Managed Services: Regain focus, improve performance and move forward.

Posted on August 24, 2018 | by Jeff Eveland

Managed IT Services Help You Improve Your Team’s Performance.

There is no such thing as multitasking. It’s been scientifically proven that if you spread your focus too thin, something is going to suffer. Just like a computer system, if you are trying to work on too many tasks at once, it’s going to slow down, create errors and just not perform as expected.

You must regain your focus in order to improve performance and move forward.

The fact is, no matter what your industry or business is today, your success is dependent upon your IT team staying current, competent, and competitive within the industry. Right now there is more on your IT departments “plate” than ever before. Think about how much brain power and talent you’re misusing knowing that your best IT talent is spending the bulk of their efforts just managing the day to day. Keep in mind that most of these issues can be easily fixed, and even avoided with proper preparation.

How do you continuously put out fires, keep systems running smoothly, and still have time to plan for the future?

As the legendary Ron Swanson once said “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”
Ron Swanson Yep

Don’t go at it alone when you can supplement your team and resources.

Overworked employees have higher turnover (-$), make more mistakes (-$), and work slower (-$)(-$). This is costing you more than you can ever fully account for, though your CFO may try. Think about those IT stars that are so important to the success of your business. You may just lose them, starting another fire to put out when you’re trying to gain, train, and grow.

Managed IT Services Can Put You Back on Track!

No one knows your business better than you, and I’m just guessing but, I bet you’ve gotten pretty good at it by now. However, as any good leader or manager knows, without your focus on the future you could lose out as your industry changes, and if you didn’t notice it’s already changing.

To remain competitive, you need an advantage that can help you refocus your team and let you do you, because that’s what you do best.

At TxMQ we are not an expert in your business, and we would never claim to be one. Our Managed Services mission is to take care of the stuff you don’t have the resources, expertise, or the time for, and then we make it run at it’s best. You can refocus your full attention to improving your business.
Whether your producing widgets to change the world, a life saving drug, or providing healthy food for the masses, you don’t have to spread yourself thin. We Monitor, Manage and Maintain, Middleware Systems & Databases that power your business. As a provider we are technology and systems agnostic.
What we do is nothing you can’t do yourself or maybe, already are doing. If resources are scarce, putting extra work on your existing team can cost you more than it needs to. TxMQ’s Managed Services teams fill in the gaps within your existing IT resources to strengthen and solidify your systems, so that you can focus on everything else.

TxMQ’s Managed Services team helps you refocus, so can concentrate on growth and tackling your industry and business challenges.

If you’re interested in getting more sleep at night and learning more about our Managed Services please reach out or click below for more info.

North America: Don’t Ignore GDPR – It Affects us too!

Posted on April 20, 2018 | by Jeff Eveland

Hey, North America – GDPR Means Us, Too!

It’s well documented, and fairly well socialized across North America that on May 25^th of 2018, the GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, formally goes into effect in the European Union (EU).
Perhaps less well known, is how corporations located in North America, and around the world, are actually impacted by the legislation.

The broad stroke is, if your business transacts with and/or markets to citizens of the EU, the rules of GDPR apply to you.

For those North American-based businesses that have mature information security programs in place (such as those following PCI, HIPAA, NIST and ISO standards), your path to compliance with the GDPR should not be terribly long. There will be, however, some added steps needed to meet the EU’s new requirements; steps that this blog is not designed to enumerate, nor counsel on.
It’s safe to say that data protection and privacy is a concern involving a combination of legal, governance, process, and technical considerations. Here is an interesting and helpful FAQ link on the General Data Protection Regulation policies.
Most of my customers represent enterprise organizations, which have a far-reaching base of clients and trading partners. They are the kinds of companies who touch sensitive information, are acutely aware of data security, and are likely to be impacted by the GDPR.
These enterprises leverage TxMQ for, among other things, expertise around Integration Technology and Application Infrastructure.
Internal and external system access and integration points are areas where immediate steps can be taken to enhance data protection and security.

