Global WebSphere Community Newsletter — November 2011
By Global WebSphere Community
Nov 7, 2011 3:18 PM CST
 
WUG News and Updates
Upcoming WUG Meetings:
Global WebSphere Community Impact 2012 Survey
Please take a few moments to answer these short survey questions so that we may make your experience as valuable as possible. We value your opinion!
GWC Member Rewards Program: Better Than Ever!
We're proud to announce some exciting updates to the GWC Member Rewards Program. Our program has been expanded to provide you, and all of our members, with exciting opportunities to contribute to the community and earn great rewards along the way.
More prizes
Each quarter, our top point earners have the opportunity to win IBM WebSphere Education, GWC merchandise, Impact 2012 awards, nomination to the IBM Champions program, and more based on their unique valuable contributions made to the GWC!
New point system
Earn loyalty points based on your activity on the Global WebSphere Community, including posting in a blog, uploading a WebSphere-related presentation, or providing a video of how your company is using WebSphere-related software and more. We've also introduced bonus points! Be on the lookout each month for the opportunity to double and even triple your loyalty points!
This month's bonus points
Submit a WebSphere-related blog post between now and the end of November, and you'll automatically earn double the normal amount of points you would receive!
Rules: Content uploaded must be unique, WebSphere-related content. Lifetime points will not be awarded for personal or non-WebSphere content or for duplicate content uploaded by the same person. Privacy setting for content must be set to "Public" where applicable. Prizes will be awarded based on value of the contribution to the community. Employees of IBM; UCG; and national, state, or local governments of any country are eligible to earn points and badges but are not eligible to win GWC Member Rewards prizes.
For more information, please click here. For a list of FAQs about the GWC Member Rewards Program, please click here.
Happy contributing!
Highlights From the November Blogs:
December 1: What's New in BPM and Decision Management on z?
Date: December 1, 2011
Title: What's New in BPM and Decision Management on z?
Time: 11 am EST (GMT -5)
Download the presentation and watch the video replay here!
Are you looking to improve the maintainability of your mainframe applications? IBM’s Business Process and Decision Management technologies for z/OS provide the perfect solution, increasing the flexibility of mission-critical applications running on System z, bringing visibility across your organization of how these applications work, and aligning them with applications running on distributed platforms.
At this session, you will learn:
- Why you should be thinking about Business Process and Decision Management for application modernization.
- What are the specific mainframe deployment options for IBM Business Process Manager and WebSphere Operational Decision Management
- How these products meet the specific architectural needs of z/OS applications
- How these products provide the ability to unify mainframe and distributed systems
December 8: What's New in WebSphere MQ v7.1 Security?
Date: December 8, 2011
Title: What's New in WebSphere MQ v7.1 Security
Time: 11 am EST (GMT -5)
Download the presentation!
Watch the video replay here!
Wondering whether to upgrade to WebSphere MQ v7.1? Concerned about security? If the answer to these questions is "yes", then this webinar is for you! The theme of the v7.1 release can be summed up in one word: Simplify. Learn how WMQ v7.1 features can replace channel security exits, reduce complexity, and consolidate security configurations into a single MQSC script. See how WMQ v7.1 enables security by default to block remote attacks. Find out how to streamline administrative tasks while improving security granularity. The presentation will also discuss how the new features interact with WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition and WebSphere MQ Advanced Message Security to provide a single secure environment for messages, files and applications end-to-end.
December 13: WAS V8.5 Alpha: The Lightweight WebSphere Application Server “Liberty” Profile
Date: December 13, 2011
Title: WAS V8.5 Alpha: The Lightweight WebSphere Application Server “Liberty” Profile
Time: 11 am EST (GMT -5)
Watch the video replay and download the presenation here!
This session will look at how the WebSphere Application Server is evolving to address the requirements of Developers. Developers need a lightweight WebSphere execution environment - in Eclipse or RAD - whose configuration is simple to edit, version and share, whose footprint is closely tailored the the application's needs, and whose execution behaviour has high fidelity to the target production system. This session focuses on new improvements in the Developer Experience for web applications and demonstrates how these dramatically simplify the edit-compile-debug cycle to improve developer productivity and reduce time to value. It will also look at a new production deployment scenario in which a configured instance of a server is "embedded" in an application.
