10/03/2010
On Demand Webcast - DB2 pureScale
Hear Matt Huras from the IBM Labs and Clair Ross from Triton Consulting talk about IBM DB2 pureScale.
Click here to download the webcast.
In this presentation we look at why DB2 pureScale is the ideal solution for the retail sector and give an in-depth look at this exciting new technology.
3/03/2010
Latest Podcast - DB2 pureScale
With the launch of DB2 pureScale at the end of 2009 IBM announced to the world that they were bringing mainframe style data sharing to the AIX platform - with other platforms to follow. Given that z/OS is the gold standard for reliability this is an exciting prospect.
Listen to our latest podcast where two of our DB2 experts discuss what lessons can be learned from the mainframe data sharing world and how pureScale can bring this to the midrange market.
2/03/2010
Triton Consulting Launch SQL Server Practice
In an addition to their current DB2 services portfolio Triton Consulting are pleased to announce the official launch of their SQL Server Practice.
Triton Consulting have long been renowned in the industry as IBM Premier Business Partners with exceptional knowledge and skills in DB2 and database management. In 2008, Triton Consulting became xkoto business partners and began offering their DB2 customers the GRIDSCALE continuous availability solution. GRIDSCALE is also available for SQL server and in Q3 2009 Triton expanded their skills base to include SQL Server.
"We have seen great interest in GRIDSCALE from the SQL Server community. With its ability to provide continuous availability and disaster recovery GRIDSCALE for SQL Server is a great addition to our portfolio of offerings. GRIDSCALE is the only Active:Active Database solution for SQL Server in the marketplace. As an organisation we're hugely excited about working with our new SQL Server customers to help them reap the benefits of GRIDSCALE" Paul Stoker, Sales & Marketing Director, Triton Consulting.
GRIDSCALE enables businesses to scale application load horizontally across multiple, active/active instances of SQL Server running on clusters of low-cost hardware, mid-range systems and virtual machines. Businesses can eliminate planned and unplanned database outages because all SQL Servers managed by GRIDSCALE are fully active. GRIDSCALE supports databases in remote locations meaning organisations can meet disaster recovery requirements without the complexity of traditional transaction or storage replication or solutions.
The latest release, GRIDSCALE 5.1 for SQL Server adds several features including native driver support and a new Cluster Lock Manager which will enable an even broader set of IT applications to benefit from scalability on demand and continuous availability.
GRIDSCALE for SQL Server has been thoroughly tested in Microsoft's MTC Labs and in 2009 was named as a winner in the Best of Tech Ed 2009 awards programme in the database administration category - http://www.xkoto.com/news_events/press_releases/20090518.php
Click here to download the white paper and view the "on demand" webinar.
26/02/2010
"If you're a retailer with a high volume online transaction environment then pureScale is going to be absolutely ideal for you"
Based on the industry leading System z data sharing architecture, DB2 pureScale integrates IBM technologies to keep critical systems available 24/7. The technology is currently built on IBM Power Systems with other platforms available in the future. DB2 pureScale allows organisations to have multiple database servers in a system that all share a common set of disks providing both scalability, availability and application transparency.
"If you're a retailer with a high volume online transaction environment then pureScale is going to be absolutely ideal for you. You'll be able to increase capacity when you need to at the really busy times like Christmas and the January sales and scale back at the times when you're experiencing less demand." Clair Ross, DB2 LUW Expert Triton Consulting
Designed for organisations that run online transaction processing applications on distributed systems, IBM DB2 pureScale is ideal for the retail industry to ensure that you keep up with ever growing demands for availability and capacity.
Business hours are never over in a globalized world meaning that even a small gap in availability can cost millions in lost revenue and customer confidence. This is especially true in the retail sector.
- Continuous availability - DB2 pureScale keeps critical systems available all the time, giving uninterrupted access to data throughout both planned and unplanned outages.
- Capacity on demand - Easily increase capacity during the busiest times such as Christmas and sales.
- Cost savings - The ability to increase and reduce capacity means you are never over provisioning your environment.
- Application transparency - DB2 pureScale is transparent to the application, and can be implemented with no changes to the underlying application code.
25/02/2010
Confessions of a DB2 Geek
Confessions of a DB2 Geek is here to bring you all the latest facts, updates and insight intot he world of DB2.
Our resident DB2 Geeks will be regularly sharing their thoughts on the latest trends in DB2. Click here to find out what our geeks are up to.
In our first installment we bring you - Pure Genius - Mainframe style data sharing comes to AIX.
Get the lowdown on data sharing! Download the podcast.
With the launch of pureScale at the end of 2009 IBM announced to the world that they were bringing mainframe style data sharing to the AIX platform - with other platforms to follow. Given that z/OS is the gold standard for reliability this is an exciting prospect.
At Triton our resident DB2 Geeks have got a wealth of expertise in DB2 both on and off the mainframe. In this podcast James Gill - a mainframe data sharing expert - chats to Clair Ross - a DB2 LUW expert - about what lessons can be learned from the mainframe data sharing world and how pureScale can bring this to the midrange market.
16/02/2010
What do Clones do on Mother’s Day? An Overview of the Strange New World of the Clone Table
Join CA and Julian Stuhler of Triton Consulting on - CA Virtial Roundtable: An Overview of The Strange New World of The Clone Table'
In previous releases of DB2, users expressed the need for a functionality that is similar to an online LOAD REPLACE utility. Introduced in DB2 9, clone table support provides users with the ability to generate a table with the exact same attributes as a table that already exists in the current DB2 subsystem. The clone is created within the same universal table space as the base table, and is structurally identical to the base table in every way. Once created, a clone table can be manipulated independently of the base table, and you can exchange data between the base table and the clone table. Clone tables thus provide the functional equivalent of an online LOAD REPLACE utility, allowing users to, for example, reload table data multiple times a day while still being able to access the existing data with read-only operations. This presentation will examine the new clone table feature, discussing concepts, advantages, commands and restrictions (including the new UTS table space type).
Speaker: Greg Parrish
Click here for more info
10/02/2010
Performance and profitability don't have to suffer as a result of high CPU usage
Managing performance and cost has become a significantly more difficult job with capacity planners and performance analysts being asked to defer hardware and software upgrades due to squeezed budgets. Many large IT departments have also seen loss of staff due to redundancy and this has put added pressure on maintaining good application performance.
One of the most effective ways of reducing or containing mainframe costs is through better managing CPU consumption. By slowing down the growth of CPU usage, hardware and software upgrades can be deferred while often improving performance thereby allowing organisations to keep costs down and performance and profitability up.
MIPS Growth in the Mainframe Market
In a recent mainframe market study, IBM reported that the mainframe has seen a 20% compound annual growth rate in MIPS since 2003. Also, In Ovum's "The state of the mainframe" research, they found that mainframe MIPS growth is averaging around 20 percent per year and large mainframe-centric enterprises have been consistently averaging 35% plus MIPS growth.
Whilst it is good news for businesses to see transactions on the rise, with usage based pricing for z/OS this increase in workload pushes up software costs and can also negatively impact application performance.
The effects of growing MIPS
Performance - Typically, any significant increase in the amount of CPU used by a given workload will result in an associated increase in transaction elapsed times. For performance-critical online workloads, that increase can translate directly into poorer critical business metrics such as customer satisfaction and retention.
Just throwing more MIPS at a poorly-performing DB2 workload does not always address the issue. A 2 hour response time may be reduced to 1.5 hours with more CPU time being available, but the problem might be due to a poor access path and some DBA attention could get it down to 5 seconds. This is especially true of application performance tuning, which is where the majority of performance issues tend to lie.
Cost - Although performance is a key issue for many organisations, the major diver for many IT teams is the need to reduce mainframe resource usage and thereby potentially defer hardware upgrades and reduce monthly MIPS costs. There is also human costs to consider: maintaining an underperforming system takes more time and resource for IT teams and adds pressure from the business teams who are calling for improved response times.
Can tuning do enough to reduce costs?
The majority of customers have significant potential for reducing resource consumption through tuning. This is especially true for those with older applications that haven't been actively maintained for a while or who have lost some of their deep DB2 skills through retirement or redundancy.
By implementing key tuning procedures, ongoing software costs can be reduced and mainframe upgrades deferred. In addition, application performance will be enhanced and overall TCO reduced.
Check out the full article on IT-Director.com or download the white paper
10/02/2010
10% Discount on DB2 Symposium for Triton Newsletter Subscribers
Are you moving to Version 9 in 2010? Attend the DB2 Symposium on 8-9th March for the DB2 for z/OS Version 9 Transition Class in London.
Look out for your 10% discount code in our newsletter coming out shortly. Don't currently receive our newsletter? Subscribe here .
Already subscribe to our newsletter but can't wait to book? Email us today and we'll send you your discount code.
9/02/2010
IBM Announce DB2 10 for z/OS Beta
DB2 10 will build on the formidable capabilities of DB2 9 and will continue to set the standard, delivering key innovations and resource savings including:
- Out of the box savings by improving operational efficiencies
- Unsurpassed DB2 for z/OS and System z resiliency for business critical information
- Rapid application and warehouse deployment for business growth
- Enhanced query and reporting facilities
"With DB2 10 for z/OS, IBM has once again redefined the benchmark for large-scale database systems. I'm particularly impressed by the potential for significant productivity improvements through the new temporal data support, enhanced autonomic functions and SQL and XML extensions. These enhancements will help our customers to directly drive competitive advantage through more rapid deployment of application and warehousing workloads." Julian Stuhler, IBM Data Champion, IBM Gold Consultant & Solutions Delivery Director, Triton Consulting.
Click here for more info.
3/02/2010
New Service Launch - DB2 Mainframe Tuning Package – zTune
Reduce mainframe costs, defer upgrades and improve performance
London February 2010 - In an extension to their current services portfolio IBM Premier Business Partners, Triton Consulting Ltd are pleased to announce zTune - a database tuning package designed to reduce IT costs and improve application performance.
Download the zTune white paper
Triton has been involved in performance tuning for the past 12 years and the service has now been launched as a pre-defined tuning package. Although primarily concentrating on DB2 tuning the service can also encompass z/OS, CICS, DB2 Connect, Websphere Application Server, networks and storage subsystems.
"Performance is always an important focus area for our clients. At any given time, at least one of our consultants will usually be working on performance-related work somewhere. Most recently Triton has become involved in tuning DB2 workloads running for ERP applications such as SAP and Siebel. These pose some very different challenges to more traditional workloads." Paul Stoker, Sales & Marketing Director & Principal Consultant, Triton Consulting.
Performance Improvement
Applications are often simply coping with current cpu usage but not performing to their best. This means systems are either upgraded earlier than necessary or organisations have to cope with underperforming systems. To maintain an underperforming system takes more time for IT teams and adds pressure from the business teams who are calling for improved response times.
"One of the major challenges in any environment is determining which component is responsible for poor response time. I often liken this to the classic board game of "Cluedo": one has to logically and methodically eliminate potential culprits until you're left with the guilty party!" Julian Stuhler, Solutions Delivery Director, Triton Consulting & IBM Data Champion
Can tuning do enough to reduce costs?
Although performance is a key issue for many organisations, the major driver for many IT teams is the need to reduce mainframe resource usage and thereby potentially defer hardware upgrades and reduce monthly MIPS costs.
By implementing key procedures, ongoing costs will be reduced and mainframe upgrades can be deferred. In addition, application performance will be enhanced and overall TCO reduced.
No Savings No Fee
zTune particularly benefits those with older applications that haven't been actively maintained for a while, or who have lost some of their deep DB2 skills through retirement or redundancy. The zTune service works by charging the client a percentage of the savings made through tuning.
Customer Example
Triton Consulting carried out a tuning project for a Swiss insurance company who were looking at having to pay for a very expensive mainframe upgrade in order to cope with the peak workload they experienced during their busiest time of year. After some data gathering and analysis, Triton were able to recommend some DB2 and CICS tuning activities that removed nearly 20% of their peak CPU requirement, allowing them to defer the upgrade for a full 18 months.
About Triton Consulting
Triton Consulting are Data Management specialists and IBM Premier Business Partners. Specialising in DB2 for both the mainframe and distributed systems, Triton provide a full range of services from consultancy through to education and 24/7 DB2 support. For more information on the zTune service visit - http://www.triton.co.uk/DatabaseTuning.php
Contact us or call 0870 2411 550 for more information.
26/01/2010
Breaking away with business analytics
Are you ready to break away?
In his IOD blog post, Julian Stuhler talked about IBM's new Information-led Transformation and Business Analytics strategy.
As part of this IBM are running a free webcast on 28th January to look at how leading companies are developing information strategies to optimise business performance across the enterprise.
There will be leading figures from IBM's Information Management team and case studies to highlight where this approach has worked in the real world.
Click here to register.
21/01/2010
Free DB2 Health Checks!
For a limited time Triton are offering free DB2 for LUW healthchecks!
Are you:
- Up to date with best practice?
- Exploiting all the benefits DB2 can offer?
- Struggling with growing costs?
- Coping with demand for 24/7 operations?
Take advantage of this fantastic recession-busting offer and we'll help you address these challenges.
What does the health check cover?
One of our DB2 experts will spend the day getting "under the covers" of your DB2 systems to look at the following:
- Database server capacity
- Database software
- Instance & database configuration
- Housekeeping
- Back-up and recovery
- Data placement
- Performance monitoring
- Logging configuration
- Bufferpool configuration
You will then receive a summary of findings outlining any areas for improvement with expected benefits and estimates of the associated effort involved.
Email us to book your FREE DB2 health check today! Email laura.hood@triton.co.uk
15/01/2010
Yet another prediction of the resurgence of the mainframe!
Every few months we get a story about the mainframe coming back into fashion. This time it is the turn of The Economist.
As DB2 for z/OS specialists we're always happy to see any news promoting the mainframe. In fact, back in August last year we ran a story ourselves "Mainframe is the new black......but are we ready for it?" which looked at the potential skills gap.
Has the mainframe ever really gone away though? Since it's launch the mainframe has been there keeping our large financial institutions running.
So what do the next 30 yeas hold for the mainframe? Well we can't answer that one but we can be certain when we say that the mainframe will continue to be the backbone of our major industries' IT systems for many years to come.
6/01/2010
Latest IBM z/OS webcasts!
If you're looking to upgrade to DB2 z/OS version 9 or already have but want to get more from your investment then book some time in your diary to attend these upcoming IBM Webcast events:
Hints and tips to get the most out of IBM DB2 9 for z/OS - click here to register.
Join this complimentary teleconference and learn about the wealth of new features in DB2 9 for z/OS. You'll see how its new features improve business efficiency and reduce costs by increasing the productivity of administrators and programmers.
Looking to Upgrade to DB2 9 for z/OS and improve productivity & reduce costs? Hear directly from one of our customers - UK Land Registry! - click here to register.
Listen to how Land Registry, a UK Government organization successfully upgraded to DB2 9 and is reaping the business benefits. This presentation will take you through the journey from start to finish, highlighting the risk-mitigating activities that were undertaken during the project lifecycle that contributed to a virtually impact free migration.
4/01/2010
DB2 for z/OS Family
IBM have launched their DB2 for z/OS Family website - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/zos/family/
Take a look at the page for information on everything DB2 z/OS. There are on demand webinars and teleconferences available as well as a range of downloadable white papers, articles and customer success stories.
Take a look at Triton's own DB2 z/OS community page on LinkedIn.
22/12/2009
IBM Open London Business Analytics Centre to Focus on UK Financial Services Sector
In his recent IOD 2009 blog posts Julian talked about IBM's new Information-Led Transformation and Business Analytics strategy. In a continuation of their commitment to this, IBM have opened a new Analytics Solution Centre in London.
The initial focus will be on helping the UK Financial Services Sector to develop systems that provide improved visibility and tracking of risk positions across markets and asset classes as well as to drive information management to support improved client satisfaction and cost efficiencies.
8/12/2009
Transparent Application Scaling with IBM DB2 pureScale
By leveraging modern hardware architectures, DB2 pureScale is able to bring to the distributed platform the centralized locking and caching capabilities previously only available on DB2 for z/OS. This hardware and network exploitation allows for greater levels of concurrency and significantly reduced overhead which in turn delivers higher levels of scalability. In addition, the centralized locking and page caching allows DB2 pureScale to continuously be in a state of awareness as to what pages would need recovery should any member fail. Thus, in the event of a failure, all data that does not need recovery is continuously available to other applications while the page that were in process of being updated by the failed node are already known to the system and are recovered more quickly.
For applications that need high levels of availability and for which horizontal growth delivers a cost benefit, DB2 pureScale brings to the table a solution that is tailored to meet these needs and has the lineage which has already proven itself in the marketplace.
3/12/2009
100 SAP clients switch to DB2 in the last 6 months
According to a recent press release from IBM more than 100 SAP clients have switched to DB2 over the last 6 months.
With higher transactional performance, advanced analytics and lower cost, DB2 is becoming the preferred database software for business applications across all industries.
Take a look at this video to see how you can break free with IBM DB2 9.7
2/12/2009
High Availability Technologies for DB2
Availability for a brave new world
With the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) more businesses are relying on the ability to access their business data through web based applications. In addition to the rise of SaaS and Cloud Computing, our businesses are increasingly operating on a global scale. When once you could schedule your maintenance updates for Sunday night, this now affects users across the other side of the globe.
When downtime is unplanned however, these issues multiply ten-fold. These outages are a lot more visible to users and the public at large with potential ramifications to revenue, brand image and customer satisfaction.
In this paper we will look at the various solutions to the application availability issue for DB2 databases and how they meet the demands of our ever changing global operations including:
- NEW - DB2 pureScale
- xkoto GRIDSCALE
- HADR
- HACMP
- Peer to Peer Clustering / 2-way replication
- DB2 for z/OS data sharing
Click here to download the full paper.
27/11/2009
Reduce CPU costs
Worldwide economic uncertainty over the last 12 months has put significant pressure on CIOs to at the very least keep IT costs level with a push for cost reduction across the board. Gone are the days when performance issues were relatively easily handled by adding more hardware and software and such purchases were part of the budget cycle.
Managing performance and cost has become a significantly more difficult job with capacity planners and performance analysts having to defer hardware and software upgrades due to squeezed budgets. Many large IT departments have seen loss of staff due to redundancy and this has put added pressure on maintaining performance profitably.
One of the most effective ways of reducing mainframe costs is through better managing CPU consumption. By slowing down the growth of CPU usage, hardware and software upgrades can be deferred without hindering performance thereby allowing organisations to keep costs down and performance and profitability up.
