According to Wikipedia, a Customer Advisory Council is a form of market research in which a group of existing customers is convened on a regular basis to advise company management on industry trends, business priorities, and strategic direction. After months of planning, the IMS™ Development teamat IBM® Silicon Valley Lab recentlywelcomed 14 IMS customers from 9 companies and 5 countries to its inaugural IMS Application DevelopmentCustomer Advisory Council meeting.

During this 3-day event, IMS evelopment gathered feedback from Application Architects on IMS Application Development capabilities and strategies.

The companies represented at the CAC reflect some of the world’s largest banks, insurance companies, and automobile manufacturers. For this meeting, companies sent their Senior Enterprise Architects, Directors of Application Architecture, AD Project Managers, Application Developers, and Data Stewards to participate. In short, some of the largest companies and largest IMS users sent their best and brightest.

IMS AD CAC meetings, as well as upcoming teleconferences and webinars, enable the IMS Development team to

Inaugural IMS Application Development Customer Advisory Council. . . . . . . 1 Letter from the Editor . . . . . . . . . 2Announcing IMS 12! . . . . . . . . . 3IMS + Mashup Center = Democratization of IMS Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 IMS DB Rules of Thumb . . . . . . . . 6

IMS: A Great Fit in a Resurgent Russia . . . 8 IMS Tools - IMS Recovery Expert for z/OS v2.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Introducing the IMS Explorer! . . . . . . 15Developing Mainframe Applications on YourLaptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Hot Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

IMS Newsletter: Volume 1010

Inaugural IMS Application Development Customer Advisory Council: Win-Win for Customers and IMS!Sandy Sherrill – IMS Value Assessment Program Manager

increase our clients’ awareness of the latest IMS AD capabilities. These venues also give our clients a new platform for sharing their AD plans and challenges, validating our strategic AD direction, and helping to design AD solutions that will keep their core IMS applications performing well into the future.

IMS Customers Come TogetherThe CAC kicked off with representatives from each of the 9 companies presenting the State of IMS in their enterprises, their key challenges and areas of interest, and what they hoped to gain from the CAC. Their top areas of interest included modernizing legacy assets, improving developer productivity, and preserving and leveraging their investment in IMS. Many wanted to understand the application development capabilities of IMS, including the role of Eclipse-based development tools.

Topics and Key FindingsAfter introductory presentations by Betty Patterson and Shyh-Mei Ho about the state of IMS today, lead IMS technical experts presented and solicited feedback on application development capabilities and support related to:

IMS Transaction Manager and •ConnectivityIMS Enterprise Metadata•IMS Database and Connectivity •IMS Batch Processing•IMS Support for Java•IMS Business Rules and Business •Process ManagementOperational Business Intelligence •and ReportingInformation Integration•IMS AD Tooling •

Surveying the participants led to the following conclusions:

Application Development tools, •specifically for application design and discovery, test, and development, are a high priority. Cloud Computing holds the potential •for new business opportunities related to IT. Eclipse-based plug-ins for •development IDEs are an important part of development strategies. Business Process Choreography •tools should be considered as part of an overall IBM tool stack rather than as product-specific. The value of a Business Rules •Management System is derived from its ease of manageability and deployment, such that IT has to make only one change. BMPs still play a critical role in the •

enterprise, and the need for improving batch processing is high on the list.

The opportunity to network with other IBM customers who have significant IMS assets was cited as an important reason to attend. Understanding how other customers leverage their IMS investment as part of their overall business strategy, and their plans to extend the life of their IMS applications, was another key objective. Customers also welcomed the chance to discuss best practices, understand and influence the future direction of IMS, share strategies for addressing skills shortages, and learn about IMS AD tool strategy.

Continued on page 2

IBM Silicon Valley Lab

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Letter from the EditorCarol Aizawa IMS Newsletter Managing Editor

This jam-packed issue of the IMS Newsletter celebrates the fifth annual IBM Information on Demand (IOD) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 24 – 28, 2010. IOD is known as the premier forum for organizations applying information to drive innovation, business optimization, and competitive differentiation. If you are at this conference, we promise you will learn what’s new with IMS, get best practices, and experience unrivaled networking opportunities with your peers, industry experts, Business Partners, and IBM executives who share your interests and challenges.

As for a recap of what’s been going on with IMS – we were excited to kick off our inaugural IMS Application Development Customer Advisory Council (AD CAC) in June 2010. Don’t miss our cover article to understand more about the AD CAC and hear what our customers had to say.

In this issue of our newsletter we highlight our IMS 12 announcement, along with additional enhancements to IMS 11. Other articles highlight what’s new from the IMS application development perspective, like our new IMS Mashup Center and IMS Explorer solutions, which are designed to increase developer productivity and reduce development costs. Don’t miss the Mashup Center special offer only for IMS customers, and the webinar scheduled for December 7, 2010.

The RDz Unit Test solution creates a System z environment on a desktop or laptop machine, enabling you to run typical z/OS middleware for development and testing. We also highlight the IMS Recovery Expert tool and continue our IMS database rules of thumb as they pertain to IMS logical relationships.

Our IMS community expands with four additional I am IMS profiles showcasing four interesting people from our community - you won’t want to miss those. We continue to offer regional user group events around the world and launched in new cities, including Chennai and

Craig Oddy, a Senior Enterprise Architect for Scotiabank in Toronto, Ontario, shared, “I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about IMS and IMS futures, and to meet and network with the other customers. I learned a lot and found the dialog about various topics interesting and useful.” One suggestion that we received from multiple participants was to allocate more time for the next CAC meeting: “There was too much on the agenda; too much to cover in just three days.”

The discussions were equally valuable to the IMS development organization. “These are some of our most sophisticated IMS users. To be able to sit down and talk with the application architects about IMS futures was a privilege. Their expertise, insights, and feedback on our product roadmap are invaluable,” said Betty Patterson, IMS Lead Architect and IBM Distinguished Engineer.

What Comes NextThe IMS Development organization is already planning the first of a series of follow-up webinars, which will focus on validating requirements in support of Enterprise Metadata. Additional webinars will be held on IMS and Java™ Applications, Business Process Management, Batch Improvements, DataPower, XML Support, and Top-Down SOA.

“I would like to personally thank all of our CAC members for their enthusiastic participation and candid feedback,” said Bev Tyrrell, IMS Product Director. “These types of partnerships can only better our product and strengthen our relationships with these very important customers.”

