System iNetwork

February 2009

February 23, 2009 9:19 AM

COMMON Gearing Up for a Converged Reno Conference

"COMMON has been doing a tremendous number of things since the Power convergence was announced at the annual meeting last year in Nashville--we're just polishing up the agenda for Reno, and on that agenda will be 39 sessions that are specific to AIX, although COMMON has had folks with AIX interest at events in the past," says COMMON President Randy Dufault. "But this is far and away the biggest effort we've put in so far to expand the facets of Power Systems."

The AIX community also represents an opportunity for COMMON, Dufault says, because the AIX community "just hasn't had the resources that COMMON brings.

"For instance, there hasn't been a formal IBM requirements process like ours that's served the i side for years--there's nothing like it for AIX, and IBM would like one because they want to hear from those customers, too," he explains.

Still, Dufault acknowledges that COMMON has to keep an eye on its members with IBM i interests.

"We have 58 brand new i-specific sessions this year, as well as a new lab," he says, noting that there are also related IBM i sessions that cover technologies like Linux on IBM i and the PowerVM stack.

Plus, there are 17 brand new speakers this year.

Tight Budgets and Low-Cost Rooms

While the economy might be the cause of educational belt tightening, Reno might represent one of the best COMMON values in years.

"The hotel room rates are the lowest they've been for the past ten conferences," Dufault says. "COMMON in Reno is far and away the best event in 2009 for anyone with a Power Systems interest."

Speaking of AIX, COMMON has been proactive in getting out to carry the COMMON story to the AIX community. At one AIX user group meeting, Dufault says a lot of interest was focused at IBM's PowerVM and virtualization with less focus on core AIX--and those two topics in particular are also of keen interest to the IBM i community.

"We're looking forward to seeing some folks with dedicated AIX interest in Reno," Dufault notes.

Keynote Shaping Up

While we'll be hard pressed to hear any announcements from IBM as game-changing as the move to a converged Power platform, other details like the keynote address are falling into place.

This year, COMMON's keynote will be delivered by Jeff Jonas, who is chief scientist of the IBM Entity Analytics group and an IBM Distinguished Engineer. The IBM Entity Analytics group was formed based on technologies developed by Systems Research & Development (SRD), which was founded by Jonas in 1984 and acquired by IBM in January 2005.

"Jeff Jonas is a great public speaker," Dufault says, noting that Jonas also has an interesting background in system security in the gaming industry. For even more on Jonas, check out his blog.

COMMON Cares

One of the cool things about COMMON is its effort to help others. Through its COMMON Cares program, the user group helps communities. In Reno, COMMON has chosen to team up with the Reno/Sparks community to hold its first-ever COMMON Charity 5K Run/Walk. The race is on Sunday, April 26th beginning at 8:30 a.m. with registration starting at 7 a.m. COMMON says the run/walk is for everyone, seasoned runners, early risers, or those trying to get back into shape. The race will start and finish at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, the site of the Annual Meeting and Exposition.

The fee is $35, and proceeds will be split between the COMMON Education Foundation (CEF) and a local Reno charity.

Plus, COMMON is giving back to the community where each event is held by holding a COMMON Cares Blood Drive. The inaugural blood drive will take place Sunday and Monday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. COMMON is partnering with United Blood Services, which runs non-profit community blood centers in 18 states and provides blood to more than 500 hospitals. For information on participating, as well as scheduling an appointment, check out the COMMON Cares pages for the Reno Conference.

Vote for New COMMON Board Members

Bruce "Hoss" Collins, Richard Dolewski, Leo Lefebvre, Pete Massiello, and Trevor Perry are COMMON's candidates for the 2009 Board of Directors election. The five will vie for three open positions. Electronic voting will run from March 30 through 5 p.m. April 28, 2009.

Dufault notes that, for the first time he's aware of in his 25 years of COMMON, members will be able to vote in person at COMMON in Reno. "It now gives the member a chance to meet the candidates face to face before they have to cast their votes," he adds.

The results will be announced Wednesday evening.

Execs Enter Here

The COMMON IT Executive Conference is also back this year after a successful sold-out event in Nashville last year. COMMON limited the number of open spots to 40 in Nashville, but has dropped it to 38 this year: "And that's to keep it a very intimate and special conference," Dufault explains.

The executive event is invitation-only, but if you want to wrangle a seat for your boss or yourself, check out the event page.

Book Your Rooms Now

COMMON's allocated room blocks haven't sold out yet, but they're going fast. More importantly, people might have a tendency to delay their room reservations because Reno is a casino city in a down economy--lots of available rooms, right? Maybe not. Dufault says there are two other large groups in town at the same time time, so COMMON members might want to book early to ensure they get the guaranteed rates.

Looking ahead to 2010, COMMON will return to the East Coast, with its annual meeting in Orlando at a brand new Hilton. There's a web cam that's been watching the construction. "When we first looked at the web cam, we couldn't make out much of a building, but they assure us it'll be finished by our 2010 conference," Dufault says.

The hotel is currently scheduled to open in August.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 23, 2009 at 9:19 AM | Comments (2)

February 18, 2009 10:43 AM

Vision Solutions Sees Changes in Resiliency Landscape

The high availability and disaster recovery space has changed drastically in the IBM i world during the last three years, and although the number of i-focused companies has contracted, the options for both hardware and software-based solutions has bloomed.*

Vision Solutions is working on an interesting mix of listening to customers and education at the same time. For instance, the company's Information Availability Institute surveyed 2,000 tech pros with IBM i and/or AIX skills last year to get a sense of their disaster recovery and business resilience expectations.

Basically, it comes down to a simple goal: "We're trying to understand more and more about what people are doing and what their needs are," explains Ed Vesely, senior vice president of marketing for Vision Solutions.

