Category: Uncategorized

By Wendy Sanacore
After several months of work, TxMQ, a national Enterprise IT Staffing & Solutions company based here in Amherst, was notified that they reached IBM’s prestigious Premier Business Partner Status. This status was awarded on October 5, 2012 after aggressive efforts led by Wendy Sanacore, IBM Program Lead, Manager of Marketing & Special Projects.
This distinguishes TxMQ as one of only five IBM Premier Business Partners based in the Buffalo area, and the only one with authorization to resell the WebSphere brand family as well as the Datapower SOA appliance family.
IBM uses the Premier Partner program to recognize technology providers who maintain excellent customer relationships as well as remain up to date on technology, technical skills, product information and teaching. By obtaining Premier Partner Status, TxMQ has realized an ongoing commitment to partnering with IBM and providing valuable solutions to our clients.
“TxMQ is fully committed to IBM and our efforts to promote and support the IBM product lines moving forward.   We are particularly focused on our efforts selling and supporting IBM’s WebSphere brand family and DataPower SOA appliances.  We feel the achievement of Premier Partner status sends a strong message to our customers that we have the best team of client managers and subject matter experts to meet and surpass our clients’ technology expectations,” said Chuck Fried, TxMQ’s President and CEO. “We are excited to leverage this new relationship and see the growth that it has already brought to TxMQ. We’re looking forward to a great 2013,” added Sanacore
TxMQ is a full service solution provider.
In addition to this partnership designation, TxMQ is also an approved IBM WebSphere Core and DataPower/CastIron reseller. As a full services solution provider, TxMQ can now handle the full sales cycle from the sale or re-licensing of WebSphere products to the subject matter experts to support and implement it after the sale is complete. WebSphere users no longer need to look in two different places for sales and support; with TxMQ, it now comes bundled in one package.
ABOUT TXMQ
TxMQ provides flexible IT solutions across all divisions and departments within a company. Known as a leading staffing agency, TxMQ provides placement of permanent and contract professionals within a wide variety of skill sets. In addition, TxMQ’s IT solutions can take the headache out of any IT challenge

by Corey Switzer-Kruss
This week we popped lunchtime champagne to celebrate something pretty cool that a few incredibly hard-working TxMQ’ers  have accomplished for the good of the company.
We FINALLY received word, after over a year of hard work and collaboration and paperwork and follow up and more paperwork and waiting that TxMQ has been awarded a GSA Contract!!
Normally you’d get this good news from my co-blogger, Wendy, but SHE has been a driving force behind this initiative along with Mel and Chuck. It’s not Wendy’s nature to be self gratuitous, so I’m taking over with the praise.
I salute the three of you!  What an incredible feat!
Now, because I always try to keep my blogs educational (sometimes I accomplish this better than others) I will ask the rhetorical question, WHAT IS A GSA CONTRACT?
In short, a GSA contract allows a business like TxMQ to to do business with the federal government and all of its agencies. A business cannot work with the federal government without a GSA contract in place.
Why is this exciting? Well – no one knows for sure how much money the federal government spends on this or that, but we are acutely aware of the fact that the spend is large, VERY LARGE. This GSA has opened the door to the “federal bakery” so that we may attempt to munch on a piece of the pie.
In Chuck’s words, it “allows us to extend industry leading practices in staffing to the federal sector”.
Nicely put Chuck!
SO – contractulations guys! (Do you see what I did there? That’s called a Portmanteau just in case you have been wondering since the title)

