Author: Jeff Eveland

By Frederick Rathweg
TxMQ Middleware Multi-Platform E-Commerce Specialist
If you’ve decided to upgrade your system to the newest version of DB2® keep in mind that it may require migration of your environment components.
Understanding what may go wrong in the installation is a big step in ensuring the upgrade is completed smoothly and successfully.
Below I have listed five high-level points to keep in mind while you’re upgrading your system to the newest version of DB2.

1. Disk Space – The upgrade process will require additional disk space. Before beginning the process, make sure you have enough disk space to complete the process successfully. Here is a helpful reference for required disk space for DB2 v9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows.
2. Pre-requisites – As with any new installation, you will want to ensure that your system meets all the requirements for the upgrade. Check your software and operating systems and ensure that all other software interfacing with DB2 will be compatible. Refer to this article for the necessary prerequisites for successful installation.
3. Test Environment – It’s always a good idea to upgrade DB2 servers in a test environment. This allows you to address any problems during the upgrade process and evaluate the impact of the changes on your system. Here is some information on test environments.
4. Product Licensing – Before installing the new version of DB2, make sure you have licensed and registered your product with IBM®. Refer to this link for more information.
   
5. Plan & Research – Give yourself time before the upgrade process to really research the newest version of DB2. Allow yourself to become familiar with the product and take time to explore the variety of new features it has to offer. Some of those features can be found here.

 

About Frederick James Rathweg

 
Fred is an independent consultant. He has many years of experience in security and network management, software development and systems programming, as a project leader, network communications designer and applications and systems architect.
This experience has led to his current passions, which include:

• Cyber security and supply chain risk management
• E-commerce
• Cross platform integration of diverse businesses to build successful enterprises

His current technical focus is z/OS system migration, cross platform integration and migrating legacy SNA networks to TCP/IP, OSA and Enterprise Extender.
Rathweg is a retired US Army Infantry Officer. He has a BA in Business Management from St. Leo College. In addition he studied Law at Woodrow Wilson College of Law, and obtained an MBA from Webster University.
In his spare time, he is a part time Sivananda YOGA teacher. He is currently working towards the completion of his Ph.D  in Cyber Security at the Harris Institute for Assured Information, Florida Institute of Technology.
Rathweg has published a series of IBM red books about Communications Server (CS):

1. IBM z/OS V1R11 Communications Server TCP/IP Implementation Volume 1: Base Functions, Connectivity, and Routing
2. IBM z/OS V1R11 Communications Server TCP/IP Implementation Volume 2: Standard Applications
3. IBM z/OS V1R11 Communications Server TCP/IP Implementation Volume 3: High Availability, Scalability, and Performance
4. IBM z/OS V1R11 Communications Server TCP/IP Implementation Volume 4: Security and Policy-Based Networking

He also assisted in the publishing of ABCs of z/OS System Programming Volume 4: Communication Server, TCP/IP, and VTAM.

About TxMQ

Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29, or email wendy@txmq.com.
 

By Wendy Sanacore
This weekend I spent a good deal of time in the car as we traveled from family to family to celebrate the Independence Day weekend.
During one of the longer car rides, I started to think about my grandmother who passed away last March. One of her favorite holidays was July 4^th, so she was front and center on my mind.
To make a long story short, I was thinking about her while staring out the car window on the thruway and I was focused on the power lines and poles running along the road with us.
I remarked to my husband that it was pretty amazing that this intricate web of wires and poles is what feeds us our electricity and runs all our vital mechanisms.
Then I started to think about the stories Grandma had told me as I was growing up; all sorts of interesting facts about her life on the farm when she was little.
I remembered stories about very little electricity, cold well water that was used to drink and bathe, and coal burning stoves to keep warm. I loved the tales she had about the family’s first car that you had to crank to get moving.
It’s overwhelming to me to think about everything she witnessed and learned to use as it was invented and became mainstream.
It made me wonder what the really big inventions are that we are going to see in our lifetime. I wonder; will there really be that one BIG invention that rocks our worlds?
Thus far, we have seen a lot of innovations. And much of what we see is digital. I remember the first computer I ever worked on. It was massive and the screen was green! Now, I sit at my desk and write on my flat screen monitor while my colleagues use the iPad to do their work.
We access the Internet from our cell phones. It’s all on-demand, now. Mobility is the name of the game. I wonder what will be next.
Do you think we are going to see some great new invention in our lifetimes or will we just see a steady progression of innovations, newer technology to replace the existing technology? Are we going to remain the generation that’s known for digital evolution?
What will our grandkids reflect on about us?
 