MIPS Growth in the Mainframe Market
In a recent mainframe market study, IBM reported that the mainframe has seen a 20% compound annual growth rate in MIPS since 2003.
In Ovum's "The state of the mainframe" research, they found that mainframe MIPS growth is averaging around 20 percent per year and large mainframe-centric enterprises have been consistently averaging 35 percent-plus MIPS growth.
The effects of growing MIPS
Whilst it is good news for businesses to see transactions on the rise, with usage based pricing for z/OS this increase in workload pushes up software costs.
Applications are often simply "coping" with current cpu usage but not performing to their best. This means systems are either upgraded earlier than necessary or organisations are having to cope with underperforming systems.
Can tuning do enough to reduce costs?
By implementing key tuning procedures, ongoing software costs will be reduced and mainframe upgrades can be deferred. In addition, application performance will be enhanced and overall TCO reduced.
zTune
zTune from Triton Consulting helps organisations like yours to ensure that their critical systems are performing at their best whilst keeping costs static.
The first step for zTune is for Triton to identify the major resource users within your system with an emphasis on DB2 and CICS. From this we can measure the CPU baseline costs and determine whether there are any potential savings to be made. A detailed recommendation for tuning is put together.
No savings no fee
The next step is for Triton to agree the tuning proposals and implement the agreed actions. The results and savings are then measured.
Conclusion
We understand that one of your key goals is to reduce the cost of running mainframe applications whilst still providing the best service to your customers. Let Triton's team of tuning experts help you to save your organisation money whilst improving performance.
26/11/2009
Latest Database Management News
We have split our regular newsletters into DB2 LUW and DB2 z/OS to make sure we bring you the most relevant news and updats direct to your inbox. In this months newsletters you can find:
DB2 LUW:
- Mainframe style data sharing comes to AIX - DB2 pureScale
- Industry survey
- DB2 Consultant's blog - IBM Optim
- IOD Update - Julian Stuhler
- Confessions of a DB2 Geek - coming soon!
DB2 z/OS:
- Technical overview - DB2 v9 Spatial Features
- DB2 x Preview
- IOD Update - Mainframe
- Managing growing data volumes
To subscribe click here
19/11/2009
The Total Economic Impact of IBM Optim Integrated Data Management Solutions
Forrester have recently prouced a report outlining the economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) that enterprises may realise by deploying IBM Integrated Data Management Solutions.
"Forrester calculated a three-year risk-adjusted ROI of 153% for the composite organisation with a payback period of 1 year" - Forrester - The total economic impact of IBM Optim Integrated Management Solutions - Oct 2009
Click here to access the full report
12/11/2009
Position Power! DB2 v 9 Spatial Features Explained
Most businesses today already store extensive location data, for customers, suppliers, competitors, branches and many other items. For many large corporations, that data is stored in DB2 for z/OS. The availability of spatial features within DB2 for z/OS will allow those organisations to derive valuable new information and deliver new capabilities to their customers. So, what exactly is spatial data? Here's a simple definition:
Spatial data represents real-world features and their relationship to one another. This includes geographic features (rivers, cities, mountains, forests, seas, lakes, etc), areas (flood zones, military exclusion zones, sales territories, etc and even events that occur at a specific location (a car accident, a crime, etc).
In its most basic form, spatial data is made up of one or more sets of co-ordinates that specify a location (usually but not always on planet Earth!).
When combined with conventional data (customer information, sales data, etc) it can be surprisingly useful in a whole variety of different applications, across virtually any industry.
Click here to download the white paper.
11/11/2009
Business Benefits of DB2 9 for z/OS
Many of today's enterprise IT systems are comprised of a bewildering array of technologies. The advent of Service Oriented Architectures and "loosely coupled" systems means that it is often impossible for the end-user to tell which back-end systems are being used.
In such an environment, it is tempting to think of the data server as a commodity item; a dumb database engine responsible only for performing simple queries in a reasonable time. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
As IT systems continue to evolve and expand beyond their traditional boundaries, so too must their data search and retrieval capabilities. The database is being asked to form the core of a true "information server", able to seamlessly integrate traditional data and new structures such as XML documents. At the same time, security and regulatory compliance remain key issues, with evermore demanding standards being set.
Integrated XML Support
The availability of pureXML features in DB2 9 mean that it is now possible to build a whole new class of XML-based enterprise applications without the performance and flexibility compromises inherent in previous implementations.
Improved Large Object Support
DB2 9 is a more attractive host for LOB data, allowing a greater range of applications to take advantage of the resilience and security offered by DB2.
Native SQL Features
DB2 9 significantly broadens both the scope and appeal of SQL procedures, allowing them to be deployed more efficiently and executed more quickly and at lower cost than before.
Enhanced ERP Support
DB2 for z/OS is well established as the premier data server for high-end ERP systems such as SAP. DB2 9 contains a large number of new features and enhancements to improve the performance and reduce the costs associated with these demanding applications.
Business Intelligence
The availability of timely and accurate business intelligence can be a key factor in the success of any enterprise. A number of significant BI-related enhancements in DB2 9 reinforce its BI credentials on the System z platform, improving performance and reducing operating costs.
Improved Security & Auditing
The System z platform has a long history of providing a safe and secure environment for data but tough new regulations have raised requirements for new features within the operating system and other system software. DB2 9 has responded to these requirements with enhancements designed to significantly improve security and auditability in several key areas.
Enhanced developer & DBA productivity
As overall IT costs are driven down, people costs are becoming an increasingly large proportion of the total. DB2 9 contains a number of features that should improve the productivity of DB2 developers and support staff, yielding significant cost savings while improving business agility.
Improved Performance
Improved performance translates directly to better customer service, reduced resource utilisation and lower operating costs.
"Despite several key performance enhancements delivered in DB2 version 8 some new customers saw little or no overall improvement due to the overheads inherent in the move to a 64-bit architecture and other architectural changes. DB2 9 reverses this trend, delivering another set of significant performance enhancements without any associated overheads." Says Julian Stuhler, Triton Director and IBM Gold Consultant
DB2 9 for z/OS in one of the first of a new breed of hybrid relational database management systems, optimised for today's highly demanding and complex IT systems and able to seamlessly integrate relational and XML data.
The new features within DB2 9 represent yet another significant advancement in DB2's capabilities. The product offers real financial and technical benefits, free from major challenges such as CCSID issues or Unicode conversions.
Looking forward to DB2 X
The latest news on what's to come in the next version of DB2, currently named DB2 X is largely around CPU savings. There is also a major push on analytics as part of the Information-Led Transformation Strategy that IBM have developed. As a result there have been extensions to the core database engine in DB2 X to support warehousing queries and IBM has begun to talk of a much more fundamental and exciting development in the shape of its "Smart Analytics Optimizer". This is essentially a BI/analytics appliance aimed at boosting the database query performance of the servers that it is attached to. The really big news is that it will be available to connect to system z servers very soon, allowing DB2 for z/OS to offload suitable workload to the SAO for processing thus bringing performance and cost advantages to the business.
10/11/2009
Participate in our Database Management Survey & help children in the developing world
We are conducting an industry research into how companies like yours are currently managing their databases.
This survey should take you no longer than 3 minutes to complete. For every completed survey we will donate £5 to Computer Aid International to help children in the developing world access IT skills for the first time.
You will also receive a free copy of the report findings.
28/10/2009
IOD 2009 Blog - Day 3 - Mainframe update
Yesterday I talked about IBM's exciting new pureScale technology for the DB2 for LUW platform. Before I move on to talk about some interesting mainframe related technologies as I promised, I just want to briefly mention a couple of extra pureScale items that became apparent yesterday.......
Click here to read the full post.
27/10/2009
IOD 2009 Day 2 Gold Briefing Blog - DB2 pureScale
Day 2 of the Gold Briefing, and I'm not the only one to see the irony of suffering from information overload at a data management conference!
Yesterday I talked about IBM's grand vision for Information-Led Transformation and the way it builds upon the innovations and acquisitions made over the past few years. I also mentioned that, important though these higher-level initiatives are for making today's enterprises more agile and efficient, there is an ongoing requirement to continually enhance the underlying data management technology in order to address more fundamental issues such as availability, scalability and total cost of ownership.
So today I want to spend some time on a technology that was originally supposed to be announced at IOD, but for various reasons actually broke cover a few weeks ago at the IDUG Europe conference in Rome. It's called DB2 pureScale and in my opinion it is the single most significant advance in the DB2 to LUW product in the last decade.
Click herefor the full post.
26/10/2009
IBM Information on Demand - Blog Update
25th October 2009
Day 1 of the gold briefing here in sunny Las Vegas, and as always I'm astounded by the amount of new and exciting technology heading our way. IBM will be making several big announcements when the main IOD conference starts on Monday and I'll cover a few of the major ones here as they happen. In the meantime, there are a couple of themes already beginning to emerge from the Gold sessions that are worth thinking about.
Click here to read the full blog and follow updates live from the event.
21/10/2009
Mainframe style data sharing comes to AIX
IBM announce their latest software technology, DB2 pureScale
Since its introduction to the market in the mid-90s, DB2 for z/OS data sharing became the gold standard for enterprise data-serving scalability and availability. Customers using DB2 on midrange platforms have long been calling for similar capabilities. This has now arrived in the form of DB2 pureScale.
Based on the industry leading System z data sharing architecture, DB2 pureScale integrates IBM technologies to keep critical systems available 24/7. The technology is currently built on IBM Power Systems with other platforms available in the future. DB2 pureScale allows organisations to have multiple database servers in a system that all share a common set of disks providing both scalability, availability and application transparency.
"This is the single most significant technology release that IBM has introduced to the midrange market in years. By utilizing many years of mainframe data sharing experience, DB2 pureScale will revolutionise the way organisations are able to manage their workload, helping them to achieve industry-leading levels of scalability and availability for their mission critical applications." said Julian Stuhler, Triton Director & Past President of IDUG (International DB2 Users Group) "Triton have been working with data sharing on the mainframe since it appeared in the mid-90's. It is hugely exciting to know that we will be able to put these skills into practice for our midrange customers now too."
Continuous Availability
DB2 pureScale keeps critical systems available all the time, giving uninterrupted access to data throughout both planned and unplanned outages. Fast recovery and data availability is assured, even with large clusters, by utilising the centralised locking capability of PowerHA pureScale.
In situations where one or more servers fail, whether due to hardware or software problems; the workload balancer automatically recognises which servers are available and sends transactions across to these servers without application interruption. Whilst this is happening, DB2 pureScale is doing a fast crash recovery on the failing node. By using automatic workload balancing to ensure that no node in the system is over loaded, DB2 will route transactions or connections to the least heavily used server.
Zero Downtime for Planned Outages
DB2 pureScale allows routine hardware maintenance, operating system changes or other configuration changes to be carried out by simply removing the relevant server from the cluster. The workload balancer redistributes transactions to the other servers in the cluster. This is done with complete transparency to the application and no interruption to the environment meaning that planned outages can be carried out whenever necessary rather than waiting for that late-night on Sunday window. This is vital for global organisations with users accessing their systems 24/7.
Capacity on Demand
Being able to quickly respond to rises in workload has become a competitive advantage. IT teams need the ability to respond quickly to change requests and provide extra capacity at peak times.
DB2 pureScale is designed to allow organisations to grow and shrink their server cluster on demand. This can be done without application changes and with no interruption to the business. Organisations that experience large peaks and troughs in their workload can add more capacity during that period and remove it when workloads reduce.
Cost Savings
Instead of over-provisioning environments to handle peak times, organisations can license the machines they want for the time they need. Customers can choose to pay for the additional cores only on the days that they use them. This means that a server can be added for a few days during those peak times and released when it is no longer needed, without additional cost.
Application Transparency
DB2 pureScale allows modification, maintenance and tuning; transparently to the application. Additional servers can be added without the need for application developers to re-design their applications.
Triton Consulting are IBM Premier Business Partners and have expert knowledge of DB2 both in mainframe and midrange environments. Having expertise in both areas means that our consultants can bring their years of mainframe data sharing experience together with their knowledge of DB2 for midrange and so are ideally placed to provide support on DB2 pureScale implementations.
For more information on DB2 pureScale talk to the DB2 experts - Triton Consulting.
20/10/2009
Agenda Update!
Data Governance on System z
10th November - London
11th November - Edinburgh
9.00 - 9.30
Registration & coffee
9.30 - 10.15
System Z, DB2 & compliance overview - Compliance, a mountain of legislation but what is critical?
Brian Alford, IBM
10.15 - 11.00
Getting the best out of system z
Julian Stuhler, Triton Consulting
Coffee
11.20 - 12.00
Data privacy -Addressing the internal data threat
Paul Garstang, IBM
12.00-12.45
Managing the data explosion - The causes, effects and solutions of growing data volumes
Paul Stoker, Triton Consulting
Lunch
13.30 - 14.15
Best practices for security on system z
Mark Wilson, RSM Partners & Julian Stuhler, Triton Consulting
14.30- 15.30
Ask the expert panel session - Open floor questions with all of the speakers. W building a blueprint for establishing security standards on system z
Coffee/Networking
14/10/2009
DB2 X for z/OS Technical Preview
November 3rd 4pm UTC
Join IBM for this complimentary teleconference and learn what's coming in DB2 X for z/OS to support your staff and your business. database administrators will find improvements in databse performance, scalability and availability, with many tasks simplified. Memory management has been dramatically reduced, making growth a much simpler process. DBAs will also get more flexible security to help with regulatory compliance. A wide range of enhancements improve ERP application and data warehouse functionality and performance. The second releease of pureXML serves application developers with improvements the SQL and XML interface to access XML data stored in a anative format.
Major enhancements for discussion include:
- Ease of porting across multiple platforms with improved SQL and data definition compatability with other DB2 platforms.
- Improvements in large object performance and flexibility
- Near-linea scalability for mission critical SAP, ERP and CRM requirements
- New XML helps minimize the time and effort it takes to persist and use XML data
Speaker: Jeff Jotsen, Distinguished Endineer, DB2 for z/OS Development
6/10/2009
Free DB2 9.7 Trial Download!
IBM are offering a free download of DB2 9.7 for LUW. The trial includes DB2 Enterprise, DB2 Workgroup, DB2 Express and DB2 Personal Edition as well as the latest Visual Studio add-ins for DB2.
The trial period is for 90 days and all of the product's features are enabled.
Visit IBM Developer Works for more information.
Got questions about DB2 9.7?
Visit our Download Centre for our free white paper - DB2 9.7 - A Technical Overview or call 0870 2411 550 to speak to one of our experts.
2/10/2009
DB2 LUW Course Overview
Triton Consulting provide a range of DB2 training and education courses. Visit our download centre to download course details.
Want some bespoke training? Contact us today and we can put together a course to meet your exact requirements.
1/10/2009
Take back control through data governance: Leveraging IBM System z
In a world where the rate at which we collect, store, share and process information increases daily, you would think that businesses would be so well-informed and knowledgeable that they would be able to mitigate risk,leverage information to drive new business opportunities, control costs, and become smarter about the way they do business. Yet the media is filled with an increasing number of reports on scandals and mistakes that organizations make across every industry, whether public or private sector, despite everincreasing amounts of legislation and standards. The impacts range from financial and brand image damage to imprisonment to potentially life-threatening consequences, in the case of healthcare and life sciences industries.
Download the latest IBM white paper on Data Governance for System z.
There is at least one underlying common thread that has been a majorcontributor to these failings-data and how it is governed. In fact, researchshows that the perceived quality of a company's corporate governance caninfluence its share price, as well as the cost of raising capital.
Of course, different types of organizations have different types of datagovernance needs. But for organizations with IBM System z, the mainframe platform can help organizations address data governance concerns, policies,and data management, helping to improve data quality and classification tominimize business risk and improve compliance.
24/09/2009
Latest Triton Newsletter
View the latest newsletter from Triton Consulting! Click here
In September's edition:
- Did your DBA Team get burnt this summer?
- Data Governance
- DB2 Gets more bite with COBRA - a look at DB2 9.7
- Latest Techie Tip
- Mainframe is the new black
18/09/2009
How to set up application server to access DB2 z/OS with high availability
DB2 for z/OS data sharing is well-acknowledged by industry experts for providing the highest availability, and addressing planned and unplanned outages. Nevertheless, end-users only care that their task is executed. If the application server cannot reach out to the database server even when the database server is up and running - there is no execution. Join IBM for this complimentary teleconference as they walk through the step-by-step process to set up a distributed application environment accessing a DB2 data sharing group for high availability. There will discuss frequently asked questions, especially those related to Parallel Sysplex® workload balancing and connection concentration.
You'll come away with a good understanding of how to:
Achieve continuous service availability
Reap more benefit from your existing Parallel Sysplex and data sharing investments
Route workloads dynamically to the images in the Parallel Sysplex that have the most capacity or best throughput
Speaker:
Maryela Weihrauch, IBM Distinguish Engineer, DB2 for z
11/09/2009
Simplifying DB2 Administration & Development with IBM Data Studio
In this DB2 Chat with the Lab webinar, find out how database developers and DBAs can get their jobs done more efficiently and with less risk using the no-charge capabilities in Data Studio 2.2, and the value-added capabilities in Optim solutions. Experts from the IBM labs will walk you through up and running with Data Studio and cover frequently asked "how-to" questions for using a variety of the features including integration with the new DB2 9.7.
Click here to view.
8/09/2009
DB2 for z/OS Technical Update
South Bank, London on 29th September and Edinburgh on 1st October
Register now for your opportunity to see how System z and DB2 for z/OS can help your business meet today's challenges. The focus will be on getting the best out of your System z investment and modernising your enterprise using the Rational toolset. We'll also look at the key benefits of DB2 9, which include:
- lower admin and maintenance requirements
- productivity improvements that help developers and DB administrators work more effectively
- unparalleled security, automation and utilities enhancements
- better management of application workload growth
- lower MIPS costs
There'll be practical advice on how to migrate to DB2 9 faster and more easily. This section will also detail best practices to follow and useful tools and utilities. You can then discuss your particular challenges with DB2 experts, gaining from their knowledge and understanding.
Two streams
To make this free seminar even more relevant to your needs, the afternoon will be split into two streams. One aimed at DB2 Systems and Database Administrators; the other for Application staff and IT Managers.
The seminar will be held at two venues: London on 29th September and Edinburgh on 1st October.
Julian Stuhler of Triton Consulting will be presenting the business value of migrating to DB2 v 9.
