Seeing is believing

Well it’s nearly Christmas and everyone is winding down for the festive break – whether they celebrate Christian holidays or not – so I thought I’d look away from mainframe things and turn my focus of attention to video eyeware!

I must admit that I watch less-and-less television in the lounge with others while the programmes are transmitted live, and more-and-more using iplayer or one of the other second-chance-to-see services offered by TV channels and others. Now rather than be solitary in my viewing habits, I thought it would be a good idea to invest in some video glasses with built-in speakers, so that at least I could sit in the same room as other members of my family, while catching up with those missed programmes.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept, what I wanted was something small – not too much bigger than a normal pair of glasses (and certainly not something that started life as 1990s virtual reality headgear). Instead of lenses there would be two flat screens, which would be so close to my eyes that it would look like I was watching a cinema-screen-sized TV picture. I also wanted to have earphones attached, so I could hear what was being said, etc.

I also wanted to test them out – to see whether they worked with my laptop. In addition, I wanted to see how long I could wear them for before they started to feel too heavy or make my eyes go blurry. And I wanted to see what quality the sound was and whether there was much sound leakage – which would have irritated anyone sitting next to me.

Sadly, I have as yet been unable to get review copies of any makes. So, I can’t include any recommendations with this blog. Also, it seems that there are only a few makes and models available in the UK (where I’m based) – certainly fewer than in the USA.

Amazon.co.uk offers MyVu’s Solo Plus for £49.99, Vizix AV920 for £195.00, CTA’s Digital Mobile Home Theater for £104.98, QL’s Theatre for £149.99, and ezGear’s ezVision Video Eye Wear for £140.00, amongst other models.

Amazon.com adds UNKN’s iDesign Digital Video Glasses $199.95 and Syba’s RCG RC-VIS62005 for $222.53, KJB’s C6000CL color video glasses with clear lenses for $364.12, eDimensional’s Wired eDimensional 3D gaming glasses for $69.95, i-Theater XY Video Glasses for $145.00, I-O Display’s i-glasses VIDEO for $779.00, and TheaView’s LV-QB02 Video Glasses for $259.00, amongst others.

It’s always nice to have choice, but it would be good to be able to compare these and see how well they work for my requirements. I don’t want to connect them to an iPhone, I don’t want to play games wearing them – on a Wii or anywhere else.

Having said that. They do seem to be an ideal solution to the problem of an antisocial TV viewer (me) being able to rejoin the rest of the family. They also seemed like they could be useful in so many other situations too. So, with Christmas coming up, if you’re stuck for what others can give you, try video eyeware – and let me know how well they work!

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Merry Christmas

IBM launches London Analytics Solution Centre – part 2

Last week I was talking about the launch of IBM's London-based Analytics Solution Centre and the fact that it joined six others across the globe. This week I want to tell you a little more.

Part of the documentation given to guests at the launch included some survey results of 225 business leaders worldwide. The survey found that enterprises are operating with bigger blind spots, and that they are making important decisions without access to the right information. Respondents recognize that new analytics, coupled with advanced business process management capabilities, signal a major opportunity to close gaps and create new business advantage. The documentation goes on to assure us that those who have the vision to apply new approaches are building intelligent enterprises and will be ready to outperform their peers.

Elsewhere it suggests that: “By embracing advanced analytics across the enterprise, intelligent enterprises will optimize three interdependent business dimensions:

• Intelligent profitable growth: intelligent enterprises have more opportunities for growing customers, improving relationships, identifying new markets, and developing new products and services.
• Cost take-out and efficiency: intelligent enterprises optimize the allocation and deployment of resources and capital to create more efficiency and manage costs in a way that aligns to their business strategies and objectives.
• Proactive risk management: intelligent enterprises have less vulnerability and greater certainty in outcomes as a result of their enhanced ability to predict and identify risk events, coupled with their ability to prepare and respond to them.

