Application programmers should understand the potential for concurrency problems when accessing relational data. Most DBMS products, including DB2, use a locking mechanism for all data items being changed. Therefore, when one task is updating data on a page, another task can’t access data (i.e., read or update) on that same page until the data modification is complete and committed…

Ninety percent of the nearly 1,300 respondents to the recent annual BMC mainframe survey of mainframe users worldwide agree that the mainframe acts as a long-term strategic platform that provides the foundation for cutting-edge business applications…

Workload automation management has never been more important. As organizations integrate applications in and beyond the enterprise, workload automation managers must master the complexity of simply and securely managing this complex set of disparate services. But it goes beyond that. Workloads are becoming more intertwined with business services, increasing the need for dynamic scheduling and self-service capabilities at the consumer level. These new requirements drive the need for underlying tools that dynamically manage these workloads. Clearly, these tools must embrace what already works today—while accommodating what’s needed tomorrow—without disrupting operations…

Rational Developer for z/OS (RDz) is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for mainframe developers. A Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based tool that runs on the PC, it helps mainframe developers connect to the mainframe and most of the analysis and development work they normally do in the ISPF/TSO environment through a 3270 emulator…

For many organizations, the question of how to handle Big Data has become much more urgent over the last year. Big Data is of unprecedented size, is typically more unstructured, and is more likely to reside initially on public cloud server farms. It isn’t just a “hot topic”; it’s integral to the effective use of new analytics capabilities that are a high corporate priority…

Has DB2 10 for z/OS been on your mind lately? Are you thinking it’s time to start putting together a DB2 10 migration plan? If yes, that’s great. However, if upgrading isn’t yet on your to-do list, why not? DB2 10 became Generally Available (GA) on Oct. 22, 2010. It’s definitely not new anymore. In fact, the number of licenses being shipped is higher than previous versions. DB2 10 is stable and customer reports have been extremely positive…

DB2 lock contention issues can be frustrating problems to investigate and debug. Before blaming DB2 (as is the usual response), try to answer the following questions to help identify the cause of the locking problems: …

The IT industry is facing a mainframe skills shortage in the not-too-distant future. And for some companies, the future is now. According to a recent survey by Computerworld, 22 percent of COBOL programmers are 55 and older. Some 50 percent are between the ages of 45 and 55, setting the stage for a mass exodus of experienced programmers over the next two decades…

Veryant’s recent announcement that there’s now market demand for new developer training in COBOL has raised the usual questions and an interesting new one. For the past 15 years, a recurring IT question has been whether COBOL skills are still needed. Isn’t there some way to avoid new COBOL programming and just migrate developers off COBOL and similar pre-’90s programming languages, of which few, if any, recent computer science department graduates have any knowledge? The idea that COBOL development skills will live on into a new generation raises the surprising question: Should they? Is it still a good idea to program new code in COBOL, FORTRAN, or PL/I, or would we be better off if all programming (mainframe or otherwise) was in, say, JavaScript?…

Big Data … I’m sure you’ve heard the term, but what is it? The cynic in me wants to say there’s no universal definition because the marketers want to keep it nebulous. You know the drill—every product adapts, at least in the marketing literature, to become part of the next big thing. In this case, the next big thing is Big Data…