Who's Going to Charlotte for IDUG 2024?

Spring is in the air and as a Db2 professional you know that can mean only one thing: the North American IDUG Db2 Tech Conference will soon be upon us! 

This year IDUG is back in Charlotte (like it was back in 2019). Ahhh, the pre-CovID days! Nevertheless, I am looking forward to an exciting week of learning more about my favorite DBMS and mingling with others Db2 users and fans!

This year, the event runs from Sunday June 23rd thru Thursday June 27th and it will be held at Le Meridien Hotel. But what can you expect if you attend? Well, there will be a tremendous number of educational opportunities at the IDUG Db2 Tech Conference. IBMers, vendor experts, users, IBM Champions, and IBM Gold consultants from all over the world converge in one location and share their experiences. So you know there will be numerous informative technical sessions on all the latest and greatest Db2 technologies, features, and related products. And you can view the grid with all of this year's presentations here.

Additionally, you can earn Db2 for z/OS and Db2 for LUW certification and badges at no additional cost. Every attendee can take one exam at no addtional cost! Not to mention the Expo Hall with all your favorite Db2 product vendors, pre- and post- conference workshops, Special Interest Groups, expert panels, evening receptions, and fun evening events sponsored by Broadcom and IBM.

If you’ve ever attended an IDUG conference in the past then you know why I’m excited. If you haven't attended before, I'm sure you'll find a lot to occupy your interest!

And be sure to seek me out and say "Howdy!" I'll be giving two presentations this year.

First up, on Monday June 24th I'll be delivering a presentation based on some of the things that I've encountered as an independent consultant. Titled Oh, The Things I've Seen: Db2 Stories and Best Practices, I'll talk about things like RUNSTATS, RID failures, and more in a Dr. Seuss-like way. You won't want to miss that, will you? 

Later I will be co-presenting a vendor-sponsored presentation with InfoTel on the topic of Data Governance for DBAs. In it, we will address the difference between governance and administration, as well as some of the biggest issues facing data governance these days. And, of course, how these things impact DBAs. InfoTel will also show how their technology can aid the process!

I will also be spending some time in the InfoTel booth so you can always stop by there to say hello or ask me a question!

So I hope to see you in Charlotte for a great week of education and camaraderie at this year's premier event for Db2 professionals, the IDUG Db2 Tech Conference. 

On The Road Again… IDUG North American Db2 Tech Conference 2022

Well, it looks like this year IDUG will be a live, in-person event again after a couple years of living virtually. The COVID pandemic took its toll on IT events and conferences, but I, for one, am looking forward to getting back out there and mingling – safely – with my Db2 colleagues. And the North American IDUG conference Boston this July is just the place to do it!

Yes, I know that July is still 3 months away, but it is definitely time to start making your plans now to attend this year's IDUG... because let’s face it, you probably haven’t traveled in a while so you’ll be rusty and need all the time you can get to plan effectively!  Starting now means that there’s still time to get your manager’s approval, make your travel plans, find all those suitcases you'll need that have been collecting dust, familiarize yourself with your airline's travel requirements, buy a new box of KN-95 masks, and be where all the cool Db2 folks will be this July 11-14, 2022.

If you’ve ever attended an IDUG conference before then you know why I’m excited. IDUG offers a world of phenomenal educational opportunities delivered by IBM developers, vendor experts, users, and consultants from all over the world. There will be a slew of informative technical sessions on all of the latest and greatest Db2 technologies and features. 

At this point, the agenda has not been set yet, but c’mon, you know it is going to be a great event. Especially with Db2 Vnext looming on the horizon, right?

So get on it and start planning to be in Boston this July. And if you need any help justifying your attendance at this year’s IDUG event, IDUG offers a handy template for creating a justification letter for your boss. You’ll need to make some changes for the 2022 event, but it is a nice starting point.

The Bottom Line

The IDUG Db2 Tech Conference is the place to be to learn all about Db2 from IBMers, gold consultants, IBM champions, end-users, ISVs, and more. With all of this great stuff going on this year in Boston, why wouldn't you want to be there!?!?