For more information and booking click here
2/09/2009
Latest technical tip - Append only DB2 diagnostic log and administration notification log files?
No more in DB2 9.7!
How many times have I asked customers for the DB2 diagnostic log file (db2diag.log) only to be told "it's too large to send" or "it's taking too long to open." This is because the DB2 diagnostic files have been append only since time memorial, their growth only restricted by the maximum space available in the file system they reside in. The only way to curb this growth would be to rename the files which would then force the creation of new ones. Scripts had to be written to automate this process and to delete old files after a certain period.
Check out our knowledgebase for the full explanation.
1/09/2009
Performance, Tuning & Optimisation Tools for DB2 LUW
Our partners, DBI Software are running a series of webinars on perfirnabcem tuning and optimisation for DB32 LUW.
Learn how DBI can help you improve productivity and performance while significantly impacting your bottom line.
Technical and in-depth demonstration of DBI's tools for DB2 LUW:
- Achieve 22-44% energy savings
- Dramatically improve database response times
- Significantly increase scalability
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
Tuesday, September 15, 9 AM - 10:30 AM CDT
Tuesday, September 29, 9 AM - 10:30 AM CDT
1/09/2009
DB2 9.7 - A Technical Overview
IBM has been making huge strides over the past few years with it's flagship database, DB2. The latest edition, DB2 9.7, aka COBRA, has incorporated an abundance of new functionality.
Triton Consulting was involved in the early access program and have since written a white paper providing a technical overview of the new features.
24/08/2009
System z Software Technology Forum
Delivering the latest innovations in application, data and systems management solutions
Keep up on the latest technology - from hardware to software to the tools that maximize their value - when you join us on Sept. 23, 2009 for our System z® Software Technology Forum being delivered to you as a virtual tradeshow. Attending a tradeshow from your desktop gives you many benefits, in addition to saving travel time. Chat with technical experts, product managers and IBM development lab specialists to learn about new product enhancements and tools that can help you stay on top of the demands of your job. You can also gather materials to study and reference later.
Ray Jones, Vice President, Worldwide System z Software Sales, IBM Software Group, will discuss recent System z software announcements and how you can exploit these new capabilities to keep up with the pace your business requires.
Virtual doors open at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Sept. 23, 2009, and will remain open through the duration of the virtual tradeshow.
Agenda
10:30 a.m. Registration, Visit the Exhibit Hall and Resource Center
11:00 a.m. Keynote Session - System z Software Technology Update
Ray Jones, Vice President, Worldwide System z Software Sales, IBM Software Group
12:00 p.m. General Sessions and Chat Sessions
Contact us for more information or to register.
20/08/2009
Webcast - Data governance and IBM System z – Your key to business optimization
September 29th
The pressure's on and it's staying on. How well you manage your data and deliver it can make the difference between business success or failure.
The usage, sharing and processing of electronic data continues to rapidly increase, yet many corporations still complain about being data rich but information poor. C-level executives are just not confident about the quality of information being used to support the decision-making process. Set against this backdrop CEOs are facing increasing pressure and focus to comply with more industry, legal and financial regulations. Who is using my data, how is it being used, where is it going, how accurate is it? These are all questions that keep IT and line-of-business executives awake at night.
To book, contact us today!
Join Triton & IBM for this complimentary webcast and learn how IBM data governance and its entry points can help optimize your business by helping to lower costs, manage risk and increase your profitability - while creating deeper business insight, enabling business growth and competitive advantage.
In this webcast, we will focus on these three key data governance disciplines as a way of achieving better business outcomes:
• Information quality as a means of better understanding the customer and creating more up-sell opportunities
• Lifecycle management of your information from capture to archive and deletion
• Information protection inside and outside of the organization, and how to help lower risk and stay compliant.
There will be a live q&a session after the webcast.
To book, contact us today!
Speakers:
Mark Simmonds, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Information Management division, System z software SOA, Data Governance
Merv Adrian, Independent Analyst
Broadcast date: September 29, 2009, 3pm UK
Developed for: IT architects, enterprise architects, IT managers, industry solution analysts and managers, database administrators and managers, IT operations managers, security officers, and IT finance officers and auditors
19/08/2009
Mainframe is the new black……
but are we ready for it?
The mainframe has been on a rollercoaster ride over the last 30 years; from hero to zero and now, back to hero again. In the late ‘90s the mainframe began to lose it's "cool" new technology status to distributed platforms. Now the mainframe is coming back into fashion and rather than moving away from it, organisations are building on its' solid foundations.
According to recent research by CA, mainframes still handle 55% of companies' data; this rises to 59% for companies with more than 3000 staff; and rises again to 64% for organisations where the mainframe is connected with distributed, server-based computing systems. This makes sense given that the mainframe provides widely acknowledged cost and energy efficiencies along with top notch security and reliability features.
As organisations increasingly look towards the mainframe to support ever growing business systems a problem has begun to appear on the horizon - the mainframe skills shortage.
Why are we facing a skills shortage?
There are varied reasons for the looming gap in mainframe skills. The first crop of mainframe experts, who were the key technical heavyweights that put the mainframe where it is today, are coming towards retirement age. In addition to that, many mainframe administrators were re-trained and re-deployed onto distributed systems. For the last 10 yeas we've heard that the mainframe is dead but the reality of the situation is that the mainframe, far from being dead is actually growing. However, this "death of the mainframe" rumour has lead trends which have meant that new entrants to the IT workplace have been concentrating their training and career paths onto distributed systems, leaving a gap that needs to be filled.
66% of all respondents in the CA research agreed that the mainframe user will soon start to suffer, if it hasn't already, from a shrinking workforce with the relevant skills not being readily available.
Plan for change now
Managing the skills transition efficiently will be vital for large organisations to ensure they maintain their critical data effectively and keep competitive in these challenging times.
The Options:
Outsourcing
Outsourcing mainframe services is certainly an option but it does bring with it many complications. Outsourcing to a third party means that the ingrained organisational knowledge of those currently managing the system can be lost. Although the outsourcing provider is no doubt highly skilled, they don't have that intimate knowledge of the organisation which is built up over many years.
Training
In the CA survey 43% of UK respondents say they are focussing on mainframe skills training. Both IBM and CA are putting huge amounts of money and effort into training the next generation of mainframe experts by running education initiatives through universities in the US. However, training university students takes time to filter through the system.
Organisations need to be thinking about preparing themselves by looking internally at the skills they already have in-house. Rather than taking the decision to outsource mainframe work, re-training and up-skilling already trained DBAs, backed up by bringing in external expertise where necessary could be a more cost effective option.
Looking to the future of mainframe
So what do the next 30 yeas hold for the mainframe? Well we can't answer that one but we can be certain when we say that the mainframe will continue to be the backbone of our major industries' IT systems for many years to come.
About Triton Consulting
Triton Consulting are Database Management Specialists and IBM Premier Business Partners. In addition to consulting services, Triton provide training for DB2 on both mainframe and distributed systems. Triton's Consultancy on Demand offering is a cost effective way of purchasing consultancy hours in blocks of 10, 20 or 50. These can be used for consultancy, training, development work or to cover sickness, holidays or skills gaps within the team.
18/08/2009
DB2 Gets More Bite With COBRA
Business Benefits of DB2 9.7
IBM has been making huge technical strides with their flagship database, DB2, over the past few years. As expected, the recent launch of DB2 9.7 has not failed to impress, incorporating even more improvements.
DB2 9.7, also known as the COBRA release, has made up significant ground on Oracle. The ease with which organisations are now able to migrate from Oracle to DB2 has been enhanced so dramatically that it is now an enticing option. Previously the time taken to migrate an Oracle-based application to DB2 would take weeks, if not months. This can now be achieved in a matter of days.
"We've had experience of a customer who wanted to convert from Oracle to DB2. It took 3 weeks to do that initially. With the DB2 9.7 beta we got that down to 2 days of a Junior DBAs' time" Says Julian Stuhler, Triton Consulting "The SQL compatibility feature means that there will be many more customers out there who are going to be really interested in using the core strengths of the DB2 database engine."
Given the current state of economic instability around the world, the benefits of DB2, particularly lower CPU costs, storage costs and compatibility with Oracle, there is a compelling argument for organisations to move from Oracle to DB2.
Key Business Benefits
The most obvious business benefit of moving to DB2 9.7 is lower costs.
Including:
Lower storage costs
Lower data management and analysis costs
Lower database administration costs
Lower development costs
The results of a recent piece of research by International Technology Group state that "Use of DB2 9.7 results in combined three-year costs for database software, disk and tape storage systems, servers and personnel that average 36 percent less than those for use of Oracle 11g."
In addition to the cost reduction which can be seen ITG also state that "Use of DB2 9.7 provides opportunities not only to lower energy costs, but also to contribute to the realisation of broader environmental objectives such as reducing organisational carbon footprints." In an age where environmental concerns are growing ever more important the "Green IT" benefits of DB2 9.7 cannot be ignored.
Technology Enhancements
Security
With More than 70% of data breaches coming from internal weaknesses it is vital that organisations put internal security at the top of their "to do" list.
A heightened level of security is now required as threats to data security increase. DB2 9.7 enhances the security features put into place within previous versions. The predominant factor in this release is the distinction between duties; DBAs will no longer have access to the data within a database by default and will now only have maintenance authorities over a database environment. With this new enhancement organisations can maximise the security of their key intellectual property.
High Availability
DB2 has become a front runner in high availability and each new version sees more enhancements to an already superior offering.
24/7 system availability is a key requirement for many organisations. The internet has allowed many businesses to move online and create a further revenue stream. However, this requires their systems to be available around the clock.
DB2 is widely recognised as a stable platform but the developments in this version have taken stability to a new level, meaning that organisations can achieve 24/7 availability for their critical DB2 data.
Manageability Developments
Further manageability developments in DB2 9.7 now allow for less involvement for the DBA. More and more tasks that previously required the intervention of the DBA are now automated or moving towards becoming automated. This means that highly skilled DBAs can spend less of their time on everyday manual tasks and more time on other projects and operational tasks.
Enhanced Monitoring for Better Performance
24/7 available database environments, and even those environments that are not 24/7, all require a high level of performance. It is vital then that monitoring tools do not interfere with database, and therefore application, performance when active. The new monitoring enhancements in DB2 9.7 can be used to diagnose issues without putting added pressure on database performance.
Enhanced Workload Manager
Effective workload management is vital to the workings of the database, server and the utilities running against the database. More often than not an application customer will not be aware of the kind of work being undertaken and the amount of management and monitoring required. At times it is difficult to anticipate the amount of work or management and on these occasions thresholds need to be in place. DB2 9.7 workload management capabilities are derived from mainframe architecture. This means they bring the mainframe strengths of managing diverse and concurrent workloads. DB2 9.7 ensures that system resources are used much more efficiently.
XML
DB2 9.7 is - by a wide margin - better designed and optimized to deal with the future evolution of the XML world than any competitive database - ITG.
XML is key to the flexibility found in DB2 9.7. PureXML was first introduced within version 9.1 and has now been developed further to incorporate more flexibility and reliability. Previously, organisations' transactional systems had to convert XML data into relational data but with DB2 9.7, XML data can now be stored in a warehouse. This means that organisations can use BI tools directly against XML to unlock the business insight stored there. According to the ITG research paper "DB2 9.7 is - by a wide margin - better designed and optimised to deal with the future of the XML world than any competitive database"
Pushing the Boundaries
With the release of DB2 9.7 we have seen IBM make an already good product into a genuinely great one. With its many benefits, both to the business and technical teams, DB2 9.7 is the obvious choice for those looking to achieve lower costs whilst heightening security and reliability. IBM has pushed the boundaries and really taken the fight to Oracle and now have a compelling reason for organisations to change allegiance.
For more information on how DB2 9.7 can benefit your organisations call 0870 2411 550 to speak to one of our experts.
Click here to see how organisations like yours have benefitted from moving to DB2 9.7
6/08/2009
Latest blog post - Enabling Applications from Oracle to DB2 the Easy Way
Visit our blog to see a recording of the live DB2 chat with the lab session from July.
The latest release of DB2 - DB2 9.7 has out-of-the-box support for Oracle's SQl and PL/SQL dialects. This means that many applications written for Oracle will execute virtually unchanged with DB2.
3/08/2009
On Demand Webinar
Managing the financial services data explosion
Hear from IBM Data Champion, Julian Stuhler on the causes, effects and coping strategies for managing rapid data growth and a Q & A session with industry insider Andrew Crouch of AVIVA on best practice and advice for implementing a data archiving solution.
24/07/2009
Event Dates Confirmed - Data Governance on System z
We are delighted to confirm that our event - Data Governance on System z is confirmed for the following dates:
10th November - London, IBM Southbank
11th November - Edinburgh, Apex Waterloo Hotel
Places are complimentary but limited so book yours today!
Data Governance is a hot industry buzz word at the moment. In this upcoming event we take a look behind the jargon and explore the key areas of governance that are affecting organisations and how, by utilising their existing system z infrastructure, they can meet these challenges.
We're proud to bring you a top list of industry expert speakers who will be covering topics including Data Privacy, Data Security and Compliance on System z. We'll round off the day with an open forum where our panel of industry experts will help you build a blueprint for establishing security standards on system z.
Take this opportunity to meet with your peers and share knowledge, tips and best practice.
The panel includes:
Julian Stuhler - Triton Consulting
Paul Garstang - IBM
Mark Wilson - RSM Partners
For more information and booking visit our events page.
23/07/2009
New Podcast! Managing Mission Critical Databases Cost Effectively
Listen to our latest podcast to hear DB2 expert Paul Stoker talk about how a Remote DBA service can help organisations of all sizes effectively manage their critical DB2 databases.
22/07/2009
FREE Data Privacy Masterclass - Compliance In Outsourcing
Data privacy and the law for outsourcing testing and development environments
Thursday 13 August 2009, London
Contact us to register
Regular application testing is an important part of an organisation's IT practices. Before any new software application or upgrade to an existing application can be used, it must be rigorously tested in a test environment.
In many cases this work is carried out by contractors or outsourced to a third party. These individuals have unfettered access to sensitive personally identifiable data such as credit card numbers and bank account details.
In a recent survey, 52% of businesses said that they outsourced application testing to specialist companies, with 49% sharing live data.*
*Ponemon Institute
The legal risks associated with a data breach as a result of this activity are high and penalties severe, yet awareness of this hidden threat is low.
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP, in association with IBM, are hosting a seminar giving the legal perspective on data privacy issues arising from the practice of outsourcing application testing and development.
Contact us to register
Attend this event and learn:
What are the risks associated with privacy in testing and development environments?
Why is the regulatory risk in application testing greater than in a live environment?
Your data protection responsibilities and the law
Legal and practical considerations - getting the testing right and reducing compliance risk
Case study and real life solutions to data privacy challenges
Who should attend?
CIO, Head of IT, Heads of Information Management, Directors of Infrastructure, IT Director, IT Manager, Chief Privacy Officer, Chief Security Officer, Information Security Manager, Test Manager, Application Director, Application Manager, Compliance Officer
And anyone responsible for data privacy in your organisation...
22/07/2009
Managing mission critical databases cost effectively
Meet the challenges of database management in the downturn
DB2 database management specialists, Triton Consulting, are helping their customers meet the challenges of database management in the downturn by enhancing their managed services offerings to include additional free consultancy packages.
Remote DBA from Triton Consulting offers the reassurance of stable, secure management for all components of a client's DB2 infrastructure, without the associated staffing and technical issues.
Real ROI - Savings of up to £81,000 per annum!
A Remote DBA service leverages a shared skill pool and can thereby offer support more cheaply, saving organisations a substantial amount annually. This is especially cost effective for smaller organisations that are unable to support a full team of DBAs.
With Remote DBA contracts available from as little as £15,000 per annum there is real return on investment to be gained. Savings of up to £81,000 per annum can be realised. This is based on utilising the full time working companion Remote DBA contract from Tritonversus 2 x full time in house DBAs.
As well as first class database management support all Remote DBA contracts now come with an additional 20 hours of free consultancy.
"We know that everyone is feeling the pressure of the economic downturn, especially in the IT sector. Remote DBA gives IT managers a really cost effective solution to managing their critical DB2 systems." Says Laura Hood, Marketing Manager "The additional consultancy hours which are now included in the package mean that customers can benefit from free consultancy, training or development work in addition to ongoing DB2 support"
Support when you need it
Remote DBA, like an insurance policy, gives you peace of mind that your critical business systems will be covered no matter what. Absences such as sickness or holidays are automatically covered. When DBAs are pulled off onto other projects where their skills can be better utilised, the everyday maintenance and support of the database will still be carried out with no loss of service. Flexible support options mean that you can tailor-make the service to meet your specific requirements.
"The service that we have received from Triton has been fantastic, they are always available at the end of the phone/email to help with any issues that we have. The staff have a superb knowledge of DB2" Elizabeth O'Neil, Holiday Extras
Proactive monitoring
Triton's industry-leading proactive monitoring technology is included with every Remote DBA agreement. At the first sign of a potential issue, the client's Remote DBA Companion will be alerted and can begin to take remedial action. Often a potential issue can be detected, analysed and resolved before a client is even aware of the problem.
For more information contact us today!
16/07/2009
Don't sweat it this summer
Don't struggle to cope when holidays or sick leave mean the team is under resourced.
Our Consultancy on Demand offering is ideal for those times when the team is under extra pressure and more hands on deck are needed. With Consultancy on Demand a block of consultancy hours can be purchased in advance and used as and when needed.
Ideal for cover during annual leave
Hours can be used for DB2 training courses, consultancy, development work, cover during annual leave or to provide specific skills where they are lacking in the team.
During July and August we are offering a FREE database healthcheck on all 40 hour contracts.
Talk to an expert today! Got a DB2 issue? Call us today on 0870 2411 550 and speak to one of our DB2 experts
16/07/2009
The trials and tribulations of 24/7 database management
James Cockayne, Principal DBA at Camelot Group gives us his views on key issues for DBAs, the newest active-active availability solutions and how a DBA can ensure they get their all important beauty sleep!
Just how important is it for organisations to ensure they have a robust database availability & disaster recovery solution?
The database is always the lynchpin of an application. Without the database, the application doesn't function, and there's a bunch of angry users wanting to know why (not to mention angry managers seeing money slipping down the drain). More and more there is an expectation that the services we provide will always be available when the customer wants them, and as expectations get higher the tolerance for failure gets lower. It is vital that we not only ensure the customer can access the service they want during the traditional ‘working day', but increasingly all the way up to 24x7 availability.
