Many companies have built data warehouses (DWs) and have embraced business intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions. Even as companies have accumulated huge amounts of data, however, it remains difficult to provide trusted information at the right time and in the right place. The amount of data collected and available throughout the enterprise continues to grow even as the complexity and urgency of receiving meaningful information continues to increase. Producing meaningful and trusted information when it is needed can only be achieved by having a proper information architecture in place and a powerful underlying infrastructure. The amounts of data to mine, cleanse, and integrate are becoming so large that increasingly the infrastructure is becoming the bottleneck. This results in low refresh rates of the data in the data warehouse and in not having the information available in time where it is needed. And even before information can become available in a BI dashboard or a report, many preceding steps must take place: the collection of raw data; integration of data from multiple data stores, business units or geographies; transformation of data from one format to another; cubing data into data cubes; and finally, loading changes to data in the data warehouse. Combining the complexity of the information requirements, the growing amounts of data, and multiple layers of the information architecture requires an extremely powerful infrastructure. This IBM® RedguideTM publication explains how you can use IBM System z® as the foundation for your information management architecture. The System z value proposition for information management is fueled by the traditional strengths of the IBM mainframe, the specific strengths of DB2® for z/OS®, and the broad functionality of the IBM information management software portfolio. For decades, System z has proven its ability to manage vast amounts of mission-critical data for many companies throughout the world; your data is safe on System z. The available information management functionality on System z has grown from database management systems to a full stack of solutions including solutions for content management, master data management, information integration, data warehousing, and business intelligence and analytics. The availability of Linux® on System z provides an excellent opportunity to place certain components in an easy-to-manage and scalable virtualized Linux server, while benefitting from the System z hardware strengths. DB2 on z/OS can remain the operational data store and the underlying database for the data warehouse. The next generation of System z is growing into a heterogeneous architecture with which you can take advantage of System z-managed "accelerators" running on IBM System x® or IBM Power Blades. The first of these accelerators is the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer for DB2 for z/OS V1.1, an "all-in-one" solution in which System z, z/OS, DB2 on z/OS, an IBM BladeCenter®, and IBM storage work together to accelerate certain queries by one to two orders of magnitude. With the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer, slices of data are periodically offloaded from DB2 on z/OS to the BladeCenter. After a query is launched against that data, it will automatically run against the data kept on the BladeCenter. The BladeCenter will process the query an order of magnitude faster than DB2 on z/OS, because all data is cached in internal memory on the BladeCenter and special compression techniques are used to keep the data footprint small and efficient. As a solid information management architecture ready for the future, System z has it all.

The popularity of the Internet and the affordability of IT hardware and software have resulted in an explosion of applications, architectures, and platforms. Workloads have changed. Many applications, including mission-critical ones, are deployed on a variety of platforms, and the System z® design has adapted to this change. It takes into account a wide range of factors, including compatibility and investment protection, to match the IT requirements of an enterprise. This IBM® Redbooks® publication discusses the IBM zEnterprise System, an IBM scalable mainframe server. IBM is taking a revolutionary approach by integrating separate platforms under the well-proven System z hardware management capabilities, while extending System z qualities of service to those platforms. The zEnterprise System consists of the IBM zEnterprise 114 central processor complex, the IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager, and the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter® Extension. The z114 is designed with improved scalability, performance, security, resiliency, availability, and virtualization. The z114 provides up to 18% improvement in uniprocessor speed and up to a 12% increase in total system capacity for z/OS®, z/VM®, and Linux on System z over the z10TM Business Class (BC). The zBX infrastructure works with the z114 to enhance System z virtualization and management through an integrated hardware platform that spans mainframe, POWER7TM, and System x technologies. The federated capacity from multiple architectures of the zEnterprise System is managed as a single pool of resources, integrating system and workload management across the environment through the Unified Resource Manager. This book provides an overview of the zEnterprise System and its functions, features, and associated software support. Greater detail is offered in areas relevant to technical planning. This book is intended for systems engineers, consultants, planners, and anyone wanting to understand the zEnterprise System functions and plan for their usage. It is not intended as an introduction to mainframes. Readers are expected to be generally familiar with existing IBM System z technology and terminology.

Modernization of enterprise IT applications and infrastructure is key to the survival of organizations. It is no longer a matter of choice. The cost of missing out on business opportunities in an intensely competitive market can be enormous. To aid in their success, organizations are facing increased encouragement to embrace change. They are pushed to think of new and innovative ways to counter, or offer, a response to threats that are posed by competitors who are equally as aggressive in adopting newer methods and technologies. The term modernization often varies in meaning based on perspective. This IBM® Redbooks® publication focuses on the technological advancements that unlock computing environments that are hosted on IBM Z® to enable secure processing at the core of hybrid. This publication is intended for IT executives, IT managers, IT architects, System Programmers, and Application Developer professionals.