Thinking About the Mainframe, the Cloud, and IBM Think 2021

A Bit about Think

I am looking forward to attending the IBM Think 2021 conference, IBM's annual flagship technology event. I have attended several in-person Think events, as well as last year’s virtual conference, and I always come away with new knowledge and additional insight into technology and IBM’s vast portfolio of hardware, software, and solutions. The Think conference is always one of the tech highlights of the year for me!

This year’s event, IBM Think 2021, is again being held as a virtual conference, May 11 and 12, 2021. And it is free of charge, which means that you can experience all the great education, presentations, and networking opportunities without having to leave your desk.

My favorite aspect of the Think conference is the breadth and scope of pertinent technical content that it covers. Whether you are a developer, a DBA, a data scientist, a manager, an executive, or any flavor of IT or business specialist, there will be a wealth of useful information presented to educate you and make you “think.”  Be sure to register here.

My Think 2021 Agenda

There are multiple sessions to be delivered at this year’s IBM Think conference that intrigue me because they focus on areas where I specialize.  For example, Dr. Dario Gil, SVP and Director of IBM Research will be delivering a keynote session on IT infrastructure which is sure to be educational. This session, 2081, offers a deep dive into the IBM innovations powering the next generation of hardware, including IBM Z.

Another session I am looking forward to is session 2303 focusing on security “everywhere.” It features IBM luminaries like Tom Rosamilia, Senior Vice President, IBM Systems, and Mary O’Brien, General Manager IBM Security. And Forrester Research Director, Lauren Nelson, will also be lending her industry expertise to the session.

But I think the Think 2021 session I am most looking forward to is The IBM Z roadmap for hybrid cloud and AI (session 1605) featuring Ross Mauri General Manager for IBM Z. Mauri promises to offer a timely discussion on the business value of integrating the IBM Z platform as a full participant into your hybrid cloud. And he’ll speak with Russell Plew, Technology Senior Manager at M&T Bank who will discuss their real-life experiences in doing so!

Why is this session so interesting to me? Well, I’ve worked with the mainframe my entire career, and as anybody who works on the mainframe knows, the IBM Z platform is used to drive mission-critical workloads across all major industry sectors, worldwide. If your organization needs to perform large-scale transaction processing (thousands of transactions per second), support thousands of users and programs concurrently, manage terabytes of information, and handle large-bandwidth communication, chances are you rely on the mainframe to do that because the platform excels at all of those things.

If you’ve ever deposited a check into your bank account, booked a flight on an airline, or used a credit card to purchase something, it is probable that a mainframe was involved in completing that activity!

Ever since Stewart Alsop of InfoWorld predicted the last mainframe would be unplugged on March 15, 1996 there has been a lingering perception that the mainframe would go away at some point. But here we are, 25 years later, and the mainframe is still going strong! At last year’s IBM Think conference IBM presented the following statistics on the mainframe’s ubiquity and power:

●      70% of the Fortune 500 use mainframes and 72% of customer-facing applications are dependent on the mainframe for some or all data processing.

●      Mainframes are designed to be able to process a trillion web transactions a day with the capability to process 1.1 million transactions per second.

●      95% of transactions in the banking, insurance, airline and retail industries are handled by mainframes.

Indeed, the mainframe continues to offer a strong, unparalleled platform for performance, security, and reliability. Of course, the mainframe has changed and grown over its 50+ year lifespan. Today’s IBM z15 is light-years beyond the original IBM System/360 introduced in 1964. Some of the great newer capabilities of the IBM Z include encryptions everywhere with pervasive encryption and Data Privacy Passports, rack-mountable mainframes, Instant Recovery, and cloud-native development. I’m looking forward to hear how IBM’s customers have taken advantage of these, and other capabilities, to integrate the IBM Z into their hybrid cloud architecture.

It only makes sense that businesses relying on the mainframe will continue to do so, even as they embrace cloud computing. This is what the “hybrid” in the term hybrid cloud implies, an IT infrastructure that uses a mix of on-premises and private / public cloud from multiple providers. And this approach makes the most sense because everything can’t shift to the cloud immediately (perhaps ever) because most existing applications were not built with an understanding of the public cloud and it would take a lot of investment to re-engineer them to properly take advantage of a public cloud architecture. And even if you wanted to move everything, cloud service providers (CSPs) can’t build out their infrastructure fast enough to support all the existing data center capacity “out there” to immediately support everything.

