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…

DB2 Connect for DBA’s

We had a great meeting yesterday with both z/OS and LUW users in attendance, as well as a group of IBM’ers and our board members.  LUW sessions were delivered by Frank Fillmore, Dave Beulke and Chris Eaton (who flew in from Toronto for the day to present – many thanks!) 

Frank’s presentation on DB2 Connect was well attended.  The group selected the topic as most everyone in the group uses DB2 Connect, and few people know it well (although some have some very strong feelings about it!).  As Frank recently delivered both the Intro to DB2 Connect and the Tuning and Troubleshooting courses for IBM, he had ideas and suggestions gathered from the students that attended his classes on their most common issues.  If you use DB2 Connect, please take a few minutes and go through Frank’s presentation and see if it doesn’t give you an idea or two to improve DB2 Connect performance in your organization.

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 next scheduled Baltimore/Washington DB2 for LUW Track meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 19th at the IBM Technical Exploration Center in McLean, Virginia. Coming in from IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab to present on Data Studio are George Lapis and Anjul Bhambhri. If you will be in town, please join us. The meeting will run from 10am – 2pm; please email kim.may@thefillmoregroup.com to register.

Session 1: Integrated Data Management
This presentation will cover each of the components of Data Studio and how each fits into IBM’s data lifecycle management vision. The presentation includes an overview of the functionality included in Data Studio to support Web Services, Stored Procedures, InfoSphere Data Architect, Data Studio Administrator, Performance Expert, end-to-end monitoring, pureQuery for new and existing applications, and administration capabilities, as well as introduces some new features in the upcoming 2.2 Data Studio release.

Session 2: A Demo of the Data Studio Portfolio
This demo will cover all areas of Data Studio Portfolio which are applicable to DB2 on LUW. The presenter will use Infosphere Data Architect to reverse engineer a database, create logical and physical models, demonstrate SQL Editor and Stored Procedure debugging, will create and deploy a Web Service, create Java Beans from Data Objects, and explore DBA functionality. Attendees will be shown how they can monitor performance with Performance Expert and how the Extended Insight feature helps with end-to-end problem determination.

Presenting will be George Lapis, a technical manager at IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab. He has worked in database software for more than 30 years. For the past several years George led the compiler development team at IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab, working on SQL, XML, and XQuery for DB2, as his primary expertise is in compiler technology and implementation. Currently he is working as an architect with the Data Studio enablement team. George was a member of the R* and Starburst research projects at IBM’s Almaden Research Center.

Co-presenting with George is Anjul Bhambhri, Director of Development for Database Tools at IBM. Anjul is a 20-year veteran of the database industry. Anjul spearheaded the development of XML capabilities in IBM’s database offerings. Prior to her role at IBM, she held various engineering and management positions at Sybase and Informix. Anjul holds a degree in Electrical Engineering.

The second LUW track meeting is scheduled for this Friday, March 6, 2009, at the IBM TEC in McLean, Virginia.  Petrus Chan from the Toronto Lab will be presenting. 

I’ve spent a good portion of the past couple weeks getting individual invitations out to local DB2 for LUW users but if you are out there and I have not personally invited you, please consider yourself welcome – and try to join us.  Details on the presentations are below.   There is no charge for the sessions (they are *free* thanks to Tak Lee and the local IBM team) and pizza will be provided by The Fillmore Group. Read More…

When I first started working for Frank in early 2005 I volunteered to join the board of the Baltimore/Washington DB2 Users Group, our local IDUG regional users group. At that time our business was more focused on DB2 for Linux/UNIX/Windows, but the BWDB2UG was, and has remained, very mainframe-centric. The RUG is quite successful, with quarterly meeting attendance average around 75.

As The Fillmore Group has shifted to support the mainframe renaissance we haven’t lost sight of the need for local support for DB2 for LUW users however, and I am excited to announce that the board approved the addition of a second meeting track, specifically for DB2 for LUW, starting with our upcoming December 10th meeting. Best of all, in MY opinion, is that Frank Fillmore will present at the first meeting. I look forward to being part of the team that is enabling our local LUW folks to enjoy the low-cost education, support and networking the Baltimore/Washington DB2 Users Group members have enjoyed since 1988. Please join us December 10th if you are in the area.