SPARTA News

September 2014

SPARTA President’s Corner

contributed by Ron Pimblett

Looking forward to reports about the August 2014 SHARE from Ken Barkhau of HP and Ed Webb of SAS on Tuesday, September 30, at LabCorp in RTP. See you there.

Ron Pimblett

Future Speakers

(subject to change)

Sep. 30 - SHARE in Pittsburgh Report by SPARTA members
Oct. 28 - TBA
Dec. 2 (Nov. meeting) -
Dec. 30 - 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.

2013-2014 SPARTA

Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President

LabCorp

3060 S. Church St.

Burlington, NC 27215

Ron Pimblett - Vice President

MDI Data Systems 919-426-6518

866-634-3282

Raleigh, NC 27609

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.

Burlington, NC 27215

Ed Webb - Communications Director

SAS Institute Inc. 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 1912 T.W. 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-RTP Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-RTP Group is maintained by Chris Blackshire; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Chris at chrisbl@nc.rr.com.

June 2014 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V488 (dated June 03, 2014) are available from www.cbttape.org.

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

Minutes of the July 29, 2014 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Ron Pimblett, the Chapter Vice President.

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

•Fifteen (15) people were present of which Twelve (12) were 2014 members.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions or their job hunting challenges.
•The minutes of the June 2014 meeting were approved as published in the July 2014 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's Report. As of July 11, 2014, the balance is $844.49. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the July 2014 newsletter.

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 at 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.

•Tommy reminded everyone to leave the LabCorp conference room clean.

•Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

Date	Company	Speaker	Topic
Aug 25, 2014 (Monday)	Baseball Night	Tommy Thomas	Durham Bulls playing Gwinnett
Sept 30, 2014	SHARE Update	Ed Webb and ?	SHARE Topics
Oct 28, 2014	Innovation DP	M Macisaac	FDR PassVM
Nov 25, 2014	Watson Walker	Cheryl Watson or Frank Kyne	Series z Performance

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett (919-833-8426).

•The next SPARTA monthly meeting will be Aug 25, 2014, at the DBAP.
You will be responsible for your choosing food at the ball park.

•Food for the September 30 meeting will be Pizza.

•The 2014 dues are due ($30) as of March 2014. Please pay Tommy Thomas.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to LabCorp (Tommy Thomas) for hosting the meeting.

•There are currently 43 people on the SPARTA-RTP e-mailing list. There are no new additions since last month.

•Send any e-mail address changes to Chris Blackshire so he can update the SPARTA-RTP Listserv. You will be added by the moderator (Chris) sending you an invitation to Join the list. (ChrisBl@nc.rr.com)

•President’s Corner submissions are wanted. Please assist Ron Pimblett and Ed Webb with ideas or try actually writing a President’s Corner article. If your shop is installing software or an OS process like Brad wrote about, please write about it.

•Ed Webb, Ken Barkhau, and Pam Tant will be attending SHARE in Pittsburgh in August.

•Tommy is having a conflict between his vacation time and our meeting dates. He wants us to think about changing the meeting night to the first Tuesday of each month. With LabCorp requiring that Tommy work the first half of each month and our meeting on the last Tuesday of each month, Tommy has no time left to take vacation weeks. Motion was made and accepted to change the SPARTA meetings to the first Tuesday of each month beginning in 2015 (this actually delays the current schedule by a week).
The tentative 2015 meeting schedule (the August meeting may change to allow for the Durham Bulls game):
Feb 3, 2015
March 3
April 7
May 5
June 2
July 7
Aug 4
Sept 1
Oct 6
Nov 3
Dec 1

PRESENTATION

• Presentation given by Andrew Chapman, CA Technologies, VP, Product Management

Topic: Evolving Role of System z in the Dynamic Data Center
    Featuring Cloud Storage for System z

• Agenda
- Market Trends Shifting Business and IT Dynamics
- What is the Dynamic Data Center?
- How is CA Empowering the Dynamic Data Center Today?
- CA Vision for the Future
- Cloud Storage for System z

• Consumerization is Driving Business
- In the next few years:
- 8 Zettabytes of data
- 10 Billion connected devices
- $400B on-line commerce

• Business is Driving IT
- Change in Relationship Between Enterprise Consumer and Corporate IT
- 20% of lines of business have a dedicated IT staff
- SaaS revenue will exceed $20B by 2015
- 35% of total IT spend will occur outside IT by 2015