So, it will be exciting to watch the IBM continue to innovate on the IBM Z platform as enterprise customers work to integrate Z as a vital component of their hybrid cloud infrastructure. With the large investment enterprises have in their working mainframe applications, large data sets and databases containing crucial data, and high-volume processing requirements they will continue to rely on the mainframe well into the future… and that makes it important to understand how IBM is enabling the IBM Z to participate in your hybrid cloud architecture.

So, join me at Think 2021 for session 1605 to learn how to use your investments in IBM Z and build and modernize applications into container-based workloads using a common DevOps experience. And stick around for other sessions to gain insights on harnessing the full value of IBM hardware, software and services in your organization as you continue to support, manage, and transform traditional business and IT operations.

IDUG 2020 EMEA Db2 Tech Conference Goes Virtual

For those of you who have attended an IDUG conference before you know why I am always excited when IDUG-time rolls around again. And the EMEA event is right around the corner!

Participating at an IDUG conference always delivers a boatload of useful information on how to better use, tune, and develop applications for Db2 – both for z/OS and LUW. IDUG offers phenomenal educational opportunities delivered by IBM developers, vendor experts, users, and consultants from all over the world.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person events are not happening this year... and maybe not for some time to come, either. But IDUG has gone virtual, and it is the next best thing to being there! The IDUG EMEA 2020 virtual event will take place November 16–19, 2020. So you have ample time to plan for, register, and attend this year.

If you attended any of the IDUG North American virtual conference earlier this year you know that you can still get great Db2 information online at an IDUG event. And there are a ton of great presentations at the EMEA virtual IDUG conference – just check out the great agenda for the event.

Of course, a virtual event does not offer the face-to-face camaraderie of an in-person event, but it still boasts a bevy of educational opportunities. And the cost is significantly less than a traditional IDUG conference: both in terms of the up-front cost (which is significantly less) and also because there are no travel costs... 

For just $199, you get full access to the virtual conference, as well as a year-long premium IDUG membership and a complimentary certification or proctored badging voucher. If you're already a premium member, you can add the EMEA 2020 Conference access to your membership for just $99.

You can register here https://www.idug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=2149

The Bottom Line

So whether you are a DBA, a developer, a programmer, an analyst, a data scientist, or anybody else who relies on and uses Db2, the IDUG EMEA Db2 Tech Conference will be the place to be this November 2020. 

With all of this great stuff available online from this IDUG virtual event, why wouldn’t you want to participate?

IBM Think 2020: Virtual, On Demand, Hybrid Cloud and Z

This year’s IBM Think event was quite different than in past years. Usually, Think is an in-person event and attracts a lot of people, typically more than ten thousand IT executives and practitioners. But as we all know, this year with the global COVID-19 pandemic an in-person event was not practical, so IBM held it on-line. And I have to say, they did a fantastic job of managing multiple threads of content without experiencing bandwidth or access issues – at least none that I encountered.

The theme and focus of the content for the event was different, too. Instead of the usual conference focus on products, announcements, and customer stories, this year’s event was more philanthropic. Oh, sure, you could still hear about IBM’s products and customer successes, but the keynote and featured sessions were at a higher level this year.

In the kickoff session, new IBM CEO Arvind Krishna spoke about the driving forces in IT as being hybrid cloud and AI. And he spoke about these things in the context of moving IBM forward, but also how they can be used to help healthcare workers combat pandemics like we are currently experiencing.

In another keynote, IBM Executive Chairman Ginni Rometty spoke with Will.i.am (of the Black-Eyed Peas) about making the digital era inclusive through education, skills development, and the digital workforce.

And then there was Mayim Bialik’s session on women and STEM, which was sincere, heartfelt, and entertaining. 

For those who don’t know who she is, she is the actress who played Blossom (on Blossom) and Amy Farrah Fowler (on The Big Bang Theory)… but she is also a scientist with a doctorate in neuroscience. Bialik’s session focused on putting a positive female face on STEM, something that is definitely needed!

