IBM zAware is a program designed to automatically assist in mainframe troubleshooting by analyzing minute details in systems logs as well as other data relevant to systems and application performance to isolate problems and help discover the cause of anomalous behaviors.
May 15, 2013
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By Joe Clabby
No matter whether called conventional wisdom, best practices or wisdom of the ages—if not formalized, documented, preserved and passed on through generations of mainframers, lessons painfully learned are diluted and lost.
May 01, 2013
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By Gabe Goldberg
The effects of a mass exodus from the mainframe ranks could affect a number of computing trends, not the least of which is big data.
April 17, 2013
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By Pedro Pereira
First implemented on the IBM zEnterprise EC12 processor, Warning Track helps maximize physical CPU utilization without causing the so-called “short engine” effect.
April 10, 2013
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By Bob Rogers
As every business is populated by consumers, the mobility wave washing over enterprise computing is a foregone conclusion. Sessions at SHARE in San Francisco reflected this sense of urgency for mainframers.
April 02, 2013
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By Bob Dirkes
The mainframe community largely wants to protect its enterprise-computing legacy. So it's important to facilitate generational transition with documentation and staff overlaps.
March 20, 2013
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By Gabe Goldberg
Included in last year’s announcement of the zEnterprise EC12, IBM introduced the optional Flash Express. So, what is Flash Express? It’s all about using solid-state drives to improve the performance of certain mainframe tasks.
March 13, 2013
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By Joe Clabby
To help customers understand how the mainframe is an ideal platform for business analytics, IBM offers a free online course, “The Value of Business Analytics on System z.”
March 06, 2013
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By Scott Harris
Formerly, adding more real memory increased the cost of UIC Update, but now it decreases as more memory is added—another real Jiu Jitsu solution, turning the enemy’s strength to your own advantage.
February 20, 2013
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By Bob Rogers
When facing an audit, learn what’s being audited. Review documents auditors will use before they arrive. That will avoid surprises and prepare you better.
January 16, 2013
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By Gabe Goldberg
The innovative dispatching approach called reduced preemption was extremely effective when it was introduced, and today’s systems of 10 or more processors couldn’t even run without it.
January 09, 2013
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By Bob Rogers
No matter where you are in your mainframe career—new arrival or seasoned veteran—here are career-preservation tips for 2013 and beyond.
December 18, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
In the world of IMS, SPOC stands for Single Point of Control, and it’s a function of the IMS Common Service Layer that simplifies IMSplex management.
December 11, 2012
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By Angelique Greenhaw
With 53 percent of the vote, Philip Yeo’s mainframe advice dominated the field in the latest IBM Destination z Tips and Techniques Challenge. Hosted on the Destination z community forum, the contest asked mainframers to share their best mainframe advice for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card and an IBM Heritage T-shirt.
November 20, 2012
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By Mike Westholder
Chargeback can impose discipline on resource consumption, influence user behavior in desired directions, provide ROI data on initiatives and justify allocating costs to paying customers. And accumulating cost/billing figures aids user budgeting, which allows better data center workload and configuration planning.
November 07, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
The voting deadline has been extended to Nov. 11 in the second Destination z Tips and Techniques contest—which asked Dz members to share their best mainframe advice.
October 15, 2012
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By Mike Westholder
As overall and component reliability has improved, you may occasionally face issues in areas in which you’ve not previously needed to diagnose or report problems. A positive mindset and a few simple practices will usually resolve what’s wrong.
October 10, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
“Part of the challenge of mobile computing is describing the issues and opportunities,” says Ray Sun, SHARE marketing director. “And we believe SHARE as an organization has the experience and insight to lead the discussion of where mobility meets the mainframe and beyond to the whole of enterprise computing.”
October 03, 2012
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By Bob Dirkes
Even though the mainframe is known for security, there's always a risk that an employee—maliciously or by mistake—will threaten an installation's interests. Therefore, comprehensive security requires detecting and defeating insider threats.
September 19, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
Big data was a big focus at the recent SHARE conference in Anaheim, Calif. Event organizers devoted two days of conference content to a Big Data Spotlight with a concentration of sessions designed to address the “most pressing big data questions and concerns” of its community.
September 12, 2012
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By Bob Dirkes
“For the first time, there are four generations in the workforce,” said keynote speaker and best-selling author Jason Dorsey at the August SHARE conference in Anaheim, Calif.
September 05, 2012
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By Bob Dirkes
As a first step, mainframe security administrators can put stringent controls and safeguards in place for mobile devices. They should then participate in discussions and dialogue to help build best practices.
August 22, 2012
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By Erika Morphy
The proliferation of mobile devices and the number of transactions that consumers are ringing up through them will have subtly and profound impacts on the mainframe.
August 13, 2012
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By Erika Morphy
A growing expectation among employees is the ability to use their own mobile devices for basic productivity tasks. Increasingly, they expect to be able to access sensitive corporate data via their smartphones.
August 08, 2012
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By Erika Morphy
What’s the best mainframe career advice you’ve ever received? Share it on the Destination z forum page for a chance to win an IBM Heritage T-shirt and a gift card.