If you are interested in learning more about or becoming a member of the IMS AD Customer Advisory Council, please send your request to thinkims@us.ibm.com.

Bangalore, India, and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA. As always, refer to www.ibm.com/ims for the latest on our IMS events and teleconferences.

We are always looking for feedback from you on any IMS topic. Feel free to send your comments to imsmkt@us.ibm.com.

Thank you for your continued interest in IMS!

Inaugural IMS AD CACContinued from cover page

Feedback from the meeting was overwhelmingly positive. According to Neil Ross, a technology specialist and application architect from ABSA, the meeting was a big success. “It was really valuable to meet other customers and understand their challenges and their solutions to those challenges.”

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Announcing IMS 12!Barbara Klein, IMS Product Manager

IBM® and IMS™ are excited to announce IMS 12! Enhancements to IMS 12 provide unmatched capabilities to address your business needs through enhanced integration, openness, manageability, and scalability. IMS 12 improvements can provide unprecedented flexibility and support for your business growth requirements.

IMS continues to build on the recent zEnterprise™ enhancements to take full advantage of zEnterprise technology.

IMS and zEnterprise provide the best fit for core business processing, enhancing connectivity and integration. A typical IMS installation runs thousands of core business applications. IMS allows customers to more easily and directly access their IMS data from any platform. zEnterprise enhancements benefit IMS customers in running WebSphere® Servers (with the IMS resource adapters) or IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway on zEnterprise Blade Center® Extension (xSeries® or pSeries®) for access to and from IMS through local high-speed communication channels. This access could improve performance, ease management, and eliminate the need for additional security for that connection.

Highlights of IMS 12 IBM continues to enhance IMS by addressing customer requirements and lowering costs through:

Business flexibility: Extend IMS access and use with standard tools and interfaces to modernize, speed deployment, enrich functionality, and simplify use with:

TCP/IP support extended to IMS •Multiple Systems Coupling facility Expanded communication between •IMS systemsAdditional RACF security codes •

Simplification: Ease operations and expand availability with:

Dynamic definitions and simplified •interfaces with a common systems repository New IMS Connect type-2 commands•Better problem analysis and en-•hanced RAS

Growth enablement: Alleviate bottlenecks, optimize performance, and ensure resilience with:

64-bit Fast Path buffer manager •support Extended Address Volume support •for non-VSAM data (in addition to VSAM data)DB Recovery Control > 32 KB buffer •size and increased parallelism Logger increased bandwidth •Full-function Dynamic DB Buffer •Pool, faster restart, and constraint reliefFast Path secondary index •enablementAdditional performance •enhancements

Since the IMS 11 General Availability in 2009, IBM has expanded IMS 11 as the integration focal point with additional enhancements for:

Application callout messaging. •Open Database Universal JDBC •drivers to include local type-2 drivers (in addition to the previously distributed type-4 drivers), and type-4 IMS XML database support.IMS integration with Data Source •Explorer and Cognos®, enabling IMS to be an integral part of the IBM portfolio of solutions for operation business intelligence and

reporting, and for database explorations, edit, and SQL scripting.

Persistent Java Virtual Machine •(JVM) support in non-Java IMS dependent regions for calling Java from Enterprise COBOL out of these regions, improving performance for COBOL-to-Java interoperability when leveraging Java from legacy COBOL applications.

Transaction expiration support •extended to enable clients to broaden use of this function, which allows IMS to expire the input transactions without processing them, reducing the CPU cycles needed.

IBM continues to provide enhanced solutions across their wide portfolio of products for simplified integration and management of new and existing IMS applications and data:

IMS Enterprise Suite, Websphere •Servers, and Rational® product enhancements benefit IMS application development, deployment, and access. Enhanced IMS Tools and utilities •improve IMS systems and data management, performance, and availability.

IMS includes many additional features and improvements that, along with the System z® platform, help you meet your IT and enterprise data center cost challenges, as well as efficiency, resilience, and flexibility needs.

To learn more about IMS products and tools, visit ibm.com/ims.

IBM plans to ship IMS 12 on December 10, 2010 to customers already selected as participants in the Quality Partnership Program process. General availability of IMS V12 will be announced at a later date.

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Analysts at Gartner tell us that web computing has become a mainstay of IT strategies. With the advent of mashup-style composites, web computing is poised for another major era of growth. Together, web computing and cloud computing will become the primary IT strategies of many enterprises and will power business solutions for the next decade and beyond. IMS™ customers can participate in this growth by taking advantage of this offer to get more value from their IMS assets. Read on for more information about this technology and IBM’s exciting offer!

A few years ago, the term Web 2.0surfaced when sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Blogger emerged. The idea behind that term was that any web user, not just the limited few with web development skills, could create and change content on the web. Until that time, users were limited to being passive viewers of web information. Since then, the idea has grown into a full-blown democratization of data, where information that was previously available to a select few can now be accessed by any user, including those who operate outside the enterprise IT environment. Today, this idea is extended by the capability of users, not just programmers, to create, aggregate, or mash together, web applications called mashups.

The word mashup actually originated in the music industry, where it refers to the process of creating a new song from pieces of existing songs. This idea of remixing existing content to get something new and interesting is applied to web applications, where a mashup is a web application that is created from existing data and functions. This new ap-plication in turn delivers new functionality and insights.

But mashups are not just about lowering the barrier to application development. As you might infer, their most important premise is reuse. As a result, mashups can be built very quickly - on the order of a few days or weeks, sometimes even minutes or hours. All things considered, mashups offer a way to reduce development costs by creating reusable building blocks that are used to assemble mashups faster and faster - lowering the cost per application faster than traditional application development methods.

Creating Your MashupMashups consist of widgets or gadgets (small code snippets that do things) and feeds (the data that widgets act on - the most common example is RSS feeds). The first step in building a mashup is to make sure that you have access to the right data sources. This typically involves unlocking your existing data sources (such as IMS - you knew we were going to come to it!) by exposing that information in a common, reusable format: a feed. After creating the appropriate feeds, customers often want to add visualization to that information by turning it into a widget.

Every time you create a feed or widget,the fundamental building blocks for mashups, you can publish them to a catalog. Then, when someone wants to create a mashup, they start by selecting the appropriate widgets or feeds from the catalog, perhaps transforming or remixing a few of the feeds to get the right information. Next, using code-free assembly tooling, business users (or anyone with the right access control to the mashup environment) can assemble these widgets and feeds into newapplications, which can also be shared with other users.