So, what about the technology side of things? Well, you can take a clue from Krishna’s assertion that IBM as a company has to have a “maniacal” focus on hybrid cloud and AI in order to compete. But the company has a rich and deep heritage across the computing spectrum that gives it a key advantage even as it adjusts to embracing hybrid cloud and AI.

The first thing to remember is that IBM uses the term “hybrid multicloud[RB1] ” very specifically and deliberately. Everything is not going to be in the cloud[RB2] . Large enterprises continue to rely on the infrastructure and applications they have built over many years, many of them on z Systems mainframes. The key to the future is both on-premises and cloud, and IBM understands this with its hybrid cloud approach… as they clearly demonstrated at Think 2020.

My specific area of focus and expertise is the mainframe and Db2 for z/OS, so I sought out some sessions at Think in those areas. Let me tell you a bit about two of them.

First let’s take a quick look at how IBM Cloud Pak for Data can work with data on the Z platform. This information was drawn from IBM Distinguished Engineer Gary Crupi’s session, titled "Drive Actionable, Real-Time Insight from Your High-Value IBM Z Data Using IBM Cloud Pak for Data."

What is Cloud Pak for Data? Well, it is an IBM platform for unifying and simplifying the collection, organization, and analysis of data. Heretofore, it was mostly focused on non-mainframe platforms, but the latest release, version 3.0, is a major upgrade with an enhanced unified experience, expanded ecosystem, and optimized Red Hat integration. And it enables several ways for you to turn your enterprise data on IBM Z into actionable, real-time insight through the integrated cloud-native architecture of IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Crupi’s session started out with the now familiar (at least to IBM customers and Think attendees) Ladder to AI and how Cloud Pak for Data helps to enable customer’s journey up the ladder. Data is the foundation for smart business decisions and AI can unlock the value of this data.

He went on to discuss the continuing importance of the mainframe providing facts including:

•  70% of Fortune 500 companies use mainframe for their most critical business functions
•  72% of customer-facing applications are completely or very dependent on mainframe processing
•  The mainframe handles 1.1 million transactions per second (as compared to Google experiences of 60,000 searches per second)
•  95% of transactions in the banking, insurance, airline and retail industries run on the mainframe

These are all good points; and things that mainframe users like to hear. It is good to see IBM promoting the ubiquity and capabilities of the mainframe.

Now, what about IBM Cloud Pak for Data better-exploiting mainframe data? Crupi goes back to the AI Ladder to talk about z/OS capabilities for analyzing and collecting data for AI.

Solutions such as Watson Machine Learing for z/OS, Db2 AI for z/OS, and QMF can be used for analyzing data; while Db2 for z/OS and Tools, IDAA, and Data Virtualization Manager can be used for data collection. These things already exist, but using them effectively with distributed platform capabilities will be crucial to be able to climb the ladder to AI.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data will leverage IBM Z technology to bring valuable IBM Z data into a modern analytics/AI platform. It can now exploit IBM Z data and resources where appropriate enabling you to further benefit from IBM Z technology and data.

A key new component of making the data on IBM Z accessible is IBM Db2 for z/OS Data Gate, a new product announced during Think 2020. Db2 Data Gate can help you reduce the cost and complexity of your data delivery with a simple, easy-to-deploy mechanism to deliver read-only access to Db2 for z/OS data. Instead of building and maintaining costly custom code, Db2 Data Gate do the work. Data can be synchronized between Db2 for z/OS data sources and target databases on IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Instead of accessing data in the IBM Z data source directly, an application accesses a synchronized copy of the Db2 for z/OS data, hosted by a separate system. This target system can be established anywhere Cloud Pak for Data is supported, thus enabling a wide range of target platforms that include public cloud, on-premises, and private cloud deployments.

So IBM is helping you to expand the accessibility of your Z data.

And that brings me to the second session I’d like to briefly mention, Automate Your Mainframe z/OS Processes with Ansible [Session 6760]. 