Critical technical and procedural components include (but are not limited to):

Enterprise Gateways
ESB’s and Messaging (including MQ and FTP – also see Leif Davidsen’s blog)
Application & Web Servers
API Management Strategy and Solutions
Technology Lifecycle Management
- Change Management
- Patch Management
- Asset Management

The right technology investment, architecture, configuration, and governance model go a long way towards GDPR compliance.
Tech industry best practices should be addressed through a living program within any corporate entity. In the long run, setting and adhering to these policies protect your business, and save your business money (through compliance and efficiency).
In short, GDPR has given North America another important reason to improve upon our data and information security.
It affects us, and what’s more, it’s just a good idea.

What you need to know about GDPR

Posted on April 18, 2018 | by Jeff Eveland

What is GDPR?

GDPR is the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
In short, it is known as the ‘right to be forgotten’ rule. The intent of GDPR is to protect the data privacy of European Union (or EU) citizens, yet it’s implications are potentially far reaching.

Why do EU citizens need GDPR?

In most of the civilized world, individuals have little true awareness of the amount of data that is stored about us. Some accurate, some quite the opposite.

Personal data is defined by both the directive and GDPR as information relating to a person who can be identified directly or indirectly in particular by reference to name, ID number, location data, or other factors related to physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural, or related factors (including social identity).

If I find an error strewn rant about my small business somewhere online, my ability to correct it, or even have it removed is limited quite completely to posting a counter statement or begging whoever owns that content in question, to remove it. I have no real legal recourse short of a costly, and destined-to-fail law suit.
The EU sought to change this for their citizens, and thus GDPR was born.
In December of 2015, the long process of designing legislation to create a new legal framework to ensure the rights of EU citizens was completed. This was ratified a year later and becomes enforceable on May 25^th of this year (2018).

There are two primary components to the GDPR legislation.

The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is designed to enable individuals to have more control of their personal data.

It is hoped that these modernized and unified rules will allow companies to make the most of digital markets by reducing regulations, while regaining consumers trust.

The data protection directive is a second component.

It ensures that law enforcement bodies can protect the rights of those involved in criminal proceedings. Including victims, witnesses, and other parties.

It is also hoped that the unified legislation will facilitate better cross border participation of law enforcement to proactively enforce the laws, while facilitating better capabilities of prosecutors to combat criminal and terrorist activities.

Key components of GDPR

The regulation is intended to establish a single set of cross European rules, designed to make it simpler to do business across the EU. Organizations across the EU are subject to regulation just by collecting data on EU citizens.

Personal Data

Personal data is defined by both the directive and GDPR as information relating to a person who can be identified directly or indirectly in particular by reference to name, ID number, location data, or other factors related to physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural, or related factors (including social identity).
So, this means many things including IP addresses, cookies, and more will be regarded as personal data if they can be linked back to an individual.
The regulations separate the responsibilities and duties of data controllers vs data processors, obligating controllers to engage only those processors that provide “sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures” to meet the regulations requirements and protect data subjects’ rights.
Controllers and processors are required to “implement appropriate technical and organizational measures” taking into account “the state of the art and costs of implementation” and “the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of individuals”.

Security actions “appropriate to the risk”

The regulations also provide specific suggestions for what kinds of security actions might be considered “appropriate to the risk”, including:

The pseudonymization and/or encryption of personal data.
The ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of systems and services processing persona data.
The ability to restore the availability and access to data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident.
A process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organizational measures for ensuring the security of the processing.

Controllers and processors that adhere to either an approved code of conduct or an approved certification may use these tools to demonstrate their compliance (such as certain industry-wide accepted tools).
The controller-processor relationships must be documented and managed with contracts that mandate privacy obligations.

