Ibm Systems Mag Mainframe 20110304

REGISTER TODAY!http://ibmsystemsmag.webex.comB Click on “Event Center”

DATE & TIMEWednesday, March 9, 2011 – 11 a.m. EST

WHO SHOULD ATTENDVP/Director for IT, development managers, project managers, architects, analysts and systems programmers, developers, deployment engineers

AGENDAPlease attend a complimentary one-hour webcast to learn how the new and enhanced development tools from IBM Rational® can help simplify development and delivery of multiplatform applications that span z/OS®, Linux on System z®, AIX® on POWER®, Linux on POWER(R), and Linux on System x® under a single management domain. The Rational software development platform offers developers an integrated set of tools, best practices and workbenches to overcome cross-platform development challenges, including capabilities to revitalize applications, empower developers, unify teams and exploit the new zEnterprise™ infrastructure. These elements all contribute to help simplify and accelerate the creation, maintenance and enhancement of enterprise applications which run on multiple platforms across the enterprise. These are some of the topics we’ll cover during this webcast: B How Rational solutions work with zEnterprise systems to enable mainframe development on a Linux- based PC or on System z B A platform which allows the entire development team to stay informed of development, build, and test status as updates are made across the development project B Tools to enable developers to discover and analyze existing application assets in order to lower the cost of reusing or lower the risk of enhancing, or use as components or services for new applications

SPECIAL OFFERRegister to receive an IBM System z “Can do-it eKit” and Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for System z.

FEATURINGB Peter S. Wassel, Featured Speaker Program Director, System z and Cross-Platform Segments, IBM Rational Software

B Doug Rock, Moderator Publisher, IBM Systems Magazine

LEARN MORE about Modern Application Development and Deployment at IBM’s System z Technology Summit, coming soon to a city near you!

www.ibm.com/software/os/systemz/summit/track3.html

WEBINAR | Register now!

WHY ACCELERATE ENTERPRISE MODERNIZATION WITH IBM RATIONAL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS?A System z Developer’s Journey Through the Application Lifecycle

B Tim Hahn, Featured Speaker IBM Distinguished Engineer, IBM Master Inventor, IBM Rational Software

Address 8 Service-Delivery Challenges Page 40

March/April 2011 ibmsystemsmag.com

MAINFRAME

Cognos on System z Reduces BI CostsPage 36

Companies stay ahead of the competition using IBM's end-to-end offerings Page 32

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© Dan Cardiff - iStockphoto

Not everyone trains to be

a Search and Rescue Swimmer...

z / V M P E R F O R M A N C E T O O L S F R O M z / V M P E R F O R M A N C E P E O P L E

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Search and Rescue is often done during the worst conditions imaginable. It’s a tough job and one that demands the best people and tools you can fi nd. The same can be said for those managing complex z/VM environments. Migrating Linux servers to z/VM creates many challenges and fi nding the right tools and training is nearly impossible. It’s why Velocity Software continues to offer both free education and some of the best z/VM tools in the business. In 2010 we trained more than 100 customers, business partners, and IBMers at no charge. We intend to expand our topics and more than double that number during 2011.

But training is just one factor when it comes to successfully managing your z/VM complex. To simplify the way you manage z/VM and instantly improve productivity, Velocity is announcing a web based option of zVPS (Velocity’s Performance Suite for System z). zPRO (z/VM Professional) provides an intuitive systems management portal for z/VM and Linux on System z. It can be used to clone servers (Linux and others), manage your Directory, handle document retrieval, manage Spool Files, and administer TCP/IP and RACF defi nitions as you develop your cloud environment with IBM System z. zPRO can be installed in minutes along with zVPS. Why make the job any tougher than it is already? Take a little of the “chill” out of being a z/VM professional. Contact us for more information about pricing, demos, and trials.

zVPS from Velocity Software. It’s the smart thing to do.

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Mainframe MARCH/APRIL 2011

Inside

COVER STORYDriving Outcomes ± 32

Successful companies fuel

business with predictive analytics.

By Kathy Konkel, cover illustration

by Oliver Burston

FEATUREHurdling Barriers

to Success ± 36

IBM demonstrates Cognos BI

on Systems z is less expensive

than x86 deployments.

By Rebecca Wormleighton

CASE STUDYA Sound Investment ± 28

Citigroup tames its backup

environment with dedicated

mainframes. By Jim Utsler

28

IBM has some strong algorithms built into the

machines, as well as crypto engines and certificate management.”

— Martin Kennedy, managing

director of enterprise-systems

infrastructure Citigroup Inc.

2 M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 i b m s y s t e m s m a g . c o m / m a i n f r a m e / / m a i n f r a m e24

32

36

Inside

2

DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Desk ± 12

Predicting a Good Read

Dashboard ± 14

Charging Ahead

Data Display ± 16

Smarter Cities Large and Small

Think Smarter ± 18

Capture Insight From Real-Time

Operational Data With Smart

Analytics Systems

Insider ± 22

Agnostic Development Tools Support

Mainframe-Centric Businesses

Trends ± 26

DataPower Support for zEnterprise

Extends its Multiplatform

Capabilities

Tips and Techniques ± 40

Overcome Eight Key Service-Delivery

Challenges and Reduce Costs

Solutions ± 45

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PlexSpy Application Status Monitor

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Resources ± 47

Advertisers’ Index

Stop Run ± 48

Bijan Davari Changed the Computer

Chip

®

Mainframe JULY/AUGUST 2010

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 i b m s y s t e m s m a g . c o m / m a i n f r a m e2

Mainframe MARCH/APRIL 2011

6

14

22

48

26

This is just a sampling of the IBM Systems Magazine content

available at the click of a mouse. Visit us online frequently for

Web-exclusive articles, blog entries, audio tidbits and more.

On the Web

ibmsystemsmag.com


Weigh in on The BuzzCan U.S. kids overcome the geek stigma? Copy Editor Morgon Mae

Schultz posed the question to readers via our blog, and you weighed

in. See what everyone is “buzzing” about:

http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/the_buzz/2010/11/can-us-kids-

overcome-geek-stigma.html

Only OnlineSee what additional content is popping up in our EXTRA e-newsletter:

“Common Tools, Multiple Platforms,” by Tim Hahn,

Rational enables development in a multiplatform runtime

environments

www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/

enewsletterexclusive/35616p1.aspx

“Safely Concealed,” by Jim Utsler,

IBM Identity Mixer is poised to change how Web users reveal personal data

www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/ibm_research_

identitymixer/35550p1.aspx

“The Three Ps of Web Services,” by Jim Schesvold,

Retail companies must address more than performance

www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/holiday_

performance2/35685p1.aspx

Beyond Flashcards

DB2utor Troy Coleman shares a new

DB2 resource dubbed a “Flashbook.”

http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.

com/db2utor/2011/01/a-great-db2-10-

resource.html

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FDRSOS… and FlashCopy or TimeFinder, lets you keep critical and revenue generating applications online withoutcompromising information security.

FDRSOS…no other solution has the capability of using high performance Systems z FICON channels to directly readand write the same disk volumes used by the Open Systemsbusiness applications on DS8700 and VMAX storage.

FDRSOS…provides the ultimate in z/OS distributed data protection and disaster recovery for Linux on System z, AIX,Linux x86-64, NetWare, OES2, UNIX and Windows.

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EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

Diane Rowell

[email protected]

PUBLISHER

Doug Rock

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EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Evelyn Hoover

[email protected]

MANAGING EDITOR

Natalie Boike

[email protected]

COPY EDITORS

Ann Schroeder

Caroline Vitse

SENIOR WRITER

Jim Utsler

[email protected]

TECHNICAL EDITORS

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[email protected]

Jim Schesvold

[email protected]

PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR

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PRODUCTION MANAGER

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PROJECT MANAGER

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ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL

PRODUCER

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COORDINATOR

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COORDINATOR

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& AUSTRALIA

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IBM EDITORIAL BOARD

ERIC BAXLEY

Director, System z Software

Marketing

MARIANNE CARTER

Software Product Manager

DB2 for z/OS Program Offerings

PAULO CARVAO

Vice President,

System z Global sales

IBM Systems & Technology Group

DORIS CONTI

System z Strategy Manager

PAUL DIMARZIO

STG System z Brand,

Enterprise Integration Strategy

JOE DORIA

Director, Global Marketing

IBM System z

WILLIE FAVERO

Senior Certified Consulting IT

Software Specialist

Data Warehouse for System z

Swat Team

JUAN GASTELU

Manager, Data Center

Optimization Marketing

IBM Systems and

Technology Group

SIMON HARES

System z Marketing Manager

IBM Sales and Distribution

BOB HOEY

Global Major Markets

General Manager

JUERGEN HOLTZ

Design and Development, Tivoli

System Automation Technologies

KURT JOHNSON

System z Market Management

and Marketing Strategy

GREG LOTKO

Vice president and business-

line executive, System z

ALLEN MARIN

IBM System Storage Enterprise

Disk Marketing

MARY MOORE

STG Business Resilience

Offerings

DOUG PEARSON

Manager, System z Platform

Marketing

JIM PORELL

IBM Distinguished Engineer

System z Business Development

JACQUI (JAX) SHAWLEY

WorldWide Market Manager

LMI Program Marketing –

System z Software

JACK YUAN

IMS TM and Connect

Development

Lead IBM Software Group/

Database Management

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OS/390

POWER

S/390

System i

System p

System Storage

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System z9

System z10

Tivoli

TotalStorage

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VSE/ESA

WebSphere

System x

z/OS

z/VM

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Oracle Corporation, in the United States

and other countries. Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corp., in

the United States and other countries. Intel, MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corp. in

the United States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the

United States and other countries. SET is a trademark owned by SET Secure Electronic Transaction

LLC. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both. Linear

Tape-Open, LTO, the LTO logo, Ultrium, and the Ultrium logo are trademarks of Certance, HP and

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Articles appearing in IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe edition may have been published in previ-

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© Copyright 2011 by International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. This magazine could

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Inspired by an eWeek article “Weird Job Interview

Questions,” (http://bit.ly/oddquestion) IBM Systems

Magazine asked its contributors:

What’s the strangest interview question you’ve been asked?