This IBM® Redpaper Redbooks® publication provides a broad explanation of data protection through encryption and IBM Z® pervasive encryption with a focus on IBM z/OS® data set encryption. It describes how the various hardware and software components interact in a z/OS data set encryption environment. In addition, this book concentrates on the planning and preparing of the environment and offers implementation, configuration, and operational examples that can be used in z/OS data set encryption environments. This publication is intended for IT architects, system programmer, and security administrators who plan for, deploy, and manage security on the Z platform. The reader is expected to have a basic understanding of IBM Z security concepts.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication discusses the real world experience of an enterprise that developed and implemented IBM z/OS® cloud services. This book shares the experience of a team at Walmart Technology, Walmart Stores, Inc.® and some of the decisions they made to create business critical cloud services. These experiences and approaches relate to the z/OS platform, and might not apply to other hybrid cloud approaches. This book highlights the strengths and characteristics of z/OS that led the Walmart infrastructure and software engineers to use this platform as they transitioned from a traditional IT deployment to a cloud model. Embarking on a cloud strategy can be overwhelming. No shortage of approaches to cloud computing exists. This book focuses on a pragmatic approach for enterprises that are struggling to take advantage of their business assets in the cloud. This book introduces the basic cloud concepts as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Each chapter explains the importance of a particular NIST characteristic, the z/OS role in accomplishing the characteristic, and how it was implemented by the Walmart Technology team. This book is intended for IT professionals who are considering extending their IBM z SystemsTM environment to a hybrid cloud by unleashing the power of cloud services on z/OS. For information about creating cloud services that are hosted in IBM CICS®, see How Walmart Became a Cloud Services Provider with IBM CICS, SG24-8347.

The popularity of the Internet and the affordability of information technology (IT) hardware and software have resulted in an explosion dramatic increase in the number of applications, architectures, and platforms. Workloads have changed. Many applications, including mission-critical ones, are deployed on a variety of platforms, and the IBM® System z® design has adapted to this change. It takes into account a wide range of factors, including compatibility and investment protection, to match the IT requirements of an enterprise. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides information about the IBM zEnterprise® BC12 (zBC12), an IBM scalable mainframe server. IBM is taking a revolutionary approach by integrating separate platforms under the well-proven System z hardware management capabilities, while extending System z qualities of service to those platforms. The zEnterprise System consists of the zBC12 central processor complex, the IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager, and the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter® Extension (zBX). The zBC12 is designed with improved scalability, performance, security, resiliency, availability, and virtualization. The zBC12 provides the following improvements over its predecessor, the IBM zEnterprise 114 (z114): Up to a 36% performance boost per core running at 4.2 GHz Up to 58% more capacity for traditional workloads Up to 62% more capacity for Linux workloads The zBX infrastructure works with the zBC12 to enhance System z virtualization and management through an integrated hardware platform that spans mainframe, IBM POWER7®, and IBM System x® technologies. The federated capacity from multiple architectures of the zEnterprise System is managed as a single pool of resources, integrating system and workload management across the environment through the Unified Resource Manager. This book provides an overview of the zBC12 and its functions, features, and associated software support. Greater detail is offered in areas relevant to technical planning. This book is intended for systems engineers, consultants, planners, and anyone who wants to understand zEnterprise System functions and plan for their usage. It is not intended as an introduction to mainframes. Readers are expected to be generally familiar with existing IBM System z technology and terminology.

IBM® DB2® for IBM z/OS® helps lower the cost of managing data by automating administration, increasing storage efficiency, improving performance, and simplifying the deployment of virtual appliances. By automating tasks such as memory allocation, storage management, and business policy maintenance, DB2 is able to perform many management tasks itself, freeing up Database Administrators to focus on new projects. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces autonomics for DB2 for z/OS. IBM provides several different components that, when combined, can create an autonomic database environment. All these respective components cover certain aspects of autonomics, which can collaborate into one coherent solution. In our evolution of autonomics and the need to move to smarter systems there has been a bigger drive to the concept of "Active" versus "Passive" autonomics. With the inclusion of the IBM Management Console for IMSTM and DB2 for z/OS and the Autonomics Director, it is now easier than ever to make that transition by leveraging the strength of the DB2 Utilities Solution Pack for z/OS all in one standardized and centralized interface. This publication guides you through the business reasons for adopting autonomic solutions, and provides step-by-step guidance to implement these capabilities in your DB2 for z/OS configuration. This publication is of interest primarily to DB2 Database Administrators and DB2 Systems Programmers, and for anyone looking to understand the benefits of DB2 autonomic solutions.