By Wendy Sanacore
T Minus 21 hours until the Tough Mudder…
I’m sitting at my desk mentally preparing for this weekend’s Tough Mudder challenge in Toronto. For those of you who don’t know what the Mudder is, it’s a mud obstacle course designed by the British Special Forces to test strength, stamina, team work and drive. You can see more here, www.toughmudder.com
10 miles, 19 obstacles and beer and orange headband awarded at the end. What could be better?
As I read all about the Mudder, people say so many times over that it isn’t physical strength that’s going to get you through it, it’s mental determination and just outright grit. How else do you face the side of a slippery, muddy ski slope and begin climbing it, only to get to the top and need to scale a cargo net or crawl through a small black tube or something else of the sort?
Am I going to want to quit halfway through? Of couse. Will I? Heck NO!
So I write this blog for a couple reasons and perhaps it may seem a stretch for you to understand how I am aiming to tie it into work, but we’ll get there.
REASON #1: I’m just so freaking excited that it’s hard to keep my mind on work so I decided to make work about what I am excited for, so I write this blog.
REASON #2: I’ve several times mentioned the balance between work and personal life and working for an employer who understands this balance. Finding that employer is so important and money can’t always be the driving factor behind staying at a job. I trained for this Mudder on my lunch hours. Because I have a flexible employer (who by the way, also pays my gym memberships as well as the fee to this Mudder thing), I was able to get to the gym, do my running and complete my circuit cardio workouts. I had a baby 2 years ago and with a little one at home, it’s extremely difficult to make the time to get to the gym before and after work, so I go smack dab right in the middle. And I am so thankful for that opportunity. You don’t have many people who have the ability to do that mid-day. My boss, Chuck Fried, understands the balance of work/life and is an avid athlete himself, so he knows what it’s like to face down a challenge and hit it head on. In fact, he encourages it, hence the company paying for any organized event its employees would like to participate in. And actually, we’re all participating together in a run again on September 8 called the Finn McCool. That one is a 4 mile mud run and 3 of us from the office are running it with friends and family.
REASON #3: You’re only as strong as your mind allows you to be. Training is physical, sure, but the mind is the tool that’s going to push you through when you think you can’t go any further. But that applies to every day work life, and not just physical challenges. When you hit a wall at work, what do you do? The most successful people won’t just sit back and pout, they will find a way around it. (Or in the Mudder’s case, over it…)
Take your daily work obstacles and make them a challenge. You don’t know the answer to something or something seems out of your comfort zone? Look it up, ask some questions, do some research, try something new. Don’t let it stop you there. Push your mind through and allow yourself to reach new heights.
I’m not in any way, shape, or form saying the Mudder is going to be a cake walk, but I do know that when I cross the finish line (after running through a force field of wires delivering up to 10,000V of electricity) I’m going to be proud of my effort. My blood, sweat and tears will be left on that course. I’m encouraging you to leave your blood, sweat and tears in your work every day. It’s going to make you a better employee and a better person!
OK, now that I’m finished with that…T-minus 20 1/2 hours.

By Corey Switzer-Kruss
Whenever I’m having a blogging brain freeze I know I can turn to Popular Science (www.popsci.com) for a good tech story!
Today’s little tidbit of information reminds me of movies like Back to the Future II where Michael J. Foxx and Christopher Llyod travel through time in their souped-up Delorean DMC-12 to the year 2015 only to find that the future was filled with hover-craft skateboards.
Back in 1990 we really hoped that hoverboards were in our future, but in 2012 (a mere 3 years from the future of 2015) we know it’s just not gonna happen.
Why the anecdote?
Here’s why; whenever I think of the future I dream of cars that drive themselves. You just plug your destination into a GPS and press “GO”. The car’s internal computer can access speed limits and accelerate/decelerate accordingly, there are sensors that will brake the car in traffic, and you can kick back with a beer (b/c you’re not driving!!) and enjoy the ride. THIS is my perfect future (haha).
So when I read the article entitled Europe Will Require New Vehicles to Include Autonomous Self-Braking System I leapt out of my seat! Is one of my “back to the future” dreams being realized?!
Now, not everyone is as psyched as I am about this new technology. As a matter of fact, people feel that it’s taking too much control away from the driver. I personally think it’s an experiment that will either epically fail (if the technology is forced into these cars before all the kinks are worked out, this is certain to happen) or usher in a new age of automotive awesomeness and safety on the roads. Remember when cars were only manufactured with a manual transmission? I don’t; too young. BUT, today cars are only manufactured with a manual tranny by request. I believe the natural evolution of vehicles has ultimately been leading to this space-aged point. Perhaps in 40 years we won’t even need Driver’s Licenses because we will all be passengers in our own cars.
According to the European Commission, this AEB (autonomous emergency braking) system will begin with installation in all brand new commercial vehicles by 2013. It’s expected that passenger vehicles will follow suit shortly thereafter. Oh Europe – you’re so hip. Can you please start commissioning your engineers to design a hoverboard next?