• Changing World of IT
- Unite Multiple Generations (Agility - Simplicity - Visibility)
- 60's to 40's = Baby Boomers
- 40's to 30's = GenX
- 30's to 20's = GenY
- Entering College = iGen

• Evolving Role of System z in the Application Economy
- Dynamic Data Center (System z)
- - Business Responsiveness    >     Dynamic expansion/contraction
- - Transaction Growth              >     Infinite scalability
- - Cost Optimization                >     Spans across platforms
- - Emerging Opportunities        >     Rapidly adapts
- Evolving Process Timeline
- - Current = Transaction Processing Engine
- - 0-18 Months = Cloud Component
- - 12-36 Months = Cloud Platform

• Dynamic Data Center: Infinite Possibilities with System z
- Delivery     Continuous    Availability
- DevOps    Security    Management Cloud
- - Cross Enterprise Workload Automation
- - Composite Application Delivery
- - End to End Performance Management
- - Predictive Analytics
- - Cross Platform Infrastructure Management
- - Cloud Services

• How CA is Empowering the Dynamic Data Center
- Simplicity and Agility and Visibility and Automation:
- - DYNAMIC IT MANAGEMENT: Optimize efficiency in managing the data center
- - DYNAMIC WORKLOADS: Increase portability and visibility across platforms
- - DYNAMIC CLOUD SERVICES: Expand and contract IT infrastructure
- - DYNAMIC SECURITY: Protect key assets, meet growing compliance demands
- - DYNAMIC DEVOPS: Accelerate ROI with continuous development and delivery

• Dynamic IT Management (CA Chorus)
- Definitive Management Tool for the Dynamic Data Center
- - INCREASE EFFICIENCY using integrated workspace
- - SOLVE PROBLEMS FASTER with graphical diagnostics
- - ACCELERATE LEARNING CURVE through knowledge capture
- - REDUCE ERRORS AND RISK with proactive analytics and automation

• Workload Portability and Agility (Physical -> Virtual -> Cloud)
- Optimize use of IT infrastructure to meet business needs
- - Dynamic Service Delivery
- - Automated Deployment
- - Responsive Analytics
- - Business Agility
- - Risk Mitigation
- - Service Levels

• VM and Linux Management
- 22% of CA customers are running Linux on System z
- Simplify Deployment of System z Application Infrastructures
- - PROVISION: Accelerate System z cloud deployment
        Increases Responsiveness
- - MONITOR: Track performance and respond to exceptions
        Increase Efficiency, Reduce Risk
- - MANAGE & PROTECT: Simplify management of cloud applications
        Reduce Cost
- - CONNECT: Easily connect to z/OS transactions and databases
        Increase performance and reduce risk

• Market Conclusions
- CA Opportunities - Ranked Small to Hugh Opportunities for CA support
- - Supporting internal MainFrame systems (CA CS4z)
- - Benefiting from proximity to z/OS (MQ Broker)
- - Offloading z/OS workloads (WAS, Java)
- - Inheriting MainFrame QoS: Disaster Recovery, High Availability, performance (Business Critical Apps)
- - Implementing enterprise & cloud Linux workloads (Generic Platform)

• The Storage Challenge
- Steady demand for storage for decades
- New devices and media constantly added
- Storage acquisition process complex, lengthy
- Mandate: reduce storage, management costs
- Flexible, scalable storage solutions needed
- Innovative, reliable storage capabilities desired
- Cloud Capacity-on-Demand perfect for System z
- Store, protect, archive, and recover System z data

• The Industry: Cloud Storage
- Forrester: calculates up to a 74% savings from using cloud for file storage as opposed to on-premise storage.
- Gartner: 80% of CIO’s believe the mainframe is the essential to their cloud infrastructure
- IDC: 2013 will see widespread adoption of Amazon Glacier with support from cloud gateway vendors, ISVs, and cloud service providers. Leading use cases will be disaster recovery, backup, and fixed content long-term retention.

