Are You Heading to Las Vegas for IBM Insight?

The IBM Insight conference is coming up and if you work with DB2, Big Data, analytics, data warehousing, or really, anything at all about enterprise data, then Las Vegas is the place to be the week of October 25 thru 29, 2015.

But what is IBM Insight? Well, you may remember it as the IBM Information on Demand conference, or IOD for short, Yes, IBM has renamed the conference yet again. I'm sure a lot of you can remember when there were a bunch of different "Technical Conferences" like the IMS Tech Conference or the DB2 Tech Conference. Those conferences, as well as several others, all got rolled up into IOD... which is now IBM Insight.

So with that bit of potential confusion out of the way, why should you attend this year's IBM Insight conference? Simply put, there is something of interest for everybody in a data-related profession. 

The conference boasts more than 1600 presentations that run the gamut from DB2 to IMS to Cognos to BI to Big Data to analytics to... well, you get the idea. You can experiences technical training, hands-on labs, and industry use cases delivered by over 1000 industry experts.

There will be multiple keynote sessions, focusing in on IBM's important data initiatives including:

• Data Management
• Advanced Analytics
• Cloud
• Hadoop & Spark
• Content Management
• Watson

Last year's event was attended by over 13,000 folks, which gives attendees a great opportunity to network with your peers and IBMers. Add to that the over 350 exhibitors at the Expo hall and you will be able to view, review, and examine all kinds of interesting software to help you manage your enterprise data.

I also want to promote my presentation at this year's conference, called Not Your Daddy's DB2! I'll talk about the changing landscape of the industry and how DB2 for z/OS has changed (and continues to change) to embrace modern IT. This session will be held on Wednesday, October 28, at 4:00 pm in the South Seas J room). If you're going to the conference, I hope to see you at my presentation.

And, as always, there will be plenty of time to kick back and relax after a long day of networking and learning. On Wednesday evening conference attendees will be treated to a free concert from Maroon 5... and, of course, everything that Las Vegas has to offer can be on your agenda, too.

So what are you waiting for? Register for the 2015 IBM Insight conference today... 

And if you register by September 18th you can get a discounted rate ($300 off).

Plan to Attend IBM Insight 2014

The IBM Insight conference is just around the corner and if you care about DB2, Big Data, Analytics, data warehousing, or really, anything at all about enterprise data, then Las Vegas is the place to be the week of October 26 thru 30, 2014.

But what is IBM Insight? Well, you may remember it as the IBM Information on Demand conference, or IOD for short, Yes, IBM has renamed the conference yet again. I'm sure a lot of you can remember when there were a bunch of different "Technical Conferences" like the IMS Tech Conference or the DB2 Tech Conference. Those all (and several others) got rolled up into IOD... which is now IBM Insight.

IBM claims to have changed the name because "It's no longer just about information; it's what you can do with the information."  And that kinda makes some sense... or at least it does to me!

With that bit of confusion out of the way, why should you attend the IBM Insight 2014 conference? Well, there is something for everybody in a data-related profession. Over 1500 presentations that run the gamut from DB2 to IMS to Cognos to BI to Big Data to analytics to... well, you get the idea. And there are five fast track groups that highlight several of IBM's important initiatives covering:

• Watson and Cognitive Computing
• Cloud
• Security
• Infrastructure
• Mobile and Social Engagement

And with over 13,000 attendees the opportunity to network with your peers is unmatched! Add to that the over 350 exhibitors at the Expo hall and you will be able to view, review, and examine all kinds of interesting software to help you manage your enterprise data.

Not to mention the fact that I'll be presenting there on the Top 10 DB2 Things You Need to Know (Wednesday, October 29, at 3:00 pm). Well, OK, I guess I mentioned it.

So what are you waiting for? Register today... and there is still time (expires September 19, 2014) to get the early bird discount of $300 off!

A Short Report from SHARE in Pittsburgh

Today’s blog post will be a short review of SHARE posted directly from the conference floor in Pittsburgh!

What is SHARE

For those of you who are not aware of SHARE, it is an independent, volunteer run association providing enterprise technology professionals with continuous education and training, valuable professional networking and effective industry influence. SHARE has existed for almost 60 years. It was established in 1955 and is the oldest organization of computing professionals.

The group conducts two conferences every year. Earlier in 2014 the first event was held in Anaheim, and this week (the week of August 3^rd) the second annual event is being held in my original hometown, Pittsburgh, PA. Now I’ve been attending SHARE, more regularly in the past than lately, since the 1990’s. But with the event being held in Pittsburgh I just had to participate!

The keynote (or general) session today started up at 8:00 AM. It was titled “Beyond Silicon: Cognition and Much, Much More”  and it was delivered by Dr. Bernard S.Meyerson, IBM Fellow and VP, Innovation.  Meyerson delighted the crowd with his entertaining and educational session.