By Wendy Sanacore
More than a year ago, a malware virus took over many personal computers. To control the virus spread, the FBI realized they couldn’t just turn off the malicious servers last year because all victims would lose their Internet service. Instead, the FBI set up a safety net by bringing in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers to users would not suddenly be without Internet access.
On Monday, however, the temporary Internet system they set up will be shut down. About 64,000 computers are most likely still infected in the United States and more than 277,000 worldwide. And most victims don’t even know their computers are infected.
To check whether a computer is infected, users can visit this website run by a group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org.
Q: What can I do if it appears that my PC is infected?
A: Make sure you have updated, working anti-virus protection, and educate yourself about how to use the scanning and cleanup tools that come with the top consumer anti-virus products. Keep in mind that malware is designed to resist detection and cleanup. Many types can only be eliminated by installing a fresh copy of the Windows operating system.
Q: What happens if I’m cut off?
A: You will have to contact your Internet service provider for help reconnecting to the Internet. Insist on guidance to also delete the malware, or criminals will continue to control your machine. Google and Facebook have created special warnings for this particular case. And Internet service providers have plans to try to help keep victims online. Comcast, for instance, has sent out e-mail, letters and Web notices to customers whose computers appeared to be affected.

By Wendy Sanacore
As of September 30, 2012 IBM will be discontinuing WebSphere Application Server V6.1 support for the following products:

• WebSphere Application Server V6.1
• WebSphere Application Server Express V6.1
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V6.1
• WebSphere Application Server for Developers V6.1
• WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition V6.1 for Novell SLES
• WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition V6.1 for AIX
• IBM HTTP Server for WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition V6.1 on Novell SLES
• IBM HTTP Server for WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition V6.1 on AIX
• IBM WebSphere Application Server for System i Version 6.1.
• IBM WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Version 6.1

IBM Software WebSphere related support lifecycle Dates

To view the details of all IBM software Support lifecycles, click here.

*Note: WebSphere typically maintains a version for around 5-6yrs. If you are running WebSphere V7, it is not too early to start planning for Migration to V8.

Schedule Your WebSphere Application Server V8 Migration Today

Don’t get caught without WebSphere Application Server V6.1 support. It’s time to upgrade your application environment and migrate to WebSphere Application Server V8, and it’s never to early to plan ahead for a V7 migration as well.
Call 716-636-0070 to schedule a scoping call with one of TxMQ’s consultants to help you with your migration project. Your needs are going to be individual depending on your current versions and applications. While your company may upgrade to version 8, it may be necessary for you to run version 6.1 concurrently until all applications have been updated.
A certified TxMQ subject matter expert can help you determine the best solution for your migration needs.
Here are some basic migration questions you can be prepared to answer for your TxMQ consultant when you’re beginning the upgrade process.

1. What WebSphere software is installed?
2. Is the WebSphere in homogenous or heterogeneous environment(s)?
3. What JDK are you currently using?
4. Is your JDK compatible with WAS V8? (WAS V6.1 runs on JDK1.5 and WAS V8 requires JDK 1.6)
5. Are you running secured or unsecured?
6. What is your JEE deployment process?
7. Do you use JACL or Jython for WebSphere administration?
8. Have you configured a WebSphere V7 or V8 sandbox environment?

WebSphere Application Server V8 was released in June of 2011. It is a Java EE compliant application server with an integrated OSGI applications support.
Here’s what’s new in WebSphere Application Server V8.
*Note: In some cases, a migration to WAS V7 may be a viable option depending on the size of the migration.
Call 716-636-0070 (29) or email [email protected] if you’re interested in speaking with a subject matter expert regarding your WAS V8 migration.

By Wendy Sanacore
I get a lot of inquiries about where techs can get online WebSphere training. May consultants ask me about it because TxMQ is a staffing firm with a particular specialization in WebSphere.
We don’t offer personalized, individual training. We do however offer a fantastic WebSphere Message Broker 7 workshop for companies. The course is designed to provide general technical knowledge for application architects and developers. If you want a full description of the course, please click here.
However, if you are searching for online WebSphere training, I can point you in the direction of IBM’s online course.
The specially designed self-paced virtual course provides the same deep content training as classroom training while saving you time and expenses.
For more information on the IBM WebSphere Education Self-Paced Virtual course, click here.
And as a shameless plug for TxMQ, we are always looking for the next great WebSphere Consultant. If that’s you, please contact us immediately and send your resume over. We probably have your next engagement waiting for you right now!

