Don't Forget About IBM Redbooks!

Many of my readers are probably aware of IBM redbooks, but for those who are not, here is a quick introduction to a valuable free technical resource. 

If you've been working with any IBM technology for any period of time you've probably become familiar with the IBM redbook. These are supplemental manuals that IBM employees and customers write and distribute free-of-charge over the Internet at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/. There are redbooks on just about any technical topic that you might imagine - (and for the many Db2 zealots who follow my blog, 

IBM sponsor redbooks and guides the projects that are put together to write them. Some are written by IBMers but many are written by IBM's customers who are actual technology practitioners. Redbooks are written via residencies. A residency is an intensive, multi-week work effort where small teams explore and document product implementation, integration and operations. Each team is directed by an IBMer from their technical publications group. The team will consist of professionals from IBM field and development, from IBM Business Partners, from customers, and from the marketplace in general. So, you too, can research and write an IBM redbook! Of course, you have to make sure that you have the expertise, willingness, and time to work on the project. 

But more importantly, anyone can enjoy the results. IBM publishes all of its redbooks on the web in Adobe PDF format. And anyone can download any redbook for free! So all you need is an Internet connection and the free Adobe Reader software to start reading redbooks. 

Some of my favorite redbooks over the years have addressed topics like stored procedure development, IDAA, improving availability with parallel sysplex, Db2 13 for z/OS performance (there's usually one of these for each new Db2 version), and even AI and watsonx! 

And don't worry if your shop is not a big blue shop, you still might benefit from perusing the redbooks that are available. Yes, there are many redbooks on Db2, IBM Z, watsonx, WebSphere, CICS, and other IBM software products, but there are also redbooks on Linux, Windows, and other non-IBM software. There are even several SQL Server and Oracle redbooks. And these books are always very high quality - I've never read one that is sub-par... and the price is right. 

So, if you haven't checked out the IBM redbook library before - or even if you have, but not lately - take a moment to click over to the redbook site and search for a topic of your interest. You might be surprised at what is available there...