If I hired you and you

moved here, what would

your husband do for work?

Can you name five uses

for a paperclip?

Are you a fast driver? My answer was yes, naturally.

If you were a bird, what kind

would you be, and why?

How did they let you

get away with that?

Now availableWORLDWIDE

BIMONTHLY

DIGITALLY

and FREE!

Get the

CURRENT ISSUE NOW ibmsystemsmag.com/subscriptions

Communicating what’s next in IBM technology

PH

OTO

GR

AP

H B

Y T

RA

VIS

AN

DER

SO

N

OK, I’ll admit that during the cold winter months I’m a bit of a couch potato. While other

Minnesotans are out snow shoeing, skiing or sledding, I’m under a blanket eating popcorn and watching television. However, there are only so many shows and movies I can watch before it gets monotonous. That’s why one of my new obsessions is on-demand movies. I subscribe to a service that allows me one DVD per month, and unlimited movies streaming though the Internet.

I recently discovered a new feature of this service. Based on the rating I give movies, the rental service predicts other movies I’d like. Most of the time, when I’ve seen a recommended movie, even the predicted rating (out of five stars) is spot on!

When reading the articles for this issue, I began to think about the technology enabling these

recommendations. It’s a perfect example of IBM’s approach to smarter analytics; it goes beyond collecting and responding to business information, and takes it one step further to analyze the information and predict future business patterns. Get the overview on this approach in the Think Smarter column on page 18. You’ll also find articles about SPSS offerings that help discover patterns in data (page 32) and the cost effectiveness of Cognos* on System z* servers (page 36). Based on my experience with previous issues, I think this is one you’ll rate at five stars.

Natalie Boike, Managing Editor

Training for Health

Kathy Konkel, author of the

cover story, spends her spare

time running and training for

triathlons. Three years ago she

couldn’t swim the length of a

pool, and now

can swim close

to a mile in

open water.

She also

completed her first marathon in

Chicago last year.

Not so Koi

On warm summer evenings, Jim

Utsler, IBM Systems Magazine’s

senior writer, and his wife like to

relax next to their koi pond. The

fish, which aren’t actually koi but of

the less-expensive comet variety,

survive the Michigan winter thanks

to a heater and bubbler that keep

the water open.

Predicting a Good Read

CONTRIBUTORS

Contact Natalie at [email protected]


Editor’s Desk

Inside this

month’s issue


Dashboard News

to use

Charging AheadBefore electric vehicle sales can take

off, auto companies must address the

roadblocks revealed in a 2010 IBM

study: performance, recharging and

convenience. The IBM Institute for

Business Value surveyed 1,700 U.S.

drivers and interviewed more than

100 auto industry executives. Only

19 percent of drivers said they would

consider purchasing an electric-only

vehicle when shopping for a new car.

Source: IBM

Facebook use continues to exceed its own records. In November,

online intelligence company Hitwise reported Facebook.com

generates nearly one in four U.S. page views. Just eight months

prior, Facebook page views overtook Google.com visits.

Source: Hitwise Weblogs

Patent Not PendingIBM inventors received nearly 6,000 U.S. patents in 2010, topping the list of

the world’s most innovative companies for the 18th consecutive year.

Patents range from a new method for processing patient information to provide more

effective diagnoses, to computer communication via pulses of light. IBM invests

approximately $6 billion in research and development annually.

Source: IBM

Predicting Traffi c JamsIBM has partnered with the New Jersey

Turnpike Authority to provide smarter traffic

data to drivers. Instead of simple real-time

reporting of accidents, bottlenecks and

dangerous conditions, IBM software will predict

traffic patterns up to an hour in advance for

state roadways, including the New Jersey

Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

Source: New York Times

Albuquerque, N.M. population 521,999

A lbuquerque uses an IBM Cognos

business-intelligence solution to help

its 7,000 employees collect data and

share information among more than

20 departments, from public safety to

libraries. The solution, which officials say

has cut administrative costs by about 2,000

percent, also helps bring information to

residents through an extranet.

Dubuque, Iowa population 57,250

IBM is building a platform that will give

Dubuque a real-time view of energy

consumed by the electric grid, water

system and general city services. The

city is also augmenting water meters

with a device that increases accuracy

and helps consumers identify waste,

and will offer financial incentives to fix

leaks. Policy makers and consumers will

benefit from a new services system that

IBM Research created to provide data

management and analytics.

In 1900, only 13 percent of humans lived in cities. By 2008, cities had attracted

half of the world’s population, and in 2050, 70 percent of us will be urbanites.

Our growing congregation in cities, their relatively manageable scale and their

adaptability to local needs make them perfect testing grounds for instrumented

systems, sustainable energy initiatives and data-enhanced services. Here are

some of the ambitious ways cities are leading us into the future.

PUBLIC SAFETY ENERGY AND UTILITIES HEALTHCARE GOVERNMENT SERVICES WATER TRANSPORTATION

50,000-100,000

100,000-250,000

250,000-500,000

500,000-1 million

7 million-8 million

10 million +

Smarter Cities L A R G E A N D S M A L L

CITY POPULATION

Chesapeake, Va. population 225,255

As part of a citywide capital-improvement

project, IBM will help Chesapeake enhance

services ranging from maintaining and

operating traffic signals and water systems

to managing police and fire departments.

A large city in terms of area, Chesapeake

has more miles of deep-water canals than

any other U.S. city, making it complex to

manage. Technology will help address this

complexity by collecting and analyzing

data to make transpor tat ion, ut i l i t y

management and public safety systems

adapt to dynamic conditions.

Sacramento, Calif. population 463,794

Wastewater agencies in California’s capital

can predict and solve equipment problems

before they affect citizens and businesses.

IBM software manages 98 pump stations,

3,000 miles of mainlines and 279,000

service connections with help from a

mapping system, control meters and live

video of the sewer pipes.

Data Display Visualizing

technology


Sao Paulo, Brazil population 11,037,593

In the Paraguay-Paraná river system, which

provides drinking water for Sao Paulo, IBM

researchers and the Nature Conservancy

are running 3-D simulations that model how

land-use and water-policy scenarios will

affect biodiversity. The goal is to protect the

river basin, and therefore the water supply,

by making informed decisions.

Amsterdam, Netherlands population 762,057

In a pilot program, smart-metering systems

will enable 500 households to save on

energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions

by an estimated 14 percent. IBM, Cisco

and Dutch utility Nuon will develop home

energy-management applications and highly

secure data connections between household

appliances and the grid.

Bolzano, Italypopulation 102,880

Bolzano is in the midst of a one-year program

to test remote health monitoring for the

elderly. A group of 30 seniors is participating

in the Secure Living pilot to introduce

telemonitoring and teleassistance to the

homebound. A net of integrated sensors

will send data about the assisted person

to a control room, and the solution can

suggest tutored physical training, exercises

to stretch mental faculties or contacting

a health worker. If necessary, a medical

team is alerted.

Shenyang, Chinapopulation 7,760,000

Shenyang, an industrial hub with a

concentration of heavy manufacturing,

has an ambitious plan to address

environmental pressures. In a partnership

with IBM and Northeastern University, the

city has established the Shenyang Eco-City

Research Institute to develop technology

that helps cities cut carbon emissions,

conserve energy, manage water, track

food from farm to fork, smarten up

transportation and create environmental-

emergency response plans. For example,

the Institute will analyze a flood of real-

time data from the city’s water systems

to guide decisions about water quality and

energy used for water management.

Guangzhou, Chinapopulation 7,841,695

Guangzhou Metro Corporation, which

serves more than 2 million passengers

daily on the city’s rapid transit, aims

to make its system environmentally

sustainable and intelligent. Efficiency

depends on complete visibility across

assets to provide safe, uninterrupted

services. Guangzhou Metro has con-

tracted with IBM for a system to

manage its software, services and

physical assets including tracks,

carriages, advertising spots and sta-

tion shops.

Stockholm, Sweden population 825,057

After Swedes voted to reduce traf fic

through taxation, IBM built and installed

an advanced optical character-recognition

system to help the city charge drivers

who enter its congestion zone—an area

traditionally plagued by gridlock. Morning

traffic-queuing times are half what they used

to be, city traffic is down by 18 percent and

CO2 emissions are down 14-18 percent,

according to city officials.

Dublin, Irelandpopulation 505,739

Ireland’s Railway Procurement Agency

and IBM have integrated ticketing across

all public transport in greater Dublin. The

e-payment system, which can process up

to 2 million transactions a day, lets riders

use one prepaid card on all buses, trains,

trams and coaches.

Source: IBM

Taunton Deane, U.K. population 108,700

The Taunton Deane Borough Council is part

of a rare three-agency partnership to improve

service delivery and upgrade technology.

