadian Systems Centre in Toronto.
  • From 1991 through 1993 Jim also provided support for the OS/2 version 2 beta programs and was a Canadian lead for Team OS/2 through 1996.
  • From June 1992 through May 1998 he was in addition the product manager for the VM/ESA, MVS/ESA, OS/390, and VSE/ESA operating systems for IBM Canada.
  • From May 1998 through December 2001 he was also the product manager for VM/ESA and VSE/ESA for IBM Americas in White Plains, NY. During this period he was responsible for launching Linux on IBM S/390 (now z Systems) mainframes for IBM Americas.
  • From January 2002 through May 2007 he was the Advocate for Linux, Open Source, and Virtualization across all IBM Systems products and in that role led IBM Canada's activities in this area. He continued as the product manager for the System z operating systems (z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, and Linux on System z) for IBM Canada.
  • In May 2007 he moved back to the mainframe team as a Consulting Sales Specialist covering Western Canada. He continued as the product manager for the System z operating systems and as Linux Champion for IBM Canada.
  • In January 2008 he took on the additional leadership role for "New Workloads" on System z across Canada.
  • In January 2009 Jim took on the responsibility for all System z customers in Canada outside Ontario and Quebec, and for General Business customers in Ontario.
  • In January 2010 he changed his System z sales role to directly support the General Business customers and business partners across Canada and continued the "New Workloads" on System z role.
  • In January 2012 he added responsibility for System z customers in Quebec.
  • In January 2013 he added responsibility for System z customers in the Commercial and Provincial Public sectors.
  • In November 2013 he added responsibility for System z customers in the Federal Public sector as the mainframe sales rep.
  • In January 2014 server sales in Canada was reorganized into into five units and Jim became the System z sales rep for the Canadian federal government while also providing support to the Industry (Public and Commercial) and Enterprise (West, Ontario/Atlantic, and Quebec) customers in Canada. He continued as the System z rep for the Federal Public sector.
  • In January 2015 moved into the consultant sales role for z Systems supporting all the server reps and all mainframe customers in Canada and he retired on from IBM January 31, 2016. 
  • On February 1, 2016 Jim started working at GlassHouse Systems as their lead mainframe technical specialist.