>From time to time I comment on IBM announcements that I personally find interesting and significant, so in that spirit I pass along the news that IBM just announced WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 for z/OS, for Linux on System z, and for other platforms.
If anyone isn't familiar already, WAS is the core enterprise application server that provides the fullest range of JEE (Java Enterprise Edition) standard technologies. It provides the basis for running your own JEE applications, vendor JEE applications and middleware, and numerous IBM middleware products ranging from WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere Portal Server, WebSphere Commerce Server, WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, WebSphere Dashboard Framework, WebSphere Business Services Fabric, WebSphere Service Registry and Repository, Rational Host Access Transformation Services, etc., etc. Fairly quickly these higher level middleware products will be certified (and updated, if necessary) to support WAS V7. This version is tremendously important, especially to mainframe customers. While there was a lot of System z exploitation in Version 6.1, there's much more exploitation with Version 7, including: * Improvements in the z/OS Fast Response Cache Accelerator (FRCA) to increase performance and reduce response time for many applications; * Reduced High Availability Manager overhead for Parallel Sysplex coupling facilities, permitting increased exploitation of Parallel Sysplex; * Improvements in fail-over, recovery, reliability, and performance thanks to new thread hang recovery functions; * Expanded and lower overhead SMF reporting (including zAAP records) for more meaningful chargeback accounting (if you're into that) and for other purposes (such as application performance diagnostics); * Much easier installation and configuration. I think there are also major improvements to middleware connectors (IMS, CICS, MQ, DB2, etc.), but I'm still trying to get the details on those. I have seen some preliminary performance numbers for System z. So far IBM has done early tests with two of the standard benchmarks, and we're seeing extraordinary increases in throughput holding system capacity constant. (That's the way I prefer to look at these data, since I think most customers look at performance that way.) By "extraordinary" I mean mid to high double digit percentages for z/OS in these particular tests. WAS for Linux on z improvements in these benchmarks are in the low to mid double digit percentages. Hopefully we'll get some numbers published soon, but I can already say this version is one you'll want to jump on quickly and get into testing with your applications to see what results you get. There's been an incredible focus in this version on reducing path lengths, and this work is paying off. So basically you can do more work with less resource (or much more with the same). That also means you get much more "headroom" in your zAAP pool. Higher service delivery quality, lower costs, more functions, easier to use, quite simply. Good times. IBM is being very flexible on helping everyone get up to WAS Version 7 as quickly as possible. General availability (on Shop z, for example) is September 26, 2008. (The planned availability for all platforms, including z/OS and Linux on System z, is the same day.) So you can get WAS V7 at the same time you get z/OS 1.10 if you like. But unusually IBM is declaring that WAS V7 is compatible with z/OS 1.7 and above. Support ends for z/OS 1.7 on the same day (September 26, 2008), but if you're behind on your z/OS release upgrade you can still get WAS V7 rushed into a z/OS 1.7 test LPAR for your application developers to exercise. You're likely to see a bit better performance on the higher z/OS releases, however. Also, on all platforms (including z/OS and Linux on System z), WAS is "one-time charge" software, with subscription and support available (and strongly recommended). If you have active subscription and support, you're entited to WAS V7 at no additional charge. You can run WAS V7 alongside your prior version(s) in the same LPAR(s), which is typical for a smooth upgrade experience for your users. You can run both 31-bit and 64-bit WAS servants in the same LPAR as well. (You may wish to re-evaluate 64-bit mode for this version if you didn't start using it in Version 6.1, particularly on System z10.) Anyway, if you're already running WAS on System z, please go grab this version promptly and enjoy its benefits that much sooner. If you are not yet running WAS on System z, it's a good time to take another (or your first) look. Ask your favorite IBM representative. Here's the WAS V7 z/OS announcement: http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/8/897/ENUS208-208/ENUS208-208.PDF Here's the WAS V7 general announcement (including Linux on System z): http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/6/897/ENUS208-266/ENUS208-266.PDF - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan / 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
