Today there are new and exciting possibilities available to you for creating a robust IT landscape. Such possibilities include those that can move current IT assets into the twenty-first century, while supporting state-of-the-art new applications. With advancements in software, hardware and networks, old and new applications can be integrated into a seamless IT landscape. Mobile devices are growing at exponential rates and will require access to data across the current and new application suites through new channels. Cloud computing is the new paradigm, featuring anything from SaaS to full server deployment. And although some environments are trying to virtualize and secure themselves, others such as IBM® zEnterprise® have been at the forefront even before cloud computing entered the scene. This IBM RedpaperTM publication discusses how transformation and extensibility can let you keep core business logic in IBM IMSTM and IBM CICS®, and extend BPM, Business Rules and Portal in IBM WebSphere® on IBM z/OS® or Linux on IBM System z® to meet new business requirements. The audience for this paper includes mainframe architects and consultants.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication gives a broad understanding of IBM IMSTM integration and connectivity solutions to access applications and data stores across your enterprise architecture. As an application developer, architect, systems integrator, or systems programmer, there is important information that is available in this book that pertains to your responsibilities to continue to include the proven performance, data integrity, and workload distribution that is available from IMS in to selected projects that are related to your entire enterprise. This book updates and adds to the information in the following IBM Redbooks publications: IMS e-business Connectors: A Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6514 IMS Connectivity in an On Demand Environment: A Practical Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6794 Powering SOA Solutions with IMS, SG24-7662 IBM IMS Version 12 Technical Overview, SG24-7972 IMS 12: The IMS Catalog, REDP-4812 Rethink Your Mainframe Applications: Reasons and Approaches for Extension, Transformation, and Growth, REDP-4938

This IBM® Redbooks® publication gives a broad understanding of IBM IMS integration and connectivity solutions to access applications and data stores across your enterprise architecture. As an application developer, architect, systems integrator, or systems programmer, there is important information that is available in this book that pertains to your responsibilities to continue to include the proven performance, data integrity, and workload distribution that is available from IMS in to selected projects that are related to your entire enterprise. This book updates and adds to the information in the following IBM Redbooks publications: IMS e-business Connectors: A Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6514 IMS Connectivity in an On Demand Environment: A Practical Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6794 Powering SOA Solutions with IMS, SG24-7662 IBM IMS Version 12 Technical Overview, SG24-7972 IMS 12: The IMS Catalog, REDP-4812 Rethink Your Mainframe Applications: Reasons and Approaches for Extension, Transformation, and Growth, REDP-4938 Please note that the additional material referenced in the text is not available from IBM.

For more than 40 years, Computerworld has been the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide. Computerworld's award-winning Web site (Computerworld.com), twice-monthly publication, focused conference series and custom research form the hub of the world's largest global IT media network.

For more than 20 years, Network World has been the premier provider of information, intelligence and insight for network and IT executives responsible for the digital nervous systems of large organizations. Readers are responsible for designing, implementing and managing the voice, data and video systems their companies use to support everything from business critical applications to employee collaboration and electronic commerce.

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.