If you are in the Baltimore/Washington area I want to make you are aware of two upcoming DB2 events – the September Baltimore/Washington DB2 Users Group meeting with a special LUW track on September 15th, and a hands-on pureQuery Proof of Technology The Fillmore Group is hosting in our Towson headquarters the following day, September 16th. 

IBM Silicon Valley Lab’s Vijay Bommireddipalli is presenting at the users group meeting the 15th on .NET and Java tuning, then leading the pureQuery PoT the following day.  Read More…

Kimberly Madia’s IBM/Optim team is hosting a Virtual Tech Briefing this Thursday:

DB2 Connect for DBAs: A Primer and Look Ahead

Whether you are a DB2 for LUW DBA who would like to access enterprise information or a z/OS DBA wondering how all those Java and .NET programmers are getting to your data, DB2 Connect is the solution.   Frank Fillmore, A DB2 Gold Consultant with an extensive history in training and consulting, will step you through a DB2 Connect primer from end-to-end, including platform architecture, DB2 Connect configuration parameters, and more. Case studies from large scale DB2 Connect health checks will be included.   IBM’s Kevin Foster, who manages the development of the product, will be on hand to discuss licensing, new packaging options such as the DB2 Connect Advanced Edition, which provides pureQuery acceleration in the box, and upcoming changes to the product.

Date: 19 August 2010
Time:  10:00-11:00AM Pacific, 1:00-2:00PM Eastern
Register here: http://ow.ly/2iAlr

While the IBM Optim teams are excited to see customers adopting InfoSphere Data Architect, everyone recognizes the journey from CA ERwin to IDA can be frustrating.   The Optim team has been working to develop more resource materials for ERwin users and recently emailed a new Tips & Tricks guide developed by Joe Cullen.  If you find this valuable please let us know, and we will let you know when the new materials are released.  Thanks to Joe Cullen for offering to share this with the community!

IDA Tips&Tricks by Joe Cullen

The developerworks team has announced a free technical webcast next week on pureQuery, based on feedback from the z community.  Like other developerworks webcasts it will be available for replay - as is the recommended prerequisite, pureQuery Part 1.

pureQuery Deep Dive Part 3:  Client Optimization Administration Enhancements for DBA’s

June 24th, at 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific

Our dynamic duo of client optimization experts is back again!  Patrick Titzler and Chris Farrar, who some of you may remember from pureQuery Deep Dive Part 1, will discuss the enhancements released in Fix Pack 3 in Optim Development Studio and pureQuery Runtime that make the maintenance, security, and management of the client optimization processes better for DBA’s.  These enhancements are driven by real customer experiences and are centered around a relational repository that enhances security, fosters collaboration and streamlines the process of administering a pureQuery-enabled application.  Tooling support for these capabilities in Optim Development Studio will be demonstrated. 

Register today and don’t miss out on your opportunity to hear from the experts!

I was finally able to confirm all the speakers for the LUW track at the December meeting and - wow! - here’s the lineup summary:  Curt Cotner and Paul Westfall from IBM, and the BWDB2UG board’s own Steve Rosenberger from FEPOC doing a user case study on their archiving implementation.  If you are in the area on Wednesday, December 9th, PLEASE join us - it should be great…the z/OS track includes Rick Weaver from BMC and Roger Miller.  Great presenters and great networking.  Hope to see you!  The full agenda is included after the jump and all the registration and PayPal access is through our (new) website at: www.bwdb2ug.org.

Read More…

My colleague, Kim May, will be leading a birds-of-a-feather (BOF) session at IBM’s Information On Demand Conference today - ”Becoming an Information Champion for Dummies”.  The particulars are:

BOF-1631A; Wednesday, October 28, 6:00 p.m.; Tradewinds F

Hope to see you there.

I am ready to leave for IOD and had some thoughts on this year’s conference based on what I’ve heard (unconfirmed, ok?)  It’s sad to hear from so many customers that they cannot attend.  IOD and IDUG offer DB2 users the broadest perspective on what’s happening in the world of OUR technology, and it seems the many incentives of attending - great training and lots of discussion about what new features and functionality are being planned, or have already been added (but no one knows about).  One vendor I spoke to estimated IOD attendance will be 80% vendors and IBM’ers, and 20% customers.  Bummer!

I think it’s important that every DB2 user get a sense of the strategy to merge all the acquired products into a comprehensive toolkit.  For those of you who won’t be at the conference, here are some suggestions: Read More…

I am excited to report that my IOD Birds of a Feather session on becoming an Information Champion was selected and will be held on Wednesday, October 28th, at 6pm at the IOD Conference.  Given that I am probably the least technical Information Champion I thought that if I could do it, so can anyone, and I thought it would be helpful to discuss the process with other future Champions.  If you are coming to IOD, I hope you will attend. 

IBM’s Amit Patel, who is serving as the communications focal point for the Information Champions, has offered to help, and I have asked another *technical* Information Champion to help as well.  When he accepts (I hope!) we will have an all-star cast ready (along with me) to assist our colleagues.  The session specifics are:

Becoming an Information Champion for Dummies  
Abstract:   IBM Information Champion program recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the Data Management community. Sounds kind of daunting, doesn’t it? Well, it shouldn’t if you have been working with IBM Information Management products and stay involved with the community. Read More…

I can finally announce it - it’s finalized - Chris Eaton will be here September 9th for the Baltimore/Washington DB2 Users Group meeting.  For me, this is a big, big deal.  The turnout for the June meeting was disappointing and the board agrees that the LUW and z/OS track folks really need to be meeting together to encourage networking and all the social aspects of the users group.  So we are doing both tracks together September 9th in Columbia, with the hotel offering us an extra room and the attendees all getting a sit-down lunch - together, in one dining room. 

The LUW agenda is below.  Joining Chris presenting are *two* DB2 Gold Consultants - Frank Fillmore (on DB2 Connect) and Dave Beulke (on Java tuning and Data Studio).  Registration and the z/OS agenda are on the website at www.bwdb2ug.org.  If you are in town, please join us - this is like getting best of IOD in one day!

Read More…

The dog days of summer are upon us and seem even more dreadfully slow than usual given the impact of the crummy economy. It’s good to see the stock market back up over 9,000 but the rumbles of pent-up demand haven’t started the phones at The Fillmore Group ringing. It’s OK; we’re patient, and I am happy to have some really positive news to report on the DB2 training front.

First, based on some reorganization within the Information Management training group, a legacy FileNet training sales guru has been moved into the lead role for North American Information Management sales. Czar Barraza is bringing welcome, fresh energy to the sales team, and helping us raise awareness of the value that niche, skilled partners like The Fillmore Group bring to the classroom. I look forward to sharing some news about some new courses we will be offering soon, along with some other training offerings Czar and his team are developing.

The second item is that we have gathered enough students to deliver a second (!) DB2 Connect class this year…Frank will deliver the DB2 Connect Performance and Troubleshooting course, CF632, starting August 10th. We marketed the class with an offer of a Chesapeake Bay summer seafood dinner (crabs, Chincoteague oysters, etc. - yum) and got a great response. This course hasn’t run in almost three years, so in spite of the economy, people continue to learn more about DB2. And…yes, there are still seats available (Register) so if you are craving crabs and beer - please join us!