December 15: IBM Policy & SLA Management and Monitoring at the Edge
Date: December 15, 2011
Title: IBM Policy & SLA Management and Monitoring at the Edge
Time: 11 am EST (GMT -5)
Watch the video replay and download the presentation here!
Policy is a standard or guideline that can help your organization manage its service availability and performance management in a repeatable and best practices manner. An SOA Policy actionable pattern has been implemented at IBM with WSRR for policy administration, WebSphere DataPower for policy enforcement, and Tivoli ITCAM for SOA for policy monitoring. The speakers will explain the basics of the pattern including the automated integration between products. They will also provide details around the policy implementation, and examples of policy usage for Service Availability and Performance Management.
Interested in Becoming a GWC Business Partner?
The Global WebSphere Community reaches tens of thousands of WebSphere professionals every month – the GWC Partner Program allows companies to get their message to decision makers in the community that they may otherwise not have the opportunity to reach. “When we want to send a targeted message specifically to people working in the WebSphere platform, the GWC Partner Program makes that happen for us”, says XebiaLabs CEO Coert Baart, a recent GWC Partner Program participant. He added, “A recent email sent to the community on our behalf resulted in dozens of new leads overnight.”
The GWC Partner Program delivers value far beyond simple advertising. They work as an advisor helping partners choose the right mix of sponsored articles, white papers and webinars that are likely to deliver the desired outcome to partners in terms of brand recognition and lead generation.
To learn how the GWC Business Partner Program can help you deliver targeted messages to WebSphere professionals, contact Scott Treggiari at scott.treggiari@wispubs.com or 1-781-751-8734.
WebSphere News and Announcements
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 7.0.0.1 Available for Download
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise helps you consolidate application servers and maximize utilization while monitoring application health.
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise 7.0.0.1 adds support for an elastic tier of On Demand Routers (ODRs) which grow and shrink based upon the current CPU demand for the ODR tier. This results in more server consolidation benefits with less administrative overhead. In addition, dynamic clusters of application servers are now supported when not fronted by ODRs. thus making it even easier to bring Virtual Enterprise into your environment.
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 7.0.0.1 adds support for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 8.0.0.x & KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) Toleration
Download WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 7.0 Fix Pack 1
2011 Global Chief Marketing Officer Study Largest of its Kind
In this comprehensive and in-depth study, more than 1,700 CMOs around the world shared what keeps them up at night and how their organizations are responding to the evolving scope and needs of marketing. There are several ways to leverage this study with clients, from IBM solutions linked to study findings, opportunities to schedule study briefing sessions with clients, and many more assets.
IBM CICS Scalability: New Features in V4.2
CICS® Transaction Server is the IBM® general-purpose transaction processing software for z/OS®. It is a powerful application server that meets the transaction-processing needs of both large and small enterprises. It builds on z/OS and System z® facilities to provide high availability and scalability at a low cost per transaction, and it supports large transaction volumes with a fast and consistent response time.
CICS Transaction Server for z/OS handles billions of transactions a week. Companies around the world rely on their CICS systems in their daily operation. It is important that the CICS systems can scale to meet the demands of the customer's business. CICS Transaction Sever provides a scalable solution that scales horizontally by supporting the distribution and control of work between multiple CICS regions in a z/OS sysplex.
The newest release, CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Version 4.2, includes scalability enhancements that allow more work to be done quicker in a single CICS system. This enhancement allows increased vertical scaling and can decrease the need to scale horizontally, thus reducing the number of regions that are required to run the production business applications.
The scalability enhancements in CICS Transaction Server Version 4.2 fall into two broad areas: increased exploitation of Open Transaction Environment (OTE) and increased exploitation of 64-bit storage.
New on the Web
IBM Business Agility Study: Cutting Through Complexity with Business Agility
This Business Agility study surveyed companies in the financial, insurance and healthcare industries. Each company surveyed described themselves as agile and achieved significant business results. The study reveals strong correlation between business agility and success and agility can be a powerful tool for cutting through the complexities dominating the corporate landscape to seize opportunities.