Enforcement and Penalties

There are substantial penalties and fines for organizations that fail to conform with the regulations.
Regulators will now have the authority to issue penalties equal to the greater of 10 Million Euro, or 2% of the entity’s global gross revenue for violations of record keeping, security, breach notifications and privacy impact assessment obligations. However, violations of obligations related to legal justification for processing (including consent), data subject rights, and cross border data transfers, may result in double the above stipulated penalties.
It remains to be seen how the legal authorities tasked with this compliance will perform.

Data Protection Officers

Data Protection Officers must be appointed for all public authorities, and where the core activities of the controller or the processor involve “regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale”, or where the entity conducts large scale processing of “special categories of personal data”; personal data such as that revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious belief, etc. This likely encapsulates large firms such as banks, Google, Facebook, and the like.
It should be noted that there is also NO restriction on organization size, down to small start-up firms.

Privacy Management

Organizations will have to think harder about privacy. The regulations mandate a risk-based approach, where appropriate organization controls must be developed according to the degree of risk associated with the processing activities.
Where appropriate, privacy impact assessments must be made, with the focus on individual rights.
Privacy friendly techniques like pseudonymization will be encouraged to reap the benefits of big data innovation while protecting privacy.
There is also an increased focus on record keeping for controllers as well.

Consent

Consent is a newly defined term in the regulations.
It means “any freely given, specific informed and unambiguous indication of his or her wishes by which the data subject, either by a statement or by clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to personal data relating to them being processed”. The consent does need to be for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes.
Consent should also be demonstrable. Withdrawal of consent must be clear, and as easy to execute as the initial act of providing consent.

Profiling

Profiling is now defined as any automated processing of personal data to determine certain criteria about a person.

“In particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, behaviors, location and more”.

This will certainly impact marketers, as it appears that consent must be explicitly provided for said activities.
There is more, including details on breach notification.
It’s important to note that willful destruction of data is dealt with as severely as a breach.

Data Subject Access Requests

Individuals will have more information how their data is processed, and this information must be available in a clear and understandable way.
If said requests are deemed excessive, providers may be able to charge for said information.

Right to be Forgotten

This area, while much written about, will require some further clarification, as there are invariably downstream implications the regulations haven’t begun to address. Yet the intent of “right to be forgotten” is clear; individuals have certain rights, and they are protected.

Think you’re ready for GDPR?

Is your business really ready for GDPR? What measures have you taken to ensure you’re in compliance?
With the GDPR taking effect this coming May, companies around the world have a long, potentially costly, road ahead of them to demonstrate that they are worthy of the trust that so many individuals place in them.

White Paper: Scaling SaaS Adoption in Large Enterprises

Posted on January 30, 2018 | by Jeff Eveland

IBM White Paper: Scaling SaaS Adoption in Large Enterprises

Due to the simplicity and low-cost to get started with Software-as-a-Service, departments within an organization have often introduced online services with almost trivial ease.

Use of software as a service application like Salesforce may well begin under the radar of corporate IT governance, perhaps initially born from a need to rapidly adopt a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, but then quickly realizing the broader capabilities of the overall Salesforce platform. Due to the low entry cost, SaaS can often be deployed without the need for centralized Capex funding and the cost model fits within a department’s operating budget.

Of course, decentralization was and is one of the biggest benefits of SaaS, and we’re not saying that’s a bad thing. However, decentralization also leads to multiple sources and sites of data which are unconnected with each other and with the different business units using the software.

In a CRM scenario, for example, sales, marketing, and customer service could all be pulling data for the same customer from different databases. They don’t get the unified customer-centric view they need, and the customer doesn’t get the holistic experience they expect.

Want the full Scaling SaaS Adoption In Large Enterprises white paper by IBM?

Webinar: Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Technology: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Posted on January 29, 2018 | by Jeff Eveland

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Webinar: Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Technology: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This informative webinar on blockchain and distributed ledger technology, presented by TxMQ’s Chuck Fried, with co-hosts Craig Drabik and Miles Roty, dives into distributed ledger technology and how it has the potential to transform entire industries.

Distributed Ledger Technology has the potential to be truly transformational.