Next up was “Enterprise Computing: The Present and the Future”, an entertaining session that focused on what IBM believes are the four biggest driving trends in IT/computing: cloud, analytics, mobile, and social media. And, indeed, these trends are pervasive and interact with one another to create the infrastructure of most modern development efforts. Bryan Foley Program Director, System z Strategy at IBM delivered the presentation and unloaded a number of interesting stats on the audience, including:

• Mainframe is experiencing 31 percent growth
• Mainframes process 30 billion business transactions daily
• The mainframe is the ultimate virtualized system
• System z is the most heavily instrumented platform in the world
• The mainframe is an excellent platform for analytics because that’s where the data is

Clearly, if you are a mainframer, there is a lot to digest… and a lot to celebrate. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit shared by Foley is that “PC is the new legacy!” He backed this up with a stat claiming that mobile Internet users are projected to surpass PC Internet users in 2015. Interesting, no?

Now those of you that know me know that I am a DB2 guy, but I have not yet attended much DB2 stuff. I sat in on an intro to MQ and I’m currently prepping for my presentation this afternoon – “Ten Breakthroughs That Changed DB2 Forever.”

The presentation is based on a series of articles I wrote a couple years ago, but I am continually tweaking it to keep it up to date and relevant. So even if you’ve read the article, if you are at SHARE and a DB2 person, stop by Room 402 at 3:00PM… and if you’re not here, the articles will have to do!

That's all for now... gotta get back to reviewing my presentation... hope to see you at SHARE this week... or, if not, somewhere else out there in DB2-land!

DBA Rules of Thumb - Part 3 (Share)

Knowledge transfer is an important part of being a good DBA - both transfering your knowledge to others and participating in having others' knowledge transferred to you.

So the third DBA rule of thumb is this: Share Your Knowledge!

The more you learn as a DBA, the more you should try to share what you know with other DBAs. Local database user groups typically meet quarterly or monthly to discuss aspects of database management systems. Healthy local scenes exist for DB2, SQL Server, and Oracle: be sure to attend these sessions to learn what your peers are doing.

And when you have some good experiences to share, put together a presentation yourself and help out your peers. Sometimes you can learn far more by presenting at these events than by simply attending because the attendees will likely seek you out to discuss their experiences or question your approach. Technicians appreciate hearing from folks in similar situations... and they will be more likely to share what they have learned once you share your knowledge.

After participating in your local user group you might want to try your hand speaking at (or at least attending) one of the major database industry conferences. There are conferences for each of the Big Three DBMS vendors (IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft), as well as conferences focusing on data management, data warehousing, industry trends (Big Data, NoSQL), and for others too. Keep an eye on these events at The Database Site's database conference page.

Another avenue for sharing your knowledge is using one of the many online database forums. Web portals and web-based publications are constantly seeking out content for their web sites. Working to put together a tip or article for these sites helps you arrange your thoughts and to document your experiences. And you can garner some exposure with your peers by doing so because most web sites list the author of these tips. Sometimes having this type of exposure can help you to land that next coveted job. Or just help you to build your peer network.

Finally, if you have the time, considering publishing your experiences with one of the database-related print magazines. Doing so will take more time than publishing on the web, but it can bring additional exposure. And, of course, some of the journals will pay you for your material.

But the best reason of all to share your knowledge is because you want others to share their knowledge and experiences with you. Only if everyone cooperates by sharing what they know will we be able to maintain the community of DBAs who are willing and eager to provide assistance.


Here are some valuable links for regional and worldwide database user groups:

• IDUG - International DB2 User Group
• Regional DB2 User Group listing
• IOUG - International Oracle User Group
• Oracle’s Independent Users Group Community
• PASS - Professional Association for SQL Server
• Regional PASS Chapters (SQL Server)

DB2 Symposium 2011 – Round Two

Today's blog post is about the DB2 Symposium, a three day training event with one day seminars presented by well-known DB2 consultants. I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate this year by the primary organizer of the event, Klaas Brant. (Klaas is a respected DB2 consultant based in the Netherlands.). Earlier this year, the DB2 Symposium event was held in Dallas, TX and was well-received by attendees. So a second round is planned, this time in Chicago, IL!

What is the difference between DB2 Symposium and events like IDUG and IOD? Well, DB2 Symposium fills the gap between a conference and a multi-day training course. The DB2 Symposium is unique because you can participate for 1, 2, or 3 days, depending on your needs and budget.

Round two of the USA DB2 Symposium is happening soon, so you'll need to act fast if you want to participate. It occurs September 21-23, 2011 in the Chicago, Illinois area. More precisely, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Downers Grove, IL (in the Western suburbs of Chicago). Each day the training sessions start at 9.00am and end at around 5.00pm.

But registration on site is not possible, you must pre-register online... so plan ahead!