Download the white paper to gain greater insights into these industry leading companies and understand what these companies discovered and how they realized greater agility to achieve success.
Enterprise OSGi YouTube Channel
For those with an interest in OSGi, why not look at the Enterprise OSGi YouTube channel which contains short videos of OSGi education. Feel free to submit your own video by contacting @sjmaple
Datasheet - IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid V8
Today’s globally integrated business environment needs smarter IT solutions that respond to changing business demands of the dramatic growth of web activity and requires cost effective business transaction processing. With rising customer expectations, businesses require 24×7 availability for OLTP processes while at the same time needing to take advantage of the cost savings available through batch processing. Traditional batch, however, suffers from the limitations of a “batch window,” which does not support the 24×7, always-on, uptime requirement of OLTP applications. To achieve the best of both worlds, IBM has introduced an integrated multifunctional and multiplatform Java batch solution that improves operational efficiency of business transaction processing, with support for batch jobs alongside online transactions. It delivers a near real-time user experience while optimizing costs.
Simple batch jobs alone may not address the challenges of the modern enterprise. Your IT team needs to repeatedly extend custom functionality to meet tactical needs. But over time, it becomes a suite of custom middleware that is expensive to maintain and draws resources away from core business objectives.
A batch solution that takes into account your requirements and uses your existing infrastructure is now available. The solution incorporates best practices and lessons learned from the emerging paradigms of High Performance Computing, GridComputing, and Utility Computing. Today’s infrastructures must easily adapt, incorporating future technologies, and the applications hosted within it need to be able to use modern tooling and programming best practices.
IBM® WebSphere® Extended Deployment Compute Grid V8 is a next-generation batch processing system, designed to meet the requirements of any industry and company size.
With WCG v8, your organization can:
- Optimize cycle time—provide flexibility in business processes to run bulk or real-time activities, depending on business needs
- Simplify architecture and manage costs with shared service infrastructure for batch and OLTP
- Improve time-to-market of deliverables with a standardized programming model, tools and a shared infrastructure for developing batch and OLTP services
- Experience “batch as a service,” an emerging service paradigm for using Java batch front-ended with web services
- Simplify end-to-end batch management across different execution environments such as WAS (V6, V7 and V8) and CICS
- Reduce costs by executing batch processing in Java and off loading to zAAP engines on z/OS®
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Figure 1: Customers need near real-time information and an always-on OLTP system. The IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid
solution enables the interleaving of OLTP and batch workloads 24×7, as shown in this diagram (click image to enlarge). |
Benefit from a proven batch architectural framework for modernization:
IBM has created an architectural framework that provides a platform for meaningful integration between OLTP and batch applications. This approach allows continuous batch execution using shared business logic on a shared infrastructure between batch and OLTP applications without impacting response time requirements for OLTP applications, providing you with a near real-time experience.
WCG is an integral part of this architectural framework for batch modernization. It offers a consistent and systematic integration strategy across multiple business components. It allows for continuous batch processing, enables SOA transformation through reuse of services, uses in-house Java skills for batch modernization projects, reduces cost through use of specialty processors and improves hardware efficiency by utilizing unused capacity during OLTP processing for batch windows.
The WCG, in combination with WebSphere Application Server (WAS), offers multiple configuration options and support for multiple business models and deployment platforms. It also supports a wide range of scenarios, from open source projects with no up-front budget, to simple administration of a single server environment, to a clustered, highly available, high-volume environment with edge-of-network services.
WCG can address a number of usage patterns:
- Share services and reuse code between OLTP and batch
- Reduce batch windows or compress time using the Parallel Job Manager
- Run batch workloads in a 24x7 mode in conjunction with OLTP applications
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| Figure 2: WebSphere Application Server is a powerful Java execution platform. WCG extends the WebSphere Application Server to provide a managed batch execution container environment. It is designed to run on both IBM System z® and distributed platforms. (click image to enlarge). |
The new version of WCG v8 provides a managed batch execution environment that enables the entry, execution and management of Java batch processing in distributed or on mainframe environments.