Southwest One—a joint venture of Taunton

Deane, Somerset County, and Avon and

Somerset Police—has enlisted IBM’s help

in ambitious projects that none of the three

entities could have achieved on its own.

i b m s y s t e m s m a g . c o m / m a i n f r a m e M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 17


Picturing Success

With business analytics, the more information you have, the clearer you see,” says Bernie Spang, director of strategy and marketing, IBM Database

Software and Systems. The explosive growth of information today—resulting from intelligent devices, sensors, cameras, the Internet and more—is an opportunity to more clearly see the business opportunities to pursue, wasteful spending to cut and risks to manage or avoid.

Capture insight from

real-time operational

data with smart

analytics systems

By Natalie Boike

To leverage information and realize these benefits, companies must employ a successful analytics solution that includes software for business intelligence (BI), data mining, text analysis and cubing capabilities, which are all tightly integrated and optimized with the data warehousing and hardware foundation, Spang says. To accomplish this, IBM offers workload-optimized systems designed to transform information into real business insight in a time frame that matters to your organization. “In all of the cases I’ve heard, clients say they receive one, two or all three of the following benefits: lowering costs,

reducing or eliminating risk, and growing revenue,” he says.

The Smart Analytics System, available on Power Systems* servers, eX5 systems and System z* mainframes, combines InfoSphere* Warehouse and Cognos* BI software with IBM servers and storage to create tuned and balanced business-analytics solutions that can be easily customized for any industry and expanded to add data and user capacity. “It’s got IBM expertise built in,” Spang says. “We’ve applied warehousing, business intelligence, server and storage expertise from three generations of solutions and 15 years to create an optimal balance of

ThinkSmarter

Future-proofing

your environment

“

i b m s y s t e m s m a g . c o m / m a i n f r a m e J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 19

capabilities. This saves our clients from investing time and money to put those pieces together themselves.”

Components for Smart Analytics

A successful business-analytics solution must have three core competencies, Spang says.

� Reliable, high-performance

data management. Analytics requires data-warehouse software that delivers access to structured and unstructured information in real time. The InfoSphere Warehouse, powered by DB2*, not only manages the data but also speeds systems deployment and optimizes data delivery using data partitioning, compression, workload and performance management.

� Integrated and governed

information throughout the data

lifecycle. IBM solutions ensure you have trusted information feeding your analytics. “If you’re not sure of the quality and reliability of the information and whether or not it’s being handled properly, your results are in jeopardy,” Spang says.

� High-performance analytics. Once you’ve gathered and stored the data, you can begin using the knowledge it contains. Leveraging database-oriented data mining and text analytics with IBM’s Cognos 8 BI capabilities, executives, line managers, business analysts and IT staff can leverage the right information in a manner that’s right for their needs.

Picture Increased Business

Combined, these capabilities help businesses find actionable insights in mountains of data, such as how to respond to customer preferences or predict outcomes. For example, tracking purchase history via a loyalty membership program, companies can analyze client demographics and behavior along with market trends.

A retail company could use this information to not only create a direct-marketing campaign, but also to do predictive analytics on its success. Spang says, “With predictive analysis, you can identify what kind of response

rate and revenue you can expect, and make a decision that’s best for the marketing dollars.”

Picture Efficient Processes

While the role of analytics in decision making is well known, more companies are tapping information to improve business-process management (BPM).

Insight, or business analytics, and action, or BPM, are two sides of the same coin, Spang says. “The multiplying effect comes when these two capabilities are in the hands of the business analysts—who use an integrated discipline to continuously drive growth, reduce costs and increase business agility across the organization,” he adds.

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IBM’s BPM suite contains a comprehensive set of collaborative, role-based capabilities that enable clients to model, simulate, execute, rapidly change, monitor and optimize core business processes. Software and services from across IBM create a workload-optimized system, available in three editions: IBM WebSphere* Dynamic Process Edition, IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition and IBM FileNet* Business Process Manager.

“Extending BPM to BI users, companies can make information and insight readily actionable and become a more responsive, flexible organization. In retail, accurately pinpointing the right client enables marketers to create an optimal offer that can be deployed as an online retail campaign in minutes rather than days,” Spang says.

Spang outlines some common customer-adoption patterns to that leverage BPM for improved business results:

` Integrate historical and real-time processes

`�Use data to drive process improvement

`�Link process execution with financial results for end-to-end optimization

`�Deliver BI at key decision points within operational processes to improve and automate decision making

`�Respond more quickly and effectively to changing market conditions

`�Provide complete business visibility—both insight and action

Picture Reduced Risk

Companies can also manage and prevent risk using fraud-detection offerings like InfoSphere Identity Insight. Spang explains the technology to analyze information about identities, people or businesses originated in Las Vegas, where casinos used it to screen employees before hiring them.

Identity Insight helps companies determine accurate identities and

uncovers relationships among identities. It can apply complex event processing to that knowledge to evaluate all of the transactions related to those individuals or businesses. Spang says IBM social-service clients, for example, use it to better understand their citizens and thus offer better services. Retailers use it to identify fraudulent claims.

Develop Insight in Real Time

Performance of these analytics systems is key in two areas. People often think of the warehouse performance and access to data. Indeed, systems must handle the ever-growing volume of information, the number of users and the types of analysis those users are demanding, Spang says.

Companies must efficiently deploy and maintain these solutions. Spang said one of his first experiences was with a healthcare insurance provider that complained of performance issues. “I studied up on feeds and speeds of the Innovative

Information Analytics

IBM has a long history with analytics. Here are a few of the milestones:

An IBM researcher invents

the relational database in

a project called System R,

which was designed to find

answers from data.

Think Smarter

1969

IBM creates the unstructured

information management

architecture, which is today

a standard for analyzing

unstructured data.

2004 IBM introduces InfoSphere

BigInsights, which leverages

software from the open-

source Apache project

Hadoop to gather and

analyze the vast amounts of

structured and unstructured

information available online.

2010 System S, an IBM Research

project for analyzing streams

of information, is brought

to market as InfoSphere*

Streams, analyzing data as it

flows through the system.

2008

Today’s technology could be

considered the third generation of

business intelligence, says Bernie

Spang, director of strategy and

marketing, IBM Database Software

and Systems. The first generation

was marked by creating data

warehouses to bring data together

and run reports for relatively few

business leaders. Next, people

wanted more information from their

data. Online analytics programming

enabled business analysts to

interact with the data and ask

questions of it, in addition to

creating the standard reports.

Now is the generation of

operational analytics, he explains.

Information can be empowering and

moves the focus from sense and

respond to predict and act.

“You want to enable everyone in your

organization, even your partners and

customers, to have greater insight

involved in every transaction, in every

business process, as it’s happening,”

Spang adds.

—N.B.


Natalie Boike is managing

editor for IBM Systems Magazine,

Mainframe edition.

No End in Sight

Spang says as the increase in information continues, so does the appetite for analytics. “As technology has advanced, we’ve made it easier for more business users to analyze more information and apply more kinds of analytics than ever before,” he explains. “The more they get, the more they want: more data, more types of analysis. I see this as the relative beginning of an explosive growth of applying analytics to improve business results.”

software and all of our great offerings for high-performance analytics,” he says. “When I got there the CIO was talking about the performance of his teams and the ability to respond to business needs fast enough.” The business was acquiring new companies with data that needed to be folded in and analyzed more quickly. The more the users had analytics, the more questions they had.

With a solid base in high-performing IBM servers, storage, BI and data warehousing software, the Smart Analytics System meets these key performance requirements. “We’re working to integrate our software with our hardware and into tuned and balanced systems,” Spang says.

Unmatched Integration

and Experience

The scope and depth of the IBM portfolio and IBM’s holistic approach to data analytics—from collection and management, to integration and analysis—sets it apart from other offerings. IBM delivers smarter systems that are integrated and optimized from the processor to the application and does so based on a deep understanding of business needs and the workloads that support the organization.

“When we work with clients, we work to solve their most pressing problem, but we do it with an eye to where they ultimately want to go,” Spang says.

IBM BPM Suite: www.ibm.com/software/info/bpm/offerings.html

IBM Smart Analytics System: www.ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/smart-analytics-system


Transitioning Workforce

One semi-retired guy is the only person I have who can pull us from a failure of one of our most important applications.”

This statement, from an application support leader at a North American bank, drives home the realities many mainframe-centric businesses face, whether business leaders realize it or not. While the media, hardware vendors and modernization service providers theorize about a shortage of mainframe workers, IT leaders responsible for meeting the world’s most stringent service level agreements (SLAs) face real situations everyday with only a limited number stop-gap fixes left, and no ground-level plan for implementing long-term fixes.

The Established Barriers

Mainframes, and the time-tested applications they run, provide

differentiating value to the world’s largest businesses. Even if it were possible to relocate these applications to another platform, it would take a brave (some would say crazy) IT leader to move away from the security and reliability of the mainframe to perform the massive number of transactions a single system accommodates on a daily basis—often well above the 20 million-per-day mark.

The reality is, it isn’t that easy. Most legacy applications can’t just be relocated and magically run in a new environment. They often must be rewritten, modernized or even scrapped altogether. This takes resources away from developing new revenue-generating capabilities, which

InsiderInsights from

the industry

Agnostic development

tools support

mainframe-centric

businesses

By Rose Rowe

“


in today’s economic climate just isn’t good business.

The good news is mainframe computing is changing to accommodate evolving business practices. In the spirit of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” the mainframe, in particular the IBM zEnterprise* System, has expanded its architecture to accommodate customers who must provide services using many delivery platforms while maintaining the level of service the end user has grown to expect.