Although Ansible is not a replacement for your operational mainframe automation tools, it can be used to communicate with and automate z/OS using the out-of-the-box SSH into z/OS Unix Systems Services to execute commands and scripts, submit JCL, and copy data. And Ansible has existing modules that can be used to make calls to RESTful/SOAP APIs that are available in many z/OS products.

Ansible can be beneficial to orchestrate cross-platform, including Z systems, and to simplify configuration and deployment management. But keep in mind that Ansible is a proactive framework for automation and is not intended to replace automation solutions that monitor and react.

Here is a nice, but by no means exhaustive, list of examples showing how Ansible can be used to interact with popular z/OS products.

The Bottom Line

The IBM Think 2020 conference was a great success considering how rapidly IBM had to move to convert it from an in-person event, to an online, virtual one. And the content was informative, entertaining, and had something for everybody. I hope you enjoyed my take on the event… feel free to share your comments below on anything I’ve written here, or on your experiences at the event.

Will I See You at SHARE in Fort Worth 2020?

I hope you’ve already made your plans to be there, but if you haven’t there’s still time to get your manager’s approval, make your travel plans, and be where all the in-the-know IT folks will be the last week of February, the SHARE conference in Fort Worth, Texas!

If you’ve ever attended a SHARE conference before then you know why I’m looking forward to this event. With 300+ industry speakers, 500+ sessions and 1,000+ attendees, SHARE offers a world of phenomenal educational opportunities delivered by renowned industry leaders. If you attend, you can benefit from user-driven technical sessions, insights from colleagues, and hardware and software product education all in one place. SHARE attendance guarantees you access to the latest enterprise IT news, prominent industry leaders — including IBM executives — and product highlights on emerging technologies, bringing priceless value to your daily work.

The Spring 2020 event offers more educational opportunities and training than ever before, including content that spans 8 IT disciplines, including:

• Application Development
• Database Systems
• Middleware
• Networks
• Operating Systems (z/OS, z/VM, Linux)
• Security
• Storage
• Systems Management

SHARE began as the first-ever enterprise IT user group way back in 1955… but it has continued to grow and expand over the years> Today it offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn about enterprise IT and to interact with your peers.

What Will I Be Doing SHARE?

As usual, I hope to attend many different sessions to learn what is new out there, especially with regard to my core areas (mainframe and Db2). Check out the agenda here.

I also will be delivering a Lunch and Learn session this year, sponsored by Infotel, on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. This presentation, titled Improving Db2 Application Quality for Optimizing Performance and Controlling Costs, will be presented with a free lunch! So be sure to sign up, then come eat and at the same time, learn about the impact of DevOps on database. I’ll talk about the issues and trends then Colin Oakhill of Infotel will discuss how their SQL quality assurance solutions can aid the DevOps process for Db2 development.

You can RSVP for Lunch and Learn sessions by using the link provided during the registration process. Pre-registration is highly encouraged and space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have already registered and did not RSVP, you can log in to your registration and add your RSVP.

If you have not RSVPed you can still attend the Lunch and Learn session, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Seating opens up to everyone at 12:35 p.m. (10 minutes prior to the session start time).

Later that evening (Tuesday) on the second day of the SHARE expo hall I'll be hanging at the Infotel booth, so if you have any questions we didn’t answer in the Lunch n’ Learn session, you can ask us at the Infotel booth. Be sure to stop by and say hello, take a look at Infotel’s SQL quality assurance solutions for Db2 for z/OS, and register to win one of 2 of my Db2 application performance books that will be raffled off. If you win, be sure to get me to sign your copy!

The Bottom Line

SHARE is the place to be this February 2020 to learn all about what’s going on in the world of enterprise computing. I hope to see you in Fort Worth for SHARE… and if you are going, be sure to track me down and say “Howdy!”

See You in Rotterdam... at the IDUG Db2 Tech Conference

Next week the 2019 IDUG EMEA Db2 Tech Conference is coming to Rotterdam and I am looking forward to being there. This year’s event is being held the week of October 20-24, 2019. I hope you’ve already made your plans to be there, but if you haven’t there’s still time to get your manager’s approval, make travel plans, and be where all the Db2 folks will be the end of October.