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Figure 3. Click image to enlarge
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| Figure 4. Click image to enlarge |
IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid v8 provides an end-to-end managed batch execution experience by combining enterprise-strength qualities of services with developer and data center productivity tools to bring time-to-value benefits into a pre-integrated framework for batch workload execution.
For more information:
To learn more about the IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid v8, please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner or visit: ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/extend/computegrid/. Additionally, financing solutions from IBM Global Financing can enable effective cash management, protection from technology obsolescence, improved total cost of ownership and return on investment. Also, Global Asset Recovery Services help address environmental concerns with new, more energy-efficient solutions. For more information on IBM Global Financing, visit: ibm.com/financing
IBM Redbook: Scaling BPM Adoption from Project to Program with IBM Business Process Manager
Your first Business Process Management (BPM) project is a crucial first step on your BPM journey. It is important to begin this journey with a philosophy of change that will enable you to avoid common pitfalls that lead to failed BPM projects, and ultimately, poor BPM adoption. This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the methodology and best practices that lead to a successful project and how to use that success to scale to enterprise-wide BPM adoption.
The intended audience for this book includes all people who participate in the discovery, planning, delivery, deployment, and continuous improvement activities for a business process. These roles include process owners, process participants and subject matter experts (SMEs) from the operational business as well as technologists responsible for delivery including BPM analysts, BPM solution architects, BPM administrators, and BPM developers.
IBM® Redguide: Cloud Computing and the Value of zEnterprise
The emergence of cloud computing delivery models for IT services has many executives thinking they this can reduce costs and improve qualities of services for their user communities. But, not all server platforms are equal when it comes to cloud computing. The function rich, highly secure zEnterprise infrastructure makes it an ideal environment for cloud computing. This IBM® Redguide™ publication highlights the distinctions of cloud computing on the IBM® zEnterprise System and its unique ability to integrate and manage workload-optimized software solutions spanning multiple server architectures.
IBM® zEnterprise System has the unique capability to create a heterogeneous cloud solution in one single managed environment. It provides the opportunity to optimize your cloud environment with the integration of the mainframe, IBM POWER®, and IBM System x® and the management of these workloads is simplified by the IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager. Cloud computing on the zEnterprise System provides service management capabilities that results in higher levels of staff productivity and enhances the qualities of services delivered to the consumer. A zEnterprise cloud environment also allows providers to more closely align their IT investments with their business goals and user demands.
IBM® Redguide: Introduction to CICS Transaction Server and the Ecosystem
This IBM® Redbooks® publication takes a look at CICS® which stands for
Customer Information Control System. It is a general-purpose transaction processing subsystem for the z/OS® operating system. CICS provides services for running an application online, by request, at the same time as many other users are submitting requests to run the same applications, using the same files and programs.
CICS manages the sharing of resources, the integrity of data and prioritization of execution, with fast response. CICS authorizes users, allocates resources (real storage and cycles), and passes on database requests by the application to the appropriate database manager (such as DB2®). You could say that CICS acts like, and performs many of the same functions as the z/OS operating system.
The paper looks at the history of CICS, why it was created, reviews the CICS architecture, and look at how to create an application in CICS in many different languages, from Assembler to Java.
The Redbook publication then looks at the systems programming side, and how the systems programmer can use CICS facilities and services to customize the system, design CICS for recovery, and manage performance. The publication also look at CICS Data, where is it stored, from Temporary storage queues, to VSAM RLS and DB2, and of course discuss threadsafe and the benefits converting to threadsafe.
Interfaces available in CICS reviewed. A few discuss are:
- Front end programming interface (FEPI)
- External CICS interface (EXCI)
- IP Interconnectivity (IPIC)
- CICS transaction gateway (CTG)
CICSPlex® SM is explained, and why you would want to use CICSPlex SM. CICS Explorer™ and the benefits that can be gained from using the CICS Explorer are also reviewed.
