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.

The Fillmore Group has been delivering IBM Authorized Training classes in our Towson, Maryland classroom for the past several years and believe we offer some of the best DB2 training around – in a comfortable facility at an affordable travel location.  Our first half of 2013 schedule has recently been posted on the IBM website and a complete list of classes is available here.

In addition to the public, open enrollment classes we host on IBM’s behalf, we deliver an extended group of IBM classes directly to organizations as private classes.  The complete list of private classes available is attached here. 

If you or anyone on your team is looking to upgrade your DB2 skills in 2013 please let me know how I can assist.   Email me directly and I will help!

DB2 Gold Consultant Frank Fillmore will deliver the 3-day DB2 database administration intro class at The Fillmore Group in Baltimore on November 30, December 1 and 2.  TFG instructors built this class to teach DBA’s all the things they should know to support a DB2 database.  Whether you are new to DB2 or have been supporting DB2 without any formal training this class will provide you with a solid understanding of the database and help you prioritize and focus your daily support activities.  The cost of the course is $1500.  For a course outline click TFGE231 Course Outline.  To register email donna.dordai@thefillmoregroup.com.

Next Tuesday, September 14th, The Fillmore Group is hosting Carlton Doe, Charles Gonsalves and Warren Heising for an Informix celebration day.  The day’s agenda includes sessions on the new pricing options, reasons to upgrade to v11, and how to make Informix service options work for your organization.  Carlton Doe will be on hand to provide a peek into the future with the release of “Panther”.  This is a *free* event with lunch on TFG, so please join us.  Registration is HERE.  Jump for the full agenda.    Read More…

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…

Hot off the press from Kathy Zeidenstein and the Data Studio team!  Improve the performance and security for your existing .NET applications that access DB2 with pureQuery. 

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/tutorials/dm-0903optimizenet/

IBM® Data Studio pureQuery Runtime 2.1 includes a new feature, called client optimization, that enables database administrators and developers to take advantage of the performance and security benefits of static SQL execution against IBM DB2® databases without having to modify their existing custom-developed or packaged .NET applications. In this tutorial, learn how to enable this capability for an existing .NET application.

I scheduled two classes between now and year end in hopes of alerting customers that 1) there IS still time to get training completed by year end, and 2) if you can’t spare the time away from the office NOW, you can still sock some training budget funds away for next year.  Don’t forget – training is always one of the first budget items that gets cut when the economy slows down.  And it’s definitely sllllooowwwwiiinnnggg down.

Here’s what I’ve sent:

If you have 2008 training budget left to spend please consider joining The Fillmore Group for these two upcoming classes – or contact me about setting up a retainer account to conserve your training budget for use in 2009.  I can be reached at 410-465-6335 or kim.may@thefillmoregroup.com

Accelerated DB2 Database Administration for LINUX/UNIX/Windows

Dates:  November 24, 25, 26

Location:  The Fillmore Group, Towson, Maryland

Cost:  $1600

Summary:  This expert seminar course is intended for experienced DBAs or individuals familiar with relational database concepts.  Students will learn the basics of DB2 database administration including design considerations and performance tuning.  Hands-on, instructor-led.

DB2 for z/OS SQL Optimization and Tuning

Dates:  December 1, 2, 3

Location:  ATPCO, Dulles, Virginia

Cost:  $1600

Summary:  In this class students break down SQL statements to gain an understanding of how the DB2 Optimizer fulfills a request.  Students learn how database design, indexing, and the use of efficient and effective SQL queries impact performance and how to gather accurate statistical information for optimization.  Hands-on, instructor-led.