Here’s a list of the System z webcasts scheduled for March. Email [email protected] if you’re interested in registering for any of these sessions.
March 1 – Increase availability and reduce costs with redesigned OMEGAMON
Highlights
Topics include:
·        Redesigned user interface for an expansive enterprise view
·        Built-in best practices based on problem-solving scenarios
·        Autonomic functions for data synchronization
·        Use of less compute resources and fewer address spaces
·        Monitoring more components of the zEnterprise
Speaker: Mike Goodman, OMEGAMON Product Manager, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: March 1, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, 4:00 p.m. GMT / UTC
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects; IT managers; system analysts; system programmers; and, operations managers
Technical level: Intermediate
When operations staff or system programmers have to navigate multiple systems, applications and products to track down and fix problems — your business is losing valuable time and money. This process also introduces the risk of system outages because problems take too long to resolve. Is that the sound of increased costs? Add to that, the prevalent decrease of maintenance windows, and it’s clear that increasing staff productivity can go a long way toward addressing important issues in IT today.
Attend this complimentary webcast, presented by IBM and SHARE, to learn about the redesigned Tivoli® OMEGAMON® family of products with better monitoring, faster problem management, improved maintenance and decreased resource usage. IBM worked with its customers to understand their top mainframe monitoring and management requirements and redesigned it accordingly. Now you can more easily monitor and maintain your entire mainframe environment, with an enhanced 3270 user interface, problem-solving scenarios, self-describing agents, and support for zEnterprise™ and zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension.
Overall, the new OMEGAMON user interface helps subject matter experts better understand what’s happening on their mainframe with information customized to focus on key problems experienced in System z® environments. This redesigned OMEGAMON can help increase mainframe visibility, decrease costs and reduce risks.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 6 – Customer experiences in maximizing analytics through query acceleration
Highlights
Topics include:
·        Meeting more requirements of business users
·        Improving price/performance for analytic workloads
·        Minimizing the need to create data marts for performance
·        Creating a highly secure environment for sensitive data analysis
Host: Alan Meyer, Senior Marketing Manager, System z Data Warehousing, IBM Software Group
Speakers: Peter Bendel, Senior Developer, DB2 Analytics Accelerator, IBM Software Group
Jeffrey Feinsmith, Director of Integration, Netezza Technology
Frank Neumann, Data Warehousing on System z, Center of Excellence, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: 6, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, 4:00 p.m. GMT / UTC
Developed for: Data center operations and managers; DBAs; IT architects and managers; BI program managers and report authors; BI Competency Center executives
Technical level: Intermediate
With the speed of business today, and the need to make fast, fact-based decisions, organizations are no longer willing to wait on information from slow queries. The new IBM DB2® Analytics Accelerator meets that challenge and is one of the most exciting new products in the IBM Data Warehousing portfolio, creating additional opportunities for analytics on System z®.
The first customer experiences are in and the results are even better than expected. Join us for this complimentary webcast and learn how IBM customers are planning new architectures and new workloads, now possible through the acceleration of their analytic queries. You’ll see how this blending of DB2 for z/OS® and Netezza technologies is simplifying data warehousing environments, facilitating transparent deployment and reduced costs, removing the need to export data off the platform and enabling phenomenal speed. In this one-hour webcast, we’ll review initial analyses from customers, and why they see DB2 Analytics Accelerator as a true game changer.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 8 – See into the heart of CICS and resolve problems faster across LPAR boundaries
Highlights
Topics include:
• Using problem-solving scenarios designed by customers
• CICS and z/OS® monitors combined in an enhanced 3270 workspace
• Fewer screen interactions to find root cause performance impact in real time
Speaker: Mike Goodman, Tivoli OMEGAMON Product Manager, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: March 8, 2012, 11 a.m., EST
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects; IT managers; systems analysts; system and CICS programmers; and, operations managers
Technical level: Intermediate
IBM CICS® performance is important to virtually every business that uses it — and it’s critical to quickly find and fix CICS problems before they become outages. IBM has continued to enhance and extend Tivoli® OMEGAMON® XE for CICS capabilities to make its monitoring and management faster, more productive and more effective.
Join us for this complimentary webcast for an overview of OMEGAMON XE for CICS V5.1 — with enhancements based on customer requirements — as we explore its redesigned, problem-solving features. You’ll learn how greater visibility into CICS can help you resolve issues across Parallel Sysplex® and LPAR boundaries with fewer screens and keystrokes.
In this one-hour webcast, we’ll discuss how OMEGAMON XE for CICS 5.1 helps you more easily monitor and maintain your entire mainframe environment to quickly find and fix problems before they become outages. We’ll also show you how you can exploit IBM’s zIIP hardware to help you more easily meet service level agreements and lower the cost of compute time.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 13 – Beyond migration — Reduce CPU in DB2 10 using DB2 Utilities and Tools
Highlights
Topics include:
·        Minimize downtime associated with routine DB2 data maintenance
·        Set up recurring utility jobs for conditional and routine maintenance tasks
·        Drive significant savings in elapsed time and CPU during utility sort processing, especially LOAD, REORG and RUNSTATS
·        Customize DB2 utility tasks to meet your business needs
Speakers: Haakon Roberts, IBM Distinguished Engineer, DB2 for z/OS® Development, IBM Software Group
Jennifer Nelson, Product Specialist, Rocket Software