What are some of the issues for database administrators looking after databases in a 24/7 environment?
DB2 UDB on distributed platforms offer a highly reliable database solution, but in the real world many different applications and scripts run against our databases which are hosted on various pieces of complicated hardware and problems will occur. An outage during the day is bad enough, but at least the DBAs and other support teams are at work and ready to respond. When supporting a 24x7 system failure in the middle of the night can be, literally, a nightmare as the DBA has to get connected and conduct a diagnosis and fix as quickly as possible - after all, in a 24x7 system the middle of the night here in the UK is daytime for customers elsewhere in the world. Often an issue will mean calling (and usually waking up) other support personnel from teams such as server support, storage, or networks for diagnosis or resolution - not to mention managers on the escalation list...
6/07/2009
Webcast: Enabling applications from Oracle to DB2 the easy way
Join the IBM lab for their latest webcast on enabling applications from Oracle to DB2.
16th July - register here
DB2 9.7 for Linux, Unix, and Windows has out-of-the-box support for Oracle's SQL and PL/SQL dialects. This allows many applications written against Oracle to execute virtually unchanged against DB2. Whether you want to switch your custom application or extend your DBMS vendor support, its now time to break free with DB2!
Join experts from the DB2 labs: Sal Vella - VP, and Serge Rielau - SQL Architect, to learn more about what Oracle compatibility means in DB2. Bernie O'Connor - Director IT, Anixter, Brett Annadale - CEO, AnnanTech, and Gene Ostrovsky - VP R&D, ExactCost, will also be on hand to share their Oracle to DB2 9.7 porting/enablement experiences.
26/06/2009
Triton Announce New Remote DBA Offerings
Triton Consulting are currently offering:
An extra 20 hours consultancy on 24/7, 1 hour response Remote DBA Contracts
Free database healthcheck on Consultancy On Demand contracts when purchasing 40+ hours.
Triton's industry-leading Remote DBA service offers the reassurance of stable, secure management for all components of a client's DB2 infrastructure, without the associated staffing and technical issues.
Benefits or a Remote DBA Service:
- Absences such as sickness or holidays are automatically covered - ideal for small DBA teams
- No loss of cover when DBA's are pulled off onto other projects
- Better utilization of internal DBA resource - outsourcing routine monitoring and maintenance allows DBA's to focus on more strategic development projects.
- Benefit from Triton's extensive experience and specialism in DB2
- Fixed monthly costs
- Easily definable ROI
24/06/2009 Feed Article
Top 10 tips to make better use of business intelligence
Business intelligence is getting a lot of attention amid the economic downturn as organisations try to use data they gather to become more efficient and compete more effectively with rivals.
With this in mind, silicon.com has picked the brains of analysts specialising in BI to come up with some top tips about how you can make the most out of this growing area.
24/06/2009
Cure your data headache!
Database growth has often been accepted as a natural consequence of being in business and adding more storage has been the solution. The cost implications of adding storage can be enormous, reaching from simple infrastructure upgrades through to customer frustration and lost business opportunities.
With budgets under ever more scrutiny it is essential for companies to strip out unnecessary expenditure. Proactively managing the size of production databases by archiving non-current data on a daily basis delivers significant and ongoing cost savings.
Managing the financial services data explosion
Although the financial services sector has had a pretty rocky time of late we know that "the show must go on" and that you still need to provide a reliable and responsive service to your customers and stakeholders.
Recent events have seen many mergers and acqusistions in the sector, thus creating a "data headache" for many organisations. Suddenly the amount of data within an organisation has grown massively, putting pressure on response times, SLA's and customer service.
In addition to growing data volumes, financial services organisations are facing increasing pressure to comply with regulations such as the Data Protection Act. Facing potencial fines, not to mention the unwelcome bad PR of non compliance, could be highly damaging to the business.
In our upcoming webinar IBM Data Champion, Julian Stuhler, chats to industry insider Andrew Crouch about his experience of implmenting a data archiving strategy.
Join the webinar - 9th July, 11am
22/06/2009
Download DB2 9.7 today!
The long awaited DB2 9.7 is now available to download.
DB2 9.7 brings to the market a host of new developments and benefits putting it way ahead of the competition. Just some of the benefits include:
1. increasing performance, reliability and ease of use
2. lowering management costs
3. enhancing workload management
4. compatibility with Oracle Database SQL, PL/SQL, types, scripting and more...
Click here to visit IBM and download DB2 9.7 Express C today.
18/06/2009
New Video! Break free with IBM DB2 9.7
In this latest video see IBM Data Champion Julian Stuhler and other industry experts talk about their first hand experiences of how companies can break free from Oracle's rising costs and gain huge benefits from IBM DB2 9.7
Visit Channel DB2 to view the video
16/06/2009
Oracle to DB2 made easy
Register now! 4.30pm GMT Today!
Enabling applications from Oracle to DB2 the easy way
- A DB2 Chat with the Lab
DB2 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows has out-of-the-box support for Oracle's SQL and PL/SQL dialects. This allows many applications written against Oracle to execute virtually unchanged against DB2.
Join experts from the DB2 labs, Sal Vella - VP, and Serge Rielau - SQL Architect, to learn more about what Oracle compatibility means in DB2.
16/06/2009
Get the inside scoop on DB2.97
Join this FREE webinar from IDUG - Register Today!
Wednesday, June 24
4pm GMT
Presented by Paul Zikopoulos
The release of DB2 9.7 for Linux, Unix and Windows is creating quite a stir in the industry. CNET said that "IBM puts Oracle to the Sword." ZDnet commented that "IBM's latest DB2 woos Oracle customers." Industry analyst Merv Adrian said, "This is a BIG deal." Beta participants claim that "this is a paradigm shift" and "simply amazing."
IDUG will be hosting this unique 60-minute webcast on Wednesday, June 24 at 4pm GMT. In this free event, you'll discover the new features of DB2 9.7 that will save you time, improve performance and lower your management costs. You'll be the first to know about the new technology your peers will be buzzing about by hearing it directly from the source.
Join renowned DB2 evangelist and respected author Paul Zikopoulos as he explains what the DB2 9.7 buzz is all about. Along with live Q&A, Paul will discuss DB2 9.7's new features for:
1. increasing performance, reliability and ease of use
2. lowering management costs
3. enhancing workload management
4. compatibility with Oracle Database SQL, PL/SQL, types, scripting and more
For more information on how you can benefit by upgrading to DB2 9.7 speak to one of our experts today on 0870 2411 550.
11/06/2009
How to solve your database management challeneges in the downturn
The database sits at the heart of an organisations' IT systems. With the need for 24/7 availability increasing, it is vital that databases are optimised, monitored and maintained efficiently and effectively.
This latest white paper from Triton Consulting, the database management experts, highlights the key challenges faced by IT organisations in maintaining their information management systems and the solutions to these challenges.
In particular it focuses on the management of DB2 databases for both midrange and mainframe platforms.
Click here to read the full paper.
8/06/2009
The financial services data explosion - webinar
We invite you to join us on a FREE webinar:
Managing the data explosion in the Financial Services Sector on 9th July 2009
Although the financial services sector has had a pretty rocky time of late we know that "the show must go on" and that you still need to provide a reliable and responsive service to your customers and stakeholders.
The sector has seen many mergers and acquisitions which has created a "data headache" within organisations. Suddenly the amount of data has grown massively, putting pressure on response times, SLA's and customer service. Add to this the pressure that financial services organisations are facing in terms of regulation compliance and we can see that managing data volumes is fast becoming a serious challenge
With budgets under ever more scrutiny it is essential for companies to strip out unnecessary expenditure. Proactively managing the size of production databases by archiving non-current data on a daily basis delivers significant and ongoing cost savings.
During the webinar we will cover:
• What's causing the data explosion in the Financial Services Sector?
• Drowning in data!
• Effects of rapid data growth
• Coping with the data explosion
• Case Study - AVIVA - An insider's view into managing a data archiving project
Presenters:
Julian Stuhler - IBM Gold Consultant, IBM Data Champion, 2008-09 President of IDUG - International DB2 User Group and Triton Consulting Solutions Delivery Director
Andrew Crouch - AVIVA - IBM Optim Archiving Subject Matter Expert
This event is designed specifically for senior IT professionals working in the financial services sector who are experiencing issues related to growing data volumes.
14/05/2009
The top 6 tips for a successful DB2 Performance Expert deployment for DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows
Part 2 - Taking performance baselines, using DB2 Workload Manager and monitoring in a partitioned environment
As a database administrator, performance monitoring and tuning are critical tasks. Comprehenmsive proactive performance and database tuning tools help to resolve immediate performance issues and avoid future issues arising.
In part 2 of IBM's Top 6 tips for a successful DB2 Performance Expert deployment for DB2 for Lunix, Unix and Windows you can access information on how to take performance baselines, take advantage of DB2 Workload Manager and configure monitoring in a large DPF environment.
11/05/2009
Top 6 tips for a successful DB2 Performance Expert Deployment for DB2 for Linux, UNIX & Windows
Part 1 - Modifying settings, setting up alerts and using System Health data views
Performance monitoring and tuning are critical tasks for a database administrator (DBA). DB2 Performance Expert helps DBAs tackle immediate performance problems, as well as avoid problems in the future.
IBM have produced their top 6 tips for getting the most out of DB2 Performance Expert. Click here to read part 1.
Part 2 coming soon!
11/05/2009 Feed Article
Securing and Auditing Data on DB2 for z/OS
Draft Redbook, last updated: Fri, 8 May 2009 - Prepare for the threat from within and without - Comply with IBM Data Server Security Blueprint - Extend the skills of data professionals In this age of complex regulatory oversight and wide ranging threats to corporate data, securing a company's information assets from internal and external threats has become a primary focus and concern for information professionals.
30/04/2009
xkoto named in first annual Information Week Start-up 50
xkoto's GRIDSCALE database virtualization product delivers unprecedented levels of availability and scalability for SQL server and DB2 environments.
InformationWeek's Startup 50 is a list of the top 50 business technology startups selected by InformationWeek readers and editors. Companies were selected in a three-step process that involved nomination, online voting, and editorial vetting.
The technologies and the companies behind them were evaluated on the following criteria:
- Innovation and their ability to inject new ways of doing things into business processes
- Value, which is reflected in lower costs, increased sales, higher productivity, or improved customer loyalty
- Enterprise-readiness, meaning that a product or service scales and can be deployed and managed as necessary by IT pros
xkoto is the developer and marketer of GRIDSCALE, which virtualizes the database infrastructure, enabling businesses to distribute application load horizontally across multiple instances of commercial databases running on clusters of low-cost hardware, mid-range systems and virtual machines.
With GRIDSCALE, businesses can improve performance and scalability and achieve continuous availability for business-critical applications. For more information about GRIDSCALE, visit http://www.xkoto.com/gridscale.
"More than ever, IT organizations are looking for solutions that help them solve critical business problems and enable them to do more with less," said David Patrick, CEO and President of xkoto. "Increasingly, businesses are choosing GRIDSCALE to ensure 24x7 operations, dramatically improve database performance and drive down operational costs. Being named to the InformationWeek Startup 50 list is a clear indication that we have developed a technology that meets an urgent and growing need for businesses of all sizes."
This latest nomination follows on xkoto being named "Startup of the Year" in 2008 by InformationWeek at its InformationWeek 500 conference. A panel of CIOs from major companies chose xkoto over the competition for delivering innovative technology that offers enterprise value for a modest investment. Visit http://www.xkoto.com/informationweek for more information.
28/04/2009
How to solve your database management challenges in the downturn
The database sits at the heart of an organisations' IT systems. With the need for 24/7 availabiliy increasing, it is vital that databases are optimised, monitored and maintained efficiently and effectively.
Our latest white paper aims to highlight the key challenges faced by IT organisations in maintaining their information management systems and the solutions to these challenges. In particular it focuses on the management of DB2 databases for both midrange and mainframe platforms.
Click here to download the full white paper - The Challenges of Database Management.
Triton are making it easier to solve your database management challenges in the downturn by offering:
20 hours free consultancy on Remote DBA 24/7, 1 hour response contracts taken out during May & June.
Free database healtcheck on Consultancy on Demand contracts when purchasing 40+ hours.
27/04/2009
Latest Triton Newsletter
We bring you industry news, updates and insight. To read the full newsletter click here:
- A look behind the scenes of a major data archiving project with AVIVA - We chat to Andrew Crouch from AVIVA about his experiences of implementing a data archiving solution.
- High Availability Solutions for DB2 - by James Gill
Triton Principal Consultant & DB2 Expert - Join the discussion - Triton start their own LinkedIn group - The idea of the group is that we get as many z/OS people together as we can to discuss industry trends, best practice and to share knowledge.
- xkoto named "Cool Vendor"
- The need for operational BI in a tough economic climate
- CA IDUG Award for Outstanding work in DB2
23/04/2009
DB2 9.7 Overview Webcast
6th May 2009
DB2 9.7 Overview - Chat with the Lab
DB2 9.7, the next release of DB2 LUW, delivers new capabilities that can help you manage costs and simplify application development. By moving to DB2 9.7 you can take advantage of enhancements in workload management, performance, compression, XML data analytics, and more.
Join Sal Vella, VP of Development, and Tim Vincent, Chief DB2 Architect, to learn more about what's new in DB2 9.7.
Email us today for further information and to reserve your place!
22/04/2009
IBM Unveil DB2 9.7
IBM have today announced the release of DB2 9.7 for Linux, Unix and Windows and InfoSphere Warehouse 9.7. This groundbreaking new release includes:
- Lower storage costs with data compression enhancements.
- Lower XML data management and analysis costs with end-to-end native XML support for transactional and analytical systems.
- Lower database administration costs with additional automation features and enhanced workload management capabilities.
- Lower database development costs with the addition of database package support, the addition of several built-in packages, flexible concurrency model support, flexible data typing with implicit casting, and more.
- Lower costs for deploying departmental analytic solutions with new InfoSphere Warehouse editions for departmental solutions
New development capabilities in DB2 9.7, until now known by the code name "Cobra", make it easier to move applications developed for other databases to the IBM platform.
Triton Consulting have been involved in the early access program and have been running R&D on the software - keep an eye on our blog for updates.
21/04/2009
CA IDUG Award for Outstanding work in DB2
CA with help from IDUG and four independent DB2 solutions, including Tritons' Solutions Delivery Director, Julian Stuhler, is announcing today the CA IDUG Award for Outstanding Work in DB2.
1. There is a panel of seven judges (See below).
2. The prizes for the winners are impossible to ignore (See below).
3. The deadline for the first contest is insane. (Click on the link below). A second winner will be selected in the Fall for presentation at IDUG Europe.
4. The criteria take into account the human aspects of delivering great results in DB2 - weighted as much toward the people doing the work as the technology supporting their projects. (See the submission form at the link below)
The submission form contains the criteria and more details on the prizes and process.
Prizes include an IDUG conference pass, half-day consulting engagements by each of the four consultant judges, expense reimbursement up to $1500 for travel to an IDUG conference or an on-site consulting engagement, and plaque.
Judges: The president of IDUG - Julian Stuhler (Triton Consulting), David Beulke (Pragmatic Solutions), Robert Catterall (Catterall Consulting), Sheryl Larsen (Sheryl M. Larsen, Inc), Dan Luksetich (YL & A) and, Scott Jessee and Dave Schipper (CA).
Submission deadlines:
For IDUG North America consideration: April 20, 2009
For IDUG Europe consideration: August 17, 2009
17/04/2009
DB2 9.5 Upgrade Benefits with John Kennedy
Should you or shouldn't you? If your enterprise runs on DB2, you probably know that a growing number of DB2 installations have made the move to DB2 9.5, and reaped the benefits. Do you know if it's time for you to do the same?
In this recorded eSeminar, experts from the IBM DB2 labs answer questions and share their expertise as they discuss:
* How DB2 9.5 has bottom-line impact
* Case studies and real-world experiences with DB2 9.5
* Why others have upgraded - and what they've achieved
* Improvements in the upgrade process that make your job easier
* Best practices and what to avoid when planning an upgrade
9/04/2009
Podcast - Julian Stuhler on IDUG, the International DB2 Users Group
Julian Stuhler, President of the International DB2 User Group (IDUG) and Triton Consulting Solutions Delivery Director, talks to Scott Laningham of IBM Developerworks about the IDUG mission, benefits and events and how IDUG stands out from other user groups.
9/04/2009
DB2 UDB V8 - end of support 30th April 2009
Support for DB2 V8 will end on 30th April 2009. What are the options?
1. Triton can provide DB2 support on older versions of DB2. Take a look at our Remote DBA offerings to find out how our flexible database support packages can keep your critical DB2 database fully supported.
2. Upgrade to DB2 V9.5 and benefit from:
35% improvement in DBA efficiency
DB2 automatically performs time-consuming database administration tasks like memory management and storage allocation.
Lower Storage Costs
DB2 customers are reporting compression ratios of up to 83%, which means less storage to buy and maintain.
Lower Server and License Costs
DB2 needs fewer processors, which means less hardware to purchase. It also means less software to license and maintain.
Easier XML Projects
Customers are reporting that XML projects require between 30% and 66% fewer people.
Peace of Mind
DB2's world class security and audit features ensure that you meet your current needs, as well as your evolving future needs.
Contact us today!
7/04/2009
High availability technologies for DB2
With the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) more businesses are relying on the ability to access their business data through web based applications. In addition to the rise of SaaS and Cloud Computing, our businesses are increasingly operating on a global scale. When once you could schedule your maintenance updates for Sunday night, this now affects users across the other side of the globe.
When downtime is unplanned however, these issues multiply ten-fold. These outages are a lot more visible to users and the public at large with potential ramifications to revenue, brand image and customer satisfaction.
"Database virtualization provides you with the ability to access your data, all of the time, no matter where the data is physically stored. Database virtualization provides fast access, even in the event of a database server failure, and also provides the ability to add capacity on demand as your workload grows. If you have a system that needs 100% uptime, you need to look at database virtualization."
Dwaine Snow - Senior DB2 Evangelist, IBM.
In his latest technical article, Triton Principal Consultant, James Gill looks at the various solutions to the application availability issue for DB2 databases and how they meet the demands of our ever changing global operations. Visit our download centre to read the full article.
7/04/2009
System z Webcast - Delivering on the full promise of Business Intelligence
Tuesday 21st April 2009
Whether you are interested in getting more value out of your System Z, or you are working on improving your organisation's business intelligence infrastructre, this webcast is for you!