The bad news is perceptions remain a barrier to a full-steam-ahead strategy in IT organizations. Outdated perceptions about mainframe computing and its interoperability with other systems often deter senior managers from considering strategies to develop new services outward from the core business applications.

These barriers often leave application support leaders stranded somewhere between meeting daily SLA requirements and the timely delivery of new capabilities—with only a dwindling staff that has the knowledge base to do the work. Many options exist to work through these barriers, real and perceived, to enable businesses to expand their services through a technology strategy that will also enable application support leaders to meet those daily requirements.

A Platform-Agnostic

Perspective

This is already a reality for non-IT line-of-business staff. They just want new services on the devices they prefer. Whether it’s a mobile device, a website or a more traditional service, the business user wants quality and

dependability, regardless of how IT delivers it.

Fortunately, it’s becoming easier for IT to work on multiple platforms. Consider the following: any business that relies on a mainframe to deliver mission-critical services to its customers is likely storing 80 percent or more of its data on the mainframe. With Web-oriented architectures (WOAs) and service oriented architecture (SOAs), newer programming languages can easily integrate data on the mainframe with application logic on other platforms. With true platform-agnostic capabilities, the focus can turn to maximizing ease of use and accessibility for line-of-business users.

The same ease-of-use principles can be applied to application development. Programming tools can

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Insider

service and not on execution, and the time to market for the new capability is greatly reduced.

Getting Started

Implementing flexible environments that enable development on any platform is a pain-free start for organizations. In the recent past, organizations were faced with an either/or choice of development environments. The choice of environment either deterred nonmainframe developers or reduced the efficiency of its seasoned mainframe-development teams.

Today, environment isn’t such a concern. Many best-of-breed tools are available through open-source development environments, which are familiar to seasoned professionals and new developers alike. The flexibility of being able to choose a character-based green screen also ensures an organization’s most senior staff aren’t hindered.

For most developers, learning to develop in multiple languages is nothing new. Ask that same developer to use a new environment (especially a character-based environment), and not only is it no longer appealing to do the job, but the developer’s ability to do the job will also be hindered. With the no-cost option of open source and the flexibility to choose environments, addressing the development environment is an easy first step.

Enabling this cross-platform data manipulation is essential for mainframe-centric organizations. Yes, 80 percent or more of their data is likely

platforms, hardware and applications that deliver those services. Instead of having individual experts who understand the logic of specific applications or who work entirely on a single platform, IT can develop teams of experts who understand the logic used to deliver the service as a whole. Put this into practical operations and it will reduce time to market for new services.

For example, consider a business line manager who wants to include loan applications in the bank’s mobile banking services. In today’s operations, this request would be divided among three platform teams and multiple application development teams or individuals. Numerous project meetings and many testing points would be necessary to ensure these disparate teams are in step with each other as independent development decisions are implemented. While these checkpoints are necessary to ensure a quality end product, the business line manager has little insight into the true progress of the service being developed and may be dismayed by the length of time from request to implementation.

With platform-agnostic development teams, checkpoints are reduced to inner team collaboration. Development decisions can take each platform and application into account from within the team. This helps the team remain focused on the service itself as the endpoint. Ultimately, the business line manager has greater insight into the project, the development team is focused on

be a barrier to attracting top talent to work on applications that are important to the business. Traditional character-based green screens used for mainframe development are unappealing to the uninitiated for many reasons, starting with the drain on productivity as developers who are new to it stumble through its perceived limitations.

Modern development environ-ments that invoke best-of-breed tools, regardless of platform, are available to reduce (and possibly eliminate) these productivity concerns and learning curves. These environments allow a new generation of developers and progressive veterans to work on a business’s most important applications with minimal friction. They also enable the application support leader to task existing resources to shadow the partially retired resource without concern for the added overhead of learning a legacy develepment environment.

Streamlining Development

In the future, IT leaders can focus on the capabilities and services delivered by technology rather than on the

Many best-of-breed tools are

available through open-source development

environments, which are familiar to seasoned

professionals and new developers alike.

than invest limited resources into IT projects with no resulting business gain, organizations should consider evolving with their workforce and enabling their IT resources to take a business view of technology-enabled services that will drive revenue and growth. The results will mean more services are brought to market more quickly and IT will be better aligned with business with fewer constraints on future growth.


stored on the mainframe. But even this data is stored in various databases and different formats. Organizations spend a great deal of their resources gathering and storing data. It’s essential for the business line manager to utilize the data toward the success of a project without being delayed by its need to be converted or its inability to be utilized along with other forms of data. Development teams focused on services require access to this data quickly, using standard procedures for gathering the data to safely test their new services.

Lastly, it’s reasonable for organizations to insist that their application-development tools integrate code-analysis functionality. This delivers practical guidance and insights to the application staff working with the code as they need

Rose Rowe is the vice

president of mainframe

strategy for Compuware

and is responsible for the development

and market strategy of Compuware’s

mainframe solutions.

it. Even relatively inexperienced developers will have key insight into the function, structure and deficiencies of the undocumented programs they must soon maintain and enhance.

Nothing will quickly replace the experience of our “semi-retired guy.” In lieu of funding a position to shadow this professional, other developers require insight into the application’s functionality before they can efficiently support it or build upon it.

Removing Platform Constraints

It’s fair to say this article is written from a mainframe perspective, but ultimately there shouldn’t be a battle between platforms. While resources are tight and funding for business growth is scarce, enabling a transitioning workforce makes great sense. Rather


Mind the Gap

As service oriented architectures (SOAs) have evolved, so have the technologies and languages that support these Web services. For a business to fully leverage

its data, it must be mindful of the gap between the records themselves and the services that rely on them.

The splintered infrastructures used to store, manage and expose data make it difficult to effectively use information to its full potential. The integration of WebSphere* DataPower * and the zEnterprise* System extend the security and integration capabilities to a multiplatform architecture—ultimately improving XML/Web services and SOA integrations, security and throughput, while lowering costs and time to market for new services.

IBM recognizes the importance of sharing and integrating data across platforms, says Gari Singh, IBM product manager of SOA Appliances. “XML is that interoperable dialect,

but most of data is still sorted and stored in different formats. DataPower transforms and exposes that content as XML from the native format—such as CICS*—so it can be implemented on the Web or given to consumers or systems.”

A Brief History

WebSphere DataPower has been meeting SOA, security and integration needs since IBM acquired DataPower and its XML-integration technologies in 2005. The WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 for zEnterpise (XI50z), announced Feb. 12, extends its capabilities.

Trends Industry signals

to keep you in

the know

DataPower support for

zEnterprise extends

its multiplatform

capabilities

By Natalie Boike

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task. DataPower enables customers to process those requirements quickly and easily. A typical proof of concept can be completed in two to five days and implementations are very quick. He adds, “From a management perspective, the new DataPower XI50z is a self-contained box that can be managed like a network device.”

This secure, scalable, easy-to-deploy ESB allows customers to:

h�Grow infrastructure without increasing complexity

h�Protect applications and data structures

h�Securely and quickly Web-enable a System z environment

h�Utilize previously unconnected applications, information and people

h�Manage policies for mission-critical applications

Businesses can use DataPower to engage in emerging spaces like social networking, cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) to reach new markets and expand reuse of legacy resources and data.

The Significance of System z

For many customers, the System z server is the system of record for data and systems because of the built-in features like performance, scalability, security and more, Singh says. With the introduction of the multiplatform

zEnterprise System, many other needs and different types of applications in the distributed world can also benefit from integrating with the System z server-housed information and applications.

“The zEnterprise System takes it to the next generation,” he says. “DataPower already adds great value by integrating logically with software running on System z. The zEnteprise System enables the integration of special-purpose optimizers. Now I’m able to manage my DataPower and other appliances just like they’re part of System z and get all of the great benefits of being able to connect that to the distributed world.”

The DataPower XI50z is designed to meet SOA security and integration needs; it’s about having an ESB that’s secure and provides integration, with a low total cost of ownership and high performance and throughput. “What this offering really allows you to do is truly expand capabilities of System z solutions out into the distributed world. It enables you to do more with less—fewer physical resources and with less management—and do so more quickly.”

At its inception, DataPower used native compilation technologies to optimize processing of XML data into HTML, wireless markup language (WML) and other markup languages. The offering was a hardware-based appliance optimized for handling XML processing, schema processing and transformation. IBM paired it with WebSphere Application Server to essentially provide a security gateway, offload XML processing and have a highly configurable, higher-performance enterprise service bus (ESB).

Singh says these capabilities are still in high demand. “Customers obviously want to do more with less. The architecture and feature needs are still there and the fact that we do it in the client’s form factor gives us manageability, performance and consolidation.”

Implementing DataPower

At the highest level, the greatest business benefit of the DataPower Integration Appliance is the time to market and time to value, Singh explains. For example, a bank may have customer data stored on System z* servers that should be exposed to the Web services for online banking, or to distributed systems for internal applications such as customer relationship management (CRM). Singh says numerous project requirements are necessary to accomplish either

DataPower is one of several high-performance specialty processors for

specific workloads available for the zEnterprise System. For additional information,

visit www.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/zenterprise/index.html.

Natalie Boike is managing

editor for IBM Systems

Magazine, Mainframe edition.

Martin Kennedy, Citigroup Inc.’s

managing director of enterprise-

systems infrastructure, says the

mainframe provides the highest

levels of security.


Whether for internal or external reasons, most organizations require data be backed up and available for disaster-

recovery or business-continuity purposes. In particular, financial institutions are often held to a higher standard because of the sensitive nature of the data they handle.