By 2022 at least one innovative business built on blockchain will be worth $10 Billion.
By 2030 30% of the global customer base will be made up of things, and those things will use blockchain as a foundational technology with which to conduct commercial activity.
By 2025, the business value by blockchain will grow to slightly over $176 Billion, then surge to exceed $3.1 Trillion by 2030.

How will Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology affect your industry?

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To watch the webinar recording from 01/18/2018 please fill out the form below.

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The Case for the Crypto Crash

Posted on January 16, 2018 | by Jeff Eveland

The Case for the Crypto Crash

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big supporter of, and believer in distributed ledger technology, or DLT.
It has the potential to revolutionize the way we build certain types of solutions, and the way certain systems, software, and institutions, even people, interact.
That being said, I also believe a strong argument can be made that crypto currencies, at least in their current incarnation, are destined to fail.
Full disclosure: I own no crypto currencies.
There is a foundational flaw in the use case of cryptocurrency. It is NOT easily transacted; often having lengthy or ungainly settlement times, requiring in almost all cases, conversion to fiat currency, and it’s generally ill suited to the very task it was designed to perform: storing value for transacting business.

It’s hard for people to use crypto currencies.

I have heard first hand, countless stories of transactions intended to be conducted using crypto currencies, where the parties wouldn’t agree to them without one or the other agreeing to guarantee value to some fiat currency.
If this continues and people aren’t able to use cryptocurrency as a currency, what then? Normal market rules would dictate a crash to zero.
But is this a market that follows normal market rules? What exactly is normal?

Fiat Currency, or Fiat Money:

Let’s back up and look at fiat currency. Take the US dollar.
Early on, the United States dollar was tied to the gold standard. The United States Bullion Depository, more commonly known as Fort Knox, was established as a store in the US for gold that backed the dollar.
In 1933, the US effectively abandoned this standard, and in 1971, all ties to gold were severed.
So what happened? Effectively nothing. Yet the US backs the dollar.
Why? The US dollar is intimately tied to our financial system by the Federal Reserve, which, as demonstrated for better or worse in the financial crisis of 10 years ago, will do everything in its power to shore up the currency when needed.
So we operate today with the shared belief, some might call it a shared delusion, that there is value in the money we carry in our wallets and in the bank statements we see online.

Is cryptocurrency approaching this level of shared belief?

Who will step in if crypto crashes? In short, no one. There is no governing body, by design, behind any cryptocurrency.
As I write this, all crypto currencies are down over 10%, some are down over 20%. Nothing will prop it back up other than buyers: speculators hoping to buy on the downswing, hoping to hold until it rises again.
So, is this a normal market? I say no, it is not. I see no ultimate destination on this journey, other than disappointment.
If you have risk capital to play with, go ahead, risk some on crypto if you wish.
Personally, I would rather invest my money in companies I can understand, with business models that make sense. That being said, in my case, this also means investing in my company’s work to build solutions on the technology underlying crypto currency, or distributed ledger technology.

You may be asking yourself, how can he support distributed ledger technology and not have faith in cryptocurrency?

The answer here is simple. The technology is solid, the use case of crypto is flawed. Java is solid, but not all java applications are good applications. Crytpo currency is just another application running on distributed ledger, and as I have posited herein, a bad one.

Chuck Fried is the President and CEO of TxMQ, a systems integrator and software development company focused on building technical solutions for their customers across the US and Canada.
Follow him at www.chuckfried.com, or @chuckfried on Twitter, or here on the TxMQ blog.

TxMQ Launches Disruptive Technologies Group

Posted on December 15, 2017 | by Jeff Eveland

Press/Media Contact and Information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TxMQ Launches Disruptive Technologies Group

Amherst, NY, December 15, 2017: TxMQ, an enterprise solutions and consulting company, today announced the formation of its Disruptive Technologies Group. The division will focus on developing solutions for their customers using cutting edge technologies. Primary work effort will be developing Blockchain and Hashgraph based solutions, both technologies based on emerging distributed ledger technologies. The company’s Internet of Things (IOT), Cognitive and AI work will fall under the same group.