If you’ve ever attended an IDUG conference before then you know how much useful information you can learn at the event. IDUG offers phenomenal educational opportunities delivered by IBM developers, vendor experts, users, and consultants from all over the world. There will be a slew of informative technical sessions on all of the latest and greatest Db2 technologies and features. 

And let's not forget the exhibit hall (aka Solutions Center) where vendors present and demo their products that can help you manage Db2 more effectively. It is a good place to learn about new technology solutions for Db2, but also to hang out and meet with IBMers, consultants, and your peers.

If you have any doubts whether there will be something worthwhile for you there just take a look at this packed agenda! One of the conference highlights is always the great keynote session. This year's will be delivered by Al Martin, IBM VP of Development for Db2 Z and Warson Tool. He will talk about business and strategy for data and AI, highlighting how data is the foundation for AI. Should be informative and entertaining!

What Am I Up to at IDUG?

As usual, I will be busy at the conference. I will be arriving early into Rotterdam so I can get over the jet lag and then participate in some pre-conference meetings on Sunday. 

There are a couple of opportunities for you to stop by and say "Howdy!" to me, and I hope you will take advantage of them. On Tuesday, at 3:20 PM, I will be delivering a vendor-sponsored presentation (or VSP) for Infotel. This presentation, titled Improving Db2 Application Quality for Optimizing Performance and Controlling Costs. My portion of the presentation focuses on the impact of DevOps on database; it will be followed up by Colin Oakhill of Infotel-Insoft, who will talk about how their SQL quality assurance solutions can aid the DevOps process for Db2 development.

Additionally, Tueday evening I'll be spending some time in the booth with Infotel. So if you have any questions we didn’t answer in the VSP, you can ask us at the Infotel booth. Be sure to stop by and say hello, take a look at Infotel’s SQL quality assurance solutions for Db2 for z/OS, and register to win one of 2 of my Db2 application performance  books that will be raffled off. If you win, be sure to get me to sign your copy!

A Guide to Db2 Performance for Application Developers

Just Look at All That IDUG Has to Offer!

You can go to free complimentary workshops and hands-on labs being held throughout the duration of the conference. These half-day and full-day sessions are packed full of useful information that you can take home and apply to your Db2 environment. And this year there are sessions on Db2 migration, Db2 and the cloud, problem determination, machine learning, Zowe, and more. So be sure to track down the workshops that you want to attend and register for them before they fill up!

If you are looking for Db2 certification then IDUG is the place to be! All IDUG attendees can recive two complimentary certification coupons to take any IBM certification exams (to be completed at your leisure, as long as they are used before June 30, 2020).

And don't miss the Expert Panels where IBMers and other subject matter experts answer your questions. There are three separate panels this year covering Db2 for z/OS, Db2 for LUW and Application Development.

Finally, be sure that you download the mobile app for the conference to help you navigate all the opportunities available to you! Armed with the mobile app you’ll get daily intel on what’s happening at the conference.

Justifying Your Attendance

Finally, if you need any help justifying your attendance at this year’s IDUG event, just use this justification letter as your template to create an iron-clad rationale for your boss.

The Bottom Line

The IDUG Db2 Tech Conference is the place to be to learn all about Db2 from IBMers, gold consultants, IBM champions, end users, ISVs, and more. With all of this great stuff going on this year in Rotterdam, why would you want to be any place else!?!?

Making Plans for IBM Think 2019

I'm looking forward to once again attend IBM Think, IBM's flagship technology conference. I attended the inaugural Think conference and it was one of the highlights of the year (2017). This year IBM Think is being held in San Francisco February 12 thru 15 at the Moscone Center and surrounding hotels. San Francisco is a wonderful location because it will give the conference more room to accommodate the large crowds more comfortably than the Las Vegas venue of 2017.

One of the great things about Think is the breadth and scope of pertinent technical content that it covers. So whether you are a developer, a DBA, a data scientist, a manager, or any flavor of IT specialist, there will be a plethora of useful sessions and activities to educate and make you “think.”