Although most customers “don’t see the detailed processing that happens in the background, the fact that we can tell them that their data is

being managed with the highest levels of integrity, availability and security is a big plus,” says Martin Kennedy, Citigroup Inc.’s managing director of enterprise-systems infrastructure.

That’s why Citi created a backup environment many would consider best-in-class, using four IBM System z10* Business Class (BC) machines as dedicated mechanisms for backing up the company’s myriad servers and systems. Combined with INNOVATION Data Processing’s FDR/UPSTREAM and UPSTREAM/SOS, their design not only ensures proper backups, but also optimizes CPU usage and network bandwidth.

“The traditional backup model limits backups to an off-hour window because of the high CPU and bandwidth requirements,” says Kennedy. “With our model—with the data moving through a dedicated SAN [storage area network] fabric and not over TCP/IP—you can pretty much schedule backups whenever you want without impacting production applications and workflow.”

A Sound Investment

Citigroup tames its

backup environment with

dedicated mainframes

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A Cost-Effective Mechanism

Citi is a global provider of consumer, corporate and investment-banking products and services. Its many brands include Citibank, CitiMortgage, Citi Cards and Women & Co. Citi operates in more than 160 countries and handles around 200 million customer accounts.

With such a large presence, you’d expect it to have a large IT infrastructure, and it does. It runs servers of all types, including IBM mainframes and Power Systems*, Linux* (stand-alone on System z*), Windows* and UNIX* OS-based machines. These boxes handle core functions: serving customer accounts, running business-intelligence applications or supporting internal back-office accounting functions. They all produce a huge amount of data, most of which is backed up, stored and ready for recovery for regulatory or internal purposes.

This data is vital to Citi’s everyday operations. That’s why the company put so much effort into creating a seamless data-retention model: from point-of-origin to vaulted storage. But things weren’t always so efficient, as Kennedy explains.

“Back in 1996, we were dealing with our first large data warehouse with around 20 terabytes of data, which was large for that time,” he says. “We would have to break backups into 20 separate components, 20 separate servers and 20 separate tape libraries. We only had one window in which to do that, typically on Sunday afternoons: the only time we could take a machine down for system backup. We struggled with that quite a bit.”

That’s probably an under-statement given the scale of the organization and the growth in the amount of data it was collecting. Network bandwidth, for example, became an issue, forcing Citi’s IT staff to tune the network continuously to accommodate increased traffic. This affected everyday operations as data

movement competed with typical application transactions.

“We revisited our backup architecture,” Kennedy recalls. “As a result, we considered using INNOVATION tools, including FDR/UPSTREAM and UPSTREAM/SOS, both of which would allow us to move data in a more robust environment. No sooner had we converted to EMC and INNOVATION than our issues related to backups almost literally disappeared.”

These improvements resulted in part because a SAN fabric and transfer devices had been introduced into the storage environment. Using this SAN, Citi IT staff could bypass the production network and run backups whenever they were scheduled, without worrying about a network bottleneck and reduced application response times. This also held true with its Linux on System z instances, with UPSTREAM/SOS passing these mainframe-

Headquarters: New York City

Business: Global provider of financial

products and services for consumers,

corporations, governments and institutions

Challenge: Improving data-backup

processing

Solution: Using four IBM System z10

Business Class machines as dedicated

backup servers and INNOVATION Data

Processing’s FDR/UPSTREAM and

FDRSOS to automate backups

Hardware: Four IBM System z10

Business Class servers

Software: INNOVATION Data

Processing’s FDR/UPSTREAM

and FDRSOS

based backups over System z FICON* and Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) channels rather than over the network.

Ordinarily FDR/UPSTREAM pushes distributed backups to mainframe-based tape or DASD, but

CUSTOMER: Citigroup Inc.

they allowed Citi to use LPARs on its mainframe systems to channel backups. This meant the organization’s previously distributed backup model for its largest and most complex servers could be consolidated to fewer systems and therefore fewer backup media.

“This is a very cost-effective backup mechanism,” Kennedy says. “We were able to leverage the mainframe tape infrastructure, which allowed us to make the most of our cartridges by filling them with data that had like retention requirements.” That can be difficult to do in a distributed backup environment, where overall cartridge utilization of unexpired data tended to be lower. Managing cartridge utilization is key to managing the overall cost of a backup solution.

An Important Characteristic

Other organizations may have been satisfied with these improvements, but not Citi. When IBM announced the System z10 BC machines, Citi decided to further bolster its backup model by dedicating these boxes—one located at each of the corporation’s primary North American data centers—purely for backup purposes. This would allow the organization to move all of its backup loads for its largest servers off its production systems.

Citi installed one z10 BC at each of its main North American data centers, with the boxes supporting the local backup requirements for large servers at these data centers. When a group wants to add a server to the backup schedule, it fills out a change-management template that identifies what it wants backed up, how often they want it backed up and what the retention period is for the backup. At that point, someone in the distributed backup team creates an FDR/UPSTREAM job and schedules it according to user requirements.

Initial backups are of the full system. Following that, daily incremental backups take place, with FDR/UPSTREAM looking to copy only the files that have changed since the previous backup. Once a week, merged backups combine the incrementals to create a new, full-system weekly backup.

“Those weekly backups can take place outside the typical window for server backups, and we don’t have to be connected to the server to do that,” Kennedy says. “This is in contrast to many backup models, where you have to be connected to the server. Now we can drive those business class machines 24 hours a day with productive work without impacting the servers that are being managed by those machines. It’s all very efficient.”

Citi can now also aggregate backups based on retention. In the past, different backups with different retention rates were stacked on top of each other. Sometimes tapes were kept in storage because, even though one server’s retention-based backup may have expired, others hadn’t.

“You might end up with a situation where 60 or 70 percent of the data on a tape might be expired, but you couldn’t reuse that tape because the other 30 or 40 percent had not yet expired,” Kennedy says. “You ended up with tape capacity you couldn’t reclaim. Since FDR/UPSTREAM uses more traditional mainframe tape-management mechanisms, we can now stack data so when data on the tape has expired, the tape is immediately available for reuse.”

This data is encrypted as it’s written to tape, some 650 TB a month,

according to Citi’s Jim Jurasin, vice president of enterprise systems infrastructure. The encryption process occurs on the organization’s IBM tape drives instead of on the System z10 BC machines. This reduces CPU overhead, which allows the mainframes to run their jobs without taking performance hits. Citi has also

implemented disk encryption on the backup servers “to ensure the environment is completely secured from the time the data goes to disk and then to tape,” Kennedy adds.

“That’s an important characteristic for us,” he continues. “We have a lot of very sensitive data around here, so it’s critical that we make it as secure as possible, and IBM has some strong algorithms built into the machines, as well as crypto engines and certificate management.”

Exceeding Expectations

Citi’s customers probably don’t think about this type of back-end processing, but if they did, they’d be impressed at the measures the corporation has taken to make sure their data is backed up, safe and secure. Additionally, this streamlined backup model has also benefitted the corporation itself. Backups that run on the BC machines no longer bog down the corporation’s traditional networks, servers don’t have to be taken offline when they’re being backed up, backup media is being used more efficiently and automated processes have reduced backup administration. In the end, it’s all about Citi’s customers and their service expectations—which are now more than being met.


Jim Utsler, IBM Systems

Magazine senior writer,

has been covering

technology for nearly 20 years.

“IBM has some strong algorithms built into

the machines, as well as

crypto engines and

certifi cate management.”

—

Managing director of enterprise-systems infrastructure, Citigroup Inc.

¨ Predictive analytics enable higher-

quality decisions, measurably better

outcomes and a higher ROI.

¨ Deploying on System z servers

ensures analytic processes are secure,

transparent and compliant.

¨ IBM provides an end-to-end

business analytics solution that can

scale to meet business needs.

TAKEAWAY:

IBM offers strong capabilities in information management, reporting and analysis. A merger with SPSS in 2009 further enables customers to drive competitive action from both structured and unstructured data. SPSS was an early driver of

predictive analytics and influenced its emergence on the market; now it’s an established leader in the field. This IBM company’s predictive-analytics offerings provide organizations a distinct advantage as analytics becomes a mainstay in today’s gridlocked marketplace.

The IBM SPSS predictive-analytics software portfolio combines various capabilities that integrate multiple data sources for statistical, mathematical and other algorithmic analyses and predictive modeling—along with an infrastructure that helps organizations effectively deploy predictions. The results are higher-quality

decisions, measurably better outcomes and a higher ROI.Business analytics combines the forward-looking

capacities of predictive analytics with the data-exploration and reporting capabilities of business-intelligence

applications. Because it gives organizations the power to use their rich stores of data in many different ways, business analytics is at the heart of providing business insight; it’s the engine that drives better outcomes.

The Real ROIOrganizations that invest in predictive analytics improve their capability to gain detailed insight into present conditions and to evaluate likely future events and outcomes. They quickly identify ways to improve business performance by cutting costs, minimizing risk and developing successful strategies for increasing revenue. They often outperform their peers. Not surprisingly, the demand for predictive analytics continues to grow. In a 2009 IBM study, 83 percent of CIOs said analytics is a priority.

Companies that deploy predictive solutions clearly demonstrate the power of predictive analytics. Ninety-four percent of SPSS customers achieved a positive ROI with an average payback period of 10.7 months, according to a Nucleus Research study. Returns were achieved through reduced costs, increased productivity, increased employee and customer satisfaction, and greater visibility. Flexibility, performance and price were all key factors in SPSS software purchase decisions.