Broadcast date: March 13, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 p.m. GMT / UTC
Developed for: Database administrators and managers
Technical level: Intermediate
Most DBAs have a list of things they want to improve after migrating to IBM DB2® 10, and reducing CPU is usually at the top of the list. With the latest DB2 Utility enhancements applied in your environment you can accomplish this and reduce elapsed time during utility processing, automate statistics gathering and potentially eliminate some REORGs altogether.
You can always count on DB2 Utilities and Tools to provide Day 1 support for new releases of DB2. But do you know how to maximize their use in your environment? Are you familiar with the most recent performance features delivered in the DB2 Utilities Suite since DB2 10? Join us for this complimentary webcast and learn more. We’ll focus partly on CPU savings and zIIP offload, but also on features that improve availability in the DB2 Utilities and Tools. We’ll show you how you can take advantage of DB2 Tools in the utility management portfolio to maximize the effective use of DB2 10 Utilities. You’ll come away from this session with valuable, cost-savings and best practices information.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 14 –  Achieving optimum CICS performance
Highlights
Topics include:
·        Where to focus performance tuning efforts that also meet demanding SLAs
·        Automate monitoring of CICS applications and know when they exceed performance thresholds
·        Quickly identify and dynamically respond to out-of-line business situations
·        Ensure the scalability of your application portfolio
·        Take better advantage of the specialty engines
Speaker: Pete Siddell, CICS Tools Technical Specialist, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: 14, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 p.m. GMT / UTC
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects; developers; IT managers; performance specialists; and system programmers
Technical level: Intermediate
With CICS® Transaction Server V4.2, even more optimization opportunities are now available. But with the growing complexity of systems, it can be difficult to take full advantage of them — without the support of powerful monitoring, tuning and reporting utilities. If you use CICS Transaction Server for z/OS®, especially if you use it with IMS Database Manager, attend this webcast to learn how new features in these products can significantly reduce your CPU usage and improve response times.
IBM and SHARE are presenting this complimentary webcast on optimizing the performance of CICS systems and applications. You’ll learn how it not only releases capacity to support new or growing workloads, but also helps to improve response times and increase customer satisfaction. We’ll discuss a powerful set of IBM tools that can work together to support a wide range of performance scenarios, not just threadsafe analysis, but capacity planning, application-level analysis, monitoring and alerting, problem determination, and many others. The webcast will feature extensive demonstrations of key scenarios.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 15 – The critical role of Service Management in moving to cloud on System z
Highlights
Topics include:
• Detect and recover potential problems in essential system resources automatically
• Quickly isolate and take action automatically to resolve issues
• Automate best practices for common data center provisioning activities
• Understand the structure of interdependent and complex applications
Speaker: Mike Baskey, Integration Architect and Chief Architect, Management Standards, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: March 15, 2012, 11 a.m., EDT
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects; IT managers; systems analysts; system programmers; and, operations managers
Technical level: Intermediate
The move to cloud computing is being driven by several problems familiar to most IT professionals:
• Infrastructures that are slow to adapt and hinder business agility
• Software costs that consume a disproportionate share of IT budget
• Security management weaknesses that expose the business
• Inability to respond to peak demand that limits competitiveness
Cloud is all about making it easier to manage resources, and if you’re thinking about moving to cloud on System z®, or zEnterprise™, good Service Management will be key to your success.
In this complimentary webcast, we’ll discuss how to tie discovery and monitoring to performance and workload management, while considering capacity planning of your cloud environment on System z. We’ll show you how you can look across virtual servers — System z, System p® and System x® — and associated workload performance goals, to manage your System z, or zEnterprise, resources. We’ll also discuss how Tivoli™ monitoring can leverage Unified Resource Manager insight at the virtual server and operating system levels. This gives you the Service Management needed to begin a successful cloud implementation.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 20 – What’s new from the Optimizer in IBM DB2 10 for z/OS?
Highlights
Topics include:
·        Enhanced plan management
·        “Safe” query optimization
·        Improvements to complex OR and IN list processing
·        RUNSTATS management and performance improvements
Speaker: Terry Purcell, Senior Technical Staff Member, DB2 for z/OS Optimizer Development, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: March 20, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 p.m. GMT / UTC
Developed for: IT managers; IT and enterprise architects; database administrators and managers; system programmers; and, operations managers
Technical level: Intermediate
One of the most significant benefits of query optimization is reducing the total cost of ownership. Since its initial inception in DB2® for z/OS®, the cost-based Optimizer has continually evolved to deliver expert-based query and workload analysis and many other performance-enhancing functions. In DB2 10, it’s proving to deliver even more.
Join us for a complimentary webcast and learn how the latest enhancements to IBM’s Optimizer are helping customers worldwide. For example, you’ll see how with critical tested selects statements, the DB2 10 Optimizer chose the optimal access path, sometimes even improving previous access path choices in DB2 9. In this presentation we’ll share the insight uncovered during early usage, provide the motivation for each enhancement, and delve into highlights of the actual enhancements.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
 