“Each of these dimensions is a critical part of optimization – the impact of a decision or action along any one of them will have repercussions for the others.”

Those, in a nutshell, are the compelling reasons that IBM sees for organizations to embrace the advanced analytic they are providing.

They also suggested some quick questions an enterprise could ask themselves to determine whether advanced analytics could help them. The questions were:

1. Is your view of customer data and customer profitability limited?
2. Are you unaware of how your reputation is being shaped by social networks and consumer blogs?
3. Are you incurring losses due to unmanaged risk or high rates of fraud?
4. Do you have blind spots related to customer and partner credit risk?
5. Are you operating in an environment of increased regulatory oversight and require better transparency to reduce risk?
6. Do you have duplicated or siloed data with multiple versions of the truth?
7. Are you unable to use information as a platform for growth and cost reduction?

Not surprisingly, IBM concludes that an answer of “yes” to any of these questions means it is time for an enterprise to think hard about business analytics and optimization.

So, let's just conclude by recapping what IBM says Business Analytics and Optimization can do. IBM asserts that it helps your organization run smarter by bringing together foundational business intelligence, performance management, and advanced analytics with proven models that accelerate your time-to-value, and predictive modelling. It concludes by suggesting that you get all this by utilizing IBM's “unparalleled research capability”.

I was convinced that analytics has an important future, what about you?

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IBM launches London Analytics Solution Centre

I was invited to Southbank for IBM’s launch of its London-based Analytics Solution Centre – joining six other similar centres across the globe. The morning session included an introduction by Carolyn Taylor, and presentations by Brendan Riley (IBM’s head honcho in the UK), Lord Peter Mandelson (who spoke very well), and Cambridge University’s Professor Andy Neely. After a short Q&A we were shown some very interesting demos.

So what are these Analytics Solution Centres? We were told that the centres will help IBM apply its advanced analytics expertise to the complex business challenges facing its clients. You’re perhaps no clearer after I’ve just given the official answer. So let me try to explain in another way...

They were suggesting that there are lots of little bits of information floating around that could be tied together because this bigger picture would then help organizations make better decisions. An example we saw on video was of traffic flow. How it would theoretically be possible to measure the movement made by people’s mobile phones to measure the actual flow of traffic along busy streets. Using this information, faster alternative routing information could then be sent to, perhaps, the sat navs in the cars. That way, everyone would arrive at their destinations faster.

Another example that was demo’d was about flooding in Galway Bay. Previously, the local harbour master might have decided that a particular combination of rainy weather, winds, and high tides put the town at risk of flooding. Now, sensors in buoys are linked to other information to come up with a much better picture of when flooding might occur. It also links into other systems measuring water quality. And further system links local fish restaurants with local fisherman, who can say what fish they are catching, and the restaurant can put those fish on their menu for that evening!

We also saw the ORX (Operational Riskdata eXchange Association) system – which is used to help members quantify risk exposure. It was something banks needed following the Basel II accord. The banks’ risk information is securely and anonymously exchanged, and the banks are from 18 different countries. The consequence of this initiative is that banks now have a much better understanding of their exposure to potentially damaging operational risk.

Andy Neely stressed the need for getting the organization architecture right. He suggested that getting IT right saw an 8% improvement, and getting the organization right also saw an 8% improvement. However, getting them both right at the same time led to a 34% improvement!

The motto of the presentation, if I might call it that, was “predict and act”. The suggestion was that currently organizations tended to sense something was going on and then respond.

The Analytics Solution Centre in London will comprise around 400 consultants, software specialists, and mathematicians, and will include recent graduates. This number will increase as business increases.

Other Analytics Solution Centres can be found in Berlin, Beijing, Dallas, Tokyo, New York, and Washington DC.

The whole thing looks very exciting and an area destined to grow.

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Clouding your thoughts

Cloud computing has received a number of boosts quite recently, and I thought I’d just run them down for you.