Successful companies fuel business with predictive analytics

By Kathy Konkel

Illustration by Oliver Burston

Applying AnalyticsMost commercial organizations share similar goals: attract the best, most profitable customers; grow the business through up- and cross-sell; retain high-quality customers; minimize risk to the organization; and detect and prevent fraudulent activity. Supply-chain considerations, such as effective assortment planning in retail stores and efficient production lines in manufacturing, are also key considerations that can significantly affect the customer experience and ultimately customer value. In short, the goal is to grow revenues and minimize costs, thereby producing profitable revenue growth. Typical applications include:

h�Delivering well-targeted campaigns

h�Classifying high-quality customers and, conversely, identifying those who are costly

h�Focusing investigators and minimizing the effect of fraudulent activity

h�Leveraging effective and reliable inventory management

h�Predicting maintenance needs

Public agencies manage a unique set of challenges and often face additional scrutiny because of the personal nature of public security, healthcare and education. Because they’re also often funded or subsidized by government-run agencies, these organizations face additional pressures and bureaucracy around operational budgets. Typical public-sector applications include:

h�Government agencies that manage functions as diverse as tax audit selections, military force recruitment, and proactive policing and public safety.

h�Healthcare organizations that seek to proactively manage their resources and fine-tune their practices to provide better patient care.

h�Colleges and universities that manage the entire student lifecycle: recruiting the right mix of students, offering a selection of programs and assistance to keep students enrolled, and managing alumni development programs.

Data-Driven DecisionsAt the highest level, predictive analytics enables better business decisions. Analysis might reveal new insights that help senior management drive far-reaching strategic decisions and deliver step changes in business value. However, these insights are more often applied at the individual-case level, enhancing key business decisions that are made frequently and repeatedly, where improvement leads to a higher proportion of good outcomes and clearly measurable, incremental ROI. A helpful way to think of these decisions is: If we could make better decisions about “X,” we could deliver greater value by doing “Y.” For example:

h�If we could reliably predict which of our high-net-worth customers were likely to defect to a competitor, we could ensure their continued business by offering incentives.

h�If we knew how likely each of our customers would be to respond to a particular cross-sell offer, we could reduce the size and cost of campaigns (and increase response rates and revenues) by not targeting people unlikely to respond.

h�If we could accurately assess the risk of each insurance claim as we receive it, we could reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by fast-tracking safe claims and increase our fraud-detection rate by

ensuring our investigative resources focus on genuinely high-risk cases.

Integrating the results of analytics with business processes and operational systems, or deployment, can be relatively simple: one point of integration in one process and system. For example, at a single point in processing tax returns, a predictive model scores every return on the likelihood of noncompliance, and adds those with high scores to an investigations-team audit list. In other solutions, the approach might be more complex.

Why System z?While organizations strive to deliver analytics that will make decision making smarter, better and faster, they also must ensure that analytic processes are secure, transparent and compliant with external and internal governance regulations. While information infrastructures must be high-performing, management strives to make them less costly.

IBM recently released versions of the SPSS predictive analytics solutions designed specifically for IBM System z* environments. By running analytics on System z servers, you can deliver sharp and timely insights that everyone, from senior executives to frontline managers, needs. You can also meet requirements for expanded data-accessibility and security, process transparency, information-systems efficiency and cost savings.

Predictive Analytics

n. Predictive analytics draws

reliable conclusions about current

conditions and future events and

thus helps connect data to effective

action. It enables organizations

to make predictions and then

proactively take action based

on that insight to drive better

business outcomes and achieve a

measurable competitive advantage.

To support the entire analytical process, the SPSS solution for System z* consists of the following components:

IBM SPSS Modeler for Linux* on System z is a powerful, versatile data and

text-analytics workbench that helps analysts build accurate predictive models

quickly and intuitively, without programming. Using leading data-mining

techniques, the workbench helps analysts model future customer behavior.

It’s the most efficient way for organizations to use their data to model future

customer behavior. This technique discovers patterns and trends in structured

or unstructured data more easily, using a visual interface. In addition to

predicting outcomes, models can explain the factors that influence them so

users can take advantage of opportunities and mitigate risks. Text-analysis

capabilities are integrated with SPSS Modeler too, so the critical insights

locked in unstructured data can be used to increase the accuracy of

predictions about customer behavior and strengthen the modeling capability.

IBM SPSS Statistics for Linux on System z is a leading statistical software

that commercial, government and academic organizations use to solve

business and research problems. IBM SPSS Statistics is one of the most

accessible statistics tools in the market, enabling organizations to apply

mathematical discipline to their decision-making.

IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services for Linux on

System z provides a platform for managing and deploying analytical assets

and allows for secure, browser-based access to results and integration to

other components. It provides an infrastructure for managing the storage and

automated refresh of predictive models along with other analytics processes.

In addition to predictive-analytics solutions, IBM Cognos* 8 Business

Intelligence is also available for Linux on System z. You gain the real-time

monitoring, reporting, analysis and dashboards it provides—plus all of the

performance, efficiency and security of a System z environment. More

information is online (www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/cognos-8-

business-intelligence/system-z/).

The System z server supports both predictive analytics and business-intelligence solutions. It simplifies and provides faster access to the data it holds without impacting transactional-system performance. Its virtualization environments enable organizations to allocate resources either as shared resources or fixed-resource assignments, which ensures the system can meet the needs of all users, regardless of the number of processors required. Consistent response time is also required as predictive models are used to make recommendations within critical business processes to improve decisions at the point of impact. Read “System Components” (right) to learn how SPSS and System z solutions integrate.

Additionally, System z servers provide the highest level of data security, with features built into the OS and the hardware. This is critical when the data being used for analytics is sensitive and critical to the business. It also provides five nines of availability, with automatic failure or potential-failure detection with built-in hardware and OS recovery. With minimal incremental costs, your predictive-analytics solution is available when and where you need it, with less strain on your network and your IT staff.

With SPSS under its umbrella, IBM provides a true end-to-end business analytics solution that can scale to meet your evolving needs. Benefits include increased ROI, higher user satisfaction, industry-leading scalability, reliability, availability and security in a flexible infrastructure, and ensured security and enforcement of regulations and standards.


Kathy Konkel is a member

of the IBM SPSS product

marketing team and has

worked with the SPSS products for more

than 10 years. She’s currently responsible

for supporting the enterprise sales channels

for SPSS, which includes specialized

software sellers throughout IBM.

¨ IBM studied costs based on

acquisition, maintenance, facilities and

administration expenses.

¨ Regardless of deployment size,

the System z platform provides a more

cost-effective alternative to a distributed

infrastructure.

¨ The IBM mainframe deployment pays

for itself in five years, based on system-

administration cost savings alone.

TAKEAWAY:


hat would you think of reducing your cost of delivering business

intelligence (BI) by upwards of 50 percent over the next five years? What would you say to allocating a smaller portion of your IT budget to facilities and administrative costs while providing BI to a broader audience?

These questions come at a pivotal point for many organizations. The consistent gap between the promise of BI and the harsh realities of today’s BI implementations is widely recognized. Many deployment models limit the capability to provide BI access to all potential users with the performance they’ve come to expect from an enterprise application.

Perceived Barriers

Creating a successful BI strategy and providing the supporting infrastructure isn’t a trivial undertaking. To date, many IT organizations have implemented isolated BI solutions in individual departments in lieu of an enterprise model. Little focus has been put on developing a BI standard for the whole business, resulting in tool overlap, shelf ware, duplicate license agreements, underlicensing exposure and technology gaps.

In addition, the floor space, cooling, system administration, acquisition and maintenance contract costs needed to support these multiple BI solutions can become cost prohibitive over time. After making major investments in BI, organizations have also found that users eventually dropped it because of inadequate performance, reliability, data quality or security assurance.

With this in mind, IBM set out to understand the actual costs of delivering BI to businesses in a manner that would both meet and exceed expectations.

Collecting Data

IBM wanted to understand how costs varied over five years for various BI deployment sizes (100, 1,000, 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 named Cognos* users), while striving to answer four key questions that most organizations ask themselves when defining a BI strategy:

When adhering to industry best practices, what are the

total cost of ownership (TCO) and total cost of acquisition (TCA) of the BI infrastructure and what implementation options are available?

What happens to TCO when hardware is replaced every 36

to 60 months (the common industry practice)?

What impact will growing BI requirements have on

infrastructure expenses?

How much will it cost to ensure ongoing availability of a mission-

critical BI solution?

The study’s goal was to understand what BI infrastructure options are available to companies for meeting their business’ strategic performance

IBM demonstrates Cognos BI on System z is less expensive than x86 deploymentsBy Rebecca Wormleighton

ILLU

STR

ATIO

N B

Y M

ICH

AEL

AU

STIN


expectations and lowering costs. The next step was to compare the TCO and TCA of IBM Cognos BI on IBM System z* to x86 distributed servers.

The Assessed Costs

All costs used in the model were based on realistic defaults developed from North American and European business enterprises. The study compared the costs associated with deploying Cognos BI on nonvirtualized, distributed, rack-mounted x86 servers with quad-core 2.26 GHz Intel* E5520 Xeon* technology to System z10* Enterprise Class servers running Linux* OS.