Some of the results of that survey and information gathering have revealed how Vision Solutions is responding to the market and potential customers. For instance, the company is teaming with IBM to deliver its "Resilience 2.0" half-day seminars at IBM Innovation Centers around the world. The first of 13 seminars kicks off Friday in Tokyo, and the last is July 20 in Deerfield, Illinois.

Although Vision Solutions no doubt wants to sell its solutions, a big part of the seminars is educating IBM customers on the different kinds of business-resilience methodologies, technologies available, and best practices. For instance, three fundamental types of HA/DR solutions exist for IBM i: operating system-based solutions (i.e., switched disks), storage-based solutions (i.e., SANs), and logical replication-based solutions (i.e., remote journaling).

Easier to Implement and Afford

The nice thing about all these options for Power Systems users is that there are options--and they are easier to implement and are more affordable than ever before. At the same time, more and more companies are finding themselves in need of better HA/DR and general resiliency strategies.

For instance, even small businesses are starting to find new requirements for backup and recovery.

"We're seeing it even in businesses as small as granaries," Vesely notes. The granaries, for example, typically store grain for area farmers and then sell it when the farmers deem the market price or timing is right. Insurance companies, Vesely says, now require these kinds of companies to have their businesses backed up.

If you think about it, this is a good thing. If a granary burned down and data was lost--or computer systems simply failed--the trickle effects to its customers could be devastating. Even a small wheat farmer stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars if he can't sell at the right time. This sort of new understanding seems to be permeating the world.

Meanwhile, there's the economy at large, which is also having another effect: every single day of sales is critical.

"With smaller businesses these days, an outage can really take them out--the smaller they are, the more vulnerable they are to business disruption," notes Bill Hammond, Vision Solutions product marketing manager.

The theme of Vision's "Resilience 2.0" idea?

"Resilience isn't something you reach as a pinnacle, it's a discipline that you have to exercise continually," Hammond says.

IT pros need to look at business resilience as if they were professional athletes--basketball players don't train to a certain point and then stop . . . they keep up their fitness, their skills, and they constantly try to improve.

One of the most important takeaways from Vision's survey from last year is that companies increasingly need to recover from an outage within 24 hours--and 56 percent of IBM i shops said they wanted to recover within 12 hours. For those who are living in a tape-backup world, resilience isn't particularly snappy.

For those who are looking at their own businesses with an eye toward reevaluating their HA/DR strategies, there are several areas to consider, Vesely says.

IBM i customers should take a look at new advanced automation--self-running and self-correcting solutions--that can help companies meet newly required levels of availability. Virtualization can not only help create resilient solutions, but it can also put organizations at risk by creating a single point of failure. As companies head down virtualization paths, they need to consider their backup/recovery options. Plus, recovery point objectives are becoming more strict--you want to identify how long you can afford to be down.

* Note: For a super-fast history, three basic technologies, IBM's PowerHA, and the latest trends, check out "The i Doesn't Get More Available than This."

Posted by cmaxcer on February 18, 2009 at 10:43 AM | Comments (3)

February 10, 2009 12:36 PM

Frank Soltis Has Landed

Dr. Frank Soltis, who recently retired from IBM, has landed a new gig: He has joined the Vision Solutions Technology Advisory Board. Vision Solutions focuses on high availability and disaster recovery solutions.

The company says Soltis will share his experience and insight as he helps guide product strategies. The board, by the way, is made up of IBM Power Systems experts, including employees, customers, business partners, and consultants.

"These industry leaders work on long-term technology and product strategies for advanced solutions across IBM Power Systems. There's nothing quite like it in the IBM Power Systems world today," notes Alan Arnold, chief technology officer and executive vice president of Vision Solutions, who leads the board as its chairperson. "We are honored to have Dr. Soltis join this prestigious team of professionals, where he will bring unique perspectives and insights."
 
And it turns out, Soltis won't be spending all his time around a big table behind closed doors. He'll be speaking at a few upcoming road shows with Arnold. They are set for:

• Milan, Italy -- Feb. 24, 2009 at 2 p.m., Grand Hotel Villa Toretta, Via Milanese 3, Seto San Giovanni
• Rome, Italy -- Feb. 26, 2009 at 2 p.m., Hotel Villa Pamphili, Via Della Nocetta 105, Rome
• Paris, France -- Feb. 27, 2009 at 9 a.m., Hotel Westminster, 13 Rue de la Paix, 75002 Paris

Hmm. Milan, Rome, Paris . . . it sounds like Soltis is a guy who really knows how to retire!

Posted by cmaxcer on February 10, 2009 at 12:36 PM | Comments (5)

February 2, 2009 9:55 AM

IBM to Preload Zend Core for Easy PHP Apps on i

With availability starting next week, IBM will begin preloading Zend Core from Zend Technologies as an installation image included with IBM i 5.4 and 6.1. This hot news slipped out in last week's IBM Announcement 209-011. We will, of course, bring you more details asap. In the meantime, what does this mean?

Basically, if you want to run PHP applications on IBM i, Zend Core delivers a PHP runtime environment for IBM i that includes the Zend Toolkit for integration with IBM i applications and DB2 data. Plus, Zend Core also includes the Zend Framework to make it easier for developers to deliver applications.

Although you can get started with free downloads from Zend, some customers have faced a bit of a hurdle--by having the installation image preloaded and ready to install, Zend Core comes with enough IBM backing that most shops should be able to take a step and install it.

IBM and Zend are including one year of Zend's Silver support, which offers web-based support, hot fixes, and product updates. Zend Core will continue to be licensed and supported by Zend Technologies.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 2, 2009 at 9:55 AM | Comments (12)