IBM made absolutely sure you knew their latest announcement was from them by calling it IBM Smart Business Development and Test on IBM Cloud (I usually put the acronym for a new product in brackets just after I give its full name, but this time I’ll just leave to you to work it out). This gives customers a free public cloud beta for software development. Get in early, because the beta will be open and free until general availability (sometime early in 2010).

IBM also announced the IBM Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing. This includes a set of ready-to-use application life-cycle management tools for developing and testing in the IBM Cloud.

Microsoft also has its head in the clouds and has announced Azure, as a way to bridge the gap between desktop and cloud-based computing. I guess the allure of Azure is that applications that were developed using a common Windows programming model can now be run as a cloud service.

Also clouding the distinction between what's a desktop application and what isn't, we've got the new Chrome OS. It just assumes that all applications are JavaScript-based Web applications that you use from a Web browser. So, effectively, every application is running in the cloud. And once a connection to the Internet is established, Chrome OS automatically synchronizes data using cloud storage.

Now I've read people commenting on how the Chrome OS will hit low-end Windows machines, but my guess is that it will actually hit Linux netbooks. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Linux and all things Open Source, but the real reason for running Linux on a netbook is because Vista is too memory hungry. OK, I know XP and Windows 7 are much better than Vista (or should I say, much much better!), but the idea of running Chrome OS on a netbook takes away the need to run Linux, and would appeal more to those people keen to experiment. Just a thought.

Going back to IBM, who have developed the world’s largest private smart analytics cloud-computing platform – aka codename Blue Insight – which combines the resources of more than 100 separate systems to create one large, centralized repository of business analytics. According to IBM, “cloud computing represents a paradigm shift in the consumption and delivery of IT services”. Blue Insight has allowed IBM to eliminate multiple Business Intelligence systems that were performing more-or-less the same ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) processes for different user groups.

Gartner Research are big fans of cloud computing, telling us that: “The use of cloud computing in general has been spreading rapidly over the past few years, as companies look for ways to increase operating efficiency and data security. The cloud industry, which is in its infancy, will generate $3.4 billion in sales this year.”

Merrill Lynch reckons that by 2011 the cloud computing market will reach $160 billion, including $95 billion in business and productivity applications. With that kind of money around, it’s no wonder that IBM and Microsoft are keen to get some of it.

And finally on this topic, IBM has announced a program designed to help educators and students pursue cloud-computing initiatives and better take advantage of collaboration technology in their studies. They’re calling it the IBM Cloud Academy. IBM provides the cloud-based infrastructure for the program, with some simple collaboration tools.

This is where I do the “every cloud has a silver lining” joke – or not!.

Guest blog – Shadow ROI

This week, for a change, I’m publishing a blog entry from DataDirect’s Jeff Overton, product marketing manager for Shadow. Jeff looks at the return on investment for Shadow users through Mainline/DataDirect TCO calculator.

For horizontal technologies, like integration, it is difficult to quantify Return On Investment (ROI) because it underpins many business systems. What can be quantified is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Nowhere is TCO more important than mainframes, where a single IBM System z10 can have the capacity of 1500 or more Intel servers. Licensing hardware and software on such an enterprise scale can be costly, so there is, and always has been, a need to manage this capacity and understand how its resources, such as processor time, are being allocated.

IBM’s line of specialty engines, including the System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP), are designed to help lower mainframe TCO by processing qualified workloads rather than having this work processed on the General Purpose Processor (GPP). These engines are just like a GPP except:

• Their capacity is typically not used in calculating software licensing fees based on mainframe capacity.
• Their processing speed is not governed, that is they run at full speed all the time
• Their processing capacity is enormous – a single zIIP engine for an IBM System z10 machine has a capacity of 920 MIPS.