The Right-fitting Applications into Consolidated Environments (RACEv) tool (where v stands for virtualization), designed by the IBM Systems and Technology Group, helps evaluate the following categories when exploring the TCO of the various platform options available:

h�Acquisition This includes costs associated with purchasing everything necessary to deliver BI to the business, including hardware, network-connectivity equipment and software (excluding the Cognos BI software, because it’s the same for all cases with named user pricing), along with the additional hardware, software and connectivity required to ensure high availability of the BI solution.

h�Maintenance agreements Like acquisition costs, maintenance agreements are an unavoidable cost of any IT initiative.

organizations that are considering the future costs of technology refresh, growth and high availability.

One of the most striking findings, uncovered with the RACEv tool is the System z solution pays for itself over five years based on the savings from system-administrative costs alone. While initial acquisition costs may be marginally higher, after five years, the TCO is consistently lower.

With the introduction of IBM business analytics on System z (see “Driving Outcomes,” page 32), IBM can offer a solution that takes BI a step further—on a single platform that scales to meet the need for faster and better access to complete and accurate business with less resources and expense. A flexible solution, it can help companies address the business challenges of today and the evolving business needs for actionable insights that help to optimize business performance.

Rebecca Wormleighton is

an IBM product marketing

manager for Cognos

software, focusing on

synergies between Cognos business-

intelligence software and IBM products.

Read the complete study, “The New Alternative for Leveraging the Power of Business Intelligence,” online: http://bit.ly/cognosonz

Although it may be possible to negotiate varying levels of discounts, the vendor generally predefines the costs. Maintenance contracts, like the products themselves, come with a defined list of features, and companies must weigh the value of these features to their business and consider the costs of accessing those features elsewhere.

h�Facilities These costs include floor space and power costs for BI infrastructure and represent, on average, approximately 10 percent or more of a company’s overall operating costs. This is an area that can easily be forgotten when exploring TCO. If not monitored, facilities costs can quickly spiral out of control. This especially holds true when a BI infrastructure is built out for various departments without taking into account the available capacity that might already be available.

h�Administration This category covers the costs to deploy and operate a BI infrastructure design based on stated best practices and includes the resources for installing, supporting and maintaining that infrastructure—while planning for and responding to service outages and other problems.

System z Costs LessThe study concluded cost barriers associated with a System z implementation versus x86 are perceived, not real. The acquisition costs (hardware, network and software) aren’t the barrier to entry as people believe. The study found that the System z platform offers a powerful, more cost-effective alternative to a distributed infrastructure, regardless of deployment size.

In addition, inherent System z capabilities provide stronger performance, better security and greater scalability. Cognos BI on System z enables organizations to help ensure the high availability of their BI solution at a price they can afford; TCO is dramatically lower for

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Tips and Techniques

Tactical

solutions


Optimal Service Delivery

Managing today’s complex server environments, networks and IT infrastructures is challenging. Most organizations have tools and disciplines in

place to provide basic availability management, including hardware and software monitoring capabilities. However,

IT staff may not have the skills or time to support and implement notification handling, performance and capacity management, security management, configuration management and automation. With the pressure to do more with less, how can an organization balance the need to drive down costs and improve delivery of system administration, information access, remote access, and problem and change management?

This article surveys the challenges and solutions for effective management of your server infrastructures and network devices, as well as important disciplines such as availability management and the tools you need to support a complex IT environment.

Understanding Challenges

An infrastructure typically consists of a broadly heterogeneous collection of elements such as servers, virtual machines, logical partitions, routers, switches, wireless appliances, disks, processors, operating systems, middleware and database instances, and

batch jobs. All of these elements can be mapped, more or less, into a simple framework as shown in Figure 1 (page 41).

The management of an organization’s heterogeneous and complex IT infrastructure is often a significant portion of your total cost of ownership (TCO). Getting costs under control while also meeting your service-level commitments requires a focus on the following eight areas of infrastructure-management challenges:

h�Detect and handle incidents and problems.

h�Handle changes with minimal impact on availability.

h�Prevent security problems. h�Effectively implement emerging

or challenging technologies. h�Maintain server software and

firmware. h�Employ useful reporting

indicators. h�Supply the right tools. h�Rapidly deploy infrastructure

and tools with ongoing management.

Overcome eight

key challenges and

reduce costs

By Joseph Gulla


Plan Effective Management

Organizations should focus on solutions that address these challenges as they evaluate their current infrastructure-management capabilities. A focus on value should shape your goals, with cost and complexity being major factors. You can then determine the best approach to achieving your goals in the context of specific tactics, as shown in Figure 2 (page 42). Consider the following recommendations to address the eight key challenges:

1Detect and handle incidents and problems. Incidents and problems

are a way of life for systems that involve hardware, software and people. But detecting and handling problems effectively isn’t easy. It requires discipline, imagination and experience. In addressing this challenge, the goal should be to provide robust incident and problem handling using preemptive actions and both proactive and passive monitoring. For example, a service-level agreement (SLA) could resolve 90 percent of Severity 1 problems in less than four hours. Assign support personnel based on the severity of the incident to improve response time, including a specialized service manager or multidisciplinary team if required.

2Handle changes with minimal impact on availability. Change is

frequently required in today’s highly complex systems. Dealing with change while striving for minimum downtime requires many skills. Meet weekly with team members to plan change management and estimate the time required as part of the preparation. Test changes prior to their implementation and prepare back-out activities in the event of a failed change.

3Prevent security problems.Security challenges are ongoing

and constantly changing. Security-management solutions should

incorporate plans to address threats to your systems and information in the form of both Web-based attacks and hackers. Balance security-risk management with maintaining business agility. Implement key security variables such as password length and update frequency early in the process and perform security remediation as required for servers and other devices to refresh and update your security posture. Look for security exposures during the ongoing support period. For a closed-end process, specify the frequency of these analyses with monthly reporting on key security attributes and activities related to servers

and other devices. In doing so, you’ll ultimately see reduced financial risk associated with security breaches.

Applications, services

Middleware

Operating system

Computer and network hardware

PL

AT

FO

RM

Software and hardware service layers in distributed systems

Figure 1

(Coulouris, Dollimore, & Kindberg, 2005)

Tips


4Effectively implement emerging or challenging technologies.

New technologies hold great promise for businesses because they can save money and increase flexibility. Even so, the benefits of new technologies can be elusive when unfamiliar users are learning to use them. Focus on technologies such as virtualization and high-availability configurations. Virtualization provides flexibility to achieve rapid change and high utilization of your existing IT resources. High-availability technology supports business resiliency and your requirements for continuous application availability. Additionally, focus on skills support for virtual machines and logical partitions, using change windows to make dynamic changes to production servers—like adding processor or memory resources to an image. Develop the skills of your staff in many high-availability software solutions.

5Maintain server software and firmware. The optimal

data center would include a balanced collection of proactive and reactive activities supported by effective software products and tools. Startup tasks may involve refreshing operating-system processes, establishing startup sequences and changing priorities. Other server-support activities could include patching, configuration and log-file maintenance, using remote tools to perform operational procedures, server security activities for identification and access, and support for virtualization software. Applying emergency security fixes or even routine software changes can be a daunting task. Avoiding negative impact on application availability and performance requires planning and careful execution, including provisions for backing out failed updates.

6Employ useful reporting indicators. Information on the status

of systems and applications is important in infrastructure management, especially in problem situations. This information is also needed for capacity planning.

Activity or Discipline Tool Example

Availability management IBM Tivoli* NetView* for z/OS*

Hardware monitoring z/OS Hardware Management Console (HMC) and IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus

for inclusion in an end-to-end view

Software monitoring of resources IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON* XE for z/OS

Performance and capacity management OMEGAMON Product Suite for IMS*, DB2*, networks and storage

Security management IBM Tivoli Security Manager for z/OS

Configuration management IBM z/OS HCD Hardware Configuration Definition (HCD) and Hardware

Configuration Management (HCM)

System administration z/OS Utilities and SMP/E

Information access IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager for z/OS

Automation IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS and Tivoli AF/OPERATOR on z/OS

Problem and change management IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database and IBM Tivoli

Application Dependency Discovery Manager

Tools in ContextTable 1

CO

NT

EX

TC

ON

TE

XT

Business

Alignment

Cost and

ComplexityGoal

What are

we trying to

achieve?

Tactics

What can we do

to achieve it?

VA

LU

E

Planning framework for an effective IT management solution.

Figure 2

Business

Alignment


However, obtaining and analyzing operational and trend information is time-consuming and complex. Indicators should have dynamic reporting capabilities as well as monthly reports that provide a good way to understand the activities and performance of the service. An operational or business dashboard is also useful. Posting reports on a portal for easy access and using tools that focus on server resource management and generate performance and capacity reports will help analyze trends.

It’s also important to generate and post reports on security management. A portal can also be used to enter problem records and change notifications–while providing links to other needed tools, portlets and services that support ongoing activities. Dynamic reporting supports functional disciplines such as performance and capacity management.

7Supply the right tools. Having the right toolkit for your environment

requires balancing human aspects, types of tools, number of tools, level of integration and secure use. Appropriate tools and processes deliver optimal service and support your SLAs. Organize your tools in categories, including those that support key activities as shown in Table 1, page 42.

8Rapidly deploy infrastructure and tools with ongoing

management. The fast pace of change

The fast pace

of change in today’s

business environment

requires rapid sys-tems deployment

and tools that provide

ongoing support.

