THIS WEEK: IBM makes on-demand push. Will you?

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Title: TechTarget

January 13, 2003 >> Receive this email as text  >> About this email   In this Issue >> From the editor: IBM makes on-demand push. Will you? >> Featured Topic: Getting connected with SANs >> Expert Technical Advice: Featured expert: Chuck Standerfer, mainframe storage >> Site Highlights: * Server consolidation * Mainframe data access on the web * New Newsletter: Data Center Futures  From the Editor: by Kate Evans-Correia, News Editor IBM makes on-demand push. Will you? IBM is pushing its computing on-demand initiative -- big time. Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems are pushing hard, too. And why not? Analysts say on-demand computing, a strategy intended to deliver computing resources the way a power utility doles out electricity, is likely to be the most significant change to back end IT infrastructure in recent history. On-demand computing, or organic computing as some experts call it, is the integration of users from end-to-end across the company with key partners, suppliers, and customers. Computing on-demand includes today's most promising technologies: Web services, open standards, grid computing, and self-healing systems. Big Blue said it will spend billions to deliver on-demand computing. Much of that includes significant marketing and sales education, acquisitions, R&D, hosting facilities, and on-demand design centers to let customers test out the new concepts. While IBM isn't the leader of the pack when it comes to on-demand computing, it is getting plenty of play. Throwing $10 billion on an "initiative" will get you decent media coverage. You get extra coverage for having your recently crowned CEO deliver the message. Clearly, on-demand computing was IBM's most ambitious strategy announcement in 2002. IBM has already brought products with on-demand capabilities to market, such as a new version of the instant messaging and collaborative applications suite Lotus Sametime called WebSphere Integration, and DB2, IBM's database suite. It has made major acquisitions, such as Rational, that will be added into its on-demand computing fold. IBM said recently that it expects customers will begin implementing technology behind its new on-demand computing initiative in the first quarter. Will you be one of those users? If you are, let us know what product or products you're implementing or have already implemented. Why did you make the switch to on-demand computing? If you haven't, is there a specific reason? Overall, what is your outlook on computing on-demand - do you see it as the next major change in IT infrastructure? E-mail us with your comments at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and then take our poll on this issue.  Featured Topic: Getting connected with SANs by Robyn Lorusso, Assistant Editor If you're thinking of putting a storage area network (SAN) on the mainframe, you'll find the resources you need to get connected below. For more info, check out Storage magazine. Read more about this topic  Expert Technical Advice: Featured Expert Chuck Standerfer, senior partner and CFO, The Evaluator Group Category: Mainframe storage If you're in charge of making crucial storage decisions for your company, our mainframe storage expert Chuck Standerfer is here to help. Submit a question This Week: In the Developer forum >> Can you help "cacounty" with writing a shutdown for started task? Here is the post: "We have an in-house written started task "server" - We would like to communicate with it using an MVS modify command to issue a shutdown. We are looking for a module that can be called by COBOL and/or Natural. Here's the original explanation from the programming staff of what they need to do: 'Currently the EntireX Broker MVS servers are shut down by the operators logging on to Natural and running a program that sends a shutdown request message through EntireX Broker to the servers. The servers respond to the message and close files, etc. prior to shutting down.' Is there another way to shut down the servers? If the operator sent a MVS shutdown request directly to the servers and without going through EntireX Broker or Natural, the task would be much simpler for the operator. Basically what I am asking is, how can a COBOL program or a Natural program detect that a shutdown request has been sent by the operator? Is there some sort of Assembler code that the program can query to determine that the request has been made?" If you have an answer for cacounty, please post it here. Speaking of shutdowns and started tasks, check out these new posts from Search390.com members on writing shutdowns for started tasks. Tip of the Week: What's the excuse for CUSE? By Jim Keohane The CUSE (COMPARE UNTIL SUBSTRING EQUAL) instruction is given both the address and the length of the two storage locations to be compared. It is also given a pad byte that is logically appended to the shorter of the two storage locations. Finally it is also provided the length of the substring. It will search for equal substrings of specified length at same offsets in both storage locations. See how by reading the full tip below >> Read full tip  Site Highlights Server consolidation Get the details about server consolidation from Yankee Group Senior Analyst Laura DiDio Whether you currently run Unix or Linux, server consolidation is a key component of a network upgrade. Click here to learn more today. Mainframe data access on the web Attend this webcast with Scot Stoney of Aonix for tips If you want to save time and money in your implementation, learn from experience. Attend this webcast now and hear examples of how leading companies made the upgrade. New Newsletter: Data Center Futures Click this link and then "Edit All Email Subscriptions" to subscribe Do you wish you could see the future of the enterprise data center? Our writers have that power! Add this newsletter to your list and put away your crystal ball. For your convenience, you may use the auto-subscribe function at the top right corner of this email to sign up now. Activate your subscription Enter your email and start receiving Data Center Futures. Email:     Not a member? We'll activate your membership with your subscription. Crucial Q2 ERP Event Gain FREE attendance to our SearchSAP.com Conference Europe in London with sessions led by top independent experts. Learn how to get the most from your ERP and SAP investment. Apply today A last look at 2002 Click here for a handy collection of Search390.com's top stories of 2002. Get advice on careers and upgrading to z/OS, or just revisit the mainframe trends of the past year. Click here White Papers Browse free white papers on a variety of mainframe topics, such as Linux, CICS, E-Business, Storage and Security. Check it out A B O U T   T H I S   N E W S L E T T E R Created by TechTarget TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved. To unsubscribe from Updates on new site content: >> Simply Reply to this Email with REMOVE within the Body or Subject -OR- >> Go to: http://search390.techtarget.com/register    - Log in to edit your profile.    - Click on the link to Edit email subscriptions.    - Uncheck the box next to the newsletter you wish to unsubscribe from.    - When finished, click "Save Changes to My Profile".