IBM Mashup CenterConsumer-focused web mashups are well known - but applying those principles to deliver significant business results requires a strategy, discipline, and capabilities that are enterprise grade. IBM® has been working with mashups in the enterprise for 5 years with over one hundred customer engagements. We have a Greenhouse mashup community with over 5,800 users, and over 2,000 IBM employees use mashups internally.

IBM Mashup Center, a mashup tool available today, extends the development of mashups to users outside of centralized IT. IBM Mashup Center is an end-to-end mashup platform, supporting rapid assembly of dynamic applications, with the security and governance capabilities needed for enterprise operations.

The recently unveiled IBM Mashup Center Version 2.0 continues to expand on the productivity, security, and customization features inherent in IBM Mashup Center, delivering new capabilities and benefits. See Figure 1 on page 5.

IMS Web 2.0 Solutions for IBM Mashup CenterIBM Mashup Center has built-in IMS support that makes enterprise data and transactions available to the Web 2.0 community. Your users can further remix and mash up the data to meet new and evolving business needs.

Continued on page 5

IMS + Mashup Center = Democratization of IMS DataEvgeni Liakhovich, IMS on Demand Technical Support

Announcing a special offer for IMS Customers!Free IBM Mashup Center 2.0 with IMS 10 or IMS 11!

Download it today to get more value from your IMS TM and IMS DB assets!

5

With IBM Mashup Center V2.0’s embedded IMS Web 2.0 functionality, you can:

Create Atom feeds from IMS •transactions that run on IMS Version 11 and IMS Version 10, with integrated IMS Connect.Easily customize IMS transactions •without modifying the original applica- tion. Through a web interface, you can specify which input parameters to expose to users, as well as the default parameter values to invoke the feed. Feeds can be further re-structured and customized by using the operators and functions of IBM Mashup Center.Use the tooling support in IBM Ratio-•nal® Developer for System z® to gen-erate the required XML converter driver and correlator. IMS Connect uses the XML converter driver to transform the data between XML and bytes. The correlator maps the request and response messages to the input and output data structures of the IMS application. IMS Version

11 and IMS Version 10 customers are entitled to two complimentary, unwarranted copies of Rational Developer for System z.Create Atom feeds from IMS databases• that run on IMS Version 11 through the IMS Universal DB resource adapter.Use the IMS Enterprise Suite •DLIModel utility plug-in to translate IMS source files into metadata files. The metadata files describe the relational database view that enables you to issue SQL queries to the database in IBM Mashup Center to create a feed. Feeds can be further restructured and customized in IBM Mashup Center.

Take Advantage of This Special Offer Today!IBM Mashup Center Version 2.0 is offered to IMS 10 and IMS 11 customers at no charge (with the use limited to IMS and two SQL data servers). We believe that this offer will encourage new and expanded uses of IMS assets. With IMS 10, users can create a restful service or feed from IMS transactions.

With IMS 11, users can also create a data feed using IMS Open Database. In addition, IMS users of Cognos® can benefit from IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service – an API that automatically and securely exposes content from IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence as a web service for use in other operational applications, business processes, and mashups.

For more information about this special offer, please go to www.ibm.com/ims. And be sure to sign up for the upcoming webinar on IMS and IBM Mashup Center scheduled for December 7, 2010.

Figure 1. IBM Mashup Center Version 2.0 extends mashups to users outside of centralized IT

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In the previous issue, we covered secondary indexing-related IMS™ rules of thumb. These rules of thumb articles provide education to those new to IMS. This second article discusses rules of thumb related to logical relationships.

Logical relationships reduce data redundancy while providing greater efficiency and data integrity. Logical relationships are used to relate two segment types either within a database or between databases. This results inhierarchic structures (or logicaldatabases) that are built from one or more physical databases. However, to the application programmer, this relationship is almost transparent and appears as a conventional hierarchic structure.

The relationship between the two segment types is established via a third segment known as the logical child segment. This logical child segment can contain data that is unique to the relationship, called intersection data. The parent of the logical child segment where it is physically defined is its physical parent. The segment it points to is its logical parent.

There are three types of logical relationships:

Unidirectional (one-way path)•Bidirectional physically paired •(two-way path, logical child physically stored on both sides)Bidirectional virtually paired •(two-way path, logical child physically stored on one side)

In a bidirectional, virtually paired logical relationship, place the real logical child so that the physical path is the most active pathIn bidirectional, virtually paired logical relationships, one side of the relationship has the logical child physically stored: the real logical child. The other side of the relationship has the logical child defined but not physically stored: the virtual logical child. The virtual side anchors a chain of logical child segments using logical twin pointers. The advantage of virtual pairing is there is no duplicate logical child and no maintenance of paired logical children. However, to

retrieve segments from the virtual side of the relationship (through the logical parent) IMS must follow the logical twin chain to locate the proper logical child. Each retrieval of a logical child segment will probably result in an I/O. With long logical twin chains, this can quickly become very costly.

You don’t incur this cost when processing from the physical side of the relationship (through the physical parent) because the processing is similar to processing any physical dependent. That is, logical child segments are placed in the same block identically to other types of physical child segments. This processing advantage assumes that the logical parent need not be retrieved.

Given that the virtual path is more expensive to traverse, a calculation based on anticipated activity should be made to determine where to physically place the real logical child. This calculation includes the length of the twin chain and the frequency of search.

Consider placing the real logical child on the longer twin chain or on the side requiring twin sequencingIn a bidirectional, virtually paired logical relationship with long twin chains, it may be advantageous to place the real logical child segment on the side with the longest chain. This way, the logical twin chain will be shorter. This decreases the number of database records that must be examined to follow a logical twin chain.

Another consideration is the logical twin chain sequencing. If only one side of the relationship is sequenced, it may be more efficient for IMS to maintain the sequencing on the physical side versus the virtual side. This is due to the additional physical I/Os necessary to insert the segment in the logical twin chain versus the physical twin chain.

If both sides of the relationship need to be sequenced and the chain lengths are comparable, place the real logical child on the side from which it is most often retrieved.