About TxMQ

 
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like Virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29, or email wendy@txmq.com.
 

 
By Wendy Sanacore
How prepared is your company for the ongoing shift towards mobile development? More and more people are connecting to websites via mobile sources. It’s more apparent every day that the main source of traffic is no longer desktop computers.
It’s all about convenience. When your cell phone has 3G or 4G, why stop, turn on your computer, wait for it to load and then visit your website when you can do it with a touch of a button instantaneously.
Mobile development and applications are an immediate customer demand and most companies can’t avoid having it. It’s all about being bigger, stronger, faster and better.
Through recent surveys, it has been discovered that CIOs focus on shifting to mobile has dramatically increased. Mobile applications open the doors to many new opportunities and CIOs are beginning to see the value of having products and services at their consumers’ fingertips.
So the question remains, how easily accessible is your company on the web? Go ahead, pull out your cell phone and type in your company’s URL. How does it look?
Here’s a list of decent components that your mobile websites should have:

1. Mobile specific content – meaning about 95% of it is hidden under the surface of the site and the site is directed to what you want the consumer to see.
2. Specific entry and exit points are established and the site leads your customers where you want them to go.
3. No need for scrolling up and down or side to side
4. Utilization of buttons instead of links

 

About TxMQ

 
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29, or email wendy@txmq.com.
 

By Wendy Sanacore
It’s the mobile revolution! Everyone is making the shift to mobile and Microsoft is no longer the exception.
This week, Microsoft is wrapping up a revamped version of its Office Software Suite of products with an online version.
The tools, including Outlook, Excel, and Sharepoint will be placed into an online format so customer can use them from any machine that acquires internet access. Microsoft has high hopes that this will increase its profits significantly by extending its reach into the cloud sector of services.
The new set of offerings  is called Office 365.
In fact, Microsoft officials are hoping that the full launch of these products will add some competition to Google.
In October 2010, when Microsoft initially launched a test of these products, it was expected that they would charge $2 per user per month for basic email services up to $27 a month for advanced services.
 

About TxMQ

 
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29, or email wendy@txmq.com.
 

By Wendy Sanacore
WebSphere V8 became available on June 17, 2011.
The new version of WAS increases users’ security and control, and delivers automated enhancements for the installation, maintenance, testing and problem resolution of business applications.
In addition to these capabilities, there are new features that extend the reach of WAS to support applications from the desktop to mobile devices, including popular Smartphones and tablets such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone, products running Google’s Android OS, and RIM’s BlackBerry portfolio.
With more than 100,000 WebSphere clients worldwide, mobile applications are such a large part of every business now that it is critical that there is mobile support for these devices.
The newest version of WebSphere sports the following mobile features.

• Mobile Capability
• UI Mockups
• Native Experience
• New Controls
• Touch-Enabled UIs
• Charts
• No Plug-Ins
• OSGi Support
• IBM Rational Support
• z/OS Support

View the complete article.
 

About TxMQ

 
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29, or email wendy@txmq.com.
 

The data in the attached article identifies supported software options by operating system for the Application Client for WebSphere Application Server V8.0.
This document describes the minimum product levels that need to be installed before opening a problem report with the WebSphere Application Server Support team. Because other products frequently ship fixes, updates, and new releases, testing every configuration is not possible. In general, you can install and run with updates to supported products if those updates are forward compatible.
Read all the information here in an article from IBM.

