Here are some items that I found interesting. 1. WebSphere Dashboard Framework, already available for z/OS, now also available for Linux on z:
http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/9/897/ENUS207-329/ENUS207329.PDF Dashboard Framework lets you build attractive and useful Web "dashboards," e.g. management presentation views, quickly and easily. There's "business blogging" support for making annotations, you can integrate dashboard data with spreadsheets (including .ods Open Document Format), publish alerts, etc. There's a recorded demo here: http://demos.dfw.ibm.com/on_demand/Demo/IBM_Demo_WebSphere_Dashboard_Framework-Mar07.html?S=index&S_CMP=rnav Yes, you read that right, Dashboard Framework runs on z/OS and Linux on z. I guess you'd say this is 2008's SDF III. :-) Along similar lines, Lotus ActiveInsight Version 6.0 is now available for Linux on z: http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/1/897/ENUS207-331/ENUS207331.PDF This software helps businesses focus their employees on managing goals and objectives, by presenting active scorecards in dashboards. You can arrange for a demonstration here: http://docs.dfw.ibm.com/activeinsight/ 2. The IBM SDK for z/OS, Java Technology Edition, V6 -- "Java 6" in shorthand -- is now available as a no charge feature. Both 31-bit and 64-bit are available, and JZOS is included. If you'd like to find out what's new in the Java 6 specifications, here's one place to look: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/ Watch here for details on electronic downloads: http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/software/java/ Of course you can keep previous JDK versions installed on your system and use them when and where needed. One interesting bit of trivia: Java 6 is not yet available for the Apple Macintosh. 3. A bunch of Information Management products got announced: DB2 Audit Management Expert for z/OS V2.1, WebSphere Replication Server for z/OS V9.1, WebSphere Data Event Publisher for z/OS V9.1 PTF, DB2 SQL Performance Analyzer for z/OS V3.2, IMS Buffer Pool Analyzer for z/OS V1.2, DB2 Log Analysis Tool for z/OS V3.1, IMS Recovery Expert for z/OS V1.1, DB2 Accessories Suite for z/OS V1.2, and IMS High Performance Fast Path Utilities for z/OS V3.2. IMS Recovery Expert is a brand new product and does what the name suggests. If you had WebSphere Data Integration Connector for z/OS you get WebSphere Data Event Publisher for z/OS, if you have active subscription & support. (That goes for the other products, too, if you have an older version today.) 4. There are some withdrawal announcements that might be important. NALC pricing for z/OS is being withdrawn effective March 31, 2008, for new customers anyway. zNALC replaces NALC. NALC and now zNALC are specially priced z/OS licenses for "new workload." It looks like zNALC, which also replaces z/OS.e, is a much better offering. The details on zNALC are here: http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/swprice/znalc.html The Service Flow Feature for CICS Transaction Server V3.1 will be withdrawn on June 30, 2008. This is a no charge feature; get your orders in before the deadline. (Also includes some rights to Rational Developer for System z; read the license terms in the announcement for details.) Better yet, upgrade to CICS Transaction Server V3.2 and its Service Flow Feature. The Service Flow Feature lets you create higher level flow abstractions to execute multiple CICS transactions in sequence (or in parallel), as "microflows." You can create these flows without programming. It's quite useful as a building block for service-oriented architectures and for better aligning your CICS programs, on an ongoing basis, with changing business needs. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