March 22 – Shave time off application and service delivery with enhanced event management
Highlights
Topics include:
• Proactive discovery capabilities for faster time to resolution
• Asynchronous discovery to ensure that discovered data is accurate and business service views are current
• Multiple, concurrent discovery jobs supported on a single discovery server
Speaker: James Moore, Product Manager, Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: March 22, 2012, 11 a.m., EDT
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects; IT managers; systems analysts; system programmers; and, operations managers
Technical level: Intermediate
To get full value out of IBM zEnterprise™, it should be used to manage mainframe and distributed environments. This requires seeing detailed views of infrastructure, including configurations and seeing the relationships of various components, such as applications and hardware. This information can help you manage events and event results by understanding relationships before the events occur. Are you able to track changes being made to the infrastructure and the change dependencies across software and hardware? By improving application and event visibility with discovery, you can understand the impact of changes, and application or event outages.
If you’re wasting time with manual efforts in trying to find and track all components, infrastructure and their interactions, including application and events — you’re wasting your investment. With the size and complexity of most zEnterprise environments, automated discovery provides a level of event management needed to meet SLAs.
If you’re already on System z® or you’re moving to zEnterprise, you’ve taken the most important step. Now it’s time to make sure you’re taking advantage of recent improvements in performance. The best place to start is by quickly discovering all the applications and events on your mainframe. In this complimentary webcast, we’ll show you how to improve event visibility using Tivoli® Discovery and Integration, enabling big savings in time and cost for application and service discovery across zEnterprise, including Linux® on System z and zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension.
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. The webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
March 27 – IMS database replication for enhanced system resiliency
Highlights
Topics include:
·        Native IMS-to-IMS software replication for high-availability IMS data environments
·        Synchronizing the contents of IMS databases in near real-time with full recovery
·        Hot standby environmental support to reduce recovery time
Speaker: Greg Vance, IMS Replication Development for System z, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: March 27, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 p.m. GMT / UTC
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects; IT managers; database administrators and managers; systems analysts; system programmers; security managers, and, operations managers
Technical level: Intermediate
IBM® IMS™ clients on System z® are always on the lookout for ways to improve system resiliency and availability, especially because IMS remains the lowest cost-per-transaction DBMS. Now there’s a new option. IBM InfoSphere® IMS Replication for z/OS® enables IMS as a source for IBM’s InfoSphere Change Data Capture solutions. This helps increase the availability of IMS data, whether it is for a continuous availability strategy or to ensure the timely distribution of critical enterprise information.
Join Greg Vance, IMS replication subject matter expert, in this complimentary teleconference as he shows how IMS and IBM InfoSphere IMS Replication for z/OS can help improve system resiliency and availability by enabling IMS as a source for IBM’s InfoSphere Change Data Capture solutions. Now, one IMS data replication solution, InfoSphere IMS Replication for z/OS, enables both homogeneous IMS database replication (IMS-to-IMS) and IMS database sourcing for heterogeneous replication. Greg will share details about implementing this solution, as well as an overview of the GDPS® Active/Active sites solution.
Join us after the teleconference for a live question-and-answer session. The teleconference will also be available for replay after the event.