Leading this division at the soon to be 40 year old TxMQ, is Craig Drabik, an industry veteran with over 20 years of software development experience to his credit. Having served most recently as a technical lead at KPMG, Craig brings a collaborative work ethic, and a user focused vision to his work.

“I’m looking forward to continuing the vision of TxMQ, to help our customers evolve and transform their businesses using the latest, and most secure platforms and technologies”, said Mr. Drabik.

Blockchain and Hashgraph are two different approaches to distributed ledger based applications. A different way of building and deploying software that promises to be highly secure, highly stable, and highly scalable. Blockchain is the platform upon which Bitcoin, and most other crypto currencies are based.

“While crypto currency does come up fairly often in our conversations with customers, most are not looking to leverage the currency factor, nor the tokenization ability of distributed ledger based applications”, said Chuck Fried, company President. “Still, it’s hard to ignore what’s happening today around crypto currencies and their escalating valuations, so we are talking with some companies about weaving this into their solutions, absolutely”.

One of the services that TxMQ is offering to customers is strategic advisory services. “We find many of our customers are looking for a knowledgeable advisor to guide them on their journey to evaluate these technologies, to keep abreast of what competitors may be doing, and help navigate the minefields often presented by any new technology landscape”, said Miles Roty, Vice President.

For more information, visit our Blockchain page or reach out to our CEO, Chuck Fried at chuck@txmq.com

Press/Media Contact and Information

Economic Theory and Cryptocurrency

Posted on December 12, 2017 | by Jeff Eveland

This post was originally published on ChuckFried.com, with permission to repost on TxMQ.com.

Economic Theory and Cryptocurrency

In a rational market, there are basic principles, which apply to the pricing and availability of goods and services. At the same time, these forces affect the value of currency. Currency is any commodity or item whose principle use is as a store of value.
Once upon a time, precious metals and gems were the principle value store used. Precious jewels, gold, and silver were used as currency to acquire goods and services. Over time, as nations industrialized, trading required proxy value stores, and paper money was introduced, which was tied to what became the gold standard. This system lasted into the 20^th century.
As nations moved off the gold standard, Keynesian economics became a much-touted model. Introduced by John Maynard Keynes, a British economic theorist in his seminal, depression era work “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”, it introduced a demand side model whereby nations were shown to have the ability to influence macro economics by modifying taxes and government spending.
Recently, crypto currency has thrown a curveball into our economic models, with the introduction of virtual currencies. Bitcoin is the most widely known, but there are multiple other virtual currencies or crypto currencies as they are now called because of the underlying mathematical formulas and crypto graphic algorithms which govern the network these are built on.

Whether these are currencies or not is itself an interesting rabbit hole to climb down, and a bit of a semantic trap.

They are not stores of value, nor proxies for precious goods, but if party a perceives a value in a bitcoin, and will take it in trade for something, does that not make it a currency?
Webster’s defines currency as circulation as a medium of exchange, and general use, acceptance or prevalence. Bitcoin seems to fit this definition.
Thus the next question…

What is going on with the price of bitcoin?

Through most of 2015, the price of one bitcoin started a slow climb from the high 200s to the mid 400s in US dollars; that in itself is a near meteoric climb. The run ended at around $423, for reasons outside the scope of this paper, actual pricing is dependent on the exchange one references for this data.
2016 saw an acceleration of this climb, with a final tally just shy of $900.
It was in 2017 where the wheels really came off, with a feverish, near euphoric climb in the past weeks to almost $20,000, before settling recently to a trading range of $15-$16,000 per bitcoin.
So what is going on here? What economic theory describes this phenomenon?
Sadly, we don’t have a good answer, but there are some data points we should review.
First, let’s recognize that for many readers, awareness of bitcoin happened only recently. It bears pointing out that one won’t buy a thing if one is unaware of that thing. Thus, the awareness of bitcoin has played a somewhat significant role in driving up it’s value.
To what extent this affected the price is a mystery, but if we accept this as given, clearly as more and more people learn about bitcoin, more and more people will buy bitcoin.