If the length of the logical twin chain is of any significance, consider physical pairingIn bidirectional, virtual logical relationships, the chains from both the physical parent and the logical parent may be long. When this occurs, physical pairing should be considered to eliminate the logical twin chains altogether.

With physical pairing, the logical child segment exists on both sides of the relationship, and IMS must maintain the duplication of intersection data. Because the physical logical child segments can be blocked on both sides of the relationship, processing those chains can be less costly.

Physical pairing has unwanted side effects: the obvious data redundancy and the extra storage space consumed, and the multiple updating that must occur every time a change is made to the logical child segment. This must be balanced before a clear gain can be established.

Frequent retrieval of the fully concatenated segment implies a direct logical parent (LP) pointer in the logical child segmentThe logical child segment on DASD has a pointer to its logical parent. You choose the type of pointer: symbolic or direct.

With symbolic pointers, the logical parent’s concatenated key is stored as part of the logical child. To retrieve the logical parent, IMS must issue internal GU calls based on the stored concatenated key. With HIDAM, this requires processing the index and each segment from the root down to the logical parent segment, which can be expensive.

Continued on page 11

IMS DB Rules of Thumb: Logical RelationshipsDeepak Kohli, IMS SOA Solutions and IMS On Demand Level 2 Technical Support

I work for Sandvik, a huge company in Sweden. Our website will tell you that we are “a high-technology, engineering group with advanced products and world-leading positions within selected areas.” We operate mainly in the steel business, but there is also work in the mining industries. I’ve been with Sandvik since 1999 - I started as a consultant, then joined their IT Support group.

As a kid, I really wanted to be a rock star - to play my music in front of thousands of people! At some point, computers captured my interest. I still love music, of course, and I still play every chance I get. And while the big iron - mainframes - is my bread and butter, these days I use my own computers more to edit my photographs - I’m a pretty serious photographer.

Right now, I spend the better part of my day getting IMS 11 up and running. I came in to this job, and started learning about IMS, about two years ago. My responsibilities will be to get that environment established, and then help to maintain it - until we are ready to move to IMS 12, that is.

IMS is used as the backbone for many of our systems, primarily for our ordering systems. Some of the orders are internal, and some are direct orders from customers using web portals. IMS is great at dealing with large amounts of data. We are running about 4 million transactions every week.

I don’t see an end in sight for mainframes - big hardware is here to stay. Clients might instead buy services rather than specific machines, I think, but mainframes and IMS will outlive us all!

My name is Andreas, and I am IMS.

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In this third in a series of four articles on the BRIC countries, Irana Wasti and Evgeni Liakhovich share the role that IMS plays in the ongoing evolution of Russia!

With its grand size, epic history, and great potential, Russia always generates interest and excitement, and is never far from the spotlight.

Russia represents a huge, rapidly developing business opportunity. In 2008, real GDP grew 22 percent, marking the country’s tenth year of economic expansion since 1998. Russia has experienced rapid increases in real wages and disposable income as well, and a tripling of private consumption between 2002 and 2006. Today, across many sectors, Russia is booming. Oil and gas, metals, and heavy industry are the big Russian sectors. However, IT, telecommunications, banking, retail, and small and medium businesses also are growing rapidly.

IT in RussiaThe Russian IT market is growing atdouble-digit rates, according to the analyst firm IDC. In 2005, the IT market expanded more than 25 percent, reaching more than $14 billion in user spending. IBM® is a big part of this growth. As the Russian IT market matures and moves from pure infrastructure toward industry solutions, IBM and IMS™ are presented with great opportunities to be at the forefront of that transformation and help define a new type of value for our clients.50 percent of Russia's university students are studying science and technology, while more than 1.3 million students have graduated from Russian universities with information technology-related skills over the past seven years.

IBM and IMS in RussiaAlthough IBM has been in Russia for over 38 years, most of its growth in Russia has occurred over the past 8 years. During this time, revenue growth for IBM Russia has grown in double digits, including growth of 75 percent in 2004, and 29 percent in 2005.

IMS first entered the Russian market by establishing a new IMS team at the Russian Lab in Moscow. In 2006, 12 new engineers interested in and passionate about IMS began working on the product by providing support for the IMS Quality Assurance organization. The team in Moscow is comprised of toptalent from IBM’s Business Partners, top firms in Russia, as well as Russia’s top technical university.

In 2009, the IMS organization wanted to take a closer look at the Russian market to understand the market dynamics, challenges, and expectations, and to evaluate whether there was an opportunity for the IMS product topenetrate the Russian market.

Continued on page 9

IMS: A Great Fit in a Resurgent RussiaEvgeni Liakhovich, Advisory Software Engineer, Irana Wasti, IMS Development Manager

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IMS: A Great Fit in a Resurgent RussiaContinued from page 8

IMS first entered the Russian market by establishing a new IMS team at the Russian Lab in Moscow. In 2006, 12 new engineers interested in and passionate about IMS began working on the product by providing support for the IMS Qual-ity Assurance organization. The team in Moscow is comprised of top talent from IBM’s Business Partners, top firms in Russia, as well as Russia’s top technical university.

In 2009, the IMS organization wanted to take a closer look at the Russian market to understand the market

dynamics, challenges, and expectations, and to evaluate whether there was an op-portunity for the IMS product to penetrate the Russian market.

In October, 2009, Irana Wasti and Evgeni Liakhovich from the IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory, working together with Vladimir Kossakovskiy and Gregory Vlasov from the IBM Moscow System z® Sales team, organized the first three-day IMS seminar in Moscow. The first day of the seminar was dedicated to the local IBM teams, the second day included IMS target customers, and the third day focused on IBM Business Partners. During the seminar, these technical leaders presented an overview of IMS, discussed the competitive advantage and positioning of IMS, and provided examples of IMS usage across various industries and companies worldwide. They also led informative discussions on the challenges in the Russian market and how IMS technology can help resolve such challenges.

