Our webinar delivered on March 11, 2016 outlining access to mainframe data specifically oriented to non-mainframers such as IT Architects and Data Scientists was a success.  The presentation materials are here: IBM z Systems – Mainframes – for IT Architects and Data Scientists

A recording of the webinar is found here.

On Monday, March 14, 2016 DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion Frank Fillmore will present on Hybrid Analytic/Transaction Processing (HTAP) at the Heart of America DB2 Users Group in Overland Park, KS.

A complete agenda, presentation abstracts, and speaker biographies can be found here.

Kim has just returned from IBM’s annual “z Bootcamp” where they prepare their System z sellers for the upcoming year with a series of product updates, announcements and education.  Her takeaway message for 2016 was loud and clear:  IBM intends to continue to enhance and extend the capabilities of System z so they can remain relevant and leading the effort to leverage the power of System z data.

Which leads, naturally, to the “how?” question.  At The Fillmore Group, as an IBM Business Partner we believe our ability to connect with Data Scientists and Data Architects and to help them understand the data stored in System z will help us all better align our interests and build a successful data and analytic ecosystem.  To kick start this effort we have planned a lunch event at the award-winning Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore where Frank Fillmore will present an overview of System z.  Read more below – and please join us if you can!

“IBM z Systems (Mainframes!) for IT Architects and Data Scientists”

Abstract
Fifty percent or more of a large enterprise’s data – especially the lifeblood online transaction processing (OLTP) data – likely reside on IBM z Systems (aka mainframe) computers.  In many organizations, mainframes remain a black box inside the “glass house” data center.  Yet the rich transactional data they contain are crucial to predictive analytics, such as fraud detection, and real-time data warehousing applications such as point-of-sale market basket analysis.

This lunch session is intended for Architects and Data Scientists who don’t have a mainframe background, but have been tasked by lines-of-business to develop new competitive insights into customers, supply chains, insurance claims, financial transactions – and/or any of a variety of other opportunities to turn an enterprise’s OLTP data into Big Data.

DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion Frank Fillmore will explain:

The types of data are found on the mainframe, including:
• DB2 for z/OS (relational database)
• IMS – Information Management System (hierarchical database)
• VSAM – Virtual Storage Access Method (indexed file)

Frank will also explain the four key approaches to unlocking the data:
1. HTAP – Hybrid Transaction and Analytics Platform
2. Replication to heterogeneous data stores
3. Virtualization of heterogeneous data stores
4. ETL – Extract Transform Load

Frank will also discuss the how these approaches apply to the types of data in the context of the application requirements such as service level agreements (SLAs).

The session will be held on Thursday, March 3rd, from 11am-2pm at the Woodberry Kitchen, 2010 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 126, Baltimore, Maryland, 21211.

Registration is required.  Register HERE.

If you are unable to join us in Baltimore, Frank will deliver similar content in a webinar on Friday, March 11, 2016.  Registration for the session, to be held between 11am and noon, EST, is HERE.

Please note:  registration is required for both sessions as space is limited.  If you are a mainframe systems programmer or database administrator this is *not* the session for you (you should already know this stuff!)

Congratulations to Frank on the selection of his 2015 Insight Conference presentation!  Frank’s presentation (session #3584 for those of you already  working on your schedules) is titled, “DB2 ^ (Netezza | BLU) = Hybrid Transaction and Analytics Processing (HTAP)”.

As soon as the Insight schedule is released I will update this post with the session date and time.  Stay tuned!

In his session Frank will describe and compare the four distinct data retrieval technologies available from IBM, including two Hybrid Transaction and Analytics Processing (HTAP) platforms. Choices are good to have, but how do you choose which technology to apply to a particular business use case? Learn how these techniques differ, including their relative strengths and weaknesses.

– The traditional RDBMS, relying primarily on indexes to speed access

– The new BLU Acceleration columnar compression and memory-optimized database

– IBM PureData System for Analytics (Netezza), which deploys racks of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) processors to parse data

– IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, the IBM distribution of Hadoop

Bio
DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion Frank C. Fillmore, Jr. is the Founder and President of The Fillmore Group, Inc., a Premier IBM Business Partner that specializes in IBM Analytics software sales, consulting, and training. Frank has been providing IBM Information Management solutions to government, industry, and not-for-profit enterprises as varied as The World Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Northrop Grumman, and the FBI for over 28 years. Frank’s current practice centers on Hybrid Transaction and Analytic Processing (HTAP) and Oracle to DB2 migrations as well as information governance and integration. Frank kayaks and cheers for the Baltimore Orioles.