Search Results:

IT Management

May 17

CIO Perspective:  Mainframes in the Mobile Space

by Greg Lotko in Enterprise Executive

The University of Florida (UF) sought to help students stay connected with university activities and news. With 50,000 students and staff using smartphones—and that number rising quickly—the Gainesville, FL, university realized it needed to develop an information-rich mobile Web application. An IBM System z mobile technology solution provided the foundation for its UF Mobile Web.

The heart of the UF Mobile Web is the Integrated Student Information System, which keeps students on track with class schedules, required textbooks, academic dates and information, grades and important announcements. In addition, a live interactive map of the…

Read Full Article →

CICS / WebSphere

May 17

Sidebar for: New Technologies Help Bridge Gap Between Mobile and the Mainframe

by Andy Armstrong & Geoff Pirie in Enterprise Tech Journal

The IBM CICS Transaction Server Feature Pack for Mobile Extensions V1.0 Introduces Native Support for JSON Data in CICS  

Top 3 Mobile Concerns

According to a 2011 “IBM Tech Trends Report,” these are the top concerns: 1. Security/Privacy (53 percent) 2. Cost of developing for multiplatform (52 percent)  3. Integrating cloud service with mobile (51 percent).

Read Full Article →

CICS / WebSphere

May 17

New Technologies Help Bridge Gap Between Mobile and the Mainframe

by Andy Armstrong & Geoff Pirie in Enterprise Tech Journal

The IBM CICS Transaction Server Feature Pack for Mobile Extensions V1.0 Introduces Native Support for JSON Data in CICS  

The IT industry is undergoing a mobile transformation as the explosion of mobile devices in the marketplace has driven service providers, such as banks and utility companies, to offer mobile applications. The proliferation of mobile devices brings a new raft of challenges to application developers as they do battle with competing platforms, frameworks and technologies—and this is just on the mobile device. This doesn’t even begin to address the additional complexity of connecting…

Read Full Article →

IT Management

May 16

Linux on System z: Five Reasons Why You Should Consider System z for the Cloud

by Andrew Chapman in Enterprise Executive

As companies continue to rely on the cloud to deliver their more business-critical systems, they must consider how much they can trust this new paradigm. For a cloud solution to be robust enough to host the most important systems, it must be built on top of a virtualization stack that can deliver the necessary service levels.

You may have in-house, non-cloud solutions that provide five 9s uptime and adhere to the strictest levels of security, but when moved to the cloud, public or private, you may be concerned that you won’t be able to get…

Read Full Article →

Operating Systems

May 16

Sidebar for Linux on System z: Five Reasons Why You Should Consider System z for the Cloud

by Andrew Chapman in Enterprise Executive

Why System z for the Cloud?

Consider System z for the cloud because it’s:

1. Reliable. Even cloud solutions need robust platforms. 2. Flexible. It runs the same Linux that you run on lesser platforms. 3. Cost-effective. It can be an extremely cost-effective platform. 4. Virtualized. Nothing virtualizes like a mainframe. 5. z/OS-connected. It’s unbeatable if you need to communicate with z/OS.

Read Full Article →

News

May 16

Compuware Extends APMaaS Platform With dynaTrace Real User Monitoring

Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company delivering a new generation of APM, announced today the convergence of dynaTracePurePath® Technology and the Gomez Performance Network, creating the industry's most powerful User Experience Management (UEM) solution. Compuware now offers the industry's only APMaaS solution that provides a complete UEM…

Read Full Article →

CICS / WebSphere

May 15

How CICS Helps Eliminate the Batch Window

by Mark Cocker & Daniel Millwood in Enterprise Tech Journal

Batch processing is traditionally used for reconciling and reporting transactions at the end of the day, week, month or quarter. It’s used in many business activities from payment processing to bill-ing, stock control, credit scoring, interest calculations and more. Batch applications have proved over the years to be an efficient, reliable method for bulk processing of updates to data.

