In 2011, Information Management was IBM’s largest software product family, based on worldwide sales.  What does IBM have that you should know about?  Join us in the beautiful Patrizio dining room at Baltimore’s award winning Cinghiale Italian restaurant on March 8th to find out.

DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion Frank Fillmore will deliver a presentation on IBM’s 2012 Information Management product portfolio, including background on IBM’s recent acquisitions and information integration and data governance strategies.  Learn how IBM has accumulated and integrated data solutions to position themselves as the thought leader in information management.

Whether you already use IBM data products or are interested in finding out what IBM has to offer, the presentation will provide a dose of nutritious food for thought.

To register, click here.   We will send you a confirmation with directions to Cinghiale.  Valet parking will be provided.  We look forward to seeing you there!

The Mid-Atlantic IBM Information Management technical support team has announced the date and location of the first Washington Area DB2 Users Group.  This group is being coordinated by IBM’s Warren Heising and Prem Rangwani to provide education and networking to local Information Management users.  Please contact Warren Heising at IBM if you would like to attend (heising@us.ibm.com).  Details below.

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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…

As much as I dislike the relentless repetition that’s part of the nature of the world of blogs and twitter and listserves and email blasts, here I go with a shameless pitch for a TFG special services offering I emailed to several DB2 users earlier today.  I am doing this because, at the end of the day, the rate disparity in today’s DB2 services market baffles me.  Are the ridiculously high rates being charged eroding product adoption?  I am afraid so, which is why we are offering a summer services special. 

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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!

The IBM team made another announcement and juggled product names again. Oh no! Except…this time it’s all beginning to make sense. The rationale behind the products developed and acquired by IBM is coming into focus and the picture that’s formed defines the IBM Information Management strategy.

Holly Hayes is the Program Director, Optim Solutions, at IBM, and she has a new article on Developerworks that really pulls it all together. The first paragraph is below; for the entire article go to:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0807hayes/

From Holly: “With the June 2009 announcements, IBM is consolidating many of its Data Studio offerings under the Optim name. The Optim portfolio will focus on realizing integrated data management with innovative delivery of application-aware solutions for managing data and data-driven applications across the lifecycle, from requirements to retirement. This overview article explains both the vision and reality of Integrated Data Management and how you — whether a data architect, developer or tester, DBA, or data steward — can use IBM solutions today to respond quickly to emerging opportunities, improve quality of service, mitigate risk, and reduce costs.”

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.

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.

Ron Reuben, IBM’s Data Studio “Enabling Architect”, Frank and I had a discussion a couple weeks ago about developing some specific offerings around Data Studio that will introduce the product – and provide immediate benefit – to existing DB2 customers.  We came up with three offerings and sent them to Ron; this Friday we are scheduled to circle back with him and discuss how these were welcomed by his team.  These ideas reflect, naturally, where we see Data Studio’s capabilities providing the most immediate impact to customers we’ve worked with.  These are ideas – not limitations!

1.  Data Studio Administration Console (DSAC) is a free download with many capabilities, and can be used extensively for Q-Replication real-time monitoring.  We suggested contacting all current Q-Replication customers and offering assistance with the implementation of DSAC.  This should take only a few days and will introduce Q-Rep customers to the Data Studio product family and get them familiar with the look-and-feel of the components.  For more information on DSAC, check out:  http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27007070

2.  Data Studio Developer (DSD) and pureQuery, which, by the way, was recently enhanced with v2.1 last week.  Read More…