SPARTA News November 2010

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Thanksgiving is upon us and that means two things: Food and Football! I tell my wife that we have too much food for the holiday and she tells me that I watch too much football, so I guess it evens out in the end. Now all we have to do is survive the Christmas season (which looks like it's already started).

Last month we had Mike Buzzetti from IBM come and talk to us about cloud computing and how IBM sees the zSeries platform working in that space. If you really take the time to look at it, cloud computing is just another abstract form of virtualization and we all know how system z has been doing that for 40+ years. The new zEnterprise systems with the p and x blade extensions just enhance this by putting most of the cloud in one manageable "box".

We've gotten the PDSE PTF's into our production system and these have fixed issue we were having with the 200K+ member data set. Still with a PDS the performance numbers are better, but we have to keep an eye on directory usage. For those of you running z/OS 1.11 or 1.12 you will want to apply PTFs for APARs OA31917 and OA34214 to your system when they become available.

On the DB2 V10 front, we are in the process of gathering the level of effort required by all the affected groups for this upgrade. Of course everybody is busy (they sure are very vocal about that) and I tell them that DB2 V8 goes end of support next September, so they need to make sure this is in their plans. We don't want to be running our core billing application on unsupported software (at least I try not to). I want to get this moving so we can then start on the z/VM 6.1 upgrade which will make it to production before DB2 V10 does.

This month we will be meeting at the IBM Executive Briefing Center to get a closer look at a z196 system with a working zBX extension. I look forward to seeing you at IBM RTP on the 30th.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Nov. 30 (Special Location) Duane Reller about IBM zEnterprise 196 and zBX at IBM RTP
Dec. 28 Happy Holidays! No Meeting.

We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.

2010-2011 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294
3060 S. Church St.
Burlington, NC 27215

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
Dignus, LLC 919-676-0847
8354 Six Forks Road
Raleigh, NC 27615

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-641-6235
201 N. Eugene St.
Greensboro, NC 27401

Tommy Thomas - Treasurer
LabCorp 336-436-4178
3060 S. Church St. 919-361-7267
Burlington, NC 27215

Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive
Cary, NC 27513

Meetings

Meetings are scheduled for the last Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in December), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

These monthly meetings usually are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Tommy Thomas. Tommy will escort you to the conference room.

Call for Articles

If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.

Newsletter e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-L Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-L Group is maintained by Brad Carson; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Brad at 336-436-8294.

Late 2009 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V478 (dated December 27, 2009) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the October 26, 2010 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.

•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.

•Twenty-three (23) people were present of which fifteen (15) were members.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions.

•The minutes of the September 2010 meeting were approved as published in the October newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer gave the Treasurer's Report. As of Oct. 18, 2010, the balance is $1,014.28. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report.

OLD BUSINESS

•Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don't really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.

•The SPARTA Web page is available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change):

Nov. 30, 2010: zEnterprise (z196) at IBM RTP
Dec. 28, 2010: Happy Holidays! No meeting

Potential 2011 speakers or topics (more at Jan. 2011 meeting)
-Paul Smith - Omegamon Update or Netview
-John Monti - Language Environment
-Bus-Tech
Ed Jaffe, JES3
UBS Hainer - DB2 BVC2 Copying DB2
Ivan Gelb - CICS Performance

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

•Food for the November meeting will be provided by IBM.

•Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to Tommy Thomas of LabCorp for hosting the meeting.

•Brad Carson requested List Server name updates be sent to him.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:40 PM.

•The speaker was Mike Buzzetti, Senior Architect, IBM World Wide Design Centers.

The 2 presentation topics were selected parts of 6 presentations that were tailored especially for us by Mike from the ones that he gave at the Boston SHARE. Some of the session topics presented:

Introduction To Cloud Computing (on a mainframe)

* 5 Historic Waves of Economic and Social Transformation
1 - Industrial Revolution (1771-1829)
2 - Age of Steam and Railways (1873-1892)
3 - Age of Steel and Electricity (1875-1920)
4 - Age of Automobiles and Oil (1908-1974)
5 - Age of Communication & Information (1971-now)

* What Are the Benefits of Cloud Computing
- Economics (small upfront investment)
- Risk Management (small upfront commitment)
- Time To Market (adopt new services quickly)
- Information Society (value-added information from massive amounts of data)
- Ubiquitous Society (multiple ways to access data)

* Types of Cloud Computing

* Characteristics
- Self Service (no human involvement to setup)
- Broad Network Access
- Resource Pooling
- Rapid Elasticity (able to grow or shrink rapidly)
- Measured Service (can use several parameters - cpu, disk space, I/Os, IP use)

* Delivery Service Models (Standards)
- SaaS (Software as a Service)
- PaaS (Platform as a Service)
- IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

* Deployment Models
- Private Cloud (only you use it)
- Public Cloud (multiple tenets)
- Community Cloud (same computing missions - i.e. hospital accounting))
- Hybrid Cloud (mix of the above)

