One of our best-attended webinars ever!  The recording of the webinar is found here.  There presentation materials for download: IBM Q Replication – Franks Field Notes Summer 16

I was on a call this morning with an IBM technical team to discuss our progress filling the seats in one of our upcoming free IDAA classes.  Not surprising, given the number of people on the call (and who they were!) we went a bit off topic and ended up chatting about services and what appears to be – to IBM customers and sellers at least – a shortage of skilled consultants available to help with the “tions” – replication, implementations, migrations and federation.

The Fillmore Group has skilled consultants available to support these efforts, at rates that are typically about half of those being charged by “the competition”.

If your team has a project pending, or one in process, where a skilled consultant, at a reasonable hourly rate, can get things back on track, please contact me.  We are ready to work!  A list of our IBM Information Management capabilities is attached here.

IBM just published a new Redbook titled Understanding and Using Q Replication for High Availability Solutions on the IBM z/OS Platform.  Two of my fave Silicon Valley Lab replication developer/experts – Cecile Madsen and Jayanti Mahapatra – are co-authors.

Customer expectations in 2014 are that they can conduct business with a variety of financial, retail, and other enterprises 24x7x365.  Even with the availability characteristics of the System z platform in general and DB2 for z/OS in particular, planned and unplanned outages will occur. 

The Redbook focuses on IBM InfoSphere Data Replication (IIDR) Q Replication as the undergirding HA technology.  It details two-node and three-node active-active replication topologies.  I suspect much of the basis for the document is the massive deployment of Q Replication at a large commercial bank in Brazil.

If you work with IBM InfoSphere Data Replication (IIDR), you are probably familiar with the Q Replication Dashboard.  The Dashboard is a GUI which enables you to manage and monitor your Replication and Event Publishing topologies.  For example, IBM’s direction is to move away from using asnmon to set monitoring and alert thresholds and to build this functionality into the Dashboard.

Here’s an opportunity to make a good product even better.  One of my customers had a series of requests to enhance the Dashboard:

1. Provide the ability to export/import connection and configuration settings.
2. Enable LDAP authentication.
3. Provide something other than e-mail alerts (e.g. SNMP or Tivoli Systems Management integration).

Take a moment to review the formal Request for Enhancemant (RFE).

This past summer IBM rolled out the Global Skills Initiative, essentially outsourcing all education marketing and delivery to four selected Global Training Partners.  IBM will continue to develop course curriculum, but everything else is now in the hands of the four Global Training Partners, or GTP’s.

The Fillmore Group has aligned with Global Training Partner Arrow ECS, our software distributor, and I am pleased to finally be able to announce that we are back in the training business.

There are still challenges.  Two of the biggest are the process of finding our classes on the IBM training site and actually registering for a class.  While I work through this process so I can update our website with accurate information, I am going to post our schedule in as many places as possible (right here for starters), and invite anyone in search of an IBM class to contact me if you need help.  Public classes, private classes, in the classroom or remote – please don’t hesitate to email me.  I want to help!

Kim and I conducted a webinar on Thursday, October 3, 2013 that focused on IBM Data Interoperability software products and their specific strengths, weaknesses, and use cases.  We highlighted the application of the InfoSphere family of products to other-vendor databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, and Teradata.  Kudos to Kim for putting together a presentation of disparate, but complementary technologies.

The recording of the webinar can be found here.  The presentation materials can be downloaded: Data Interoperability Presentation – FINAL 10.3.13

Data interoperability is the function of moving data where you need it, when you need it. It is the process of copying data, also called replication, or combining data from two unique databases, also called federation.

Over the past ten years IBM has been developing technologies and acquiring companies whose tools support fast, reliable replication and federation.  DB2 Gold Consultant and Champion Frank Fillmore and I will deliver a presentation on IBM’s data interoperability solutions targeted to an audience of current Oracle customers – but open to anyone – this Thursday at 11am EDT.

Frank has worked with customers of all sizes to implement IBM replication and federation solutions.  We will combine his real world experience with the latest product information shared by our colleagues Dylan Murphy and Steve Tessler from IBM.