The key challenges in the Russian market include:

Decentralized management•Large amounts of data•Lack of consistency across data •centersSecurity concerns•Lack of enterprise-wide architecture•Inconsistent standards•

Overall, the IMS seminar was very well received, and the attendees saw a need for IMS in the large Russian enterprises. One of the customer attendees, Alexander Kostyrko, System engineer, independent expert and editor of a popular Russian System z information portal (s390soft.org.ru/publ/19-1-0-45), had positive comments and feedback regarding the initiative to enter the Russian market with the IMS product:

“IBM [has shown a] willingness to enter the Russian market with a full and comprehensive strategy of approaching customers, Business Partners, developing local IBM experts, and working with universities. Seeing such a comprehensive approach is in itself a convincing argument to trust IBM and IMS. I always believed that the presence of IMS and/or CICS in a market demonstrates maturity of the market and the importance of reliability, scalability,

In summary, Irana and Evgeni found a strong need for IMS in the Russian market, particularly because of how the product can help resolve the challenges of centralization, availability, reliability, security, and more. “We hope that this is just the beginning of our work in Russia, and that going forward we will have a productive collaboration with the enterprises in the Russian market,” Irana and Evgeni confirmed.

availability, speed, etc. I hope that the Russian market is ready to embrace such technology.”

Evgeni reports, “Since our initial trip to Moscow, we had a couple more visits, seminars, and online webinars within Russia and with Russian target customers. The IMS team, together with the System z technical specialists, is working on an IMS Proof of Concept for one of the top customers in the Russian market.” Irana shared, “Additionally, we had inquiries for in-depth IMS education from several Russian customers ranging from those headquartered in Moscow, as well as a customer in the Far East Region of Russia. We also met with the Dean of the Computer Science program at Moscow Bauman University - the top technical university in Russia. This university already offers classes in z/OS and DB2® for z/OS and is now eager to start offering classes on IMS.”

I was born in the birthplace of IBM in Endicott, New York. The son of another proud IBMer, I attended TJ Watson Elementary School and started a lifelong exposure to IBM and computers. IMS was already 7 years young.

When I was 5, my father brought home one of the first IBM 5150 Personal Computers. It ran at a blazing 4.77 MHz and had a whopping 64 KB of memory. Meanwhile, IMS was running on the System/360, which had up to 8 MB of memory and handled 4000 transactions per hour. Around the age of 8, I remember writing my first programs in BASIC, many of which I copied out of the sadly short-lived Enter magazine. My BASIC programs never even made it to disk, but many of the programs being written for IMS then remain in production even today!

Ten years later, I was at the University of Michigan studying Computer Engineering. In the six years I was in Ann Arbor, I wrote hundreds of programs in many languages, studied chip design, operating systems, and networking, worked as a research assistant on a distributed systems manufacturing project, graduated with two degrees, and was ready to take on anything.

I interviewed with many companies after graduat-ing in 2000, but there was something truly amazing about IMS. Maybe its history - being linked to the first Apollo missions; or its robustness and sheer size - being a system of 3 million lines of code offering 5 9s (99.999%) of availability; or the fact that it’s older than I am. Whatever it originally was, today it’s all of these things, especially the people working in IMS and its customers. IMS has the kind of cooperative commu-nity that you just don’t see in this age of disposable, commodity, bottom-line industries. Whatever it was, I’m happy to say I’m still working with IMS as it cel-ebrates 42 years, and remain excited at the prospect that the code and products for IMS I’m writing today will likely be living on as IMS celebrates 50, 60, and even 70 years.

My name is Chris, and I am IMS.

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IMS DB Rules of Thumb: Logical RelationshipsContinued from page 6

With direct pointers, a 4-byte address of the logical parent segment is stored as part of the logical child. Therefore, retrieval of the logical parent is faster because at most only one read (for the block containing the logical parent) is required. Also, direct pointers are shorter than symbolic pointers, so less DASD space is required to store direct pointers.

Whenever there is frequent retrieval of the fully concatenated segment (crossing the logical relationship), direct pointers are usually a good choice.

Store sufficient information in the logical child segment to prevent crossing the logical relationship for the majority of search requestsWhen searching the twin chain on a keyed retrieval, store the data necessary to satisfy the search arguments in the logical child segment. If, on the other hand, an application must search on fields that exist only in the logical parent, determining whichlogical parent satisfies the request requires retrieval of all logical parents until the correct one is found.

Symbolic only logical parent pointers allow independent reorganization of logically related databasesWhen databases grow large or the number of databases increases, logical relationships can impose significant operational problems. One such problem is the time it takes to reorganize a database that participates in logical relationships with other databases. If direct pointers are specified, related databases must be scanned with a utility to make sure that physical addresses are correctly resolved. This scanning process can be time-consuming if the database is large. In addition to the scan, other utilities must be run to resolve any changes.

Symbolic pointers can be used to avoid this interdependency at the time of reorganization. If symbolic pointers are used in the relationships, no scan or other utilities are necessary for reorganization because although direct (address) pointers change relative to the state of organization of the data, symbolic

pointers do not. With symbolic pointers, each database can be reorganized independently. In addition to saving resources, databases are tied up for shorter periods of time.

There is overhead associated with symbolic pointers that may negate the operational advantages. A good candidate for symbolic pointers is a logical parent that is the root of an HDAM database. Using symbolic pointers with HDAM will typically yield the same I/O performance as direct pointers because an index is not required and the probability of finding the database record at the randomizer-specified address is high. If the logical parent is not the root, determine whether it is retrievable in one I/O. If more then one I/O is required (as is almost always the case with HIDAM) and the usage is potentially a bottleneck, direct pointers might be more appropriate.

Start with delete rules of V for the logical child segment and L for the logical parent segment The selection of delete rules can be crucial in application development. When the rules are defined, application programs must incorporate the correct logic to maintain the data. With some options, such as rules of virtual, maintenance is more the responsibility of IMS than the application. Rules of physical put the responsibility in the application program’s code.

When first developing the rules for the segments, a rule of logical (the default) is typically a good choice for the logical parent segment. This prevents the deletion of the logical parent from its physical database when deletes are processed through the logical relationship.

A rule of virtual on the logical child segment allows for the deletion from either side. This typically makes good application sense. When one component of the relationship is deleted, all relationships that are dependent on that segment are deleted. The other rules for insert and replace must be considered carefully also. The biggest problems typically are found in trying to determine the delete rules.

When ‘scanning’ an HD database for more than one segment type, specify the SEQ option on the DBS input cardThe IMS scan utility used in reorganization processing has two modes of operation. The first mode is sequential processing (SEQ), which is the default for HISAM databases. The second mode is single segment processing (SEG), which is the default for HIDAM and HDAM databases.

