From my colleague, Jim Herrmann:

The Central Ohio DB2 Users Group (CODUG) no longer exists, but we are taking action to bring it back as a tremendous resource for the community and an amazing opportunity for leadership. CODUG is going to be a great DB2 regional users group because the members of the central Ohio DB2 community are going to make it so.

We are going to start out with all of you being a valuable contribution to your community by completing the RSVP for the June 25th, where you will have the ability to choose the presentations that you want to see from our amazing speakers. Use the URL below:

http://goo.gl/mpWT0

The short URL above links to a Google Docs form, which some company firewalls block, in which case you will need to make the extra effort of forwarding and filling out the form from home. Your input is essential to the success of the group. Whether you are planning to come on 6/25 or not, please fill out the form with your information and your vote. It’s free and it puts you in direct communication with the new CODUG!

You would be a further contribution to your friends and coworkers who have built their careers around DB2, on any platform, if you forward this message to them to make certain that they know about this amazing kickoff meeting. Don’t worry about them getting multiple copies, worry about them getting none. Forward this message now, while you’re thinking about it. If you wait, you will forget to do it later, and you will have missed the chance to connect someone to their community.

The meeting will be formatted with a single track in the morning and two tracks in the afternoon, one for DB2 z/OS and one for DB2 LUW. We will actually physically split the room at the lunch break. We have three well known names in the world of DB2 who will be presenting at the meeting. The bios of these three awesome individuals you can find after the attached agenda.

We are building towards an amazing day. Fill out the form, share it, and we will be one step closer to creating something powerful in our lives.

Thank you for your time and your commitment to DB2,
Please don’t forget to join us at Facebook and Linkedin to get to know about future activities at CODUG.
Linkedin group:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CODUG-Central-Ohio-DB2-Users-5014603/about
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CODUG
Agenda

09:00 – 09:30    CODUG Possibility (Jim Herrmann)
09:30 – 10:00    IBM Announcements (Monte Bauman)
10:00 – 10:15    Break
10:15 – 11:30    “DB2 101” or “I didn’t know IBM Information Management could do that!” (Frank Fillmore)
11:30 – 12:45    Lunch
12:45 – 14:15    First afternoon presentation block (Scott Hayes and Robert Catterall)
14:15 – 14:30    Break
14:30 – 16:00    Second afternoon presentation block (Scott Hayes and Robert Catterall)

Frank C. Fillmore, Jr., DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion, is the Founder and President of The Fillmore Group, Inc., a Premier IBM Business Partner that specializes in Information Management (IM) software sales, consulting, and training.  Frank has appeared on the IDUG Experts Panel and frequently presents to customers and local DB2 users groups.  Franks 25 years of field experience spans IBMs Information Integration, Data Governance, Data Warehousing, and Big Data portfolios. Read More…

I was pleased and a bit surprised at the feedback from the blog post and email we sent out about the end of the IBM Authorized Training Program.  I have been gathering information on what the new program means – to IBM customers, training partners and the many independent instructors IBM has worked with over the years – and thought I would post an update.

I apologize if I didn’t respond individually to anyone who contacted me with feedback (it was good to hear from so many people, but wow!)  Overall the response was quite reassuring, as I have often wondered why it seems IBM customers are so reluctant to invest in education and skills.  Maybe they aren’t!

Today, I understand IBM intends to select 3-5 global organizations to take over the management, marketing and delivery of public training classes.  The IBM announcement about the new program is on their website. 

These vendors will manage the selection of instructors, delivery locations (cities and classrooms), and develop their own class schedules.  I’ve spoken to several of the vendors being considered and they seem to have some specific ideas as to how things will work, although quite honestly, there were some significant differences in their expectations.

For those of you who are instructors, I have been told the Global Training Partners will be able to select instructors based on criteria they establish independent of IBM, within their organizations, which essentially negates the IBM instructor authorization process. 

For those of you concerned with the availability of classes in Q3 and Q4 of 2013, it looks like IBM is working with a few providers vying for the Global Training Provider slots (Arrow, Avnet, TUV Rheinland and Learnquest) to build out a skeleton schedule of classes to be delivered in North America in Q3.  Most will be held in NYC and Colorado.  These classes are listed on the IBM training site by location.

As for private classes, I understand IBM intends to continue to coordinate and deliver private classes for customers. 

I hope this helps keep everyone up to date with the changes.  I am anxious and hope The Fillmore Group is able to continue to deliver training to IBM customers.

On April 30th IBM announced several significant solution enhancements related to data management and big data.  These announcements reflect IBM’s commitment to leading the next generation of data solutions through improved functionality in their core database and data warehouse solutions, as well as expanding the capabilities of their solutions built to exploit big data, BigInsights and InfoSphere Streams.  For DB2 database customers IBM announced BLU Acceleration, delivering 8 to 25 times faster reporting and analytics on DB2, along with significant compression and space savings.  For customers considering IBM’s Big Data solutions, IBM announced BigSQL, its ANSI SQL interface that makes BigInsights analysis accessible to business users, not just data scientists.    And for organizations looking to simplify administration, a new appliance, the IBM PureData System for Hadoop was announced.

Join us Thursday, May 9th from 11am-12pm Eastern for an overview of the announcement and learn how your organization can benefit from IBM’s continued investment in data management.  Register here.

Presenter:
Warren Heising, Certified Consulting IT Specialist IBM
Warren is a Certified Consulting IT Specialist for IBM working in the Mid-Atlantic region.  He has over 25 years experience in the database field including 9 years at Informix prior to the IBM acquisition. He has a strong background in both OLTP and DSS Informix products and has worked with numerous clients in both Commercial and Federal accounts. Currently, he supports the full family of IBM Informix products along with DB2 and big data products for the Mid-Atlantic region and is actively involved in Proof of Technology and Proof of Concept scheduling and delivery.