By Wendy Sanacore
How will you exit the cloud?
I know what you’re saying. You haven’t even really transitioned to the cloud yet and I’m already asking about your exit strategy, right?
Well I am asking for a good reason. You must be prepared with an exit strategy in place from the moment you join the cloud.
Think about it. You never walk into a building that has no exits, right? What if something happens and you need to get out quickly and safely. Well, you have windows and doors and an exit strategy in place.
The same thing should apply for your business. What happens if you transition to the cloud and then all of a sudden your cloud provider begins experiencing security problems or you begin to have concerns about data ownership?
The whole point of the cloud is to eliminate physical data centers, so by the time you realize there are security issues, your data center may be eliminated. So how do you pull out of the cloud when you have nowhere physical to store your data.
This is just food for thought, but something to consider before your company makes the leap to cloud. Make sure you have an exit strategy in mind just in case you encounter an emergency.
You want to ensure that you can get out and that you can get out quickly. Plan ahead, it will save you a lot of headaches in the future.
About TxMQ
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today to find the solution that’s right for you.

By Wendy Sanacore
Recently there have been some high-profile outages of popular sites, including one which incorporates a pretty severe security breach.
Back in June, arguably one of the world’s most popular e-commerce sites, Amazon, experienced a complete US outage that lasted for approximately 2 hours. And just recently, Sony experienced a security breach that potentially released 100 million credit card numbers.
This has brought the issue of cloud security to the front of people’s minds.
“Cloud computing companies have done a good job convincing customers that their data is safe, even though that may not be the case,” said Jay Heiser, Gartner cloud security analyst.
However, many experts believe that this will not be the downfall of cloud computing. According to an article by David Linthicum on infoworld.com, the logic behind that sentiment by Heiser is inconsistent.
He maintains that Sony did not take the proper steps to secure its data, and that should not in any manner reflect on cloud computing or other cloud providers.
He points out that Sony is not  a provider of cloud computing but merely a user of the service. Sony does not sell PaaS, Iaas, or Saas. Linthicum maintains that Sony just simply failed at the basics of computing security.
Security concerns are always top of mind and security breaches happen every day. As users, we all want to assume our data is safe, but the fact is, we have a choice. We can protect our data completely by not sharing it online or else by sharing it, we run the risk of hackers discovering and using our personal data.
There were security breaches before cloud computing was ever invented and there are still going to be security breaches with cloud computing. The reality is, the only way to truly 100% protect your data on the web is to not make online purchases. Really, it’s your call. What do you think?
About TxMQ
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29 or email wendy@txmq.com to find the solution that’s right for you.

By Wendy Sanacore
Oops, an executive from Hewlett-Packard spilled more beans today on the cloud computing plans that HP has in the works.
HP VP of cloud services Scott McClellan recently posted details to what exactly HP is building on his LinkedIn account.
As quoted in the San Fransisco Chronicle, here is what HP is stated to be building…

• “Object storage” service “built from scratch.” This sounds like simple data storage, which has been part of Amazon Web Services since its inception and was an early part of Windows Azure as well.

• HP “compute,” “networking” and “block storage” services. This sounds superficially similar to the services offered by AWS, but McClellan boasted that it will be different from what’s out there now. He called it “a declarative/model-based approach where users provide a specification and the system automates deployment and management.”

• Shared services for nuts-and-bolts functions like user authentication and authorization, billing and metering, and analytics.

• A developer experience that will include Java and Ruby, as well as “other open-source languages.”

Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud computing service, .NET development platform, and C# programming language were not mentioned. You can see the full article here as well.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-exec-spills-cloud-computing-plans-on-linkedin-profile-2011-5#ixzz1LODpUfhc
About TxMQ
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29 or email wendy@txmq.com to find the solution that’s right for you.

By Wendy Sanacore
DataKinetics just announced the upcoming launch of a new JAVA to DB2 optimization solution for mainframes. This solution is supposed to significantly decrease both the data access request time for DB2 and the load on DB2 from JAVA access.
The product will be unveiled at IDUG, the International DB2 User Group’s conference held this year in Anaheim California, on May 5.
According to DataKinetics CEO, Allan Zander, the release of this product can reduce Java request to execute on the mainframe by up to 90%.
For more information on DB2 and other solutions, visit www.dki.com.
About TxMQ
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29 or email wendy@txmq.com to find the solution that’s right for you.