If an HD database must be scanned and contains more than one segment to process, the SEG option forces a pass of the database for each segment to be scanned. This pass occurs because the SEG option forces GN calls qualified by individual segment names. The preferred mode in this case would probably be sequential processing, where each segment is returned and analyzed to determine if it is one of the segments to be processed. This accomplishes multiple segment scans with one pass of the database.

Because SEG is the default for HD databases, the user must override the option on the DBS card. When you use this technique, compare the reports that indicate performance before and after to choose the most efficient method.

Conversely, the efficiency of scanning a HISAM database can be improved by specifying the SEG option if few segments are to be scanned.

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I was born in the city of Tyumen, among the vast planes of Siberia, in what was still Soviet Russia, where you didn’t learn about computers - computers learned about you! By the time I finished high school, however, Soviet Russia was no more. I wish I could say I wanted to be a cosmonaut, but, having learned Assembler programming at the age of 12, I always wanted to be a computer scientist!

I attended Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, in my hometown. It was a difficult time in the new Russia, and opportunities were rare. One day, I opened the mail and found a letter inviting the 10 best students (including me!) to come and study in the United States. I nearly fainted. I came to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where I ultimately earned a Master’s Degree in Computer Science.

After graduating, I had four compelling offers, and choosing IBM from among them was a no-brainer. My wife and I moved to Portland, Oregon, when our son was just 3 days old. The Pacific Northwest has turned out to be the perfect place in which to live and raise a family. I do like my hometown of Tyumen, but there is so much to see in this world! When I lived in Siberia, the rest of the world seemed as difficult to reach as the moon - it seemed that far away - as I had no opportunity to travel. Now, living my dream, working for IMS, I get to travel with my family and take my hobby of photography with me. It’s a perfect combination for life. I came to the IMS On Demand team because my skill set was modern technologies, and IMS had new initiatives for Application Modernization. It’s been a great fit for me. Modern information technologies fascinate me. They make me feel that the future is now, it’s right here. And IMS is a big part of that. I am so excited about the initiatives we are taking in Russia right now! It’s as if life has come full circle for me.

My name is Evgeni, and I am IMS

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IMS Tools - IMS Recovery Expert for z/OS V2.1Ron Haupert, Senior Technologist, Rocket Software

IBM® IMS® Recovery Expert for z/OS® is a storage-aware backup and recovery solution that integrates storage processor fast-replication facilities with IMS backup and recovery operations to allow instantaneous backups, reduce recovery time, and simplify disaster recovery procedures while using less CPU, I/O, and storage resources.

IMS Recovery Expert integrates IBM FlashCopy® and other storage-based fast-replication services and exposes them to IMS DBAs in a transparent manner. IMS system-level backup methods are the foundation for these backup and recovery processes. IMS system-level backups that are performed using FlashCopy have many operational advantages:

Backup, recovery, and disaster •recovery procedures are simplified and costs are reduced. Application availability is increased •because IMS systems can be backed up instantaneousy without affecting running applications. Backup windows are eliminated and application processing windows can be extended.FlashCopy operations are •coordinated with IMS activities to back up IMS systems and validate that that all database resources are contained within the backup volumes.System-level backups reduce •recovery time. IMS systems or application databases are restored instantaneously from a system-level backup using FlashCopy facilities while IMS recovery operations are performed in parallel to the restoration.IMS system-level backups •provide an effective disaster restart business continuity solution that simplifies disaster recovery operations. Disaster recovery becomes as simple as restarting after a power failure.

IMS Storage-aware Backup and Recovery Process Flow

A- IMS system-level backup created by using v olume-based FlashCopyB- Disk-based system-level backup offloaded to tapeC- Disk-based-level backup used to restore an IMS system D- IMS application or database recovery from a system-level backupE- Restoring an IMS system or database from an offloaded system-level backup

Figure 1. IMS storage-aware database backup and recovery

Storage-aware IMS system-level backup solutions use volume-based FlashCopy operations to back up IMS systems. Volume-level backups have many operational advantages over data-set copy methods: They can be executed quickly, leverage storage-based consistency functions, and use storage processor resources efficiently.

When the IMS system volumes are discovered and backup target volumes are associated, FlashCopy facilities back up the IMS system instantaneously

without affecting running applications. Backup volume and associated database recovery information is stored in a

metadata repository and used during recovery and backup offload processing.

Figure 1-A shows how IMS Recovery Expert uses volume-based FlashCopy to create a system-level backup for IMS.

Although IMS system-level backups on disk provide fast and effective restore recovery operations, maintaining multiple backup generations on disk can be costly. IMS Recovery Expert’s tape offload facilities provide long-term backup retention while allowing recovery from the archived copy.

Figure 1-B shows an IMS system-level backup that isarchived to tape by IMS

Recovery Expert. The archived copy can be used for subsequent IMS system, application, and database recovery.

IMS system-level backups are restored from disk or tape automatically when recovery operations are required. The recovery process determines which backup provides the optimal and most expeditious recovery: a disk-based IMS system-level backup or an IMS system-level backup.

In a disk-based IMS system-level backup, FlashCopy restores the data at a volume level to expedite the restoration process. IMS system recovery processes are performed in parallel during the restoration. Database logs are used to roll forward the restored application data. Figure 1-C shows an IMS system recovery operation in which volume-based fast replication is used to restore database data. Figure 1-E shows an IMS system recovery from an IMS SLB that has been archived to tape.

Continued on page 14

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When IMS applications or databases are recovered, appropriate corresponding data sets are restored from the system-level backup volumes by using data set FlashCopy facilities. Application recovery time is reduced because the data restoration process in the storage processor is performed in parallel with the IMS recovery processes. That is, IMS logs are applied while data is being restored in the storage processor as a result of the data set FlashCopy operation. The parallel restore and recovery processing reduces both overall recovery time and application downtime. Figure 1-D shows an IMS application or database recovery operation in which data-set-level fast replication is used to restore database data.

Intelligent Recovery ManagerIMS Recovery Expert has an embedded Intelligent Recovery Manager that coordinates and manages datarestoration, recovery, and post recovery processes. The Intelligent Recovery Manager determines which SLB or image copy provides the most expedient recovery, and IMS Recovery Expert drives appropriate FlashCopy facilities to restore the data. You can configure recovery and post-recovery products and utilities to perform your recovery and post recovery processing needs. Figure 2 shows the role of the Intelligent Recovery Manager in the recovery process.