As BI continues to evolve from a specialized back-office function, and expand into front-line business operations, a ‘modern' class of mainframe has emerged as a viable and compelling platform on which to run BI and analytic applications.
This webcast explains how the hallmark strengths of System z- performance, application availability, reliability, and security-are well suited to meet modern BI requirements that are becoming more complex and realtime in nature.
In this webcast, an independent analyst will discuss the value that the System z platform can bring to your organization, when addressing your enterprise BI requirements, such as:
- Improving information availability to a broader set of users
- Ensuring quality of service through performance and availability
- Managing the security of your data
- Lowering BI infrastructure costs and delays
Speakers for this timely webcast include Madan Sheina from OVUM, who will talk to the value of delivering business intelligence on System z, followed by Rebecca Wormleighton from IBM, who will highlight some of the robust functions Cognos 8 BI offers on the platform.
For further information or to register contact us today.
27/03/2009
An insiders view on managing a data archiving project
We chat to Andrew Crouch from AVIVA about his experiences of implementing a data archiving solution:
Can you start by telling us a little about how the data archiving project first came about?
Back in 2000 the NUI (Norwich Union Insurance) claims and workflow systems had been running on the current platform for 7 years and policy for 2 years. The Capacity Management team began to have concerns about the levels of data growth and the cost of a serious system failure to a rapidly increasing user base. This kick-started the project with problem definition and research of options being undertaken.
You say that the levels of data within NUI were growing at that time, what were the main drivers for that growth?
Data from legacy systems was converting to the new platform, this was also the period that Norwich Union was merging with CGU. The user base was increasing and with it the need for greater availability. The whole business was starting to move to where it is today.
What sort of pressures were IT facing from around the business with regards to the growing data volumes?
The business weren't experiencing any issues as a result of the increased data at that time. The Capacity Management team could see problems on the horizon so the pressure was convincing the business that action was required. We were a bit ahead of the game.
Click here for the full interview...
17/03/2009
xkoto named "Cool Vendor" by Garnter
The database virtualization company, today announced it has been named a "Cool Vendor" in the recently released Gartner report, "Cool Vendors in IT Operations and Virtualization, 2009."
Released on March 11, the report profiles vendors applying new techniques to manage the changing IT infrastructure, including SaaS, search and even virtualization itself. In the report, Gartner states, "The vendors highlighted in this research provide a variety of new approaches to address existing and emerging challenges in IT infrastructure." The report goes on to say, "Virtualization technology is not relegated just to servers and storage; virtualization of databases can also deliver many of the same availability and performance attributes."
Triton Consulting became xkoto business partners in 2008, providing customers with their GRIDSCALE® solution, which virtualizes the database infrastructure, enabling businesses to distribute application load horizontally across multiple instances of commercial databases running on clusters of low-cost hardware, mid-range systems and virtual machines. With GRIDSCALE, businesses can improve application performance and achieve continuous availability for business-critical applications.
Join the FREE "High Availability Technologies for DB2" webinar Wednesday 18th March.
13/03/2009
DB2 Best Practices
In this video from IBM Tim Vincent, Chief DB2 Architect, discusses best practice for DB2 LUW.
http://www.channeldb2.com/video/db2-best-practices-with-tim
Visit the IBM Developer Works web pages to view the entire best practices series.
11/03/2009
How to deliver 100% uptime for business-critical DB2 applications
FREE WEBINAR
24 x 7 operations are global and the window for database maintenance and back-up is shrinking. Business needs are constantly changing which drives up cost and complexity for business continuity.
There have been several sigh availability solutions in the marketplace for some time but until now no solution has been able to provide true Continuous Availability & Disaster Recovery.
We invite you to find out more about high availability technologies for DB2 at this free webinar running in conjunction with xkoto Inc, the creators of the GRIDSCALE platform and IBM.
Why attend?
- Hear from industry experts about high availability technologies, their capabilities and limitations
- Learn how you can protect business critical applications from unplanned outages
- Learn how you can eliminate scheduled maintenance windows, imprive application security & performance
- Hear hhow organisations like yours have benefitted from implementing database virtualization technology
6/03/2009
Latest white paper - The Importance of an Information Strategy
The importance of having access to reliable, accurate business information has never been more of a priority. In todays tough economic climate those business who can gain competitive advantage through the power of their information will be the ones to thrive.
A new white paper from Bloor Reseach discusses what an Information Strategy is, why it is important, and what it takes to build one. It also considers IBM's Information Agenda, that company's approach to assisting in the development of an Information Strategy.
Click here to download the paper now.
2/03/2009
Z series teleconferences from IBM
IBM are running a series of free teleconferences on the following subjects:
Best practices in data warehousing loading and synchronization with z data - 10th March
The right time, the right platform - System z for data warehousing and business intelligence - 24th March
IMS problem investigator - exploring the "black holes" of IBM performance - 17th March
For further details or to book please email us.
18/02/2009
Triton Consulting Partners with Datawatch to Provide Report Mining & Analytics for IBM Content Manager OnDemand
IBM Premier Business Partner in UK Expands Business Opportunities with Addition of Monarch RMS for IBM Content Manager OnDemand Report Archive Solution
London February 18th 30th 2009 -Triton Consulting, the Information Management experts, today announced a partnership with Datawatch to jointly deliver report mining & analytics for the IBM Content Manager OnDemand solution in the UK. This partnership combines Datawatch's 20+ years experience in Enterprise Information Management and Triton's expert knowledge of DB2 and other IBM Information Management products.
"Triton Consulting have been Content Manager OnDemand experts for many years and we are delighted to now be able to deliver a product which will help our customers extend the value of their investment in this solution. It is vital that users are able to open up the vast amounts of corporate data locked in stored, static reports. With Monarch RMS from Datawatch this is now a possibility" Roberto Barrenechea, Triton Principal Consultant and Enterprise Content Management Specialist.
Monarch RMS - Web-based Report Mining and BI
Monarch RMS from Datawatch is a web-based report mining and Business Intelligence (BI) solution which transforms static reports and other business documents stored in a customer's IBM DB2 Content Manager OnDemand system into real, actionable data-such as Excel spreadsheets-with the click of a mouse. Now companies have the power to leverage the value of their business documents as a trusted and low cost source of decision support information and BI, without the need for custom programming or report writing, or the need to build and support a data mart or data warehouse. For more information about Monarch RMS visit http://www.triton.co.uk/OnlineReportMining.php
"We're delighted to partner with Triton as they are committed to helping their customers dramatically improve the way Content Manager OnDemand solves their critical business issues. By adding Monarch RMS, customers increase the value of their archive by transforming it into a valuable source of BI-without the heavy costs associated with traditional BI products in terms of price, implementation, support and training. With Triton and Datawatch, customers will no longer need to start from scratch to get the actionable answers they need, resulting in a fast and significant ROI." John Kitchen, senior vice president and CMO for Datawatch
About Triton Consulting
Triton Consulting is an information management specialist that harnesses the power of your business information systems. The company's team of consultants represent some of the most highly experienced and qualified in the industry, and are able to advise on the full range of IBM Information Management solutions including DB2 for z/OS, DB2 for LUW, IBM Information Server, IBM Content Manager, IBM Content manager OnDemand, Document Manager, Record Manager, DB2 Connect and most recently IBM Optim Solutions. The company was set up in 1996 and became a Premier Business Partner of IBM in 1998.
About Datawatch
Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ-CM: DWCH), a leader in Enterprise Information Management, helps companies make better decisions and solve business problems by simplifying access to information. Unique among EIM vendors, Datawatch transforms the massive amounts of data and documents generated inside or outside a company into actionable insight, without any changes needed to existing systems. Datawatch customers benefit from the right information, in the right context, at the right time. More than 35,000 organizations worldwide rely on Datawatch products including its market-leading Monarch report and data mining solutions. Founded in 1985, Datawatch is based in Chelmsford, Mass., with offices in London, Sydney and Manila. For more information, visit http://www.datawatch.com/
16/02/2009
System Z - Delivering on the full promise of business intelligence
This report from Ovum explains how the hallmark strengths of System Z - performance, application availability, reliability & security - are well suited to meet modern BI requirements that are becoming more complex and realtime in nature.
Visit our download centre to read the paper for free.
View the lastest IBM TV video on data warehousing & BI with System Z. Get the insight from IBM experts together with Julian Stuhler, Triton Director, IDUG President and IBM Data Champion.
11/02/2009
Latest Newsletter
The latest issue of Triton News is available here
In this issue:
Managing the challenges of 24/7 availability - Paul Stoker chats to James Cockayne of EDS on key issues for DBA's, the newest active-active availability solutions and how a DBA can ensure they get their all important beauty sleep!
Protect critical data from the "anonymous insiders" - It is vital that we know who is looking at what data and that access and updates can be tracked and attributed to end users. Brother Watchdog from DBI Software tracks access and updates to corporate data. Like a surveillance camera, Brother-Watchdog captures and records all data activities to create immutable audit trails giving you the power to hold ALL privileged users accountable.
Extend the Value of IBM DB2 Content Manager OnDemand through Online Report Mining - Find out how you can leverage your investment in IBM CMOD by using Monarch RMS from Datawatch to turn stored reports into real, actionable data at the click of a mouse.
Managing the data explosion! - Julian Stuhler, Solutions Delivery Director - Triton Consulting, IDUG President & IBM Data Champion takes a look at the causes, effects and solutions of data growth.
High availability technologies for DB2 - We invite you to join our free webinar being run jointly with IBM & xkoto to discuss high availability technologies for DB2.
Making System Z work harder for you - Want to increase your decision making power while leveraging your investment in System Z and lowering total cost of ownership? Make better decisions faster by utilising your System Z investment for data warehousing and business intelligence.
Click here for the full newsletter
11/02/2009
High Availability Technologies for DB2 - FREE WEBINAR
We invite you to join our free webinar on high availability technologies for DB2 on 18th March.
Business needs are constantly changing which drives up cost and complexity for business continuity. Customers are increasingly interacting with businesses via web based applications and these applications require a high level of resilience.
There have beeen several availability solutions in the marketplace for some time but until now no solution has been able to provide true continuous availability & disaster recovery.
Why Attend?
- Hear industry experts speak about high availability technologies, their campabilities and limitations.
- Learn how you can implement active-active databases to protect business critical applicatoins from unplanned outages.
- Learn how you can elimate the need for scheduled maintenance windows and improve application security performance.
- Hear how organisations like yours have benefitted from implementing database virtualization technology.
Who should attend?
- CIOs
- System Architects
- DBA's
- Anyone responsible for system availability & disaster recovery
9/02/2009
The headaches of managing databases in a 24/7 environment
Paul Stoker chats to James Cockayne of EDS about some of the headaches of managing databases in a 24/7 environment.
James gives us his views on key issues for DBA's, the newest active-active availability solutions and how a DBA can ensure they get their all important beauty sleep!
For the full interview visit our blog
Just how important is it for organisations to ensure they have a robust database availability & disaster recovery solution?
The database is always the lynchpin of an application. Without the database, the application doesn't function, and there's a bunch of angry users wanting to know why (not to mention angry managers seeing money slipping down the drain). More and more there is an expectation that the services we provide will always be available when the customer wants them, and as expectations get higher the tolerance for failure gets lower. It is vital that we not only ensure the customer can access the service they want during the traditional ‘working day', but increasingly all the way up to 24×7 availability.
What are some of the issues for database administrators looking after databases in a 24/7 environment?
DB2 UDB on distributed platforms offers a highly reliable database solution, but in the real world many different applications and scripts run against our databases which are hosted on various pieces of complicated hardware and problems will occur. An outage during the day is bad enough, but at least the DBAs and other support teams are at work and ready to respond. When supporting a 24×7 system a failure in the middle of the night can be, literally, a nightmare as the DBA has to get connected and conduct a diagnosis and fix as quickly as possible - after all, in a 24×7 system the middle of the night here in the UK is daytime for customers elsewhere in the world. Often an issue will mean calling (and usually waking up) other support personnel from teams such as server support, storage, or networks for diagnosis or resolution - not to mention managers on the escalation list...
For the full interview visit our blog
3/02/2009
DB2 LUW Performance and IT Cost Optimization for a Smarter Planet
DBI Software are running a free webinar which will cover excerpts from Scott Hayes' new IDUG Education Seminar "300 Fast Fabulous Facts for DB2 LUW". We will explore IBM's new Smarter Planet initiative, GREEN IT, and IT Cost Optimization as these business imperatives relate to IBM Data Management and DB2 LUW in particular.
Wednesday March 11th - click here to register
2/02/2009
Latest Downloads!
Visit our downloads centre for the latest updates including:
IBM Content Manager OnDemand - are you making the most of your CMOD investment? Take a look at our new offering from Datawatch - Monarch RMS. A reporting and analytics tool which works specifically on CMOD.
Continuous Availability & Disaster Recovery - Find out more about the solutions available on Microsoft SQL Sever. GRIDSCALE enables Microsoft SQL Server users to avoid the complexity associated with passive fail-over systems, database partitioning and disaster recovery.
21/01/2009
Exec Talk: DB2 9 for z/OS
In their latest video Channel DB2 talk to Curt Cotner, VP & CTO for IBM Data Management about the new features of DB2 9 for z/OS. Curt talks specifically about how version 9 can help customers with regulatory compliance issues.
Click here to view the video
15/01/2009
Information Security still top corporate IT issue
In a recent survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Information Security Management came out as the most influential issue affecting corporate IT policies for the 7th year running. Also in the top three was Privacy Management.
For more information on data privacy and security issues visit our enterprise data management and database audting and compliance pages. Or view our download centre for a range of free white papers on information security and data privacy.
8/01/2009
Free IBM Teleconferences
IBM are running a series of teleconferences over the coming weeks. Join industry experts for these in-depth sessions covering the following topics:
Information Management
20/01 - Four Expert Tools to advise you with DB2 for z/OS
27/01 - Benefits of DB2 Stored Procedures and Web 2.0
04/02 - Let pureQuery improve the quality of service and reduce costs for WebSphere and DB2 applications
Rational
28/01 - Web 2.0 made simple for System z
Websphere
21/01 - Exploring the human-centric aspects of BPM for System z
If you would like further information or to book onto any of the teleconferences please email us today.
6/01/2009
Clients Across Major Industries, Mature and Emerging Markets Choose IBM Mainframes to Run Their Most Sophisticated Business Transactions
Clients from a range of industries across the globe have chosen IBM mainframes this year to run the world's highly secure and most sophisticated business transactions. Clients selected IBM mainframes because of their distinct advantages over competitive offerings. For example, a single IBM System z10 mainframe is equal to nearly 1500 x86 servers, uses up to 85% less floor space and up to 85% less energy.
The adoption of IBM mainframes, which power the top 50 banks worldwide and 22 of the top 25 US retailers, has enabled IBM's System z to nearly double its share this decade, according to IDC's high-end server quarterly tracker. Over the same timeframe, HP and Sun have lost its share.*1 Additionally, installed capacity of new workloads on IBM mainframes grew significantly in the first half of 2008. For example, Linux "specialty engines" for the mainframe grew 26% in the first half of this year; Java specialty engines grew 45%; and database specialty engines grew 133%.*2
Broad customer adoption of IBM mainframes has led to:
- Growth of mainframe applications: 600 new or updated applications were introduced this year, bringing the total to more than 5,000 unique applications.
- More than 1,400 Independent Software Vendors are developing applications for IBM System z mainframes.
- More than 130 IBM Business Partners and Systems Integrators are certified to sell IBM System z mainframes.
- The number of universities worldwide that have worked with IBM to teach mainframe and large systems skills have surpassed 500 -- up from 24 in 2004. Over the past four years, more than 50,000 students have participated in mainframe education. Why
For more information on the facts about IBM's System z mainframe, visit IBM's Get the Facts website.
*1: According to IDC's high-end +$250K servers quarterly tracker results from 3Q 2000 to 2Q 2008. IDC 2Q08 WW Server Tracker.
*2: IBM internal MIPS inventory numbers comparing 1H07 installed capacity vs. 1H08 revised installed capacity.
11/12/2008
Latest Free White Paper - Proven strategies for archiving complex relational data
Visit our download centre to access the latest IBM Optim white paper on data archiving strategies.
This white paper explains how the IBM Optim Data Growth Solution provides proven technology and comprehensive capabilities that make archiving complex relational data both practical and desirable. Archives can be easily managed and stored on the most cost-effective media, and historical data remains accessible until retention periods expire. Maintaining only current active data in production environments improves service levels, increases availability and improves disaster recovery initiatives. Archiving allows organizations to reclaim valuable capacity and lower costs.
As one of the solutions in the IBM Optim Integrated Data Management (IDM) portfolio, the IBM Optim Data Growth Solution addresses a critical operational need for enterprises that rely on large complex relational databases.
Triton Consulting are IBM Premier Business Partners and have extensive knowledge and experience with enterprise data management solutions. Contact us today to find out how we can help you manage growing data volumes.
5/12/2008
Latest DB2 Blog Post!
How many DB2 for z/OS Stored Procedure Applications?
The answer, as aways is "it depends"! However, there are some basic rules of thumb that you may find useful. Read the full blog post here
3/12/2008
SOA and Information On Demand for the mainframe: Two faces of the same coin - Teleconference
Ensuring the success of a service oriented architecture (SOA) strategy requires that you deliver trusted information. But can you deliver it on demand across enterprise systems? It's the only way that your SOA can enable a more flexible and responsive organization. The trustworthiness and accessibility of data is key in order to support the accurate decision-making and business maneuvers that SOA promises.
Teleconference
Join us for this complimentary teleconference and learn how providing information as a service enables organizations to gain better control and visibility over data, optimize business overall, and achieve competitive advantage. Mainframe systems run the largest and most critical applications in every business, and that's where the most important information resides. In this session, we'll discuss how the data integration capabilities of InfoSphereTM Information Server unlock this critical information and make it available throughout the enterprise as a service. The result gives organizations not only a single version of trusted business information - on demand - but they are also able to leverage it as a strategic asset.
In this teleconference, you'll learn how the InfoSphere suite of solutions enable:
- Automating data transformation, data cleansing, data federation logix for rapid SOA deployment
- Ability to provide trusted information to people, processes and applications that use an SOA framework
- Defining services as true business objects, deployed natively in your application server, completely hiding the implementation complexity
Speakers: Paulson Lan, Market Manager, InfoSphere Information Services Director
Krishna Mamidipaka, Market Manager, InfoSphere Software Portfolio for System z
Broadcast date: December 16, 2008, 4pm
To register, email us today.