At Progress DataDirect (www.datadirect.com/products/mainframe-integration/shadow-rte/index.ssp) we recognized the potential TCO savings from these engines, and four years ago re-architected DataDirect Shadow, our single unified platform for mainframe integration, to exploit these engines. In 2007 we introduced the first generation of that effort, and earlier this year introduced the second generation. Today we can offload up to 99% of the integration processing performed by the product. It is important to note that our implementation is in strict accordance with ISV use of the zIIP and does not cause IBM or any other third-party code to become zIIP-enabled. The market reception to leveraging zIIP specialty engines to legally reduce integration costs has been extremely well received.

However, IT decision makers requested we provide more estimates of the potential savings based on THEIR workloads. In response we partnered with Wintergreen research (www.wintergreenroi.com), a well-respected analyst firm specializing in TCO/ROI analysis, to deliver a Web-based calculator (www.datadirect.com/products/mainframe-integration/shadow-rte/shadow-tco-home/tco-calculator/index.ssp). The Calculator models the potential capacity savings, measured in MIPS, as well as the monetary savings. It uses what is called the Willhoit constant, named after Gregg Willhoit, our Chief Software Architect, who developed the algorithm that estimates the offload of DataDirect Shadow processing. Today the calculator covers two processor-intensive types of integration processing: Web Services and SQL. In as little as an hour, our field-engineering team can quantify the savings using your workload profile for:

• Number and type of Web services (requester or provider) or SQL statement type (join, aggregate, etc.)
• Size of SOAP payload or estimated result set size for SQL
• Invocations over a modelled timeframe – such as per-day or per-peak period to help model peak capacity requirements
• Cost per MIPS. Because cost can be calculated differently, the model offers the option to use the comprehensive Wintergreen mainframe-costing model, which includes hardware, software, data centre, and labour costs, or a way to use your own numbers.

Using these core metrics, the capacity and monetary savings are presented immediately. The Calculator goes further by modelling this workload out over an additional five years and provides parameters to account for changes in workload, mainframe capacity, and MIPS costs. This is a great, low-investment process to quickly get a clear picture of the costs over the typical five-year planning horizon that many organizations rely on.

In as little as an hour, IT can be in a much stronger position to provide detailed and accurate information to support ROI analysis of not only mainframe integration investments but the potentially large MIPS dividend available to the entire mainframe from utilizing zIIP specialty engines to process up to 99% of the integration processing performed by Progress DataDirect Shadow.

Thanks Jeff for being our first guest blogger. And remember, there's still time to complete the mainframe user survey or a vendor entry for the Arcati Mainframe Yearbook 2010.

GSE conference

I was lucky enough to attend the Guide Share Europe National Conference on 4th and 5th November at Whittlebury Hall. This pulled together lots of mainframers, who were very interesting to talk to – including three young lads who are mainframe apprentices! – plus numerous excellent speakers. There were also a number of vendors there in the exhibition area who were keen to chat and pass on information about their new products – which was also very informative.

I managed to have a long chat with NEON’s Tony Lubrano who gave a presentation in the New technologies stream on zPrime. He explained how zPrime 1.2 now includes an Enablement Console, making it easier for users to select the applications they want to move from the central processor to the zIIPs or zAAPs. There’s also an LE (Language Environment) Initialization Exit feature that automates the task of enabling LE-compliant applications to migrate to the specialty engines. Tony explained how these requirements had come from users and had been delivered in the new release.

The people from Innovation Data Processing were keen to talk about their core FDR products, plus the newer FDRERASE, and FDRERASE/OPEN, and FDRVIEWS, FDRMOVE, FDRMOVE, and FDRPAS.

I had an enjoyable catch-up with the team from Compute (Bridgend) who demonstrated their new SELCOPY/i, which is part of SELCOPY or CBLVCAT and provides multiple windows for user action and produces what they call a “mainframe desktop”. It’s worth checking the huge number of facilities on the Web site (www.cbl.com).