When IMS recovery is needed, the Intelligent Recovery Manager analyzes all available recovery assets and drives the recovery of an IMS system, application, or database in the most efficient manner. All recovery jobs are set up through an ISPF interface and all recovery utilities can be managed from a centralized point. Complex IMS recover processes are simplified, recovery steps are automated, and recovery time is reduced.

IMS Recovery Expert promotes parallel recovery operations by restoring backup copies while IMS recovery operations are performed in parallel. The Intelligent Recovery Manager invokes appropriate FlashCopy facilities and initiates IMS

recovery procedures while data is being restored in the storage processor. Parallelizing the data restoration and IMS recovery processes shortens recovery time and reduces IMS recovery time objectives.

IMS Disaster Restart and Recovery An IMS Recovery Expert-generated system-level backup simplifies disaster recovery operations and reduces recovery time objectives. You can use IMS system-level backups to restart the IMS system at a point in time when the backup was performed by using IMS emergency restart procedures. You can also roll forward IMS system-level backups by using available database logs and recovery assets at your disaster recovery site.

Figure 2. IMS RecoveryExpert Intelligent RecoveryManager

The Intelligent IMS Disaster Recovery Manager has both local and remote DR site components. The local component tracks IMS log archive processes and correlates them to IMS SLB creation and offsite transport. The remote DR site component provides facilities to roll the offsite IMS SLB forward using image copies, change accumulations, and archive logs that have been sent to the

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DR site. Tedious IMS disaster recovery operations can be transformed into efficient disaster restart procedures to simplify the IMS recovery process, reduce recovery time objectives, and reduce recovery point objectives at the disaster recovery site.

Offloading FlashCopy-based IMS system-level backups to tape and then transporting the tapes to a disaster recovery site provides the foundation for a tape-based disaster restart solution. Such solutions simplify disaster recovery operations, reduce recovery time objectives, and provide similar advantages to storage-based business continuity solutions that use remote storage replication such as IBM PPRC (peer-to-peer remote copy). Tape-based disaster restart solutions can provide an excellent and cost-effective tertiary

disaster recovery solution when they are implemented with PPRC Metro Mirror remote mirroring solutions.

For more information about IMS Recovery Expert for z/OS, visitwww.ibm.com/ software/data/ims/.

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Introducing the IMS Explorer!Quddus Chong, IMS Information Developer

Peter is a recent college graduate working as an application developer at a large bank. Today, his team leader asked him to update program access to an IMS database to support a new business requirement. Most of Peter’s work experience has been with relational databases using graphical UI tools. Facing a stark ISPF green screen, stacks of code printouts, and with a growing knot in his stomach, Peter begins to realize that he’s in unfamiliar waters. With an urgent deadline looming, how can he complete the project on time?

Simplify Development with IMS ExplorerIMS™ is a powerful z/OS® engine for database management and transaction processing. For anyone who is new to this environment, however, developing and maintaining application programs for IMS using the traditional ISPF interface can be time-consuming and challenging. The IMS Explorer addresses this challenge by providing an easy-to-use interface that simplifies common IMS application development tasks. Built on the Eclipse platform, the IMS Explorer offers advanced capabilities to import, model, and edit IMS database and program definitions. It provides graphically-driven editors for visualizing and updating IMS program and database definitions, and provides user assistance in the form of rich GUI controls and contextual help, to reduce IMS development effort. Finally, using the IMS Explorer, programmers can easily access and manipulate data stored in IMS using standard SQL.

Visualize IMS Database DefinitionsIt’s 9 a.m. and Peter has already fueled up on two cups of coffee. He reads over the lines of code in the DBD source files and rubs his eyes. What does that DBDGEN statement mean?

With the IMS Explorer, a database architect, database administrator, or application developer like Peter can quickly and easily understand the structure of their IMS databases. Using the IMS Explorer’s database editor, Peter can graphically display the segmenthierarchy for any IMS database and directly edit the field attributes for a segment. The editor also displays logical relationships and indexes. If logical

relationships exist, the editor displays all the related databases, including logical child and logical parent segments, as shown in Figure 1. A logical view mode allows Peter to easily see data structures for a given database where a non-root segment can be viewed as the root segment. Peter can also view logical child segments as concatenated segments, which pull in the segments from the related database.

Figure 1. IMS Explorer allows users to easily see the logical relationships be-tween multiple databases

Create IMS PSB Definitions It’s 11:32 a.m., almost lunchtime. Peter is plugging away at creating a new PSB. ”Now, how do I specify the segment sensitivity again?”

A common task in developing an IMS application is to define the database fields and segments that can be accessed by an application program. In IMS, this information is specified in the program specification block (PSB). In this example, Peter needs to update the PSB to define additional segment sensitivity for this program. IMS Explorer provides an easy way to do this using the PSB editor. As shown in Figure 2, Peter can quickly display a graphical view of the PSB definition and select the additional segments and fields that this program can now access.

After the sensitive segments and fields are specified, Peter can switch to the application view mode to visualize the database structure that the application has access to, and to validate that his application view is correct, as shown in Figure 3. The IMS Explorer also allows Peter to inspect the source code that is automatically generated from the selections made in the PSB editor.

Create SQL Queries to Access IMS DataIt’s 4 p.m. and Peter is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He wants to build and run a simple SQL query against the IMS database. “What’s the easiest way to do that?”

Continued on page 16

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Figure 2. Specifying segment and field sensitivity by using the PSB editor

Figure 3. Visualizing the sensitive segments and sensitive fields in the application view mode

Introducing the IMS Explorer!Continued from page 15

After Peter deploys the changes to IMS, he wants to run some simple queries to

test the changes that he made. Using IMS Explorer, Peter can click on fields and segments to automatically generate SQL statements. He can build and issue SQL queries to insert, update, and delete his IMS data. The generated SQL query statements can also be copied and pasted into programs that use SQL to access IMS. Using the IMS Explorer, Peter also can create TCP/IP connections to his IMS systems. He can then enable his new PSB to access the data by issuing SQL queries against that database. Database schemas and tables are displayed as a tree structure in the Data Source Explorer view.

The Script1.sql tab in the graphical SQL Builder view, as shown in Figure 4, shows how a SQL query is

generated. The SQL Results view shows the data returned as a SQL result set.

