Call for Papers

GSE Nordic Technical Conference – Reykjavík, Iceland, June 10-14 2009

Dear Colleagues

The GSE Nordic Region Conference Steering Committees have had a planning meeting recently, where we did the detailed planning for the next conference, which will take place in Reykjavík, Iceland, June 10-14 2009.

We have already some very interesting topics planned, but we still need some contributions from you. Speakers with real experience are the most popular during the conference, and we know you are all doing a great job with the IBM family of database, transaction and messaging and infrastructure products on the mainframe platform out there. Please, consider what you can do for the conference and your colleagues in the Nordic region.

We know that it takes a lot of time and effort to build a presentation, when you are not a professional speaker or an IBM or vendor representative, so to especially encourage user experience presentations we have added the incentive of a user speaker discount of 2.000 DKK deducted from the conference fee. The steering committees can also help you develop your session and be your sparring partner during the whole process, if you wish.

HP announced today that in the past two years, it has helped more than 250 customers worldwide to migrate from mainframes to Integrity-based servers. According to John Pickett, worldwide manager of HP's mainframe alternative program, the vast majority of those mainframe shops have made the jump to Integrity machines running HP-UX, but a few have moved to Windows and others have opted for the fault-tolerant NonStop environment. Many, having made the jump, also deploy Linux on their iron.

The mainframes that have been replaced have the usual mix of IBM systems software - COBOL applications, VSAM files, CICS transaction monitors, DB2 and IMS databases, and such. About 80 per cent of the code that is running on the mainframes is homegrown stuff, which means HP needs to partner with Micro Focus, Clerity, Relativity Technologies, TmaxSoft, and others with application rehosting tools designed to move mainframe apps to other platforms.

Full story here :Link

At the end of April, the New York Stock Exchange unplugged its last running mainframe, the climax of a yearlong migration to Unix and Linux.

By all accounts, the merger has been successful, and performance has improved, said Francis Feldman, the vice president of the shared data center at Securities Industry Automation Corp. (SIAC), the NYSE's technology arm.
For more on mainframe migration:

While some say careers for mainframe programmers are dimming more than they're dying, their outlook is pressured by business trends that can seem like Catch-22.

Times certainly are changing for mainframe computer programmers, with fewer jobs available and little call for COBOL. But don't pronounce them extinct just yet. Despite the advent of Windows-running PCs, client servers and .Net, the supposedly moribund mainframe refuses to die.

Users access z/OS® mainframes using a 3270 terminal emulator. In this article, learn how to build a simple shell script for UNIX® or Linux® that gives you a second terminal emulator to view everything a mainframe user is doing in real time.

While IBM talks primarily Linux, Mann said there's also the zOS side, the mainframe's native operating system that still has plenty of potential use. "IBM is getting into universities to teach zOS and old style programming, PL/1 and COBOL, on the z Series," he said.
http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/3731086

These picture were taken at the Las Vegas Airport last week just before the Gartner's 26th Annual Data Center Conference. It is quite clear that the Mainframe is on Microsoft's radar!
Mainframes? Just say no!

IMS (IBM’s Information Management System) is in use at an estimated 95% of Fortune 1000 organizations, and IBM has recently announced Version 10 of the software (see http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/ims/v10/). Yet there are very few Web-based resources available for IMS professionals. iTech-Ed is therefore pleased to announce the launch of Virtual IMS Connection at www.virtualims.com to help fill in this gap. Virtual IMS Connection is an independently-operated vendor-neutral site run by and for the IMS user community.

The Environmental Protection Agency in August asked server manufacturers to develop "miles per gallon" ratings for their equipment that would provide users with accurate assessments of energy efficiency. IBM on Thursday announced that it would begin providing typical usage ratings for its line of z9 mainframe computers..

The usage ratings were developed using data collected from more than 1,000 z9s deployed to customers since May 11 when IBM added a "mainframe gas gauge" feature to the computers that monitors energy usage and cooling statistics. As a result, IBM has found that typical energy use by the systems is normally 60 percent less than the maximum ratings.

Read complete article at ITNews

IBM Wheels Up Heavy Guns To Defend its Mainframe Monopoly
— IBM has amended its eight-month-old patent infringement/breach of contract suit against Platform Solutions Inc (PSI), the start-up that would deprive Big Blue of its ritzy mainframe monopoly if it gets half a chance. IBM is intent that PSI never gets that chance. IBM has not only amended its complaint it's also changed its tone. No more pussyfooting around. It's a lot more strident now. It accuses PSI, which is backed by Intel and Goldman Sachs, among others, right upfront of theft. It claims, 'Even the limited discovery produced in this case to date confirms that PSI has been engaged in the long-term, systematic theft of IBM's trade secrets, IBM's confidential documents, IBM's copyrighted software and IBM's patented intellectual property, which continues through to this day.'