Triton Consulting

Latest Webcast from IBM

This session will cover the end-to-end monitoring, alerting and protection of information that’s stored on or managed by System z. You’ll see how it can help:

• Ensure compliance by properly controlling who sees, uses and accesses your data
• Monitor usage and access and detect threats in real time
• Protect the underlying DB2® and IMS™ data stores
• Ensure separation of controls and flexible audit and reporting
• Archive data intelligently for compliance, performance optimization and lower storage costs

Webcast from IBM.

April 20, 2010, 11 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 p.m. UTC

The life of a database administrator (DBA) is not easy these days. Database performance issues, worries about data corruption and loss, expanding business requirements, and rising chargeback costs are just a few of the unnerving trends that are causing DBA personnel to be stretched further and further — and closer to the breaking point.

We invite you to attend this complimentary teleconference to learn about the best practices and success stories of companies in a wide variety of industries who have turned their DBA staffing around with the help of IBM DB2® solutions on z/OS®. Over-burdened DBAs can get help and valuable support by using DB2 solutions for performance management, administration, change management, backup and recovery, cloning, and data governance. As a DBA, it puts you in a position to lower operational costs, increase your productivity and help your enterprise prepare for its future success.

In this teleconference, you’ll learn about DB2 solutions that can help:

• Monitor, analyze and tune the performance of DB2 and DB2 applications on z/OS
• Easily navigate the DB2 catalog, manage and track changes, and propagate them
• Perform automated backup and recovery operations and eliminate errors in manual processing
• Automate the cloning process and have usable DB2 clones within minutes

I’d like to follow up on a topic last mentioned in this very column last November, on the subject of “Not Accounted” time (link here ). The list of possible explanations for not accounted time that Willie referred to was very comprehensive, and included some scenarios I’d never come across before. Recently however, I was involved in a situation that wasn’t covered in that or any other material I’ve ever seen on not accounted time, and it had us scratching our heads for a while….

Visit the blog

13th April – click here to book for the live event or to register for the replay.

Competitive pressures are common across most enterprise shops and they pose similar challenges, including lowering operating costs through CPU cycle reductions while still building a strong foundation for SOA and XML initiatives, productivity improvements and better control of data as it grows in scale and complexity. DB2 10 for z/OS has made great strides in answering these challenges and more.

Join IBM for this complimentary webcast and learn how DB2® 10 for z/OS® gives you out-of-the-box savings through improved operational efficiencies that deliver something for everyone. Database administrators (DBAs) will find the greatest reduction in CPU for transactions and batch since V2R1 — 22 years ago. DB2 10 leverages the latest processor improvements, larger amounts of memory, solid-state disk and z/OS enhancements that enable simpler growth, more flexible security and many simplified tasks for the DBA.

Scalability improvements mean fewer outages and greater resiliency for critical business information. Schema evolution or data definition on demand as well as query performance manageability enhancements support improved availability. With additional enhancements to SQL and pureXML®, application developers can benefit from improved usability, performance and compatibility with other DB2 platforms that makes porting much easier.

In this session, you’ll learn about these major enhancements and more that will help you:

• Reduce CPU times between 5% and 10% initially, with opportunity for more
• Run 5-10 times as many threads in a single subsystem by moving 80-90% of virtual storage above the bar
• Improve the SQL and XML interface to access XML data stored in a native format
• Speed application and warehouse deployment to support business growth

March 2010- Unintended Consequences

We’ve all done it.  You see a great new feature in DB2 and jump headling into using it without fully appreciating all of the implications.  Here’s a case in point:

One of our clients is a large SAP customer running on DB2 for z/OS V9. With a huge number of subsystems to support and over 35,000 tables in each, taking traditional image copies would be a bit of a nightmare. Luckily, DB2 9 for z/OS contains the BACKUP/RESTORE SYSTEM function, which uses Flashcopy technology to rapidly backup and restore an entire system with a single utility. That means no messing with the traditional tablespace-level COPY utility, except when it’s needed for other reasons (such as when taking an inline image copy during an online REORG, to avoid putting the tablespace into COPY PENDING). 

So far, so good. However, a couple of weeks ago the DBAs came in one morning to find a lot of SAP users complaining about database errors, and dozens of tablespaces unable to be updated due to being in a COPY PENDING state. What the heck happened?

Visit our DB2 Geeks to find out

It’s a big news day in the world of DB2 for z/OS with IBM announcing the Beta Launch of DB2 10.  There has been much speculation about how this version is going to look and we had a sneak preview at the IBM Gold Consultant Day at IDUG last year – http://www.triton.co.uk/blog/?p=321 

“With DB2 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 automatic functions and SQL and XML extentions.  These enhancements will help our customers to directly drive competitive advantage through more rapid deployment of application and warehouse workloads.” Julian Stuhler

Click here for more info.

January 26, 2010, 11 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, 4:00 p.m. UTC

Learn about the wealth of new features in DB2 9 for z/OS!  Join this free teleconference from IBM and you will see how it’s new features improve business efficiency and reduce costs by increasing the productivity of administrators and programmers.  In the presentation you will see how some of the common database administration and programming tasks can be done more efficiently in DB2 9.  There will also be hints and tips about less obvious usage capabilities of selected DB2 9 features that solve some long-standing programming challenges that impact resources such as application controlled locking, destructive reads, efficient mass deletes and more.

In this session IBM will:

• Explain the rationale behind implementing selected DB2 9 features
• Provide usage recommendations for optimal exploitation of new functions
• Describe less-known techniques to address specific programming tasks
• Pinpoint areas where DB2 administrators and programmers can exploit the full power of DB29
• Highlight areas likely to improve efficiency and productitivty of DB2 administrators and programmers

Speaker – Namik Hrle, IBM Distinguished Engineer, IBM Software Group, Information Management

IBM has issued a “Red Alert” for DB2 9 for z/OS.

DB2 9 for z/OS potential data corruption and DB2 crash after using the CATMAINT UPDATE SCHEMA SWITCH utility, which is new in DB2 9.

For full details click here – http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/redAlerts/20100112.html

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.

 So, what exactly is spatial data? Here’s a simple definition:

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!).

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.

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