August 01, 2012
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By Mike Westholder
Proof-of-concept (POC) demonstration projects can blaze a trail, doing something on a small scale, for the first time, but perhaps changing basic assumptions and potentially influencing an industry or the world.
July 25, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
Welcome to the Destination z community site, which offers a one-stop shop for everything related to IBM System z.
July 16, 2012
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By Doug Balog
Anyone who's worked with mainframes has heard cringe-worthy comments about them: misconceptions, misinformation, misunderstandings, etc. While it's tempting to ignore such nonsense, doing so doesn't serve your career, employer or the mainframe community.
June 11, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
June 04, 2012
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By Mike Westholder
BYOD is an irresistible trend. So it's worth exploring to learn what it can provide—not necessarily to economize but to make it secure, integrate it into mainstream IT and avoid costly technology dead ends.
May 23, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
Voting is now underway for the first Destination z Tips and Techniques contest. Out of nearly 40 entries, our expert panel selected three finalists. Now Destination z members have until May 18 to vote for their favorite.
May 09, 2012
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By Mike Westholder
While telecommuting has been discussed widely for years, rarely has it been practiced successfully. Consider these tips to address cultural and technical stumbling blocks.
April 23, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
To put big data into perspective, organizations look to analytics tools to address three factors: velocity, variety and volume.
April 16, 2012
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By Renee Boucher Ferguson
IBM has invested heavily in big data analytics, spending more than $14 billion on more than two-dozen analytics-related acquisitions over the past five years. It expects to generate $16 billion in revenue by 2015, according to published reports.
March 21, 2012
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By Renee Boucher Ferguson
IBM Destination z wants your expertise! Submit a mainframe-related tip or technique in our community forum for a chance to win the first Destination z Challenge.
March 12, 2012
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By Mike Westholder
IBM is actively soliciting System z user reviews. Customers who bought System z products are invited to write reviews and leave ratings on the product and their experience.
February 28, 2012
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By Julie Cohen
Because operating without reliable backup risks corporate health and can be a profoundly career-limiting move, the most fundamental resolution for mainframe professionals is ”backup, backup, backup.” But beyond that, some may ask where to start and what to do?
February 14, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
Mention the word “mainframe,” and you’re apt to conjure up images of monolithic systems humming along reliably and dependably in the background of modern data centers.
February 03, 2012
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By Dennis O’Flynn
Whether Santa just brought you a zEnterprise System or your workload is happily humming along on a previous technology generation, the arrival of a new year is always a good time for mainframers to review and renew essential security resolutions.
January 10, 2012
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By Gabe Goldberg
Realizing big data’s vast potential requires organizations to understand the value of the large volumes of data they generate and process, and act upon it.
December 12, 2011
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By Pedro Pereira
In October, IBM announced additional zHPF enhancements intended to make it applicable to a larger percentage of client workloads, improving System z scale and resilience.
December 05, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
I continue to be amazed by the mystique and astounding complexity attributed to the job of assuring business workload performance requirements are met.
November 08, 2011
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By Ron Higgin
Despite predictions of doom and gloom, collaborative efforts among businesses, universities, vendors and independent industry organizations will forestall any IT skills shortfall.
November 01, 2011
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By Joe Clabby
The IT Systems Rationalization or Scorpion study produces a set of prioritized recommendations to assist a client in defining a new server-optimization strategy, identifies a more highly optimized alternative enterprise and/or distributed-server architecture, and evaluates the cost and benefits of those alternatives.
October 17, 2011
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By Rick Schoenmann
High Performance Fiber Connectivity (FICON) for System z (zHPF), an enhancement to the z/Architecture, FICON interface architecture and device architectures has been continually improved upon, albeit without much fanfare.
October 03, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
Whether you’re a mainframe customer looking to create a sandbox environment or an independent software vendor (ISV) seeking to delve deeper — IBM System z Personal Development Tool (zPDT) can meet your needs.
September 28, 2011
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By Gita Grube Berg
New z/OS-specific software release, Business Process Manager Advanced, reaffirms IBM's commitment to the mainframe platform.
September 15, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
Even though the entry price is lower, the zEnterprise 114 is nevertheless a mainframe-caliber system that’s just as capable as its bigger counterparts when it comes to workload processing, security and reliability.
August 29, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
The mainframe entices customers in emerging economies.
August 16, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
IBM Rational Software takes mainframe applications and development to a new level
August 04, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
IBM Vice President Ray Jones—a founding force behind Destination z—talks about how the community was conceptualized and initially delivered, its evolution, and his vision for its future.
July 27, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
The majority of students are unaware of what an IBM System z mainframe is, much less how important the computing platform is to industry and to their daily life. They don’t realize the future employment opportunities for those who pursue an education that includes mainframe topics.
July 20, 2011
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By Marc Smith
For IBM clients, ISVs and Business Partners with an interest in the future of the System z platform, the IBM Academic Initiative System z program offers a wealth of resources
July 01, 2011
"Cloud computing" is one of the hottest terms being bandied about today.
July 01, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes
The world was supposed to end on May 21, according to a crazy fringe radio personality and his followers.
July 01, 2011
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By Ryan Rhodes