Tips


infrastructure and network devices. By focusing on the disciplines and tools necessary to carry support and delivery services, you can improve your own management capacity and evaluate the capabilities of potential outsourcing and managed-service providers.

in today’s business environment requires rapid systems deployment and tools that provide ongoing support, especially for the mission-critical components of your IT infrastructure. These activities may be routine, but are critical for meeting service-level commitments and supporting new business initiatives. Use a service manager with pre-engineered and ongoing support

to achieve rapid deployment. A model project plan based on prebuilt components with a project manager ensures smooth deployment. A delivery architect can also be a technical complement to the project manager.

Focused Management

Supporting a dynamic business and resilient IT environment requires effective management of your server

Joseph Gulla is an

executive IT specialist

for IBM data-center services.

His main focus is the monitoring and

management of heterogeneous computing

infrastructures.

Supporting a dynamic business and resilient IT

environment requires effective management of your

server infrastructure and network devices.

Thursday, April 7, 10 am (CST)

REGISTER TODAY: ibmsystemsmag.webex.com, then click on “Event Center.”

WEBINAR

REGISTERTODAY!

German Federal Pension Fund Migrates IBM CICS workloads to Linux on System z Learn how a German government agency simplifi ed operations and met a 350M Euro cost reduction goal by rehosting a mission-critical, 5,000 user application to Linux on IBM System z.

Agenda:Organizations are consolidating workloads onto Linux on IBM System z to lower costs, standardize operations and enhance IT fl exibility. Now you can move online and batch mainframe applications to scalable Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) processors without sacrifi cing functionality or performance. In this webinar you will learn:

s (OW FOUR DIVISIONS OF THE 'ERMAN PENSION�MANAGEMENT AGENCY�Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV), migrated a large, central IBM CICS application from an IBM z/OS environment to Linux on IBM System z

s (OW 5NI+IX -AINFRAME 2EHOSTING SOFTWARE PROTECTS EXISTING INVEST�ments by enabling legacy workloads to run on mainframe Linux partitions

s (OW YOUR BUSINESS CAN BENElT FROM THE BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONSlearned by the DRV and other organizations to maximize benefi ts and reduce risk when replatforming legacy workloads

The DRV intends to use this agile platform to continue consolidation and implement SOA initiatives. Discover how a similar move can benefi t your business.

Who should attend: CIOs and IT managers interested in moving IBM CICS, COBOL, and Batch/JCL workloads to Linux on IBM System z partitions.

ZEN

William Data Systems

ZEN, a z/OS* network-management suite, now features

a unique, automatic SyslogD “system whistleblower” facility. This management suite:¡ Captures, views and notifies any SyslogD events in real-time¡ Alerts users to system events requiring urgent attention the moment they occur¡ Presents multiple source information

on a single, unified console screen¡ Filters alerts enabling the most important to rise above background activity ¡ Communicates alerts to consoles plus smart phones, tablets and laptops ¡ Can automatically trigger further activity via powerful REXX-based automation facilities

OS SUPPORT: All IBM-supported versions of z/OS*

PRICE: Variable URL: www.willdata.com

SolutionsWhat’s new

in the

marketplace

CleverView for TCP/IP v8.2.1

AES

CleverView for TCP/IP v8.2.1 now offers enhanced end-to-end (E2E)

response times for TN3270 session and TN3270 interval System Management File (SMF) records expanding performance monitoring and service level reporting. Highlights of this version include: ¡ TN3270 E2E support that expands the existing application performance

reporting provided by Round Trip Time reports for all TCP/IP transactions¡ MXG support and built-in performance reports that allow CleverView for TCP/IP to produce ETE service level reports for multiarchitecture virtualized environments

OS SUPPORT: z/OS* version 1.4 or higher, z/VM* and Linux* on System z*

PRICE: Variable URL: www.aesclever.com

Vanguard Configuration Manager

Vanguard Integrity Professionals

According to the company, Vanguard Configuration Manager

significantly reduces the cost and time required to test mainframe systems to assess their accordance with the configuration control checklist for z/OS* systems in the National Checklist Program (NCP) of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Features include the capability to:¡ Automatically test security configuration controls and verify that a mainframe system is in accordance with the NIST/DHS NCP z/OS checklist (“DISA STIG”) in just a few hours¡ Easily move to continuous monitoring from periodic compliance reporting

OS SUPPORT: z/OS version 1.10 or higher

PRICE: Variable URL: www.go2vanguard.com



PlexSpy Application

Status Monitor v1r1

Matter of Fact Software

The enhancements to PlexSpy delivered with version 1.1 can help simplify the

support of CICS* applications and quickly identify the source of issues affecting business systems. Features include:¡ Simplified CICS application management¡ Instant real-time status information concerning applications under investigation

OS SUPPORT: z/OS* 1.10 and higher, CICS Transaction Server V3.1, 3.2 and 4.1

PRICE: Variable URL: www.plexspy.co.uk

Netuitive 5.0

Netuitive Inc.

Netuitive Inc. now integrates with IBM Tivoli*, a leading systems-

management tool for large enterprises. Tivoli customers can now better leverage Netuitive for automated performance

and capacity management in virtualized and cloud environments. Netuitive’s analytics platform:¡ Uses patented behavior-learning technology to replace manual, rules-based approaches¡ Allows enterprises to plug in and synthesize data streams from existing

monitoring sources across silos¡ Forecasts issues before they impact performance and isolates root cause wherever a problem occurs

OS SUPPORT: UNIX* and Windows* PRICE: Variable URL: www.netuitive.com

Predictive Recall

DTS Software Inc.

Predictive Recall is a feature of MONitor that minimizes

production delays triggered by the recalls of migrated data. Migrated production data sets are recalled prior to use, resulting in an overall shorter batch window. To avoid impact on the production workload, the Predictive Recall job can be scheduled to run when the system is underutilized,

prior to the production cycle. This release:¡ Uses the information from the job scheduler to create a list of production data sets that will be accessed in the next production cycle¡ Migrates infrequently used data sets quickly, freeing up DASD space, and recalls them later when they’re needed

OS SUPPORT: z/OS* PRICE: Variable URL: www.dtssoftware.com

Solutions


For a complete listing of mainframe products, visit our 2011 Buyer’s Guide online: www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/buyersguide/index.aspx

Advanced Software Products Group, Inc.

www.aspg.com 41, 43

CA

ca.com/chorus 2, 3

Clerity

ibmsystemsmag.webex.com44

ColeSoft Marketing

www.colesoft.com21

Compuware Corp.

MainframeInnovations.com7

DTS Software, Inc.

www.dtssoftware.com23

Edge Information Group, Inc.

www.edge-information.com25

GFS Software

www.gfssoftware.com13

IBM Technical Conferences 39, 47

INNOVATION Data Processing

www.fdr.com/penguins

www.innovationdp.fdr.com/FDRPASdemo

9, CVR 4

Jolly Giant Software Inc.

www.jollygiant.com43

MVS Solutions, Inc.

www.mvssol.comCVR 3

OpenTech Systems, Inc.

www.opentechsystems.comCVR 2

Relational Architects International, Inc.

www.relarc.com5

Trident Services, Inc.

www.triserv.com11

Velocity Software, Inc.

www.velocitysoftware.com1, 15

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Bijan Davari, who pioneered critical functions of the modern computer chip, was born that same year in Tehran. At age 11 his dad handed him his first transistor radio. “It was so much smaller and more elegant,” says Davari, who tinkered with vacuum-tube radios. “I could see that it was a game changer, and that’s how I got started.”

By the time he was in his 30s, Davari was leading the IBM research team that would produce another game changer—the first generation of high-performance, low-voltage logic (complementary metal oxide semiconductor, or CMOS) that characterizes computer chips. “I’ve always been interested in the ‘how’ of making significant advances in function, particularly when it’s believed it can’t be done,” Davari says. Today we take it for granted that these chips, which have gone from megahertz to gigahertz

performance standards within 15 years, power everything from iPhones to supercomputers. Without Davari’s breakthroughs, computers would be much hotter, slower and noisier.

Right from the start, Davari and his team challenged conventional thinking. “Assumptions were that you had to have high voltage to get a lot of power,” he says. “If you lowered voltage, it was assumed performance would get worse.” No one wanted to bother much with CMOS, a low-voltage technology that powered wristwatches. Davari’s team proved if you lowered the voltage, scaled down chip components and used different materials, CMOS became powerful. “You’re driving less load, so you don’t need as much current,” he adds. “If you’re driving large loads to make something fast, they get hot, and you get to a point where you can’t cool it.”

He didn’t stop there. In 1996 Davari was named an IBM Fellow—the company’s highest honor—for his work; last year he received an award from IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for outstanding contributions to his field.

Today Davari is working to achieve significant technological breakthroughs at the system level as vice president of Next Generation Computing Systems/Technology at IBM. Future performance gains will come through more integration—such as IBM’s new electrical/optical device chip—as well as through parallel processing at the system and software levels. Davari says we’ll eventually be able to connect to very powerful, highly specialized applications through cloud and wireless environments.

“You’ll be able to participate in a professional soccer game, for example, without changing the outcome,” he says. “The distinction between the real and computing world will be totally blurred.”

Game Changer Bijan Davari changed the computer chip By Sara Aase

In 1954, Texas Instruments engineers radically minia-turized the transistor radio, making it simultaneously less expensive and more powerful. Their reimagination of what

had been a slow-selling semiconductor technology changed the world: the transistor radio became the most popular electronic device in history, and the semiconductor, of course, became the heart of modern technology.


Stop RunAn eclectic

take on the

mainframe

world

Sara Aase is a Minneapolis-

based freelance writer.

Bijan Davari is vice

president of Next

Generation Computing

Systems/Technology

at IBM.

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