My session is on September 23rd and it is called DB2 Developer's Guide Comes Alive! This one day session, covers tips, techniques, and procedures you need to know in order to excel at administering and using DB2 on the mainframe. The material is based upon DB2 Developer's Guide, the best-selling DB2 for z/OS book on the market. Additionally, the course material will contain references to sections of the book for students to find additional material on each topic after the sessions. Topics to be covered will include:

• A performance tuning roadmap for managing DB2 application, database and system performance. You will learn SQL coding and tuning techniques, guidance for database optimization and reorganization, coverage of buffer pool settings and parameters for performance.
• Logical and physical database design recommendations for DB2, so you can build and maintain effective DB2 databases immediately. Includes discussion of standards, logical to physical translation, data types, usage of nulls, and more.
• Information and guidance on BINDing and REBINDing, along with a discussion of the most important parameters.
• Along the way we'll look at locking, access paths, statistics, indexing and more.
• And even though the current edition of the book covers through DB2 V8, this course adds coverage of some of the newer features added to DB2 in versions 9 and 10 that can boost your productivity and performance.

If you own the book already, bring it along and I'll be happy to autograph it for you. And then you can use it along with the course materials... and if you don't own it already, you'll probably want to grab a copy after attending the seminar... you can always find a link to buy my books on the front page of my web site at http://www.craigsmullins.com.

So register for the DB2 Symposium today... and I'll see you in Chicago!

Plan to Attend IDUG This November to Improve Your DB2 Skills

It is almost that time of year again, time for the annual European IDUG conference. And as anyone who has ever attended this conference can tell you, it will be chock full of news, education, and networking opportunities for DB2 programmers, DBAs, sysprogs, and users! And you can take advantage of great offers including FREE IBM certification training and DB2 migration workshops!

So be sure to register for the IDUG DB2 Tech Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, 13-18 November 2011, at the Clarion Congress Hotel Prague. If you register on or before 17 October 2011 and receive a discount of EUR 275.

IDUG is also extending the following special offers:

• Multiple Delegate Discount
  For every three individuals who register from the same organisation, a fourth may attend at the discounted rate of EUR 730.
• Mentor Program
  If you have attended three previous IDUG DB2 Conferences, you are eligible to bring a first-time colleague to Prague for an 80% discount off the full registration fee.
• One-Day Educational Seminars - Friday, 18 November 2011
  Registration for paid full conference delegates is EUR 450; the cost for just the one-day seminar is EUR 495. Select from the following session topics:
  - DB2 10 for z/OS - In Depth, Phil Grainger, Cogito
  - DB2 Intermediate and Advanced SQL, Daniel Luksetich, Yevich Lawson & Assoc Inc.
  - I Didn't Know DB2 did THAT!, Bonnie Baker, Bonnie Baker Corporation
  - Optimising DB2 for z/OS System Performance Using DB2 Statistics Trace, John Campbell, IBM Corporation
  - Rocket Science: DB2 for LUW Performance Analysis and Tuning Workshop, Scott Hayes, DBI

Register Today!

Discount on IBM Information on Demand Conference

The IBM Information on Demand (IOD, for short) conference is rapidly approaching. The conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada the week of October 25 – 30, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay casino and hotel.

The IOD conference is IBM’s signature event for their data and information management product lines. By attending IOD 2009 you can gain unique perspectives from IBM experts, technical leaders and visionaries as well as peers in your industry. Many of the developers of IBM’s offerings, such as DB2, Informix, and IMS, will be delivering educational sessions at IOD. And over 200 customers will share real-world experiences detailing how they have unlocked the value of their information and realized tangible and immediate return on investment.

OK, so what about that discount? IBM has been kind enough to provide me with a discount code that I can share with my readers. You will need to provide the code, G09MULL, when your register for the conference and you will get a $100 discount off of your registration!

Here’s how to register on-line:

• Visit the IBM Information On Demand 2009 global conference website and select 'Register now' at: www.ibm.com/events/informationondemand

• An IBM userid and Password are required to register. If you have an existing IBM.com account ID, please select 'Register for the Conference' and sign on. If you do not have an IBM.com account ID, please follow the link 'MY IBM ID' to obtain one. Complete the form and click 'SUBMIT'. You will then be allowed to continue as a registered IBM user. Click 'Continue' and select 'Register for the Conference' and sign on with your new userid and password.

• Select registration type of 'Customer' and click 'Continue'

• Complete the appropriate fields on the enrollment form

• Under the 'Promotion Code Information' section, enter PROMOTION CODE G09MULL. You must enter this code to receive your $100 discount.

• Complete the form with attendee, arrival and payment information clicking 'Continue' at the bottom of each section.

• Click 'Submit Registration'

Note: Credit card information is required to guarantee your registration regardless of your method of payment and/or discount amount.

That’s all there is to it. And you can use the promotion code multiple times for all of the folks at you company that will be attending the Information On Demand conference in 2009.

Cheers!