Now you all know that my primary background is database administration and Db2, but I also work with and have interest in many other technologies, including data governance, security and data protection, DevOps, machine learning, AI, blockchain, quantum computing, and cloud computing. And the great thing about the IBM Think conference is that it provides in-depth coverage of all of these areas, and more.

A big struggle for such a large event (expected attendance in excess of 30,000) is finding what you need. Well, IBM Think makes it a bit easier because it is broken down into campuses that focus on a specific areas. This year’s campuses include:

• ·         Smarter Business Showcase
• ·         Data & AI Campus
• ·         Cloud & Infrastructure Campus
• ·         Security & Resiliency Campus

There will be more than 2,000 business strategy sessions and technical deep dives over the course of the week, along with professional development opportunities from 100s of hands-on labs and certification exams.

One of the big highlights of IBM Think is always the great speakers, and this year is no exception. From IBM speakers like CEO Ginni Rometty and Sr. VP Hybrid Cloud Arvind Krishna, to industry speakers like Founder & CEO of Mogul Tiffany Pham and AT&T CEO John Donovan, to researchers like MIT Media Lab and Harvard research specialist Dr. Kate Darling, to entertainers like Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, there will be a lot of knowledge imparted. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing Paul Cormier, EVP and President of Products and Technologies at Red Hat to hear how the IBM / Red Hat combination is working.

Another advantage of attending IBM Think is the access to exclusive information about IBM products, technologies, strategies, and services that are sure to be shared during the event. IBM always unveils a ton of great stories and technologies at Think.

I’ll be live-tweeting at IBM Think 2019, so be sure to follow me at twitter.com/craigmullins so you can experience Think right along with me, as it happens. Some of the sessions I plan on attending include topics on governed data science, using machine learning to prioritize business issues, and Db2 on cloud... but those are just the tip of the tech iceberg.

And finally, it is not too late. Click here if you want to attend IBM Think 2019… If you do, maybe I’ll see you there amongst 30,000 of our IT friends!

Come See Me at IDUG!

Just a quick blog post today to let all of my readers know my schedule for the IDUG DB2 Technical Conference being held next week in Austin, TX. With this information you can track me down in multiple places if you want to ask me a question, catch up, or just say “Hi!”

First of all, you can find me on Tuesday at the Expo Hall in the CorreLog booth (#300) from 12:00 to 1:00 and from 5:00 to 6:00. CorreLog will also be raffling off copies of my book, DB2 Developer’s Guide, to 4 lucky winners… so be sure to stop by. And chat with CorreLog about their SIEM and auditing solutions for DB2.

You should also make sure to attend my IDUG session titled “It’s Not Your Daddy’s DB2!” on Wednesday at 3:30 PM (session B13). The general idea of the session is that DB2 is changing and you should be changing with it. Over the course of the past few releases of DB2 for z/OS, IBM has added many features and capabilities that are transforming the platform. I’ll take a look at the big changes that have been introduced to DB2 including new SQL, universal table spaces, improved security, and more. The session also offers guidance on how to continue improving your DB2 environment to keep up with industry, technology and DBA trends circa 2016.

But that’s not all. On both Tuesday and Wednesday I will be co-presenting with SEG at their VSP sessions. On Tuesday at 1:00 PM (Session V02) I will be co-presenting with Ulf Heinrich on DB2 audit and compliance issues and how they impact your DB2 data and database assets. In particular, we will focus on database auditing, talking about what is needed, the various methods of auditing, and a new offering from SEG that you can use to run audit analytics against a long-term repository. And on Wednesday at 10:30 AM (Session V08) I will co-present with Roy Boxwell about DB2 release incompatibilities and how they impact your DB2 applications. And I hear that SEG will have some of my books to raffle off, too!

And there’s still more! On Tuesday night (6pm to 9pm) I will be speaking at a DataKinetics event with Colin Oakhill on the topic of SQL quality assurance. Be sure to stop by the DataKinetics booth (#509) to get an invitation to the Tuesday night event where you can hear me and others speak about SQL quality and performance… as well as enjoy a tasty snack or beverage.

So if you’ll be at IDUG and you want to find me, there is really no reason why you shouldn’t be able to track me down at one or more of these places… 

See you in Austin!