I want to thank everyone who helped make the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Db2 for z/OS Users Group virtual meeting such a great success:

• my colleague, Kim May, for pulling the meeting together and for filling a void of timely technical content for this topic and this region
• our presenters for crafting and delivering a comprehensive new way of considering IBM System z
  • Andrew Austin, Red Hat
  • Clark Hale, Red Hat
  • Elton (the Wizard) de Sousa, IBM

The recording of the meeting is here: https://youtu.be/Am279HW1DDY

Individual presentations are as follows:

Db2 VUG – OpenShift Introduction – Austin + Hale

Db2 VUG – OpenShift on IBM z – de Sousa

Db2 VUG – Mainframe Modernization Field Notes – Fillmore

Please share this content with your colleagues.

Over 180 folks attended the “45 Minutes to Understand IBM Replication – Sources & Targets, Lower Latency, Costs” webinar on April 30, 2020 hosted by my colleague @KimMayTFG and me.  Thank you for joining us – along with the excellent questions and feedback.

These are the presentation materials IBM Data Replication Update 2020-04-30

You’ll find the recording of the webinar here.

Thanks to my colleagues, Kim May and Ed Lynch, for a terrific IBM InfoSphere Data Replication (IIDR) new features webinar delivered today.  The recording of the webinar is found here.    These are the presentation materials: Data Replication Update 2019-02-07 – Final

Join replication experts Frank Fillmore and Ed Lynch for this information-packed webinar with news and announcements about IBM’s replication solutions. Whether you are a current IBM replication user, investigating replication for a new deployment, or working with a competitor’s solution, this webinar will help you understand what IBM offers today, and the enhancements that will help you succeed with replication in 2019.

At a sprint!

In forty-five minutes Ed and Frank will deliver an overview of IBM’s current offerings, the four most important 2019 enhancement announcements, and 3 special pricing offers that can help your organization realize significant savings. We know you want your data to be available when you need it and where you need it, and fast. We can help.

Registration is required. Please register HERE.

Date: Thursday, 2/7/19

Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST

Presenters:

Frank Fillmore is the Founder and President of The Fillmore Group, Inc., an IBM Business Partner specializing in replication solutions in the IBM Analytics portfolio. Frank has been a Db2 Gold Consultant since 1998 and is currently an IBM Champion for both Analytics and System z. Frank frequently presents on cutting-edge topics at regional and international Db2 Users Group meetings and is an IBM authorized instructor for delivery of replication courses including Q Replication, ICDC and pureScale. Frank leads a team of expert consultants delivering presales, implementation and enablement support to IBM customers. Frank is currently supporting a pureScale implementation for a US Federal agency.

Ed Lynch was with IBM for over 25 years as a leader and innovator in Data Analytics and Information Integration.  Leveraging his balanced and diversified knowledge of data and Information Technology with business needs and capabilities, Ed consistently recommends and delivers best of breed technical solutions. A trusted advisor to his customers and colleagues, Ed’s cross-industry knowledge enables him to be an effective go-to resource, particularly for difficult and complex challenges, and his success in many diverse roles at IBM, including development, technical team management, marketing and sales, showcase his flexibility. Ed is currently supporting a complex replication implementation for a large, US-based financial institution.

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.

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!)

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

The International DB2 Users Group (IDUG) DB2 Tech Conference will be held in Denver, USA from May 14 – 18 (that’s next week at the time of this post).  There are two events in which I am involved that touch on Replication.

• On Wednesday, May 16 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. a Replication Special Interest Group (SIG) will be held in Room 110.  Senthil Chandramohan of IBM will be co-leading the SIG with me.  Jenny Pang of Nationwide will be the moderator.  The purpose of the session:

“Meet industry experts and develop a better understanding of the best practices to support a replicated environment.  Are you faced with monitoring replication or determining the latency in replication?  Are your sources and targets in sync?  When problems occur, how do you resolve them?  Come and share your questions and experience with other professionals and other experts in the field of replication.”

• On Thursday, May 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. I will deliver “Zero Outage Oracle to DB2 Migrations” (Session G09) in Room 112.  Replication figures prominently in reducing a migration outage window.  The abstract:

“IBM has enabled the Oracle PL/SQL API’s in DB2 for Linux, Unix, and Windows v9.7; 97% of Oracle application code will work unmodified. So, how best to migrate the Oracle data to DB2? The IBM Data Migration Tool (IDMT) fosters a batch migration which requires an application outage – backup, IDMT, restore, SET INTEGRITY – which can last for hours or days depending on the volume of data and complexity of the data model. What if my website, eCommerce, OLTP application can’t be down that long? Learn how a world-wide Top 50 financial institution migrated data from Oracle to DB2 with a minimal application outage using InfoSphere Replication Server’s heterogeneous replication from Oracle to DB2.”

I hope to see you in Denver.  Safe travel!

For those of you attending (or that attended) Frank’s webinar on the new replication part number and consolidation, the presentation file and the questionnaire referenced in the presentation are attached.  I hope you find these valuable.  Please feel free to contact me (kim.may@thefillmoregroup.com) or Frank (frank.fillmore@thefillmoregroup.com) with questions.

Webcast recording

Changes and Choices Replication Presentation – Final

Replication Customer Questionnaire – Revised 2012-02-22

Please join us for a webinar Thursday, February 23, 2012, at noon Eastern.  To register, click here. 

IBM is merging replication offerings with the announcement of the IBM InfoSphere Data Replication V10.1.2 package.  The new Data Replication package updates and consolidates InfoSphere Data Replication, InfoSphere Change Data Capture, InfoSphere Change Data Delivery, and InfoSphere Change Data Delivery for Information Server into a single offering, giving replication users considerable flexibility in making a choice of a data replication solution.   In this session Frank will explain what the consolidation means to customers evaluating a replication technology and make recommendations to ensure your organization makes the right choice to address your business needs. Read More…