Batch applications sometimes require exclusive access to resources in order to make them effi-cient to run and they typically share business logic online. Batch processing is usually accom-plished through automated processes that remove resources in CICS,…

Read Full Article →

Interviews

May 14

Warning: Mainframe Data Leakage Poses Significant Risk

by Denny Yost in Enterprise Executive

An Interview With Rich Guski  

Enterprise Executive sat down with Rich Guski, who recently retired from IBM, to get his insight into current and future security trends he sees. Rich was a key participant in RACF security development and also the architect of several CICS security functions that shipped with RACF for z/OS 1.10 during his 27-year tenure with IBM. He’s also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), as defined by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2.    Enterprise Executive: Rich, what are you currently doing now that you&rsquo…

Read Full Article →

News

May 14

HostBridge v6.62 Improves Integration, Optimization for CICSR and System z

HostBridge Technology, provider of high-precision Web services integration and optimization software for CICS® and System z®, has released HostBridge v6.62. Complementing recent enhancements in CICS TS V5.1, HostBridge v6.62 helps organizations increase efficiency and service agility when using CICS, CICS socket applications, and DB2® in enterprise integration.

“Our customers integrate CICS applications with Web, cloud, and mobile resources,” Russ Teubner, HostBridge CEO, said, “and they always look for better ways to increase efficiency and reduce TCO. To help achieve these objectives, we maintain strong relationships with IBM product groups and engineer…

Read Full Article →

Operating Systems

May 14

Making POWER7+ Work for You

by Alan Radding in Enterprise Tech Journal

IBM announced new servers using the newest POWER7+ chip in October 2012. The plus (+) designation is an approach IBM has used before; most recently with the POWER6+, and before that with POWER5+, to signify chip enhancements short of a full chip revision. POWER7+ provides some substantial improvements, but those expecting POWER8, which IBM has been telegraphing for months, will be disappointed. Still, there’s much in POWER7+ to help Power shops improve overall system performance.

POWER7+ today is the most powerful chip IBM offers in the Power line. The plus version increases the number of virtual machines…

Read Full Article →

Applications & Databases

May 13

Boosting Mainframe Developer Productivity

by Tyler Allman in Enterprise Tech Journal

Each day, mainframe applications support billions of online banking and mobile device-initiated e-commerce transactions across the globe. These applications are often deceivingly simple on the front-end—hit a few keys on your phone and a few days later a package arrives in the mail. We tend to take the stability and reliability of mainframe applications for granted, but the fact is these applications are highly complex. They require massive amounts of development, testing and quality assurance work within short periods of time to bring high-quality software products to market quickly.

At the same time that mobile…

Read Full Article →

Operations

May 10

Who’s in Charge: IT or Business Users?

by Robin Reddick in Enterprise Tech Journal

There was a time when IT determined the computing services that business users were allowed to have and how those services would be accessed. Those days are long gone. With the advent of mobile devices and social media, the center of gravity has shifted, and users are driving IT to behave differently and deliver computing services in new ways. This phenomenon has been coined “the consumerization of IT,” and it has far-reaching effects on the IT organization, including the choices that IT makes for infrastructure and automation tools.

Consumerization of IT and Workload Automation

…
Read Full Article →

Blog

May 8

Observations about the Mainframe Generation, the State of IT and the Power of Connection

by Mitzi Hunter

Last week I had the honor of joining other mainframers for an annual sales kick off meeting, marking the beginning of our (Compuware’s) fiscal year. While attending this year, I had the following observations about folks in mainframe sales, the state of IT and the power of connection.