These tools, IBM’s replication solutions Q Replication and InfoSphere Change Data Capture, and federation solutions Data Explorer and InfoSphere Federation Server, work with Oracle, as well as most vendor databases (so yes, DB2 fans are welcome to join us!)

Register:  HERE

Date: Thursday, October 3, 2013

Time: 11am – noon EDT

We live in a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) happy world, and there’s one very special TLA that very few IBM customers – and even IBM’ers – are aware of – VAP.  We have a VAP that we are very proud of and today received notification from IBM that it was recently revalidated.  I thought I should write about it, because VAP really is the best way for customers to buy IBM solutions.  Even if the VAP you need isn’t one we offer, ask your IBM team or Business Partner if they offer a VAP for the solution you are considering.

VAP stands for Value Advantage Plus.  Not exactly clear, huh?  Well, basically what a VAP does is offers IBM Business Partners a discount on IBM software solutions when they bundle services and training.   This does two things:  1) it offers an incentive to Business Partners to include services and training in a solution proposal, and 2) it reduces the cost of software to the partner.

Most technical solutions require technical assistance to implement; anyone who has been given a redbook and told to figure it out knows how difficult a do-it-yourself implementation is, and we have all unfortunately become accustomed to the software license cost being the only cost discussed when purchasing IBM software.  The second benefit, reduced cost to the Business Partner should, if you are working with an honest and ethical partner (think The Fillmore Group!) result in a lower price for you, the customer.

The Fillmore Group’s VAP is for IBM replication solutions, including Q Replication and ICDC.  We are currently working on both Q Replication and ICDC implementation projects and have historically been the exclusive provider of public IBM education for these products.

If you are considering a replication solution purchase and implementation please let us know – we would be happy to help you take advantage of this little known (terrific!) way to make sure your solution project is a success.

IBM has bundled its replication technology into a single package: IBM InfoSphere Data Replication (IIDR).  IIDR combines three components:

• SQL Replication (heritage DataPropagator- Relational)
• Easy to set up
• Staging tables
• InfoSphere Replication Server (IRS – heritage Q Replication)
• High volume, low latency
• Native Oracle and DB2 sources and targets
• WebSphere MQ transport layer
• InfoSphere Change Data Capture (ICDC – heritage DataMirror)
• Broadest set of heterogeneous sources and targets
• TCP/IP transport layer

There are a few of important take-aways.

1. IBM substituted an implementation decision for a buying decision.  For quite a while SQL Replication was bundled free with DB2 for LUW.  ICDC and IRS were separately purchasable technologies with a lot of functional overlap.  In 2010 my colleague, Kim May, delivered an IBM Information on Demand (IOD) presentation distinguishing between the three.  Now you purchase the IIDR bundle and determine which technology is best suited for a particular use case.  As with most IBM software on distributed platforms, the cost is based on Processor Value Units (PVUs).
2. New feature/functionality will be built into IIDR rather than the former heritage ICDC and IRS packaging.
3. There will be a convergence of the technologies over time.  Many of the prospective changes are still IBM Confidential, but IBM is looking to consolidate components where it makes sense to do so.  There is a long-term roadmap that I hope IBM be sharing shortly.
4. Upgrading and migration paths are a work-in-progress.  If you currently own ICDC or IRS and want to move up to IIDR, contact The Fillmore Group for pricing and implementation assistance.

Given that so many IBM customers make their initial software purchases in the fourth quarter of the calendar year (when the IBM pricing gets really aggressive), the number of DB2 customers whose annual software license subscription and support is due each December is higher than in any other month of the year.  For this reason we’ve decided to deliver another webinar on the DB2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition (AESE) bundle in hopes of persuading renewing DB2 customers to consider the upgrade.  AESE has provided substantial value to every upgrading customer we’ve worked with, and enabled their IT organization to better monitor, utilize, and extend the use of their database. 

Frank Fillmore will deliver the webinar on Monday, November 19th from 11am – 12pm EST.  Register HERE.

The invitation, in case you didn’t receive one directly from me (!) –

If your organization’s DB2 license Subscription and Support is scheduled to renew in December, now is the time to learn about the DB2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition (AESE) product bundle and how you can finesse the upgrade JUST BEFORE paying IBM the annual Subscription and Support fee to make it VERY affordable. Read More…