Finally, a review of the tools available with CICS, firstly the CICS Tools, such as CICS Performance Analyzer, CICS Interdependency Analyzer , CICS Deployment Assistant, and many more. Also reviewed are the PD Tools, these include IBM File Manager, IBM Fault Analyzer to name a few.
IBM® Redguide: IBM z/Transaction Processing Facility: Overview and Enterprise Integration Using SOA
IT executives and decision makers are under constant pressure to deliver simultaneously near-term cost savings while also modernizing IT architectures and systems to allow the business to respond more rapidly to, and to take advantage of, changing market conditions.
In the past, some IT executives were given a budget and the latitude to pursue “green field” development of entirely new IT solutions to replace existing systems with a goal of providing, at a minimum, a solution that is more flexible and amenable to future changes. However, today’s global economic conditions have significantly curtailed this approach to modernization. IT executives are challenged to show a return on investment significantly sooner which is causing many companies to take a more incremental, evolutionary approach to modernizing their systems.
Certainly new IT architectures, systems, and solutions continue to be developed, but their focus has shifted away from replacing existing solutions to implementing solutions to new problems and providing new capabilities to the business. A common architecture that is used for these incremental modernization efforts is one based on service orientation and the adoption of industry-standard frameworks. This architecture allows IT executives to extract the most value from existing assets by prescribing standardized ways to achieve application and system interoperability in a non-proprietary manner. IT executives can then build out new capabilities that either augment, or make use of, existing solutions faster and with greater flexibility and choice.
IBM® Transaction Processing Facility (TPF), with its latest version being IBM z/Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF) Enterprise Edition v1.1, has a lineage that dates back to the 1960s. It is used by many Fortune 500 and multiple Fortune 100 companies, typically providing the infrastructure that enables one of their main sources of revenue. Said another way, the underlying TPF architecture, which remains unchanged with z/TPF, combined with TPF-based applications, provides a proven solution to some of the most demanding transaction-based workloads—workloads that require a globally consistent view of the business’s critical data that is undergoing near-constant change, while also providing extremely high levels of availability. Beyond this core capability, z/TPF also provides for a modern, open run time that allows it to be an active participant in the larger enterprise architecture. z/TPF relies on an open Linux® and Eclipse-based development environment that expands the z/TPF talent pool.
This IBM Redguide™ publication describes the business drivers and their impact on IT. This guide also discusses how z/TPF, in conjunction with the System z® hardware platform, can play a significant role in an enterprise’s overall IT architecture by providing flexibility, responsiveness to market and customer needs, and cost effectiveness. It also discusses the features and capabilities in z/TPF that provide for greater application insight, allowing z/TPF-based assets to be modernized through service orientation and the adoption of industry-standard application frameworks.
Cast Iron Customer Testimonial - eBioscience
Austin Zoutis, CIO of eBioscience, shares how this mid-size Biotech uses Cloud technology as part of his organization's strategy to maximize IT resources and costs. Austin shares how using WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration to integrate their Cloud CRM and on premise ERP systems provide his account team with a 360 view of customers as well as:
- Streamline business processes
- Driving additional revenue
- Foster innovation for the entire organization
Cast Iron Partner Testimonial - ForeFront
Anne Marie Berger of ForeFront, a boutique SI specializing in integration, recounts how partnering with IBM using WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration empowers ForeFront to deliver and achieve successful Cloud Computing strategies for their clients, as well as save them money, time and risk by avoiding mistakes on their connectivity projects.
Video Testimonial: Teletech - Partnering with Cast Iron to Achieve Customer Satisfaction
Teletech, a global business process outsourcer uses WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration to connect a host of business critical applications for their client. Hear Carol Kline and Theresa Enebo recount how partnering with IBM provides them with the agility and scalability to achieve rapid application integration, a very satisfied customer-base and a competitive edge through their portfolio of products and services. Part of the IBM Cloud Thought Leadership Series
Video Testimonial: Taser Intl - Cut Costs and Increase Productivity Through Cloud Integration
Part of IBM's Cloud Thought Leadership series, Asa Perry and Kevan Bray of Taser International, an international leader in manufacturing self-defense and personal security products, discuss how deploying WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration to connect their Cloud CRM application (salesforce.com) and their on premise ERP system (Microsoft Dynamics AX) allowed them to achieve:
A quick ROI Substantial cost-savings A drastic increase in user productivity and customer satisfaction
Learn how this successful Cloud strategy empowers their remote sales teams to maximize mobile technology and reduce lost hour and risk by eliminating erroneous data—factors which equate to a clear competitive advantage.