• CA Cloud Storage Solution Overview
- CA provides the System z Connector (CA Technologies Virtual Tape)
- - Reduces dependency on storage hardware up to 60%
- Public Cloud Gateway (Riverbed encrypts the data)
- - Reduce data protection costs by up to 80%
- Your Cloud (SOFTLAY-R (an IBM Company) stores the data)
- - Slash Data Center Storage Costs to Pennies per GB

• Benefits of CA Cloud Storage for System z
- Capacity on Demand
- - Reduce the risk of downtime & impacts to LOB.
- - Hourly cost of downtime for a typical company can range from $10,000 to $1M
- Helps Optimize bus. Services
- - Recent survey: delay of 7.5 hours per year during which time data is still being recovered and business operations aren’t fully operational
- Data is Secure, Compliant
- - 34% of companies would be unable to meet compliance and regulatory commitments due to downtime
- Greater Business productivity
- - When business critical systems are interrupted, companies estimate that the ability to generate revenue is reduced by 29%

• Summary
- Innovation delivered!
- A Cloud-enabled enterprise storage solution that reduces cost, protects data, and is easier to manage

• Speaker Contact Information:
- Andrew M Chapman of CA Technologies
- Work Phone: 1-609-583-3220
- Email: AndrewM.Chapman@ca.com
- Twitter: @chapmaa
- URL: http://www.MemorableURL.com

Additional CA Attendees Contacts:
- Tina Linkens - Work Phone: 1-304-839-9492
- Ken Sidney   - Work Phone: 1-704-277-8932

• The Presentation and Meeting Ended About 9:40 PM.

The Aug 25, 2014 Durham Bulls Game Summary (from the N&O)

• Durham Seizes International League South Division Title

• Bull 4, Braves 2

• The Durham Bulls clinched the International League South Division title Monday night with a 4-2 win against the Gwinnett Braves at the Durham Bull Athletic Park, marking their second straight division title.

The IL South crown is the seventh in eight seasons for Durham since Charlie Montoyo took over as manager, and the 12th time in the Bulls' 17 seasons in the league.

The Bulls (71-65) jumped to an early lead, scoring two runs in the third inning. Mike Fontenot drove in the first run on a grounder and Cole Figueroa followed with a RBI single. Both Fontenot and Figeroa were 3-for-4 on the night.

The bullpen wrapped up the crown. Steve Geltz (3-3) retired seven straight batters to earn the win and Josh Lueke pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 11th save.

Scoring Box Summary:

Innings = | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | : | R | H | E |
Braves = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | : | 2 | 5 | 1 |
Bulls = | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | X | : | 4 | 9 | 1 |

Treasurer’s Report for September 2014

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $737.88 as of September 12, 2014.

SPARTA Financial Report
3/01/2014 through 09/12/2014

INCOME

Opening Balance	0.00
Total Deposits
Dues	680.00
Close RBC	329.15
TOTAL INCOME	$1009.15

EXPENSES
Food	273.87
Web Site	0
xfer to Petty Cash	0
Bank Service Charge	0
TOTAL EXPENSE	$273.87

BANK BALANCE Fidelity	735.28
PETTY CASH	2.60
TOTAL CASH	$737.88

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2014

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Sept 30 - Pizza

Oct 28 - Chicken

Dec 2 - Subs

Dec. 31 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays

z/OS V2.1 Migration Book Refresh Drives a z/OSMF Workflow Update

contributed by Ed Webb

From Marna's Musings Blog at SHARE.org:

"Since SHARE in Pittsburgh, I've been chin-deep in z/OSMF Workflows for z/OS migration. A great topic! Seeing z/OS migration take a leap forward and really "come alive" has been quite fun work. We've got an entire career worth of items to do, so no shortage of things to keep a team of folks busy, and keep them excited to get the keyboard each morning.

There is one thing we did just release for migration that I wanted to mention.. We've got a refreshed level of the z/OS V2.1 Migration book done (-02). Because I am ensuring that a refresh to the z/OS V2.1 Migration book is *never* available without corresponding Workflow refresh, the download Workflows for -02 are available now (http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/tools/downloads/zosmf-zos-v2r1-migration-workflow.html). Even better, though, due to some weird timing, the Workflows are actually available before the book is. We expect the -02 book refresh level to hit InfoCenter at the end of the month.

If you want to know what is the difference between the -02 level and the prior level, you simply need to look at the "Summary of Changes" (just like in the book), on the first Workflow step "Migration: Introduction". There aren't any revision bars possible in the Workflow, like the book has. As a reminder, my most important requirement to z/OSMF Workflow is that customized information be able to be brought forward from one level of a Workflow to another. Unfortunately it is not there now. If you have already customized the old Workflow level, keep this in mind.

As always, if you have suggestions or improvements you'd like to see in the z/OSMF migration workflow, just drop me a line!