26/11/2008
Managing the Data Explosion
We recently participated in the IBM Demystifying Database Archiving on System Z Seminar. The day brought together industry professionals, all experiencing the pain of data growth in their organisations. Julian Stuhler, Triton Consulting, spoke about how to manage the "data explosion". Click here to download the presentation covering the causes, effects and potential solutions for businesses dealing with spiralling data growth.
21/11/2008
The Optimisation Issue - Triton News
Read the latest newsletter from Triton Consulting. With news and insight from the world of Information Management. In this edition:
- Reduce costs by optimising your current DB2 z/OS database
- Manage your data for better mergers
- Improve customer service through database optimisation
- Brother Hawk brings new levels of control to lights-out database performance management
- Data management business value - download the presentation from IDUG Europe
- Triton announce Xkoto partnership - bringing database virtualization to the UK
- Triton Director becomes IBM Data Champion
- Techie tip - Plan for z/OS stability
- Demystifying database archiving on system Z - download the "Managing the data explosion" presentation
- Triton announce IBM Optim partnership for Enterprise data management solutions
Click here to read the full newsletter.
17/11/2008
Pure XML is streets ahead
In our latest blog post you can see Julian Stuhler talking about DB2's ease of use, compression capabilities and his experience of working with IDUG.
Click here to find out why Julian thinks "Pure XML is streets ahead"
14/11/2008
Access our latest downloadable resources
Recently added resources to the download section:
Managing the data explosion - a presentation looking at the causes, effects and solutions to growing data volumes.
Continuous availability & disaster recovery - on demand webinar
Navigating the legal minefield - A paper looking at data protection policies within an application testing and development environment
Data Management Business Value - a presentation by Julian Stuhler
11/11/2008
DBI Releases New Generation of Database Performance Monitoring Software
Brother-Hawk from DBI Software, provides unique insight into performance issues by monitoring your databases 24x7 and alerting you to performance issues before they become performance nightmares.
Brother-Hawk sends automated, customized, meaningful alerts based on the characteristics of real-time and recently computed data. DB2 LUW database performance monitoring now includes three levels of customized alerts. Lights-out alerting of potential performance management issues has never been so on-target.
For more information visit DBI Software.
4/11/2008
DB2 Virtualization with xkoto GRIDSCALE
Click here to view an interview by Rav Ahuja with Albert Lee, Linda Snow, and Thomas Ansbro about achieving continuous availability and horizontal scaling for DB2 environments.
Triton are Xkoto business partners and are able to provide the software and key technical skills to enable you to bring continuous availability to your DB2 environments.
29/10/2008
Introducing the new face of enterprise computing
IBM System Z10 Business Class
Increase flexibility, reduce costs and improve security
The newest release, System z10 is the smart, cool and affordable choice:
Smart: z10 BC leading edge technology lets your IT system expand and innovate to meet any business demand.
Cool: z10 BC offers lower energy consumption and management costs than equivalent systems running on distributed servers.
Affordable: With 40% more speed and up to 50% more capacity than its predecessor the entry level price is highly affordable.
Benefits include:
- Industry leading combination of System z10 security, resiliency, virtualization and connectivity technologies packaged specifically as a midrange enterprise solution
- Specialty engines offer an attractive alternative when running new workloads
- Save energy via consolidation of disparate workloads and reduce costs via virtualization capabilities for more efficient resource sharing
- Enables future growth-as a modern platform for a growing portfolio of business solutions
Visit our download centre for more information on IBM System Z10
28/10/2008
Demystifying database archiving for System
FREE SEMINAR -
Those running System z know that it allows larger data volumes, more complex and volatile workloads, higher levels of application integration and accelerated information flows - all of which place unprecedented demands upon underlying servers and databases.
Add to this challenges such as spiralling data growth, stricter rules on data governance, internal SLAs on application availability and performance and it's easy to see why businesses running System z are increasingly employing data lifecycle management strategies.
IBM & Triton Consulting understand that System z users are looking for best practice solutions for these issues. That's why we're holding a roundtable meeting on the 13th November at Gordon Ramsay's Maze Restaurant.
The sessions include valuable insights from data management expert, Philip Howard of Bloor Research and Julian Stuhler, President of IDUG (International DB2 User Group) whilst Andrew Crouch of Norwich Union speaks about his experiences of managing data growth challenges on System z.
- IDUG president Julian Stuhler explains how System z users can benefit from employing a data management strategy
- Independent data management experts explain how System z users can benefit from employing a data management strategy
- Learn how Norwich Union have implemented and benefited from their data management investment on System z and solved the challenges associated with data growth
- Network with peers in an interactive roundtable environment and enjoy a complimentary lunch at Gordon Ramsay's Maze Restaurant
Email us now to regsiter for this free event.
27/10/2008
Triton Director Announced as IBM Data Champion
London UK - 27th October 2008: IBM this week announced Julian Stuhler, Triton Consulting Director & IDUG President as one of their Data Champions for 2008-2009.
IBM have introduced a Data Champion Program which recognises and honours individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the IBM Data Management Community over the previous 12- 18 months.
Exceptional community members were nominated by peers in their field. A panel of IBM employees then reviewed the contributions of each nominee.
Julian comments: "I was extremely honoured to be chosen as an IBM Data Champion. I had previously heard of the initiative via the Gold Consultant Program, but had no idea that I would be invited to become one. It was a very pleasant surprise." He continues "I think that it is a great initiative. As a long-serving IDUG volunteer, I know only too well how vital it is to recognise the efforts of those who give up their valuable spare time to help others. A strong and vibrant community is one of the great strengths of IBM's data products, and this program is a great way of encouraging that community to grow. "
Julian has been a volunteer for IDUG since 1996, serving as a conference presenter and later as a member of the European Conference Planning Committee and the IDUG Solutions Journal Editorial Board. Julian joined the board in 2004 and became President in May 2008.
For more information please visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/champion/
24/10/2008
New White Paper Download - The new information agenda: Do you have one?
This white paper from IBM describes key considerations and best practices in creating and implementing an information agenda.
Triton Consulting can help you deliver trusted information throughout the enterprise. Click here to download the white paper.
20/10/2008
Triton Consulting announces agreement with IBM to market Optim range of Enterprise Data Management Solutions
London, UK - 20th October 2008: In an addition to its core range of Information Management services, Triton Consulting has become an official supplier of IBM Optim Enterprise Data management Solutions. The suite of products addresses data growth, test data management, data privacy and application retirement issues, helping organisations to effectively manage their data across the entire enterprise.
Laura Taylor, Triton Consulting Marketing Manager said: "As Information Management specialists there is a natural fit for Triton and the IBM Optim range. Triton can provide the software and key technical services to help customers manage the growing issues of data availability, data growth management and data privacy."
From speeding up deployment and streamlining the application testing process, to managing expanding data stores and protecting data privacy, IBM Optim delivers a truly enterprise-wide data management solution.
Clair Ross, Principal Consultant, Triton Consulting comments: "IBM Optim is a database administrator and data architect's dream tool. For the extraction and creation of test data, the control is granular enough to allow for the detection of any data that is possible to detect and track. The Data Privacy solution provides data masking techniques, and is designed to only allow users to access information specific to their needs. The data extraction and archiving functions are magnificent. You truly have a tool that permits one to slice and dice the data any way you want it."
Throughout every organisation, data owners need to be able to manage data effectively. The concerns from each department may sound different but the reality is that from executive level through to line of business and technical management, the key concerns are the same, and the solution is a holistic one, which can be implemented into every part of the organisation.
Gary Harvey, IBM Optim Channel Manager, UK and Ireland adds: "Triton Consulting Limited are an established business partner, achieving IBM Premier Business Partner and IBM Gold Consultant accreditations since 1998, and are able to offer expertise in DB2 consultancy, and database and information management."
Triton work with organisations to leverage information to better know customers, speed products to market, manage risks, keep ahead of competition, and foster innovation. http://www.triton.co.uk/EnterpriseDataManagement.php
For more information about IBM, please visit
http://www 01.ibm.com/software/data/data-management/optim/
14/10/2008
Data Management Business Value - Presentation by Julian Stuhler at IDUG Europe 2008
Today's IT systems are becoming increasingly complex as competitive pressures drive businesses to become ever more agile and flexible. As organisations demand more and more value from their IT investment, the focus is firmly on the bottom-line business benefits that can be delivered by IT applications. Less emphasis is usually placed on supporting infrastructure such as the database system, which can sometimes be considered to be a commodity resource, However, this infrastructure remains a critical factor in determining the application's ability to meet its business objectives.
This presentation examines some of the key themes in the ongoing development of the IBM DB2 database engine, and shows how they can help to directly drive business benefit and enhance competitive advantage.
Download the presentation now
13/10/2008
xkoto Partners with Triton Consulting to Provide Continuous Availability and Disaster Recovery Solutions
IBM Premier Business Partner in UK Expands Business Opportunities
with Addition of GRIDSCALE Database Virtualization Software
IDUG Europe (Booth #7) - Warsaw, Poland, October 13, 2008 -- xkoto, the database virtualization company, today announced an partnership with Triton Consulting, leading DB2 and Information Management specialists, to jointly deliver continuous availability and disaster recovery solutions for critical applications running for the UK market. This partnership combines xkoto's revolutionary database virtualization technology with Triton's more than a dozen years' experience working with DB2 and other IBM Information Management products for a wide range of UK companies.
"Together we can offer mutual customers a combination of superior implementation services with database virtualization technology that will increase their competitiveness," said Julian Stuhler, Principal Consultant, Triton Consulting and IDUG President. "We are pleased to be working with xkoto as its GRIDSCALE software provides us with a critical solution to address the High Availability and Disaster Recovery needs of our clients."
GRIDSCALE database virtualization software manages multiple, identical databases to run on a cluster of systems with the same or better reliability and performance than more expensive, proprietary systems. Because GRIDSCALE is an active-active solution, all the servers in the cluster are accessible, fully utilized, and can be dispersed geographically to mitigate disaster scenarios. Applications get consistent data reliably and quickly, and by sharing the load across multiple servers, the loss of any one server does not have an impact on availability. In addition, systems continue to run to their full capability even when individual servers are taken offline for maintenance. For more information about GRIDSCALE and database virtualization, visit http://www.xkoto.com/database_virtualization.
"With a first class team of fully IBM qualified consultants, Triton is able to provide a full range of services," said David Patrick, President and CEO, xkoto. "Our partnership broadens the avenues of opportunity for xkoto in the UK market and the addition of GRIDSCALE to the Triton portfolio further strengthens its position as one of the top consultants for HA and DR solutions."
About Triton Consulting
Triton Consulting is an information management specialist that harnesses the power of your business information systems. The company's team of consultants represent some of the most highly experienced and qualified in the industry, and are able to advise on the full range of IBM Information Management solutions including DB2 for z/OS, DB2 for LUW, IBM Information Server, IBM Content Manager, DB2 Connect and most recently IBM Optim Solutions. The company was set up in 1996 and became a Premier Business Partner of IBM in 1998.
About xkoto
xkoto, the database virtualization company, is the provider of GRIDSCALE, breakthrough software that virtualizes the database to ensure maximum scalability and availability for critical applications. GRIDSCALE delivers unparalleled agility enabling businesses to stay ahead of rapidly changing requirements. GRIDSCALE is used by leading companies in financial services, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing and retail. xkoto's partners include IBM, Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. For more information, visit: www.xkoto.com or call +1.416.440.7001.
3/10/2008
Free IBM Data Privacy Workshop
Ensure data privacy - its the law!
25th November 2008
The event is free and will be a great opportunity to find out more about how you can reduce the time and effort required to create, manage and mask test data environments. Topics covered will include:
- Protecting privacy by de-identifying confidential data across non-production environments
- Substitute valid fictionalized values for confidential data and generate accurate results
- Apply application-aware data masking techniques that preserve application integrity
- Leverage pre-packaged routines to mask payment card numbers, identifiers and e-mail addresses
- Support compliance with privacy regulations and corporate governance standards
There will also be two hands-on labs:
Lab 1 - how to extract data from a source database and to create a target database in order to test a program
Lab 2 - how Optim can reduce the time and effort required for application developers in testing programs in a database environment
Email us to register for this event.
Objective
To obtain a basic understanding of the Optim Data Privacy and Test Data Management offerings and how they will help meet current regulatory issues.
Software solutions are reinforced with hands on labs to further demonstrate product capabilities.
Audience
Managers, developers and database administrators
Venue
IBM Hursley, near Winchester
Cost
This session is offered free of charge. IBM will provide complimentary lunch for this event. However, customers are responsible for their own business travel expenses.
Schedule
The session will start at 9:30 AM and end at approximately 17:00 PM
1/10/2008
Free Data Privacy Webinar - Addressing the Internal Data Threat
More than 70% of data breaches are actually from internal weaknesses.
Key intellectual property, personally identifiable customer information, financial data, credit card details.....the list of sensitive data held by organisations goes on and on. It's theft can be catastrophic.
To combat this, many organisations have secured entry to their data with passwords, encyption technology and firewalls but far fewer understand or control internal access, so those inside the organisation often have full and unfettered admission to your most sensitive data.
As IBM Premier Business Partners, Triton Consulting can helo you understand how to protect valuable data wherever it lies within your organisation.
We invite you to find out more about the interal threat to your data at this FREE webinar running in conjunction with Info Security magazine.
Click here to register.
Why attend?
- Understand your legal requirements with regard to protecting data from the interal threat
- Listen to the results of the latest UK data privacy research
- Hear from real case studies about how they have taken steps to secure data in test/development environments
- Hear how organisations like yours have benfited from following best practice for their upgrades
1/10/2008
Latest Newsletter
Read the latest newsletter from Triton Consulting. With news and insight from the world of Information Management. In this edition:
- Data Privacy - You stop people getting in to steal your data but how do you stop data getting out? Free data privacy white paper download.
- Clustering is not enough - article from Albert Lee, Xkoto Inc. The search for continuous availability & disaster recovery is over.
- Industry insight - Database healthcheck, performance review and DB2 consultancy.
- IDUG update
- DB2 v10.1 announcement
- Dealing with Data Growth - Free enterprise data management white paper download.
Click here to view the newsletter.
30/09/2008
Triton help Bertrams Books improve customer service through database optimisation
Bertrams is a large wholesaler in the books supply chain throughout the UK with a wide range of customers both here in the UK and overseas.
With orders increasingly being placed online, Bertrams needed a robust back end database to support this growing route to market.
Triton were commissioned to review the current DB2 set-up and provide recommendations that would improve the response times. The objective was to get the best performance possible from Bertrams existing software licenses by using the best server configuration possible.
Click here to view the full story
26/09/2008
Linux on System Z - Teleconference October 9, 2008
It sounds appealing: Consolidating applications on System z to take advantage of its economies of scale and other benefits - for huge cost savings. And many companies interested in running Linux on System z have done so. But some businesses are uncertain about managing a new operating system on a familiar platform, and want to know how they will be able to migrate and manage workloads.
If you have been waiting to take the plunge and benefit from running Linux workloads in production on System z - the time is now. IBM's new System z10 server is a green machine built for running Linux on System z. If you have hesitated taking the next step in advanced technology because of fear of how you'll manage it all - don't worry - IBM has you covered.
Teleconference October 9th 2008
Join us for this complimentary teleconference to learn how IBM can help you by providing a method of running and consolidating Linux workloads on System z, while improving business continuity and quality of service. We'll discuss how Tivoli management tools use automation to lower business risk with continuous operations that reduce costs and improve the availability of applications running on virtual servers.
You'll see how these tools integrate the management of people and process with the underlying technology solutions and how you can:
- Use information about your Linux instances running as z/VM guests, and the Linux workloads, to reveal their performance and how they affect z/VM and each other
- Reduce human error in recovery efforts for systems and applications
- Improve alignment of employee work efforts with prioritized recovery tasks
- Compare Linux operations side by side with detailed performance metrics from other important systems.
Speaker: Mac Holloway, Manager of Development, IBMTivoli OMEGAMON® for z/VM, and Linux on System z
Broadcast date: 4pm
Developed for: IT directors, IT managers, IT operations and system programmers
Technical level: Basic - intermediate
26/09/2008
Survey Results - Improve Your Information Management
Silicon.com have recently run a survey in conjunction with The Bathwick Group into how important Information Management is to IT and Business.
View the video to see Jonathan Steel, CEO of technologoly researchers at The Bathwick Group discuss the results.
18/09/2008
Free white papers and resources available in new look support suite
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new look support suite. This new section includes free white paper downloads covering enterprise data managememt, data warehousing & DB2 for z/OS amongst others. Here you can also find links to useful IBM resources.
In addition, the new knowledgebase from Triton includes technical hints, tips and best practice for DB2 for z/OS and DB2 for LUW platforms.
17/09/2008
IBM WEBCAST - Value of z/OS Version 1 Release 10
IBM announces z/OS Version 1 Release 10. In this release of the z/OS operating system, IBM delivers a platform that is designed to drive efficiencies and economies of scale; accommodate business needs through flexible, virtual, and autonomic capabilities; help reduce the risk of lost productivity, downtime, or security breaches; and enable business innovation through the extension of existing investments and adoption of newer technologies.
In this one-hour webcast hear about the platform synergies with the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class server and the IBM System Storage DS8000, about new platform simplification, management, and security capabilities, as well as new specialty engine exploiters.
To register contact us
Featured Speaker:
Gita Berg
z/OS Marketing Manager
IBM
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008
Time: 4pm
15/09/2008
Indepth Report -Clustering is Not Enough
By Albert Lee, co-founder and chief strategy officer of xkoto, Inc.
Clustering Defined
I was recently at a major database user group event and had the opportunity to speak to several hundred attendees, mostly DBAs, architects, and IT operations staffers. One of the questions I asked most often was, "what is your HA strategy?" To my surprise, a frequent response was, "what's HA?"
HA (high availability) according to Wikipedia is:
"... a system design protocol and associated implementation that ensures a certain absolute degree of operational continuity during a given measurement period."
The most common HA implementation is clustering, which Wikipedia goes on to define as:
"... computer clusters that are implemented primarily for the purpose of improving the availability of services which the cluster provides. They operate by having redundant computers or nodes which are then used to provide service when system components fail. Normally, if a server with a particular application crashes, the application will be unavailable until someone fixes the crashed server".
Hearing these definitions, the user group members responded that clustering would be their most likely HA strategy.
The Legacy
Clustering has been the availability architecture of choice for decades, whether a solution from a hardware vendor (e.g. Sun), or a software vendor (e.g. Veritas). In the early 1990s I was building database management solutions deployed in nuclear power station control rooms where operative terms like "fail-safe" and "defense-in-depth" were design rules you didn't bend. I had single 50 MHz CPU UNIX servers packed with all of 256K of memory to host my relational database. When the time came to make this environment production-grade, there was no need for a lot of analysis. The only answer was installation of a second UNIX server, in a traditional active/passive HA cluster, that would trigger a failover to the passive server if there was a failure on the active box. This was the best availability money could buy.
Fast forward to today and not much has changed. Clustering databases, servers, storage, or networks still rules when it comes to availability solutions.
The Limitations
The problem with clustering is that it requires investment in redundancy (multiple servers and databases) without adding any capacity (transactions still flow only through the primary server). And, the system remains vulnerable to a loss of service (when a failover occurs). One industry analyst recently observed that clustering can be complex to manage, noting that a client reported measuring better availability on the firm's non-clustered systems than on the clustered systems due to the configuration challenges.
Despite these limitations, clustering is still considered good enough and is still the solution of choice, because it can reduce downtime. That's not good enough. What is required is a solution that completely eliminates downtime
The consequences of using legacy-style clustering for database protection must factor in the impact of potential failure and its consequences, both personal and corporate:
• Getting paged with severity one issues at 3AM;
• Dealing with irate customers and end users struggling with application outages;
• Missed KPIs and job performance targets;
• Lost transactions;
• Significant revenue loss;
• Lower employee productivity;
• Penalties for missing SLAs;
• Regulatory fines;
• Damage to corporate brand or reputation
Add to this list the pressure that database center managers are under to get more out of their IT systems and it becomes clear that paying for idle failover servers that consume power, generate heat, take up rack space, and add to lease space costs is no longer good enough.
A Better Way
In the search for continuous availability, there are numerous alternatives to legacy HA clustering solutions. One category that is beginning to emerge is high performance database virtualization solutions that deliver significantly improved database performance and higher database reliability and availability.
Database virtualization software is resetting traditional expectations: why settle for high availability if you can achieve continuous availability?
Database virtualization provides the ability to manage a pool of active-active databases that can be co-located in the same database center or geographically dispersed across remote database centers. Taking advantage of a shared nothing storage model, each database has a complete, consistent, independent copy of all databases - this permits the dispersion and enables scalable performance and continuous availability. With multiple copies of database, a database could be removed due to planned maintenance or unplanned outages without any loss of service to the application. Unlike clustering, there is no failover and hence no failure for the end user.
The database virtualization solution places a layer of software between the applications and this managed database pool, and applications connect to it using industry-standard ODBC, JDBC, or DB2 CLI drivers. In this transparent fashion, applications think they are connecting to a single database but instead they gain all the benefits of a virtualized database infrastructure that delivers continuous availability and scale-out.
Using SQL statement replication, the database virtualization solution asynchronously replays DML statements to each managed database in order to ensure that database is identical in each instance. Without the performance penalties of synchronous schemes like two-phase commit (2PC), applications need only wait for the first database to successfully commit (instead of the last database in a 2PC) in order to continue processing. With continuous availability, rolling upgrades and planned maintenance are now enabled without any need to take applications down. Regular tasks like patching, backups, database reorgs, and schema changes can all be managed during regular business hours without disrupting end users.
The short list comparing legacy clustering to database virtualization looks like this:
Legacy HA Cluster
Active-Passive: regardless of how many servers are clustered together, only the primary server processes requests
High Availability: clusters can provide more availability but not 100% availability
High Availability: clusters can provide more availability but not 100% availability
Failover: when the primary server becomes unavailable, there is downtime and the potential for lost transactions when the idle standby server assumes control
Local Protection: clustering requires a shared storage model which constrains the cluster to reside in the same local database center
Not Scalable: regardless of how many servers are in the cluster, only one server takes the processing load at any given time; there is no net gain in performance
Homogeneous: clustering typically requires all servers to be identical in sizing, operating system, and configuration
DATABASE VIRTUALIZATION
Active-Active: every server can be used at any time to take up the processing load
Continuous Availability: with three or more databases in the managed pool, applications can have non-stop availability, even with unplanned downtime or rolling maintenance
No Failure: if a server becomes unavailable, the end user is never disrupted because there is no failover whatsoever - the application remains connected because the database pool is virtualized
Remote Protection: the active-active databases can reside in the same database center or be dispersed in different database centers for maximum database protection
Scalable: additional databases can be added (or subtracted) from the pool on-demand; with each added database, query performance can improve dramatically
Heterogeneous: Can manage different servers with variations in the database versions and configuration
Where do Hypervisors Fit in?
Server virtualization is an important technology that is most commonly used today for server consolidation. Whether you use the hypervisor from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, or some other provider, you can often gain improvements in utilization, configuration management, and cost savings by virtualizing your server infrastructure.
However, once server consolidation has been achieved, the real value of server virtualization must be proven out by running real production workloads in virtual machines (VMs). The ability to virtualize databases on physical servers will be even more important in VM environments.
The reason is simple. While server consolidation typically drives down the number of physical servers in favor of a smaller number of big servers, a VM has a limit on how many CPUs/cores and how much memory can be allocated to it. The result, scaling up a VM to handle a serious database workload is not really a viable option. Only a scale-out architecture such as that offered in a virtual database environment will leverage the full benefit of hypervisor technology for real enterprise database transactions. Deploying multiple active-active databases across local or dispersed VMs delivers the same benefits as in a physical server environment.
And Cloud Computing
There has been increasing interest in hosted database services as provided by or announced by Amazon (EC2), Microsoft (SSDS), and others. These forays into cloud computing tap an increasing desire to simplify IT operations by passing the burden of infrastructure investment and management to a third party. While these ideas have gained favor, we all remember high profile service outages at hosted app firms like Salesforce.com, reputedly the result of database cluster problems.
The need for scalable shared services, particularly database services, that are 100% available 24x7 is critical to the success of cloud computing. Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems used to set the target for reliable web services ("web tone") to match the reliability of telephony services ("dial tone"). Any database service offered "in the cloud" will need to be continuously available. As we have seen again from the Salesforce.com example, clustering is not good enough.
Summary
I have been a help desk analyst, DBA, database designer, and database operations manager, responsible for fighting fires, avoiding fires, and firing arsonists. From my database-centric perspective, business and IT always comes down to database. I've implemented a wide range of HA strategies in the past - disk mirroring, database mirroring, log shipping, server clustering to name a few.
Clustering has been an important HA strategy and undoubtedly it will not fade away overnight. If you choose to implement clustering, you just need to be aware of its limitations and those situations where it is no longer good enough.
Database virtualization brings a better way to address the critical needs of database availability, performance scale-out, and business agility.
Albert Lee is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of xkoto, Inc. A 20-year veteran of the software industry, Mr. Lee is an expert in the ins and outs of database management systems.
11/09/2008
Countdown to IDUG Europe
This year held in Warsaw, the conference runs from 13-16th October. Following the success across the pond at the American event we can expect a great few days. The booking is open on the IDUG website.
Triton Consulting's Julian Stuhler will be opening the conference in his new role as IDUG President.
There will be a huge range of sessions covering DB2 for z/OS, DB2 for LUW, Application Design, Tools & Utilities and new for this year is the Managers Forum designed specifically for the DB2 management community.
3/09/2008
Latest DB2 Blog - DB2 9.5 not available for Linux on IA64
For those of you using Linux on the Itanium-64 bit (IA64) platform, note that DB2 9.5 is not available for Linux on IA64. The last supported DB2 version for Linux on IA64 is DB2 9. This is because Linux on IA64 is not a high growth platform for IBM and in fact quite the opposite. Customers appear to be choosing Linux on x86-64 in droves but that is not the case for Linux on IA64 . Moreover, unless demands from the marketplace change, there is no plan for supporting DB2 for Linux on IA64 going forward.
Visit the blog to for more info
2/09/2008
Maximise your mainframe
What are the mainframe data challenges in your business?"Most of my business critical data resides on the mainframe"
"I want to make better use of my mainframe data but don't understand the alternatives"
"I have business intelligence projects taking data from the mainframe but I'm worried about controlling the security of that data"
"I am finding data integration inefficient in terms of time and resource consumption"
"The amount of new hardware and software required for data integration goes against our strategy of streamlining operations"
"I need a data integration solution that runs on my mainframe"
The Solution - IBM Information Server
IBM Information Server is the market-leading data integration platform. It enables mainframe users to understand disparate data sources, cleanse data to ensure consistent quality and transform and restructure information.
It also provides metadata and proof of data lineage required by many compliance regulations directly on the mainframe. The industry's broadest federation support enables IBM Information Server for system Z to access multiple diverse data and content sources in real time as if they were a single source.
To find out more about how you can maximise your mainframe, contact us.
29/08/2008
Triton Confirm Attendance at City IT 2008
Triton Consulting will be attending this years' City IT event in October.
The event brings together top IT executives and IT services providers in a 3 day networking event aboard the Aurora.
Triton will be talking to delegates about their skills in database optimisation, data warehousing & business intelligence, enterprise data management, large IT project consultancy and database migration consultancy.
To find out more about the event visit our dedicated web page or visit the City IT website.
29/08/2008 Feed Article
Linux Foundation plans end-user summit
High-profile users of Linux will get a chance to meet the kernel community at a New York summit in October
28/08/2008
IDUG Europe 2008 - Last chance for Earlybird Discount!
The deadline for the earlybird discount is Friday 29th August. Don't miss your chance to get this great rate! Delegates who register before the 29th will save EUR 275! Register Now!
18/08/2008
Latest DB2 Blog Post
DB2 expert James Gill continues his blog topic of snapshot monitoring tools for DB2. In his latest post he describes how the tool now has a data recording component for DBM snapshots - visit the blog to read more.
13/08/2008
Tune in for technology updates
IBM TV has been launched giving users the opportunity for interactive exploration of IT solutions through video, podcasts and demos.
The new site has a vast amount of information. There is a dedicated UK channel covering everything from IBM Information Management product news to events and presentation downloads. View the channel here
In addition there is a dedicated CIO channel with interviews from CIOs in a range of industries on how they are using IBM solutions to integrate business and IT strategies and drive innovation.
Look out for the new Triton downloads section coming in September. This will be a source for white papers covering information management solutions, DB2, technical papers, DB2 technical tips and tools....
12/08/2008
Triton Launches Blog - Thoughts on Information Management
With the launch of Triton Consulting's blog you can now access technical tips, thoughts and insight on Information Management from some of the most experienced DB2 consultants in the UK. Check out the new Triton blog regularly to keep up to date with the world of IBM Information Management systems.
11/08/2008
On demand webcast: A primer for storing and retrieving XML data
Do your applications use XML data?
Do you need to lean the best way to work with XML data?
Download this free webcast from IBM on the most effective methods for storing and retrieveing XML data
The webcast is packed with tips to help you get the best performance and maintain felxibility.
Speaker:
Conor O'Mahony, XML strategist
5/08/2008
The Evolution of Data Warehousing Part 2
Click here to view the next installment from IBM's CTO of data warehousing, Bill O'Connell.
1/08/2008
Bringing data security to the enterprise
Can you remember a time when you didn't read about some company's recent security breach resulting in the loss of private information and data? In many ways, data security is priceless. No one can erase your company's name from the front page of the newspapers and undo the damage of a data security breach. Once your data, or more importantly your customer's, data is on the loose, it can't be reined back in. In today's economy of the Information Age, the chance of loss or exposure is real. Since information is your enterprise's most important asset, many people want access to that information - whether they are entitled to it or not. Many data breaches are perpetrated by those with malicious intent, either inside or outside your organization.
We're all aware of high profile data breaches in the last 12 months. According to Christopher Hope (April 2008), Home Affairs Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, five security breaches a week have been reported since the loss last year of the two government discs containing the details of 25 million families. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner since 2002, said that he had been notified of 94 data breaches over the past five months.
Challenges for Implementing Security
Like other complex, systemic problems in the real world, there is no such thing as a single "quick fix" for securing data. If things were that easy, the problems would have been solved by now and we would be living in a world full of secure data. There is no "silver bullet" to security. The best security IT professionals can attain is to make the process and cost of stealing data difficult and prohibitively expensive to would-be attackers. The challenge for companies to achieve and maintain compliance can be divided into three key areas:
- Increasing requirements with volumes of regulations. The requirements come through governmental pressures from financial regulations. Compliance can also be an internal pressure with internal regulations requiring systems compliance and process compliance.
- Complexity is growing exponentially and today's more complex applications that are moving towards service oriented architecture take operations management to new levels of complexity.
- Cost pressures continue to mount. Do more with less yet in the face of the growing complexity, requirements for change, and need for compliance operations labor budgets have had to grow at the expense of development budgets. Getting cost under control is paramount to moving forward.
DB2 for z/OS and Data Governance Solutions
The latest version of DB2, DB2 9, delivers increased security and regulatory compliance through the implementation of roles, network-trusted contexts and enhanced auditing capabilities. Improvements in trace filtering makes the job of auditing and performance management easier. Many more options let you minimize the amount of data collected, so computing overhead is reduced and extraneous data does not need to be processed. These capabilities, and many others, keep DB2 and System z far ahead of other product solutions.
IBM Optim software is a single, scalable, interoperable Information Lifecycle Management solution providing a central point to deploy policies to extract, store, port, and protect application data from creation through to deletion. IBM Optim can provide the following core functionality:
- Data Privacy: Protecting your sensitive data does not stop at your production system. This data is commonly replicated in multiple test environments across your organization, as well as in extract files and staging tables. IBM Optim provides automatic data transformation capabilities to mask personal information and de-identify confidential information to protect privacy. You can then use the transformed data safely for application testing, which helps your address compliance requirements and maintain customer loyalty.
- Archive: IBM Optim provides proven database archiving capabilities, empowering organizations to segregate historical from current data, and to store if securely and cost-effectively while maintaining universal access to the data, thus allowing your production databases to serve your business applications at higher performance levels. Given the current regulatory compliance landscape, many organizations are faced with having to retain data for longer periods of time, this can extend to data that resides in retired applications, with little current business value, but retention is dictated for future unanticipated audit or compliance requirements.
- Test Data Management: IBM Optim assists in application development by streamlining the way you create and manage test environments. You can subset and migrate data to build realistic and right-size databases. This eliminates the expense and effort of maintaining multiple database clones. Used in conjunction with Optim Data Privacy, cost effective and secure test and QA environments are created and managed with consistent and repeatable processes.
Threats to sensitive and confidential data are multi-faceted and constantly evolving. Protecting your data servers against these broad-based threats requires you to first itemize and understand the threats themselves, and then put in place effective countermeasures to address every threat that is relevant in your environment. This is no trivial task - but the central importance of data security to our society today makes it a job that cannot be ignored or taken lightly.
The most important of these countermeasures involves building security-oriented business practices, processes and controls into your environment. For example, the practice of separation of duties and the principle of least privilege are fundamental security practices that must be present in any security-conscious environment.
But it does not stop at these controls and practices. Utilizing the proper technology, in the proper way, is a critical part of the solution. This begins by first making sure you are using a secure enterprise data server, such as IBM DB2. DB2 for z/OS features extensive security and auditing capabilities to help protect sensitive data. Secondly, DB2 for z/OS can be enhanced by utilizing critical security-enhancing software, such as: IBM Data Encryption for IMS and DB2 Databases IBM Optim, DB2 Audit Management Expert, and z/OS RACF - providing important layers of security critical to hardening your environment.
Triton Consulting can help you to manage your data growth and the challenges of security, For more information on how we can work with you to implement a secuerity and data growth strategy contact us.
31/07/2008 Feed Article
Enterprise Data Warehousing with DB2 9 for z/OS
Redbook, published: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 - Understand the evolution of data warehousing - Evaluate infrastructure tools on IBM System z and Linux on System z - See how the DB2 for z/OS engine is suitable for data warehousing Enterprises look more and more to business intelligence (BI) to gain a competitive edge.
29/07/2008
IBM Database Encryption Expert Demo
Find out more about how the IBM Database encyption expert tool can protect your DB2 database in this demonstration video.
24/07/2008
IDUG Europe Online Registration and Advance Programme Now Available!
Registration and advanced viewing of the programme for IDUG Europe is now available from the IDUG website.
IDUG Euope will feature in-depth seminars with over 160 hours of technical DB2 sessions. You will have the chance to speak with DB2 solution providers and leading DB2 developers will be on hand.
If you register by 29th August you can save EUR 275 with the early bird discount!
22/07/2008
Evolution of Data Warehousing
Find out what's new in data warehousing as Rav Ahuja interviews Bill O'Connell, CTO of Data Warehousing at IBM Information Management. Stay tuned for the next installment....
21/07/2008
Free up your most valuable assets - DBAs
In the current economic climate we are all too aware of the need to make the most of our existing investments and assets. Whether that be the DBA team or getting more value from mainframe data.
Good DBAs are vital not just to the smooth running of system critical databases but also for DB2 development work.
This is why Triton developed their unique managed services offerings. Handing over the day to day maintenance of your database frees up DBA time to work on development projects providing a win:win situation. DBAs' are able to work on more interesting projects whilst IT departments are able to meet the budgetary and delivery demands placed on them.
The cost of this service is probably less than you think and included in the fixed yearly fee is:
• Initial database healthcheck
• Proactive monitoring
• Day to day housekeeping
• Routine preventative maintenance
• Dedicated hotline
• Access to Triton's customer support suite with online system report viewer
"The service that we have received from Triton has been fantastic, they are always available at the end of the phone/email to help with any issues that we have. The staff have a superb knowledge of DB2."
Elizabeth O'Neil - Holiday Extras
To find out more about our managed services offerings for both DB2 and IBM Content Manager please contact us,
18/07/2008
Getting the most from DB2 and SAP on System z
It's not always about money: With SAP, it's more likely about availability. Are your SAP solutions optimized for performance? Are you meeting industry benchmarks - or surpassing them - for serving data? By focusing on the close integration of hardware, database and SAP applications, you can improve the availability of your SAP solutions.
Join Triton & IBM for this free teleconference
Find out if you are getting all you can out of your SAP and DB2® investment. Join us for this complimentary teleconference and learn how the unique integration between System zTM, DB2 for z/OS®, and SAP support your most critical enterprise applications with scalability and availability that is unmatched in the industry. We'll discuss DB2 9 for z/OS and how it drives increasing value for your SAP environments. Real-world examples will demonstrate how companies are leveraging the technical advantages of DB2, System z, and SAP to keep up with increasing demands on the IT infrastructure,
while saving money and resources.
You'll come away with a good understanding of:
• Autonomic capabilities designed to ease installation and simplify configuration
• Automated and embedded exploitation of FlashCopy for DB2 backup and recovery
• Data sharing for online DB2 maintenance
• Accelerated migrations to Unicode
• Simplified DB2 connectivity for SAP
To register for this teleconference please complete our contact form.
16/07/2008
Triton Ezine - July 2008
Triton Consulting is pleased to bring you the July issue of Triton News. This electronic newsletter is sent out via email every two months and includes industry news and updates. In this months issue:
IDUG Update - Triton Director named IDUG President
Increase the value of your mainframe data
Beat data crime and corruption with Brother Watchdog from DBI Software
Industry Insight - Online Gaming
Free up your most valuable assests - DBAs
Techie Tip - How many DB2 for z/OS Stored Procedure Application Environments Should I define?
9/07/2008
System z security for government and education
Gone are the days when IT security meant only keeping out hackers. Today, security involves hundreds of compliance initiatives that require better monitoring and control to avoid penalties and maintain your reputation. While the regulations around compliance have gone a long way toward improving the integrity of IT, they have also increased complexity and make it extremely difficult to link business-level compliance with that of the infrastructure. Protecting your assets can be a costly part of doing business.
Join IBM and Triton for a free teleconferece
Date: 31st July 2008 Time: 4:00 pm BST
In this teleconference, we'll discuss how IBM System Z solutions align with indsutry best practices and can help:
- Enhance the ability of the mainframe to be the hub of enterprise security
- Reduce administration time, effort and cost, and training time for new administrators
- Translate logs into English with W7 log normalization
- Monitor user behavior with an enterprise compliance dashboard
- Easily compare behavior with regulatory and company policies
To register for this teleconference please email with your name and contact details or complete our online contact form.
In the battle for information security, the public sector is more vulnerable and more of a target than any other IT organization. In fact, more than 50 percent of data security breaches reported since 2005 were through state and local government.
View examples of work Triton have done within the Public Sector.
Security is always number one or two on NASCIO's priority list for strategies, management processes and solutions.
Triton Consulting and IBM bring you this complimentary teleconference as we discuss the current regulation status, the risk and cost for non-compliance, and best practices that IBM recommends to put in place to reduce exposure. We'll also discuss how IBM aligns best practices with its solutions to help address these top security issues.
27/06/2008
Insider Knowledge - Data Warehousing Video
Data warehousing and business intelligence continue to be hot topics but how can an effective data warehouse solution help your business? Take a look at this video to find out.
With the right data warehouse solution you can:
- Support business requirements for a single version of the truth and actionable, real-time information
- Enable users to perform ad-hoc, exploratory analysis to uncover hidden insight
- Serve the increasing number of mixed applications that leverage all types of information, including both structured and unstructured content.
- Meet the challenges of rising data volumes and ever-increasing data requests through the ability to scale easily and affordably
- Provide optimal data warehousing performance out-of-the-box
- Comply with regulations and risk management requirements
Contact us for further information on data warehouse and business intelligence solutions.
27/06/2008 Feed Article
Game over for Mobile Linux standards forum
As LiMo proves more attractive
23/06/2008
DB2 goes viral
Watch the video! IBM's "No Dragons, just pureXML" viral campaign can be viewed on the DB2 community site Channel DB2.
If that gets you inspired check out the IDUG video contest
DB2's unique pureXML capabilities allow organisations to store XML data natively in a database table, providing seamless integration of XML and relational data. Giving:
- Performance improvements
- Productivity improvements
- Cost savings
18/06/2008
Information Management - Best Practices for IBM DB2 9 for Linux, Unix and Windows
Get practical guidance for the most common IBM DB2 9 product configurations, and use this knowledge to improve the value of your DB2 data servers.
IBM have released best practice papers giving advice on the optimal ways to use DB2 9 to satisfy key business data processing needs. They are authored by leading experts of the IBM development and consulting teams and have been tested extensively. By applying these recommendations, you should be able to improve the value of your DB2 data servers.
Visit the IBM Developer works pages for more information
9/06/2008
Free teleconference - DB2 for z/OS V8 migration
Triton Consulting and IBM are pleased to invite you to this complimentary telconference.
Date: Tuesday 24th June 2008
Time: London 4:00 pm
If you have not yet migrated to DB2 V8, then join us for this complimentary teleconference. The teleconference will provide valuable information on planning for your V8 migration, including understanding the value of DB2 V8, advice on sound migration planning, and how to migrate as fast as possible, yet safely. Any concerns you might have around DB2 V8 will be addressed, as everything from quick hits to major performance opportunities will be covered. The better your migration plan and the more you understand what happens during the migration phases, the more successful your migration is going to be.
Topics include how to DB2 V8 can help you:
- Improve performance and scalability
- Prepare for and recover from logical data corruption
- Better manage very large databases
- Enable application portability
To register for this teleconference please email with your contact details or complete our contact form.
Triton Consulting provide software upgrade support and implementation services both for the DB2 for z/OS and DB2 for LUW platforms. Our extensive experience with DB2 means you can place your migration project in safe hands and let Triton guide you through the often complex version upgrade path. To find out more about how Triton can help with your DB2 version upgrade please visit our upgrade page or contact us
23/05/2008
Triton Director leading the way for IDUG
The International DB2 user group (IDUG) has announced Julian Stuhler as its new President at the annual IDUG conference in Dallas. Julian is Solutions Delivery Director of Triton Consulting, an independent information management and DB2 consultancy based in the UK.
IDUG's North American conference attracted 1000 DB2 and IMS professionals from around the globe to discuss the best approaches for leveraging DB2 and IMS solutions and accelerating innovation. The conference marks the 20th anniversary of IDUG.
Julian comments "IDUG is the premier user group for IBM's Information Management brand, and I'm excited and honoured to be leading a strong and vibrant organisation at such an exciting time in its ongoing development"
This latest announcement cements Julian and Triton's commitment to the development of the DB2 community.
Julian continues "Although it's a major commitment in both my personal and professional time, it is also tremendously rewarding to be able to help drive the growth of the worldwide DB2 community and empower other DB2 professionals to excel in their roles."
With over 20 years relational database experience Julian has been a volunteer for IDUG since 1999. He initially served as a conference presenter and later as a member of the European Conference Planning Committee and the IDUG Solutions Journal Editorial Board. In 2004 Julian joined the IDUG Board of Directors and has been responsible for IDUG's Membership Programme. Julian is also an IBM Gold Consultant, one of only 100 worldwide.
IDUG run training courses and events throughout the year for their worldwide community of DB2 users. Julian will be opening IDUG Europe later in the year and will also be giving a technical talk at the event which is to be held in Warsaw on the 13-17th October.
Triton Consulting was formed in 1996 and the company has gone from strength to strength becoming a Premier Business Partner of IBM in 1998. Working in all areas of DB2, Triton expanded the scope of its technical services to include other IBM Data Management solutions. Also providing DB2 support services and education programs, Triton's team of highly experienced DB2 consultants bring a rich pedigree of knowledge to the DB2 community.
19/05/2008
DB2 for z/OS V8 - Are you Ready?
As IBM withdraw their support of DB2 for z/OS V7 at the end of June, many organisations are urgently trying to rush through migration to DB2 v8.
Gain the benefits of DB2 V8 functionality while ensuring your production applications remain stable, scalable & available
Many organisations are looking forward to taking advantage of new DB2 features in V8 such as:
- Reduction of physical I/O due to the expansion of memory
- Table-based partitioning to improve availability and performance of large tables
- New SQL functionality to reduce development effort
What are the pitfalls to be aware of during migration and how is DB2 V8 going to impact current production systems?
64-bit addressing offers significant scalability advantages and there may be the potential for enhanced performance due to a reduction in physical reads, but the down side is a risk of CPU increases for your DB2 workloads.
Depending on the type of workload your DB2 based application supports, increase in CPU could be anywhere between 5% and 20%. So it's important to ensure your DB2 for z/OS environment is tuned as optimally as possible.
Many organisations have struggled to migrate their production DB2 environments within their expected timescales while avoiding any adverse affect on application performance.
Still think you are ready for DB2 for z/OS V8?
If not then then please feel free to email or call on 0870 2411 550 so we can discuss how our experienced DB2 consultants can help assist with your migration and enable you to make the most of the new DB2 V8 functionality while ensuring your production applications remain stable, scalable and available.
Triton Consulting are IBM Premier Business Partners and are experts in the field of DB2 providing consultancy and services to clients for over 12 years.
16/05/2008
High Availability for Linux on IBM System z Servers - Live virtual class
Triton Consulting and IBM invite you to join this complimentary webcast.
Date: Wed - May 28, 2008
Time: London 4:00 PM,
Duration: 75 minutes
Linux virtual servers are increasingly being used to support critical applications in IBM System z and zSeries server environments. As the mission becomes more important; so does the need to ensure its supporting infrastructure is highly available. But how?
z/OS system programmers know the best practices for eliminating single points of failure for their systems; but may be unsure how to translate those techniques to the Linux world. Admins coming from a distributed Linux background may wonder how a virtualized environment on zSeries changes the game. And both groups may ponder how to best marry the Linux and z/OS worlds to maximize availability.
Wonder no more. This session will cover a set of high availability architectures for Linux virtual servers (LVS); in the context of serving data to WebSphere applications (though WebSphere itself won't be the main focus). We'll discuss:
1. Single points of failure in an LVS environment; probabilities of each; and the relative cost to eliminate them -- with examples of how to do so
2. The power of virtualization to minimize degradation of service in the wake of failures; and to reduce the need for large clusters of redundant servers
3. How software running on Linux virtual servers can work cooperatively with a Parallel Sysplex and z/OS data sharing groups
4. Sample architecture specifics; including architectural decisions and tradeoffs; configuration options; and product technologies used.
If you would like to take part please email us to register.
13/05/2008
Triton Ezine - May 2008
Triton Consulting is pleased to bring you the May issue of Triton News. This electronic newsletter is sent out via email every two months and includes industry news and updates. In this months issue:
IDUG Update - news on upcoming IDUG Events.
DB2 Update - join the discussion with the DB2 Community
Information on Demand
IBM Balanced Warehouse nominated for an award
Industry Insight - Government. How Triton have helped HM Land Registry comply with new e-Government initiatives.
Click here to view the latest issue
Click here to subscribe to future publications
9/05/2008
Free Teleconference - How to best leverage your System z™ mainframe and its mission-critical information.
Best Practices for Cross Platform Data Transformation and Delivery
Teleconference - May 13, 2008 4pm BST
Triton Consulting and IBM invite you to join this FREE teleconference to help you best leverage your System z mainframe and its mission-critical information.
You'll see how the IBM data integration software platform provides the flexibility to perform information integration directly on the mainframe without added z/OS® operational costs. It enables you to profile, cleanse, transform and deliver information from mainframe and distributed data sources alike to drive greater insight for your business. You get the right information, on time and in the format requested.
If you're in application development or management, a project leader or an IT architect, this seminar can help give you a competitive edge with your mainframe by:
- Delivering a single version of the truth in data across customer, product and partner repositories
- Offering trusted information that is complete and easy to interpret, and still closely monitored
- Controlling costs associated with data integration tools, while offering more agility for ongoing innovation
To register for this event or request further information please email.
Triton Consulting Ltd are IBM Premier Business Partners and are experts on the full range of IBM Information Management solutions including DB2 for z/OS, DB2 for LUW, IBM Information Server, IBM Content Manager and DB2 Connect.
8/05/2008
DB2 Data Sharing Courses From Triton
Triton Consulting, the Information Management specialists are pleased to offer a new range of DB2 training courses in data sharing.
The courses cover:
DB2 UDB for z/OS Data Sharing Performance and Tuning
DB2 UDB for z/OS Data Sharing Implementation
DB2 UDB for z/OS Data Sharing Recovery and Restart
DB2 UDB for z/OS Data Sharing Implementation Workshop
The How and Why of DB2 for z/OS Version 8
Our consultants are some of the most highly skilled and experienced DB2 experts in the country.
The style of the course is up to you, whether you would prefer lecture only, or lecture and lab session courses. Training assessments can be provided with clear career path roadmaps.
"The course met my needs and exceeded my expectations!" Debenhams Retail Ltd
If you would like to further information on any of the courses listed above or have any specific training requirements please contact us.
2/05/2008
Triton support the DB2 Community
Julian Stuhler, Solutions Delivery Director at Triton Consulting and IDUG President Elect has recently been speaking on behalf of IDUG about the work they do within the DB2 community and the many benefits available to members.
Click here to view the presentation
Alternatively, you can view the video through the DB2 Community website. Channel DB2 is an online community for DB2 users to connect, communicate and share information. It hosts podcasts, videos, discussion boards, news groups, blogs and a DB2 library.
The international DB2 User Group is an association dedicated to helping DB2 users improve their professional efficiency and their organisations return on investment from db2.
29/04/2008
Triton Consulting Awarded IBM Information on Demand Speciality
Leading DB2 and Information Management specialists, Triton Consulting have been awarded with the IBM Information on Demand Speciality.
This signifies the quality of work, expertise and experience which Triton have shown with the IBM Information on Demand range of solutions.
Every organisation needs fast access to accurate, consistent data - Information on Demand.
Triton use their skills to help customers effecitvely manage and gain insight from their data. From full life-cycle data management to actionable management reporting.
Triton Consulting are IBM Premier Business Partners and provide db2 consultancy, education and 24/7 managed services.
2/04/2008 Industry News
What's on your Information Agenda?
Triton Consulting are pleased to announce that they will be exhibiting at the UK Information Management Conference 2008. The event is being run by IBM Information on Demand and will take place at The British Library on the 23rd April.
Maybe you're thinking of consolidating and making sense of the information you already have - or perhaps you want to enhance the performance of your organisation through data server innovations and business intelligence. Regardless of your needs, attending this one-day event will go a long way towards helping you make decisions with greater clarity.
No matter what point you're at in your information strategy, IBM's Information on Demand approach can help you.
You'll hear how today's organisations, from a wide range of industries, are taking steps to make sure their information is a valuable asset, not an overhead.
Through client case studies, independent analysis and product demonstrations, this event will showcase the leading technologies behind Information Management. In addition we will update you on the latest developments with our Information on Demand approach and the difference it could make for your business.
As IBM Premier Business Partners, Triton Consulting are have been working with clients for over 12 years and are DB2, Informix and information management specialists.
20/03/2008 Industry News
Triton's work with HM Land Registry recognised by IBM
At a recent IBM roadshow Triton's work with HM Land Registry was used as a case study. The challenge was to upgrade key services to comply with the principles of e-government to handle increased workload with increased resiliency, and security to enhance citizen confidence.
The solution - IBM and IBM Business Partner Triton Consulting teamed with the HMLR IT team to plan, install, configure and test IBM WebSphere Application Server for z/OS software, a tool specially designed to distribute, consolidate and synchronise data.
The result - HMLR was able to open its data to the Internet with its Land Register Online service, unlocking the value of its property information while maintaining high security levels and exceed e-government targets
On line services generated more than £28 million in fee income in 2005 and 2006.
HMLR has better protection against unplanned outages, better price/performance ratio significantly with the zAAP engines.
1/03/2008 Breaking News
Triton Consulting to offer world leading business intelligence solutions from Business Objects, an SAP Company
Leading information management specialists, Triton Consulting, confirm that they have joined the Business Objects Solutions Partner Program. Now able to provide a full suite of Business Intelligence products and consulting, Triton have strengthened their knowledge and capability within the information management market.
Traditionally IBM DB2 specialists, Triton Consulting have been in existence for over 10 years and have a vast amount of experience in the DB2 arena. Julian Stuhler, one of only 100 IBM Gold Consultants worldwide, along with a team of highly qualified consultants, provide information management solutions across all industries.
More and more companies are recognising the need to incorporate Business Intelligence (BI) functionality into their operations in order to analyse key business trends and make business decisions based on trustworthy, accurate data. With business' increased interest in reaping the benefits of BI, the Business Objects Solutions Provider Partner Program will boost Triton's ability to meet this growing demand
"Our partnership with Business Objects, an SAP company, firmly establishes our commitment to provide the very best BI solutions, ultimately aimed at improving our customers' ability to make effective business decisions," said Mike Kyrkos, Sales and Marketing Director. This partnership greatly enhances our ability to make our customers more successful.
Business Objects, an SAP company is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software provider, with more than 42,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500. Business Objects helps organisations of all sizes create a trusted foundation for decision making, gain better insight into their business, and optimize performance.
Founded in 1996, Triton is the UK's largest independent IBM Information Management specialist. Their knowledge of the database and information management world is second to none. Now as providers of the industry leading Business Objects business intelligence software, Triton are set to help their customers push information management to the next level.
15/02/2008 Industry News
IDUG Presentation - DB2 for z/OS Spatial Features
Julian Stuhler, Director - Service Delivery at Triton Consulting, IBM Gold Consultant and IDUG President Elect will be presenting at the next DB2 User Group on March 6th. Julian will be discussing DB2 for z/OS Spatial Features.
This fascinating tool can be used in a variety of guises to enable customers to use spatial and conventional data within their databases to provide a rich source of information. Some of the topics that Julian will cover are examples of industry uses specifically retail, insurance and government and the benefits of harnessing this information.
IDUG, the international DB2 user group runs events throughout the year for the DB2 community across the world. Julian Stuhler of Triton Consulting is President Elect of IDUG and has spent many years working with them and giving talks on a range of DB2 topics.
2/02/2008 Industry News
IBM Announce acquisition of Cognos a leading supplier of business intelligence solutions.
IBM have unveiled details of their acquisition of Cognos with an array of joint IBM-Cognos products and services which will allow organisations of all sizes to gain better insights from their data, improve decision-making and optimise business performance.
16/01/2008 Industry News
Global leader in software applications and business solutions completes takeover of leading business intelligence provider, Business Objects.
SAP today announced next steps in the successful acquisition of Business Objects, uniting two of the technology industry's biggest brands with a shared vision to transform the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses. SAP and Business Objects are now embarking on a road map to transform their wide lead in the market of software for business users into leadership in the emerging market for business performance optimisation.
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