Big EARs and OSGi
Earlier this year, the EnterpriseOSGi YouTube channel was launched. The channel was created as part of the Evangelism strategy for OSGi applications and is dedicated to bringing latest OSGi news and WebSphere OSGi applications updates and new features. The first video uploaded was presented by Ian Robinson titled “Big EARs and OSGi”. Updates will be made over the coming months covering WAS v8 and the new features that were included. Many more videos have since been uploaded. If you would like to contribute to the Enterprise OSGi channel, please contact Simon Maple (@sjmaple)
Don't Miss These Whitepapers:
Ready-to-Use SOA Governance for IBM WebSphere
SOA Software's products provide Ready-to-Use SOA Governance for IBM WebSphere. This allows customers to confidently use IBM WebSphere products as part of a heterogeneous enterprise SOA environment sharing services with other commercial SOA platforms like SAP, Microsoft and Oracle, as well as RedHat and other open source providers. IBM WebSphere customers add SOA Software Ready-to-Use SOA Governance solution to IBM WebSphere to: 1) Ensure that services they identify, design and build using WebSphere products are relevant and consumable to applications they plan, design, build and deploy using other technologies like Microsoft or Oracle, or buy from other vendors like SAP; 2) Make services they expose from applications running on WebSphere products visible to and compliant with enterprise policies defined, enforced and audited across other platforms; and make services they design and build using other platforms like Microsoft and open source environments visible to and compliant with enterprises policies defined, enforced and audited across their WebSphere applications. This “Ready-to-Use” solution is unique to SOA Software in the market.
Demystifying Middleware for DevOps
Today’s application environments require coordination and collaboration across virtually all silos, and this is typically accomplished with teams of senior specialists from both Development and Operations. Tools play a key role in DevOps, and the right ones can be a bridge supplying a “common language” across teams with diverse capabilities and “technology languages”.
Too often, the development team lacks critical access to the tools they need to reproduce production problems. This is particularly true of management tools for middleware solutions, such as IBM WebSphere MQ (WMQ). Typically, testing teams must interact with WMQ administrators to request WMQ-specific information, since they have no direct access of their own.
In this whitepaper you will learn EMA’s perspective on enabling development and QA teams with high quality tools that deliver visibility to WMQ messages. Nastel’s “freemium” AutoPilot® On-demand for WebSphere MQ gives these teams access to a production-grade MQ diagnostics solution using a web browser, and without impacting production systems.
Education and Certification
 40% Off IBM Press Book: "Decision Management Systems" by James Taylor
IBM Press has just released a new book, available for purchase at the GWC 40% Member Discount. The book is "Decision Management Systems: A Practical Guide to Using Business Rules and Predictive Analytics", authored by James Taylor. You can purchase the book with the special member discount here.
New Why IT Certify Website
In recent IDC studies, 66% of managers said certification of their employees improves levels of service and support offered to both IT end-users and customers? Certified staff are empowered to adapt, deploy, and deliver better and faster than competitors who don’t understand just how much certification can do for them.
This is just one of the many proof points available on the new Why IT Certify (link to - http://whyitcertify.com./) site. Sections devoted to IT professionals, IT business partners and IT decision makers make navigation easy and provide only the most relevant data to each group. This site is not just devoted to those who are still questioning the value of professional certification, there are links to IBM Certification sites, exams and easy access to test registration. Everything needed to get started - or continue - on the road to certification.
So take some time to view the site, including the Top Ten IT Certification FAQs, you may learn something you didn't know you should know about the Value of Professional Certification!