* Building Blocks
- Virtualization
- Service Management

* How Does IBM Do Cloud Differently?
- Been doing it since CP67
- zVM can do 2 levels - hardware and software
- Chip Design - affects virtualization
- 4 levels of cache
- designed for speed
- Privileged instructions
- Control sensitive instructions
- Behavior sensitive instructions
- Hypervisors (translate, trap, and emulate)
- Hypersockets (more secure)
- Direct Hardware Virtualization

* How is Cloud Computing Different?
- Delivery Model (can buy from an external service)
- Interface Model (access by normal standards)
- Business Model (pay only for usage)
- Technical Model (scalable or elastic)

* Getting Started
- Buy or Build?
- Business Plan
- Know your costs
- Define Service Catalog
- Define Your SLA

* Barriers To Adoption
- Security
- Compliance
- Reliability
- Budgeting
- Customization
- It’s New
- It’s Magic

* Bottom Line: Cloud computing lets companies focus in on what is core to them making money.

Architecting and Implementing The IBM Federated Cloud

* IBM Has 4 Worldwide Centers scattered around the earth

* How IBM is Like Their Clients
- Each Unit Must Provide Service to Lines of Business
- Each Unit Must Support Production like Services
- Each Unit Must Make Effective Use of Resources

* Flaws in the Current System
- Discourages Sharing - because each unit is busy
- Not Efficient
- Limits Experimentation
- Stifles Innovation

* Then along came Frank De Gilio with his Vision:
He setup a Federated Cloud to allow Benchmarks, Briefing, Experimental Learning, ISV Enablement, Design / POC, Demos, and Education using the combined power of the computers in the 4 data centers

* How is it different from Hybrid Cloud
- Architecting
- Goals
- Worldwide
- Leveraged assets
- Avoid Duplication of Effort
- Standardized Services
- ITIL Aligned

* Setup Requirements Were Needed
- High Level Requirements
- Service Requester Requirements
- Self Service
- Service Catalog
- View all services offered
- Provider Requirements
- Site managed catalog
- Site managed security
- Cookie cutter deployment

* Federation Requirements
- Articles of Confederation Written (and is a work in progress)
- Consistent Identity (same user profile from site to site)
- Consistent Operations
- Transparency Between Clouds

* How The Federated Cloud was Implemented
- Develop Cloud Computing Diagram (pretty picture)
- Develop Products to Manage the Cloud (Tivoli Middleware)
- Phase 1 - Focus on Multiple Platforms (late 2009 - early 2101)
- Phase 2 - Focus on Cross Geography (early 2010)
- Phase 2 - Focus on Sharing Services (late 2010 thru the end of 2011)

*For more complete details, please see the followings 2010 Boston SHARE presentations with most presentations including the presenter’s (Buzzetti) remarks:

Session 7166: Comparing and Contrasting Virtualization Technologies
Session 7644: Business Decisions for Cloud Computing
Session 7647: Introduction to Cloud Computing: What's it All About?
Session 7951: Architecting and Implementing a Federated Cloud
Session 7952: Social Networking Impact on Privacy
Session 8081: Open Source - Is It Safe To Go Back Into the Water?

*Mike can be reached at IBM at buzzetti@us.ibm.com (Buzzetti is here to help).

* Meeting ended at 8:45 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for November 2010

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1004.27 as of November 16, 2010.

Financial Report
3/01/2010 through 11/16/2010

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2010

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Nov. 30 - IBM’s Choice at IBM RTP
Dec. 28 - No meeting. Happy Holidays!


Missing Migration Action for R12

contributed by Ed Webb

As you can see by the date in this entry, the current z/OS V1R12 Migration Book (http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/e0z2m180.pdf ) does not document this change. The messages referred to here are the Step Stop and Job Stop messages.
 
 
10/07/08  To the z/OS V1R12 Migration book, GA22-7499-17, the following section in the BCP chapter will be added.
 
Title: Update automation for some deleted SMF messages
 
Description: Messages IEF374I and IEF376I are replaced by messages IEF032I and IEF033I, respectively.
 
Element or feature: BCP
 
When change was introduced: z/OS V1R12.
 
Applies to migration from: z/OS V1R10 and z/OS V1R11.
 
Timing: Before the first IPL of z/OS V1R12.
Is the migration action required? Yes, if installation specific automation exists for messages  IEF374I or IEF376I.
 
Steps to take: Update any automation software that keys off of messages IEF374I and/or IEF376I to instead key off of new messages IEF032I and/or IEF033I.
 
Reference information: Refer to the z/OS V1R12.0 MVS System Messages, Vol 8 (IEF-IGD) manual for the formats of the new messages.


IBM’s Greenest Data Center Yet

contributed by Ed Webb

Here’s a recent IBM Systems magazine article that features the IBM LEED Gold-certified data center in RTP:

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/LEED_gold_datacenter/34828p1.aspx

Maybe I can write an article about the new SAS Cloud Computing Center which has just been completed and is planned to be LEED-certified in another SPARTA newsletter.


Why ‘the cloud” Doesn’t Matter?

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Date: November 4th, 2010
Author: Patrick Gray

Surprisingly, a couple years after "the cloud" first arrived on the IT scene I am still hearing IT leaders speak about it with breathless reverence. Even non-IT executives will proudly announce "Oh, we'll just put that in the cloud" when any technology-related topic appears in a staff meeting. The fact of the matter is that the cloud is just another boring make vs. buy decision, and the sooner those in IT management realize this, the less likely they are to build potentially career-ending plans based on clouds and rainbows.

So, what is "the cloud"?

Definitions of cloud computing abound, but they overly complicate things. Essentially, the cloud is little more than "stuff outside your company." That "stuff" could be processing power, storage, networks, applications or any other bit of technical wizardry. When the CIO says she'll "put that in the cloud," all she is really saying is she will take something that was done in-house, and do it with someone else's "stuff." You might put any aspect of your internal "stuff" into the cloud, from raw data that you store on another party's storage systems, to an internal application you run on someone else's' hardware. Often, the cloud refers to a third party's applications, analogous to the enterprise equivalent of gmail or hotmail to employees.

The non-IT reader who is now thinking "Hey, this sounds exactly like what companies have been doing for over 100 years" gets a gold star. Conceptually, all the fancy cloud talk could be applied to anything a company does outside its walls. The toilet paper you purchase from an outside vendor effectively comes "from the cloud," and the same decision making process that you would use to choose that vendor applies to cloud computing.

Going into the cloud is nothing more than a make vs. buy decision

A frightening part of the over-hyping of the cloud is that it has obfuscated the decision-making process for determining if the cloud is appropriate for a particular IT function. Mysticism seems to creep into any cloud-related discussion, obscuring the fact that deciding to move something into the cloud is a simple make vs. buy calculation. If you are considering moving email into the cloud, tally up the costs of the various servers, software and support, divide by the number of users, and compare that to the per-seat fees from various cloud vendors. If you want to get fancy, include factors that denote reliability, security and support of the vendor.

Unsurprisingly, this process sounds very similar to the process that your COO and his or her staff go through when selecting vendors for critical components and parts. Assuming your company produces physical products, the supply chain and purchasing groups are likely loaded with people that can help you make an exceptionally thorough analysis of the various cloud vendors, and apply appropriate rigor to the process. While those in IT may quip that those buying physical commodities could never understand the subtle nuances of the cloud. However, the supply chain deals with production and design secrets all the time, and reliability is obviously a central concern since a critical vendor could hamper the company's ability to actually produce products.

If you can present the cloud in these terms, not only can you get internal purchasing expertise onboard to help you make better decisions, but you can have more realistic discussions with your peers. Rather than the cloud offering a voodoo-like panacea to every internal problem, other executives can approach it as a way to cut maintenance and administrative costs, or a way to allow IT to focus on more valuable activities than maintaining email servers or commodity functions and applications.

While the cloud currently has near-magical properties with many, like most emerging technologies these will soon wear thin, and will only serve to build mistrust and skepticism of IT and the CIO if they are sold as magical cure-alls. When you can take a rational look at cloud-based services, and analyze the decision to utilize them just as you would any other third party vendor, the cloud becomes far less hazy and much more practical.


Humor


When You Feel Stupid, Read This

contributed by Chris Blackshire

If you ever feel a little bit stupid, just dig this up and read it again; you'll begin to think you're a genius.

- - - - - - - - - -

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?

Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,"

Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995 on Sept 17, 1994.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
--Mariah Carey

- - - - - - - - - -

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life,"
-- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

- - - - - - - - - -

"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body,"
--Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country,"
--Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.

- - - - - - - - - -

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it,"
--A congressional candidate in Texas.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
--Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

- - - - - - - - - -

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
--Al Gore

- - - - - - - - - -

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
-- Dan Quayle

- - - - - - - - - -

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"
--Lee Iacocca

- - - - - - - - - -

"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
--Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

- - - - - - - - - -

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."
-- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."
--Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

- - - - - - - - - -

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."
--Keppel Enderbery

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"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record."
--Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

- - - - - - - - - -

Feeling smarter yet?

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, November 30, 2010
7 p.m.

Special Location: IBM Briefing Center in the RTP

Exit 280 I-40 onto Davis Drive and go North. Go through a traffic signal (Cornwallis Road) to the IBM main gates. IBMers will be asked to show their badge; guests not being escorted by an IBMer will be asked to register with security at the entrance gate—these guests should identify themselves as a visitor to the RTP Executive Briefing Center.

Follow this road (IBM signs will direct you to Building 002 Main Lobby), turning right at the first STOP sign. Go past the Main Entrance (circle drive). The Building 002 Visitor Parking Lot is now controlled upon entry to the lot. All visitors should press the lot entrance intercom button and the Building 002 Receptionist or IBM Security will grant remote access.  Please identify yourself as a visitor to the IBM Executive Briefing Center.

Link to IBM Executive Briefing Center info and directions:
http://ibm-vbc.centers.ihost.com/briefingcenter/rtpx and Select Planning Tab for directions and Map.

Please register with Bill Peiffer of IBM so he can have food and your name tag ready: Bill.Peiffer@US.IBM.com

Free Food: IBM’s Choice

Program:

zEnterprise: Up Close and Personal

Speaker:

Duane Reller, IBM System z Architect

SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194

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