So what is bitcoin?

I won’t go deep here since it’s likely if you are reading this, you have this foundational knowledge, but bitcoin was created by a person, persons, or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomoto in 2009. It was created to eliminate the need for banks, or third parties in transactions; it also allows for complete anonymity of the holder of the coin.
There is a finite upper limit of the maximum number of bitcoins that can ever be created. There is a mathematical formula described in detail in various online sources, including Wikipedia, so I won’t delve into that here. This cap, set at 21 million coins, will be reached when the last coin is mined (again, see Wikipedia). This is variously estimated to likely occur in the year 2140.

What makes Bitcoin Valuable?

So this ‘capped’ reality also adds to value, since like most stores of value, there is a rarity to bitcoin, a fixed number in existence today, and a maximum number that will ever exist.
In addition, more and more organizations are accepting bitcoin as a payment method. This increase in utility, and subsequent liquidity (it’s not always easy to sell units of bitcoin less than full coins) has also increased the perceived value of the coin.
Contributing to this climb in value recently has been the CryptoKitties phenomenon; a gaming application that rose to popularity far more rapidly than its creators could have foreseen. The subsequent media exposure thrust blockchain, and correspondingly bitcoin, further into the limelight, and the value continued to spike.
Lastly, the CBOE Options Exchange announced that on Monday, December 11^th, they will begin trading bitcoin futures. Once again, this action broadcast to a widening audience that bitcoin was real, viable, and worth looking at as a part of some portfolios.; adding both legitimacy, as well as ease of trade to the mix.
The number of prognosticators calling bitcoin a farce seems near equal to the number calling for a coin to hit a $1 million valuation in 4 years. Who will be right remains to be seen.
For the moment, this author sees this as a bit like Vegas gambling. It’s fun, it’s legal, but you can also lose every penny you gamble; so bet (invest) only what you can afford to lose, and enjoy the ride.

IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) v.7 & v.8, and WebSphere MQ v.7.5 End of Support: April 30, 2018

Posted on November 3, 2017 | by Jeff Eveland

Are you presently running on WAS versions 7 or 8?
Are you leveraging WebSphere MQ version 7.5?

Time is running out, IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) v.7 & v.8, and WebSphere MQ v.7.5 support ends in less than 6 months. As of April 30th 2018, IBM will discontinue support on all WebSphere Application Server versions 7.0.x & v8.0.x; and WebSphere MQ v7.5.x.

It’s recommended that you migrate to WebSphere Application Server v.9 to avoid potential security issues that may occur on the early, unsupported versions of WAS (and Java).
It’s also recommended that you upgrade to IBM MQ version 9.0.x, to leverage new features, and avoid costly premium support fees from IBM.

Why should you go through an upgrade?

Many security risks can percolate when running back-level software, especially WAS running on older Java versions. If you’re currently running on software versions that are out of support, finding the right support team to put out your unexpected fires can be tricky and might just blow the budget.
Upgrading WAS & MQ to supported versions will allow you to tap into new and expanding capabilities, and updated performance enhancements while also protecting yourself from unnecessary, completely avoidable security risks and added support costs.

WebSphere Application Server v.9 Highlights

WebSphere Application Server v.9.0 offers unparalleled functionality to deliver modern applications and services quickly, securely and efficiently.

When you upgrade to v.9.0, you’ll enjoy several upgrade perks including:

Java EE 7 compliant architecture.
DevOps workflows.
Easy connection between your on-prem apps and IBM Bluemix services (including IBM Watson).
Container technology that enables greater development and deployment agility.
Deployment on Pivotal Cloud Foundry, Azure, Openshift, Amazon Web Services and Bluemix.
Ability to provision workloads to IBM cloud (for VMware customers).
Enhancements to WebSphere extreme scale that have improved response times and time-to-configuration.

IBM MQ v.9.0.4 Highlights

With the latest update moving to MQ V9.0.4, there are even more substantial updates of useful features for IBM MQ, even beyond what came with versions 8 (z/OS) & 8.5.

When you upgrade to v.9.0.4, enhancements include:

Additional commands supported as part of the REST API for admin.
Availability of a ‘catch-all’ for MQSC commands as part of the REST API for admin.
Ability to use a single MQ V9.0.4 Queue Manager as a single point gateway for REST API based admin of other MQ environments including older MQ versions such as MQ V9 LTS and MQ V8.
Ability to use MQ V9.0.4 as a proxy for IBM Cloud Product Insights reporting across older deployed versions of MQ.
Availability of an enhanced MQ bridge for Salesforce.
Initial availability of a new programmatic REST API for messaging applications.

This upgrade cycle also offers you the opportunity to evaluate the MQ Appliance. Talk to TxMQ to see if the MQ Appliance is a good option for your messaging environment.

Why work with an IBM Business Partner to upgrade your IBM Software?

You can choose to work with IBM directly – we can’t (and won’t) stop you – but your budget just might. Working with a premier IBM business partner allows you to accomplish the same task with the same quality, but at a fraction of the price IBM will charge you, with more personal attention and much speedier response times.
Also, IBM business partners are typically niche players, uniquely qualified to assist in your company’s migration planning and execution. They’ll offer you and your company much more customized and consistent attention. Plus, you’ll probably be working with ex-IBMers anyway, who’ve turned in their blue nametags to find greater opportunities working within the business partner network.

There are plenty of things to consider when migrating your software from outdated versions to more current versions.

TxMQ is a premier IBM business partner that works with customers to oversee and manage software migration and upgrade planning. TxMQ subject matter experts are uniquely positioned with relevant experience, allowing them to help a wide range of customers determine the best solution for their migration needs.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your migration and back-level support options. It’s never too late to begin planning and executing your version upgrades.

To check on your IBM Software lifecycle, simply search your product name and version on this IBM page or, give TxMQ a call…

MQ Technical Conference (MQTC) 2017 Delivers Again on Content & Convenience

Posted on October 6, 2017 | by Jeff Eveland

TxMQ/TxMQ Canada took part as a gold sponsor for the MQ Technical Conference, also known as MQTC, last week, September 24th through September 27th, at the Kalahari Resorts in Sandusky, Ohio.
This annual event has become a mainstay for our team; we’re proud to be an original and ongoing Gold Sponsor of the conference since it began in 2013. Kudos again to Roger Lacroix at Capitalware, Inc. for his vision and organization of this successful conference series.

MQTC is a collection of educational sessions aimed at administrators, developers and engineers, ranging from novice to expert level in the IBM Middleware/Messaging stack.

In contrast to many, if not most, technical events on the calendar, MQTC leaves behind the “glitz and glam” (and cost) of big sales presentations disguised as technical conferences.

This is not to say that the accommodations at MQTC don’t measure up.

The Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, with a horizontal layout, African motif and indoor waterpark, feels like a Las Vegas Hotel & Convention Center set on the grounds of a Disney Property. In fact, some attendees bring their young families for the 3-day event.
MQTC’s venue choice delivers a setting that’s comfortable enough, and reasonable enough to get to (less than an hour drive from Cleveland Hopkins Airport), without the distractions of many major tech conference settings*.

*IT Managers, take note – your training dollars are spent in the classroom, not “elsewhere”.

There are salespeople in attendance – yours truly included – but even the vendor sessions focus on technical content, and solving real world IT/business problems. There are always presenters brought in from the IBM product labs in Hursley, and there is no shortage of expertise on hand from corporate shops and business partners alike.
For those interested in sampling this year’s content, you can easily download any of the presentations for free right on the MQTC website, including a few from the TxMQ team.
Hope to see you there next year!