Figure 4, on page 18. Connecting and issuing SQL queries against IMS databases

In SummaryIt’s 5 p.m. and Peter is heading home. Thanks to the IMS Explorer, he was able to easily complete his first IMS assignment. Peter now has the confidence to take on new IMS projects in the future!

The IMS Explorer is an essential tool for IMS application development. It provides a modern interface to IMS and a quick and easy way to display and edit IMS database and program definitions. Its rich functionality improves programmer productivity, thereby helping to reduce IMS application development costs.

The IMS Explorer is part of the IMS Enterprise Suite, and is currently available as a technical preview. To learn more about the IMS Explorer, visit www.ibm.com/ims.

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Developing Mainframe Applications on Your LaptopReginaldo Barosa, Executive IT Specialist, IBM

Giving more flexibility to z/OS operationsWe all know that mainframes run continuously and that it’s really rare when they need to be stopped and restarted. In contrast, it’s quite common for personal computers to be booted or rebooted (restarted) and it’s rather rare for them not to be stopped and restarted at least once a day.

Well, what would you think about a z/OS® system that you could IPL (initial program load; equivalent to booting) at any time? And what about having z/OS running on your laptop?

The IBM® Rational® Developer for System z ®Unit Test feature (hereafter referred to as Unit Test) creates a System z environment on a desktop machine, enabling you to execute typical z/OS middleware for development and testing. The Unit Test feature is based on the IBM System z Personal Development Tool (zPDT) and runs on a Linux® system based on an Intel® or Intel-compatible (x86) personal computer (PC) processor. It provides a System z environment on a PC capable of running current System z operating systems, including virtualization of selected System z I/O devices and control units. It is intended as a development, demonstration, and learning platform - it is not designed as a production system.

Common obstacles to mainframe developmentSome mainframe developers find themselves at a disadvantage when developing mainframe applications because they might not have the same flexibility that is typical of developing in a distributed environment. Developing for a mainframe often means:

Constant connection to the •mainframe is required. Development shares the machine •with production and therefore has a lower priority. Creating cross-platform components •is difficult. ISPF green screen user interface •is unfamiliar or unappealing to new hires. MIPS usage for development versus •production usage.

The objective, then, is to address these issues and give to mainframe developers the same agile capabilities that are available in the PC environment.

What is Rational Developer for System z Unit Test?

IBM Rational Developer for System z Unit Test provides a small-scale, personal test environment for developers that can run IBM z/OS and IBM z/OS middleware on a PC, essentially eliminating the cost differentials between distributed and existing mainframe development environments.

Running a personal System z development environment on a PC enables a more portable, flexible, and lower-cost environment for individual developers, expanding on what IBM Rational Developer for System z offered in past releases with the IBM WebSphere® Application Server unit test environment, IBM CICS® TX Series, and IBM DB2®.

The new Unit Test feature comes packaged with a pre-configured set of IBM software entitled for development usage specifically in that environment, including:

IBM z/OS, including sub-features •IBM WebSphere Application Server •for z/OS CICS Transaction Server •IMS™ •IBM DB2 for z/OS •IBM WebSphere MQ for z/OS •IBM Java™ SDK for z/OS •Enterprise COBOL •Enterprise PL/I •XL C++ •IBM Debug Tool, and more •

You can have more than one developer connected to a Unit Test server where your code is running; the number of users you can connect depends on the capacity of your server. (For example, tests conducted developing COBOL/CICS applications with a Lenovo ThinkPad model W500 with 8 GB handled three concurrent developers connected with acceptable response time.)

For more information on Unit Test and to see the full article, go to http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/1008_col_barosa/1008_col_barosa.html.

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Introducing the IMS Explorer!Continued from page 16

Figure 4. Connecting and issuing SQL queries against IMS databases

IMS DB Rules of Thumb: LogicalRelationships Continued from page 11

Consider the use of logical relationships carefully, because logical relationships can be expensiveIn summary, logical relationships substitute IMS processing for application program maintenance of data relationships. When faced with the prospect of using logical relationships, consider the following points:

Logical databases usually take •longer to load (or reorganize) than regular databases because of the resolution of the relationships. Logical databases usually •take longer to access than a similar structure without logical relationships because of the added IMS overhead of traversing the relationship to satisfy data requests. A lot of processing can be hidden from the application programmer by IMS.

Database recovery becomes more • complex because databases cannot be restored individually when data in the logical relationships might have changed. With conventional databases, application systems can resynchronize data, but this is not an option with IMS-maintained logical relationships.

Stay tuned for our next article, which will focus on IMS DB rules of thumb for HD (HDAM and HIDAM) databases.

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IBM IMS Toolsibm com/software/data/db2imstools/products/ims-tools html IMS Events (seminars, teleconferences, user groups, and conferences)ibm com/software/data/ims/events html IBM Software for zSeriesibm com/software/zseries IMS Information Centerpublib boulder ibm com/infocenter/imzic/ IMS on Facebookfacebook com/IMSFans IMS on Twittertwitter com/IBM_IMS IMS User Groupsibm com/software/data/ims/usergroups html Rational Developer for System z Unit Test Featurewww ibm com/software/awdtools/rdz/unit_test html

I grew up on a baseball diamond. My goal as a kid was to become a professional baseball player. If I wasn’t at my own games, I was at my Dad’s and brother’s games. Even now, I am still playing baseball, but I round that out with softball, golf, and, naturally, hockey.

I went to school at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, where I majored in Business and played on their Baseball team. My Business degree didn’t focus on IT, but while at university I ended up taking a lot of IT coursework. My interest in IT took off from there.

My drive to explore new avenues led me to TD Bank. I was working in their Operations Department, handling Tandem, Host, and AS400 environments, which led me to IMS. Right now my group is responsible for the design, build, test, and deployment of mainframe database and transaction manager systems, in other words: IMS.

In August, my wife and I had an unbelievable experience exploring Europe as backpackers - six countries in 23 days! It was a great adventure. Traveling with my wife is my greatest passion, and we try to head to a new destination every year.

IMS is also an adventure. It’s been around for more than 40 years, but its future is as bright as ever. There will always be fresh minds and new initiatives that drive the pace of technology faster and faster. The IMS community, too, is a driving force, and I still have knowledge to gain! It feels like my own voyage with IMS is just starting. I feel so fortunate to be able to work with and be trained on and mentored in IMS by our IMS group here at TD Bank. They are incredible!

My name is Lars, and I am IMS.