 Save 15% on Training with Our IBM Education
Pack Special Offer
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valued at $25,000 or more. That means, for example, you can get $25,000 worth of training for $21,250, or $100,000 for just $85,000. Lock in savings now, and you’ll have a full 12 months to spend IBM Education Pack funds. Act now! This offer is good October 4 through December 30, 2011, only.
For purchases within the US, please click here
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Upcoming Webcasts, Seminars, and Events
Don't Miss These Upcoming Events:
Now Available: IBM TechChat Series for Monthly Online Chat with IBM Experts
The IBM TechChat Series provides IT professionals and practitioners with an opportunity to chat online “live” with IBM experts worldwide, in three different time zones. Each TechChat is scheduled for 30 minutes monthly between April-Nov, 2011, and features built-in translation so users can chat freely and easily without a language barrier between them. A one-time registration for one or more chats is available at www.ibm.com/smarter/techchats, where users also can submit a question to experts in advance of the TechChat.
Impact 2012 Global Conference Shaping Up as Boon for Business Partner Sponsors
Attendance at the Impact 2012 Global Conference is expected to exceed that of 2011, meaning even greater opportunities for event sponsors. If that weren’t enough, there’s more exciting news for Business Partners. In addition to the many benefits enjoyed by last year's sponsors — including hosting Summit sessions and a Solution Center Welcome Reception, both of which drew thousands of attendees — there are new conference locales, new discounted EXPO passes, enhanced pre- and post-event marketing opportunities and enhanced turnkey booth packages. Encourage your clients to download the sponsorship package today.
Reminder: Impact 2012 Early Bird Registration Discount
This past year's IBM Impact Global Conference generated more new pipeline — approximately $500M in validated lead revenue — than any other IBM global software conference. Attendance at the Impact 2012 Global Conference is expected to exceed that of 2011. Your clients can save $300 per person with the Impact 2012 early bird registration discount. Registration must occur on or before March 2, 2012, to receive the discount.
Don't Miss These Upcoming and On Demand Webcasts:
December 8: Decision Management: Dynamically Changing the Behavior of Mainframe Applications
Thursday, Dec 8. 11am EST. Join us for this webcast and you’ll learn how adoption of Decision Management can address both of these questions while facilitating flexibility throughout the entire enterprise. Application owners want better visibility of the logic that drives their systems, along with the ability to quickly make changes.
On-Demand: From Oracle to IBM: A Customer's Journey
Date: On Demand
Duration: 60 Minutes
Please join us for a webcast “From Oracle to IBM: A Customer's Journey” to hear from D+H, a premier integrated solutions provider to Canadian banks and financial institutions. The webcast will outline the rationale behind their decisions to migrate from Oracle/Sun technology to IBM technology within a key line of business.
With over 4500 employees in over 20 locations, D+H offers a diverse set of solutions including cheque programs, lending solutions, student loan processing, and registry services.
In this webcast, D+H will share the key differences between the IBM and Oracle solution offerings, customer experiences, and the tangible business benefits of their evolving relationship with IBM from vendor & customer to strategic partner.
On-Demand: XebiaLabs Discusses Best Practices for Accelerated Application Delivery Highlighting Delivery to IBM Workload Deployer
Middleware environments are becoming increasingly complex. Developers search for ways to eliminate time spent waiting for others to deploy new application code, administrators cope with the emergence of clouds and ever-faster software release cycles by automating the deployment process, and managers know they can save significantly in time and money by eliminating inefficiencies in the IT workflow.
In this webinar, you will learn how Deployit, the XebiaLabs release automation platform, optimizes the delivery of applications to IBM’s WebSphere and cloud environments.
Join us and:
- Learn about Application Release Automation trends and Best Practices.
- Hear how you can optimize the delivery of your WebSphere applications via the Deployit platform.
- Learn the pitfalls of creating your own deployment scripts and get more insight into the managing of applications outside of the WebSphere stack.
On-Demand: Succeeding with Business Agility: Five Forward-Thinking Organizations
Attend this webcast series to hear from Nationwide, Aetna, Premiere Healthcare with Parker Hannifin and AXA Seguros -- five companies that took different paths to becoming more nimble and creative in how they deliver new policies and products, enter new markets, serve clients and comply with new regulations. Listen to their experts discuss business goals, what challenges they needed to overcome, what they needed to focus on and how they got results.