Here’s the “teaser” for IBM’s Big Data Announcement, “Big Data at the Speed of Business” scheduled for 11am today.  Watch the teaser and don’t miss the webcast!

Frank is attending IDUG in Orlando this week to present on one of our favorite new IBM Information Management solutions, Query Capture Replay (QCR).  If you are heading to Florida this week, please say hi to Frank and join him on Thursday, May 2nd, from 3:30pm – 4:30pm in Bonaire 7&8 for his session.  

“Don’t Guesstimate! Migration Testing with Query Capture Replay”

This presentation focuses on several migration use cases for IBM’s new InfoSphere Optim Query Capture and Replay tool, announced in 2012. Query Capture and Replay (QCR) enables users to capture database activity on a production database and run it to analyze and evaluate the performance when changes – to SQL, hardware, operating system software and even the underlying database – are completed. It’s a great new migration tool.

The Fillmore Group’s (TFG) blog ordinarily is focused on technical topics, but when a potentially disruptive business issue impacts our information management software clients I need to give folks a heads-up.  For 20 years TFG has partnered with IBM to deliver IBM-branded technical training to our mutual customers.  The nature of the business relationship between TFG and IBM that enabled us to deliver that education has changed several times over the past two decades and is changing again in 2013.  Unfortunately the new relationship has yet to be defined while the existing terms and conditions are set to expire at the end of June – in just over two months.

So why does any of this matter to you?  Well if you plan to attend an IBM Information Management training class in the second half of 2013, check out the schedule of courses.  Spoiler alert: there isn’t one.  In years past IBM has requested our public training schedule for the two dozen or so courses we offer at least four months before a new half will begin (e.g. early September of 2012 for classes that will be delivered beginning January 2013).  Between now and the end of June all existing Authorized Training Partners have been asked to arrange new relationships with aggregators engaged by IBM.  What are the new terms and conditions?  No idea.  But the only thing scarier than hearing “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” is “You’re gonna love this new IBM program” – especially when the program’s details haven’t been publicly shared.

The tuition for most IBM courses runs between $2,000 and $3,000.  Add an additional $1,500 for travel and lodging expenses.  Most IBM training attendees must travel far from home to attend instructor-led classroom training (unlike Oracle and Microsoft customers who can usually find classes at the local training provider – say, a community college – near their homes and businesses).  Sleep in your own bed and don’t miss you kids’ soccer games.  But that’s a rant for another day.

You probably need to get prior budgetary approval for a nearly $5k expenditure and plan the schedule around project deadlines and vacations.  Right now you can’t plan for any classes beyond the end of June – remember, they don’t exist – and there’s no telling when or *if* you will be able to make those plans.  I say *if* because TFG offers the only public schedule in the US for classes on Information Server and the hot, hot, hot BigData technologies of BigInsights and InfoSphere Streams.  If you expect to deploy these technologies in 2013, you might be reading the manual or engaging scarce (and expensive) consulting resources.

So, if this matters to you what can you do?

• Post a comment on this blog entry.
• Send an e-mail to your IBM representative and ask “What the heck is going on?”
• Drop me a Tweet @ffillmorejr and tell me the impact this is having on you and your team: #IMtraining.

A couple months ago I was the lucky winner of an IBM contest for Information Management Business Partners.  The prize was space in the IBM Data Management magazine (now online at www.ibmdatamag.com) and assistance writing an article on a topic of interest.  The article is being published today and can be viewed here.

As The Fillmore Group was recently asked to begin delivering IBM Authorized Education on IBM’s big data solutions, BigInsights and InfoSphere Streams, we decided to leverage the article to promote our upcoming classes.

There is always terrific content in the magazine.  I hope you enjoy the article and consider taking a formal class to learn more about IBM’s big data solutions.

Frank is putting the final touches on his DB2 101 presentation for Thursday, incorporating last week’s Big Data announcements from IBM (great stuff; visit the IBM Big Data Hub to learn more) along with his fast-paced presentation on the solutions in the IBM Information Management portfolio.  We are expecting a great turnout but as always, we are happy to make room for more.  If you are in the Baltimore area and interested in joining us, please read my post on the event here, register here and join us.

On February 28, 2013 Kim May of The Fillmore Group and Bill Kincaid of IBM collaborated on an excellent DB2 for LUW presentation detailing:

• administrative tool functionality
• new features
• new product bundles that deliver better value at a lower cost

Many thanks to all of those that attended.  If you or a colleague weren’t able to join us, the recording of the webinar can be found on ChannelDB2.  The presentation materials are found here:

Mid Atlantic VUG Presentation Bill Kincaid 2.28.13

As volumes of data explode and organizations look for unique ways to leverage the quantities of data – often in real-time – it’s easy to become confused.  We can help – join us for lunch at Cinghiale for an overview of the data management products in the IBM portfolio and gain an understanding of today’s top solutions.

Frank Fillmore will deliver an overview of hot topics in IBM data management:  Big Data, Information Governance, and appliances, and explain how new solutions are changing database and warehousing technologies.  Gain an understanding of how IBM’s acquisitions and integrated solutions have them positioned as today’s thought leader in data management.

DB2101 at Cinghiale (the “Boar”), 822 Lancaster Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202
April 11, 2013, 11am – 1pm

To register, click here.  

Satisfy your appetite and your curiosity with a tasty Italian lunch at local favorites Tony Foreman and Cindy Wolf’s Cinghiale. Whether you already use IBM data products or are interested in learning what IBM has to offer, the presentation will provide a dose of nutritious food for thought.

I will send you a confirmation with directions to the award winning Cinghiale.  Valet parking will be provided.