I was surprised to find mainframe companies I didn’t know. There was Thesaurus (www.i-tcs.com), which offers products, consultancy, and managed services, and have expertise with mainframe Linux. There was EZLegacy (www.ezlegacy.com), who had EZSource, their application-oriented configuration management database. There were two EPV (www.epvtech.com) products: EPV for z/OS and EPV for DB2. Olga Henning represented Blue Sea Technology (www.blueseasoft.com). Stephen Golliker represented Higobi (www.higobi.com).

There were many other exhibitors who were friendly and helpful discussing their products

But I didn’t really go for the exhibitors, I wanted to see some of the presentations. There were streams for CICS, IMS, DB2, Enterprise security, zLinux, Large systems working group, Network management working group, Software asset management, and New technologies.

I was particularly interested in the IMS stream – because of my work with the Virtual IMS Connection user group (www.virtualims.com), and managed to see an excellent presentation by IBM’s Alan Cooper on “Rock solid security in the post-SMU era”. I also sat in on the “Birds-of-a-feather” session to see how real IMS users are finding the product and particularly what difficulties they have to overcome in their environments.

It was an excellent event. It was well-organized and run. It was in a lovely location. And everyone I spoke to was friendly and helpful, and keen to talk mainframe technical talk. Many thanks to the organizers for setting up such an excellent event, and to Mark Wilson who was conference manager for this year’s conference.

BTW: if you like this blog, go to http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/03/238190/vote-in-the-computer-weekly-it-blog-awards-2009.htm. Look for Individual IT professional male, then use the drop-down menu to find Mainframe update and select it. Then go down the page and press "Done" - and you will have voted for my blog. Tell all your friends!

The big daddy of virtualization just got better

While all those Windows-warriors are talking about Windows 7 and virtualization strategies, the king of virtualization – IBM’s VM software – has seen the release of z/VM Version 6.1.

Microsoft has its desktop virtualization technology, and is up to Version 2 of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2009 (MDOP) – the add-on you need for most of the Windows 7 virtualization capabilities – assuming you have the right chip in the first place. The big thing about Windows 7 is that it lets users run their software in XP emulation mode! The App-V (Application Virtualization) client, which is built into MDOP, provides the client side for virtual application launches. Users can click desktop icons to launch a server-based application, which they can use as if it had launched on their own machine. Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) allows Virtual PC to launch on top of Windows 7 and adds a management capability by linking to Microsoft’s management server and providing the client-side support for policy-based usage controls, provisioning, and delivery of a virtual-desktop image. But enough about that!

Anyway, the new release of z/VM is available only on the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class server and System z10 Business Class server, and future System z servers (z11 and whatever comes next).

According to IBM, z/VM V6.1 offers:

• Guest LAN and Virtual Switch (VSWITCH) exploitation of the Prefetch Data instruction to use new IBM System z10 server cache prefetch capabilities to help improve the performance of guest-to-guest streaming network workloads


• Closer integration with IBM Systems Director by shipping the Manageability Access Point Agent for z/VM to help simplify installation of the agent


• Inclusion of post-z/VM V5.4 enhancements delivered in the IBM service stream.

IBM adds that this release provides the basis for some major future enhancements as indicated by the announced Statements of Direction that include:

• z/VM Single System Image:

IBM intends to provide capabilities that permit multiple z/VM systems to collaborate in order to provide a single system image. This is planned to allow all z/VM member systems to be managed, serviced, and administered as one system across which workloads can be deployed. The single system image is intended to share resources among all member systems.


• z/VM Live Guest Relocation:

IBM intends to further strengthen single system image support by providing live guest relocation. This is planned to provide the capability to move a running Linux virtual machine from one single system image member system to another. This is intended to further enhance workload management across a set of z/VM systems and to help clients avoid planned outages for virtual servers.

CA was quick on the scene offering Day One support for its many z/VM solutions.

I’m always interested in VM developments, I wrote two books about VM many years ago, and still have a soft spot for it. It seems that the big daddy of virtualization is still well ahead of any competitors out there and just keeps getting better.