Consider this a mini-course in Business Agility taught in the best possible way – by example. This webcast series is sponsored by IBM.
On-Demand: How to Evolve from a Red-Line Budget Item to a Top-line Revenue Generator
It’s a new day for marketers at mid-size companies. Nowhere is this change more dramatic than in the direct revenue contribution assigned to today’s CMO and other senior marketers. They are being asked to directly contribute to revenue and to show exactly how that contribution has occurred and will occur. And, quite frankly, it is an uncomfortable place for many given their lack of experience and training in this new direction.
Debbie Qaqish share her insights on the Journey of the Revenue Marketer and how to move from a cost center to a revenue generator. She'll tell how modern analytics and CRM can turn marketing ROI from art to science, and how successful companies are learning to leverage these four principles:
- Tightly integrated marketing automation and CRM
- Marketing accountability for funnel management and conversion metrics deep in the pipeline
- Reporting on past results and forecasting future results
- Variable compensation tied to revenue-oriented metrics
On-Demand: Maximize the Power of Business Agility to Innovate, Transform and Grow Your Business
Rising change and complexity are the new normal. Uncertainty from marketplace shifts and surprise disruptions is part of our business life. To manage this new reality, successful companies are turning to the power of business agility to drive the transformation and growth they are seeking.
Think about the processes that make your business run.
- Do they fuel innovation?
- Are they interconnected and adaptable enough?
- Can you make the right decisions quickly or even automate them?
- Does your infrastructure perform optimally amidst change and uncertainty?
- Can you embrace new application and service delivery models like cloud and mobile?
Our speakers tackling these questions for you will be Peter Hinssen, an expert in IT as a source of business innovation and keynote speaker at the Global CIO Forum, Denise Hatzidakis, CTO of Premier Healthcare Alliance, along with Nancy Pearson Vice President of IBM BPM and SOA for IBM Software Group and resident expert on Business Agility. Moderating the talk will be Editor-in-Chief of Events at InformationWeek, Brian Gillooly.
IBM is helping organizations successfully achieve business agility to transform and grow in today's challenging market environment.
 On-Demand: Successful salesforce.com & ERP Integration - Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid
During Dreamforce 2011, we heard IT executives from mid-size and Fortune 200 organizations discuss their success in connecting salesforce.com to on premise ERP systems. In part II of this series, you will hear more detail on how thought-leaders across company size and industry are utilizing Cloud integration to maximize the value of their salesforce.com investment.
Join Chandar Pattabhiram, VP of Product and Channel Marketing and Dan Moore, Vice president of Professional Services at IBM/Cast Iron - as they discuss how the right combination of strategy and technology to connect your Cloud and on premise applications can increase productivity, reduce risk and translate into a competitive advantage.
Through Dan Moore's experience in working with our customers, he'll teach you how to:
- Use essential integration best practices to integrate salesforce.com to other business critical applications
- Create an environment of repeatable success
- Improve productivity, data quality and ultimately customer satisfaction
- Eliminate the risks and pitfalls of adopting Cloud or hybrid application environments
On Demand: IT Executive Insider: Successful salesforce.com & ERP Integration - Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid
As IT executives from mid-size and Fortune 200 organizations experience success in connecting cloud applications to on premise ERP systems, in this Webinar you will hear more detail on how thought-leaders across company size and industry are utilizing Cloud integration to maximize the value of their salesforce.com investment.
Join Jaime D'Anna, PMM and Dan Moore, Vice president of Professional Services at IBM/Cast Iron - as they discuss how the right combination of strategy and technology to connect your Cloud and on premise applications can increase productivity, reduce risk and translate into a competitive advantage.
Through Dan Moore's experience in working with our customers, he'll teach you how to:
- Use essential integration best practices to integrate Cloud applications to other business critical systems
- Create an environment of repeatable success
- Improve productivity, data quality and ultimately customer satisfaction
- Eliminate the risks and pitfalls of adopting Cloud or hybrid application environments
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