-Marna"

Southern CMG Meeting in Raleigh on October 17th

contributed by Dan Squillace

Hello everyone!

Well, football is on so it must be time for a Southern CMG meeting! So mark your calendars for the upcoming Fall meeting in Raleigh on October 17th.
Register at Southern CMG. Save $10! Early registration ($25) runs through October 10th and includes breakfast and lunch.

Check out this great lineup of presentations!

Virtualization
Johnathan Paul

Exploring Analytics to Enable the Business and Service Value of Capacity Planning
Ann Dowling

Practice Safe Capping: A Case for Automated Capacity Management
John Baker

Performance Testing for Large Client Onboarding
Eric Shaver

Full Scale Pre and Post Production Performance Testing Utilizing DR Systems
Kyle Parrish

Dan Squillace
Southern CMG, Membership Chair

Four Facts Millennials Need to Know About the Mainframe

contributed by Ed Webb
Excerpts from Enterprise Systems Media here.

"When I talk to millennials coming into management and programming it appears that their knowledge of the mainframe is very limited or non-existent. Since many universities have stopped teaching mainframe classes, the recent college graduates don’t even have a basic understanding of the mainframe computing model, much less its advantages and why it endures through all the attempts to replace it. Since there is no need to reinvent the wheel, we all need to help the millennials understand why the mainframe will always be around with the following four important points.

1. Mainframes are the most reliable, stable, and available systems.
2. The best system to serve them all.
3. Mainframe has the most advanced technology available.
4. Mainframes provide the lowest cost of ownership.

As the millennials join the technology workforce, they may naïvely say that they want to replace the mainframe. It’s our responsibility to educate another generation so they can learn that the reliability, availability, security, and, foremost, the costs of the mainframe continue to make it the best computing platform available. Possible applications on the mainframe are only limited by your imagination, because today it provides all types of analytics, mobile, social, web based, or transactional computing abilities which make the world go around."

Watson & Walker Announce Winter Education Schedule
contributed by Ed Webb

For Details about the Classes, taught by Cheryl Watson and Frank Kyne, check out http://www.watsonwalker.com/education.html .

SYS1.PARMLIB: Enhancements and New Features in z/OS 1.13 and 2.1
November 3, 2014 - Whittlebury Hall, Whittlebury, UK
(the day before the GSE Conference)
March 1, 2015 - Seattle, Washington
(the day before the SHARE Conference)

Exploiting New Features of z/OS to Minimize Costs
December 8-10, 2014 - Dallas Texas

z/OS Software Pricing Strategies
December 11-12, 2014 - Dallas Texas

The Mainframe is 50

Mainframe Powers 'Innovation That Matters'

contributed by Ed Webb

"If cars evolved at the rate of IT, they’d get 1 billion miles per gallon by 2020.

That’s the power of the innovation the mainframe delivers, said IBM’s Chief Innovation Officer Bernie Meyerson during his keynote address at SHARE in Pittsburgh.

That power is only growing as the mainframe supports ever-more amazing advances. To really be worthwhile, Meyerson said, those advances must have a business foundation—and that’s something intrinsic to the innovations developed on the mainframe.

“System z has been an engine of innovation forever,” he said. “These are innovations that matter. They materially move the needle on society and technology.”

What kind of innovation? Finish reading this SHARE blog and learn more.

Humor

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

contributed by Chris Blackshire

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he's a maverick

BARACK OBAMA: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, the chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

JESSE JACKSON: Why are all the chickens white?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

AL SHARPTON: Are all of these chickens white?

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way the chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken was gay. If you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the Liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side.' That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish it's lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2014, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2014. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

   For those who enjoy language (or severe distortions thereof)
    contributed by Chris Blackshire
    Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under. 
    When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds. 
    The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
    You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it. 
    He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key. 
    Every calendar's days are numbered. 
    A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat. 
    He had a photographic memory that was never developed. 
    A plateau is a high form of flattery. A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.  
    Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end. 
    Once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall. 
    Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis. 
    Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses. 
   Acupuncture is a jab well done.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

7 p.m.

LabCorp in the RTP

Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto 1912 T.W. 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.

Free Food: Pizza, Drink, Dessert

Program:

SHARE August 2014 in Pittsburgh

Speaker:

Ed Webb of SAS and Ken Barkhau of HP Services

SPARTA News

P.O. Box 13194

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194

First Class Postage

SPARTA Corporate Sponsors: