SPARTA News September 2011

September 2011

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

September means that Fall is at our doorstep and we will have to bring Summer to a close. With the recent changes in the weather it sure looks like we will have a very colorful fall this year. I know that we've had a lot of rain from hurricane Irene as I was down at my in-laws in Tarboro as she came through. There was a lot of water but nothing like it was during Floyd in 1999 (thankfully). My old school friends tell me that our old family home in PA was flooded big time thanks to all the rains from Irene and Lee. He told me it was worse than Agnes in 1972. That's a lot of water.

Last month we had our annual outing to the DBAP to see the Durham Bulls play ball. The weather was great but our turnout was low. I know it was a busy time for folks with everything going on, but I wish we would have had a little bit better showing for us.

On our DB2 V10 front, we've managed to convert one of our production DB2 V10 subsystems from V8 to V10 compatibility mode. This subsystem serves a number of web-based applications at LabCorp and is accessed mainly via DDF. The migration was very smooth and the application folks are pleased at how things went. Of course now we have to concentrate on our billing-based DB2's and those are going to be a little more difficult to convert. These are the DB2's that have the most baggage in them.

On the conversion from DB2 plans to packages, we've had a major test of the movement of code up through QA and into production. All of my REXX changes to SCLM worked very well. Just had a small change to make for the QA system and then all was well. Of course this late into the work, we now find out from BMC that we must upgrade their Application Restart and Control (ARC) product to the just released 3.8 version to support DB2 V10! Since this is used in the billing system we've got to complete this before we can migrate any more subsystems to DB2 V10. So here is another pothole in our DB2 V10 project. I'll let you know how this goes in the coming months.

This month we will have our own Ed Webb and Tom Schwartz talk to us about their trip to SHARE in Orlando. Really wish that I would have been able to attend SHARE. See you at LabCorp on the 27th!


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Sep. 27 SPARTA Conference Report by Ed Webb of SAS and Tom Schwartz of Luminex
Oct. 25 TBA
Nov. 29 (at SAS) TBA
Dec. 27 No meeting. Happy Holidays!

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.

2011-2012 SPARTA
Board of Directors

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

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
MDI DataSystems 919-426-6518

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.

June 2011 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V482 (dated June 23, 2011) 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 August 30, 2011 Meeting

•SPARTA met at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) in Durham, North Carolina for an evening out at the ballpark. Many thanks to Tommy Thomas for free admittance to good seats. And thanks to the Bulls for a big win!

Treasurer’s Report for September 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $985.25 as of September 8, 2011.

Financial Report
3/01/2011 through 09/08/2011

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Sept. 27 - Pizza
Oct. 25 - Chicken
Nov. 29 - Subs
Dec 27 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays!


z/OS R13 Migration Tip: IEBCOPY Is Not Authorized But Reads PDSes Faster

contributed by Ed Webb

In its recent z/OS V1R13 Migration materials presented at SHARE in early August 2011 in Orlando, IBM reported that internal testing shows that the updated IEBCOPY in R13 can read PDSes (not PDSE which are already fast, IBM says) up to 70% faster and no longer runs authorized.

Of course, IBM DFP forgot to tell ISPF about the authorization change in IEBCOPY so be sure you have the fix for ISPF APAR OA37408 before removing IEBCOPY from the AUTHPGM table in IKJTSOxx. Oh, and TSO did not get the memo either; see TSO APAR OA37218 that removes IEBCOPY from all tables in IKJTSOxx in SYS1.SAMPLIB.

IBM has posted the R13 version of its z/OS manuals online at the z/OS Internet Library site. Follow this link to jump right to the new pubs including the Migration book.

z/OS R13 and z/OSMF R13 debut on September 30, 2011. Here are the recent announcement letters: ENUS211-252 and ENUS211-242.


Seven Things You Should Know About Mainframes

contributed by Ed Webb

“There are a lot of myths about the mainframe swirling around the IT industry. To add to that, mainframes are also under a lot of pressure from x86 and Windows systems. If you’ve already made the investment and are wondering which road to follow, there are some important factors to consider before you make a final choice. This tip covers seven key aspects that you should know about when using mainframes in the enterprise.

1. Mainframe systems are still being purchased

Even though the recession put a dent in everyone’s IT budget, the mainframe appears to be coming back with the economy. There are still thousands of mainframe users in the world and, according to a BMC survey on the relevancy of the mainframe in today’s data centers, most managers using them plan to buy more in the coming year.”

Read the rest of Robert Crawford’s article here at SearchDataCenter.com.


zEnterprise - Dead-end or Bright Future

contributed by Ed Webb

“Guest Author: Alan Radding

A white paper from Micro Focus reports that "CIOs are increasingly questioning whether the mainframe will continue to be a strategic platform in the future." Written by Standish Group and based on its CIO survey that found 70% of respondents said the mainframe provides a central, strategic role currently. However, none of the CIOs consider the mainframe as a strategic platform in 5-10 years time.

None? Zero? Nada? That’s pretty astonishing. So, what are the CIOs’ complaints? The study isn’t exactly specific, but it seems to do with the cloud.

As Standish puts it: looming large on the CIO agenda is cloud. Cloud creates both challenge and opportunity for CIOs today. The opportunity lies in driving towards more flexible, cost-effective service provision for the business, enabling in-house IT resources to focus on much more strategic initiatives. At the same time, CIOs are managing a host of current technologies and applications, some applications duplicating others, some legacy applications for which there appears no easy modernization solution and entrenched solutions and applications that provide no clear journey to cloud-based services.

Whoa, let’s parse that sentence. ....” Read the rest of the article here at Mainframezone.com.


Glossary Terms

contributed by Chris Blackshire

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device ): More and more employees would prefer to use their own iPhone, iPad or other clever smart phones and tablet computers for their everyday work instead of the IT equipment provided by the company they work for. Since such a scenario is extremely interesting for the company from a cost perspective, IT managers will be increasingly confronted in the future with the task of checking the feasibility of integrating an employee's own equipment into the corporate network. From the perspective of system administrators, however, BYOD is generally viewed with horror, since such integration significantly increases the effort required for administration and security. In the BYOD concept, some see the opportunity to put their own IT, and the corresponding strategy, finally and fundamentally to the test.

The Hybrid Cloud is a mixed form comprised of a Private Cloud, Trusted Cloud and/or Public Cloud. Data and applications are segmented according to defined guidelines and business or IT requirements. This combination gives enterprises the best of both worlds: The applications are hosted inside or outside the firewall, depending on the specified security requirements. In this way security regulations can be fulfilled while cost-saving potential and economies of scale are utilized.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Hardware components (infrastructure) are offered as a service which can include storage capacity, CPUs, or networks. IaaS is always based on a virtual architecture to ensure flexibility and scalability.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): The PaaS provider offers software developers a runtime environment, and in some cases a development environment as well, which can be used to develop and run applications on the platform. This has several advantages because many functionalities such as multi-client capability, scalability, access control and database access can be made available from the platform.

The Private Cloud is an enterprise-specific IT environment that is used only by the enterprise itself - and it is safeguarded by the company's own firewall. Rules can be defined and implemented individually. A Private Cloud can be operated by the company itself or by an external service provider

(Managed Private Cloud). This cloud solution enables enterprises to extensively optimize their IT infrastructures, reduce IT costs dramatically and increase productivity through flexible user access while also building trust by satisfying compliance requirements.

The Public Cloud is a public IT environment which offers services to various people and enterprises. The IT systems reserved for this environment are
used by several different customers. All relevant applications are hosted outside the enterprise firewall. The Public Cloud is an ideal scenario for businesses that do not have their own IT and would like to reduce costs. For example, enterprises using a Public Cloud computing platform can get complete workplace systems from the cloud. Users have access to applications, contents and services via typical devices.

Software as a Service (SaaS): This category includes all types of applications that are offered on the basis of a leasing or subscription model. Examples are e-mail solutions, business finance and accounting programs, CRM systems or collaboration systems. With most offerings SaaS applications are used via a web client and paid for on a monthly basis.


Humor


Dear Diary

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Dear Diary:

May 30th:
Just moved to Raleigh, NC.
Now this is a city that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! Watched the sunset from the Lake Jordan lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th:
Really heating up. Got to 90 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun on the water everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:
The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's kind of breezy though. But getting used to the heat and humidity is taking longer that I expected.

July 15th:
Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:
I missed Morgan (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left for work this morning. By the time I got to the hot car for lunch, Morgan had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $2,000 leather upholstery. I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and sh~ts. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

July 25th:
The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And it's hot as heck. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the A/C repairman charged $200 just to stop by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:
Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. $2,500 is the house payment and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

August 1st
It's 95 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85, but this freaking humidity makes the house feel like it's about 95. Stupid repairman urinated in my pool. I hate this stupid city.

August 3rd:
If another wise a$$ cracks, "Hot enough for you today?", I'm going to strangle him. Darn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

August 5th
Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts and sat on the black leather seats in the ol' car. I thought my rear was on fire. I lost two layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and rear. Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried rear, and baked cat.

August 7th:
Temperature 102 at 5:00PM. It feels like 110, great! The weather report might as well be a recording. It is Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for 2 months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next two days! Doesn't it ever rain in this desert?? Water rationing is on and they fine you if you try to water your lawn, so might as well watch $1700 worth of cactus just dry up and blow into the darn pool. Even the cactus can't live in this heat.

August 8th:
Welcome to H*&^#!!! Temperature got to 105 today. The Weather Man says "it feels like 115" Great! Forgot to crack the car window and blew the windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to spend the $2,500 house payment to bail me out of jail. Freaking Raleigh.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

7 p.m.

LabCorp in the RTP

Free Food: Pizza, Drink, Dessert

Program:

SHARE 2011 Orlando Conference Reports

Speakers:

Tom Schwartz of Luminex and Ed Webb of SAS

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

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