About Mainframe Sales

You can teach an old dog a new trick. (I’m one of those old dogs, so it’s OK.) With the introduction of new application performance technology that shows the impact of distributed activity in mainframe environments,…

Read Full Article →

Applications & Databases

May 8

Five Imperatives for Superior Java Application Performance

by David Beulke in Enterprise Tech Journal

Java application performance is critical for all companies as they shift more development to object-oriented languages. Much more than just a programming language, Java is a powerful platform with a complete set of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for all types of distributed, complex applications. Widely popular and considered by some as the COBOL of the 21st century, Java runs almost anywhere, on top of existing platforms and is ideal for:

• Programming in the networked, heterogeneous world • Developing and deploying Web-based and e-commerce applications • Integrating legacy technologies • Programming hand-held devices, phones and sensors.  …

Read Full Article →

Operations

May 8

Extending Mainframe Qualities Into the Distributed World

by Glenn Anderson in Enterprise Tech Journal

The Intersection of Workload Manager, the Resource Measurement Facility and zManager Platform Performance Management

The IBM zEnterprise System extends IBM’s mainframe-like governance and qualities of service across heterogeneous, cross-platform applications. The IBM zEnterprise System consists of a zEnterprise Central Processor Complex (CPC)—the z196, z114 or zEC12—along with an attached zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX), both of which the Unified Resource Manager (zManager) manages as a single, logical, virtualized system. This collection of virtualized systems, including the zEnterprise CPC, along with System x blades and POWER7 blades, is called an ensemble. The zManager…

Read Full Article →

News

May 7

EMC Announces Data Protection Suite

EMC Corporation today announced the EMC Data Protection Suite, simplifying the acquisition, implementation and use of market-leading EMC backup and archive offerings, while lowering total cost of ownership and providing investment protection for customers.

The Data Protection Suite is a flexible approach to unlocking the value of EMC backup and archive solutions that can evolve to meet the changing needs of customers. It offers a simplified…

Read Full Article →

News

May 7

Compuware Plans “Day One” Support for IBM COBOL 5.1

Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, today announced same day support for IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS v5.1 when it becomes available next month.

Compuware's solutions for COBOL are developed and tested on the latest IBM z/Architecture System z hardware and software releases in partnership with IBM. When customers are ready to migrate their production applications to COBOL 5.1, Compuware's Mainframe Developer Productivity solutions will be ready to assist…

Read Full Article →

News

May 7

IBM Helps Security 1st Insurance Mine Big Data To Analyze, Prioritize & Route Social Media Requests

IBM today announced that Security First Insurance, a leading homeowners insurance firm based in Florida, is using smarter content software from IBM and partner Integritie to collect and analyze big data including social media and email to quickly begin the claims resolution process for customers who have been impacted by a storm.

Headquartered in Ormond Beach, Florida, Security First Insurance serves nearly 180,000 customers. Florida has more people and property exposed to hurricanes than any state in the country. 

Using the combined IBM and Integritie…

Read Full Article →

Applications & Databases

May 7

Data Perspectives: General Guidelines for LOAD, REORG and REBUILD Utilities

by Craig S. Mullins in Enterprise Tech Journal

The LOAD, REORG and REBUILD utilities all move data around. As such, there are some general recommendations that apply to most of these utilities. Let’s examine a few of them.

Accurate statistics are necessary to maintain current information about your data for access path determination. It’s vital you update your statistics after loading or reorganizing significant amounts of data.

If you’re loading data into a DB2 table specifying LOAD REPLACE, you should also consider the STATISTICS keyword to gather statistics as the LOAD utility executes. Because you’re…

Read Full Article →

News

May 6

BMC Software Signs Definitive Agreement to be Acquired for $46.25 per Share in Cash

BMC Software has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private investor group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital together with GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd (“GIC”) and Insight Venture Partners (collectively, the “Investor Group”). Under the terms of the agreement, affiliates of the Investor Group will acquire all outstanding BMC common stock for $46.25 per share in cash, or approximately $6.9 billion, representing an attractive premium to the Company's unaffected stock price.  The agreement was approved by unanimous vote of those directors present. “After a thorough review of strategic…

Read Full Article →