This Week: Offshore outsourcing 101

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Published by Search390.com  November 08, 2004 >> Receive this e-mail as text  >> About this e-mail   In this Issue >> From the editor: Senior new editor Kate Evans-Correia asks "are you still concerned about offshore outsourcing?" >> Featured Topic: Crash Course: Offshore outsourcing >> Expert Technical Advice: Tom Ross, Software Engineer, IBM >> Site Highlights: TCP/IP White paper White paper: Invest or Migrate z/OS Console Management and Mainframe Application Deployment  From the Editor: by Kate Evans-Correia, Senior News Editor The election is over. George W. Bush has won another four years as president. At the beginning of the campaign, the outsourcing of IT jobs overseas took center stage. By the beginning of November however, it appeared outsourcing had been eclipsed by debates over moral values, the war and the economy. But once Bush settles into a second term, experts have no doubt that the debate will resurface. If, or when, it does, how do you believe this administration will address it -- if it will at all? Did the president's position on outsourcing compel you to vote for or against him? Why? What are your hopes about this administration in regards to IT jobs? What are your concerns? Moving forward, how do you think your job -- and overall job security will fare? We would like to better understand the issues that you, as an IT professional, as well as an American, find important. Send your comments to Kate Evans-Correia.  Featured Topic: Crash Course: Offshore outsourcing by the editors of Search390.com Few topics are as controversial as offshore outsourcing. To some, it brings to mind images of greedy businessmen sending US jobs overseas to save a buck or two. But outsourcing is not so simple an issue. This Crash Course examines the issue from many angles including the debate over it and how to make oneself outsource-proof. Read more about this topic  Expert Technical Advice: Featured Expert Tom Ross, Software Engineer, IBM Categories:COBOL, PL/I and LE Tom Ross is a senior software engineer in COBOL development. Tom has spent his entire 18 year IBM career in COBOL development, working on the compiler and run-time libraries for every release of VS COBOL II, COBOL for OS/390 & VM, and IBM COBOL on AIX, Windows, and OS/2. He is an expert in migration issues for COBOL and Language Environment for MVS and VM, and in Year 2000 issues facing IBM mainframe customers. He is a frequent speaker at user groups including GUIDE, SHARE, IBM Technical Interchange and others. In fact, he is the IBM representative to SHARE for COBOL. Tom grew up in Los Gatos California and earned a Bachelor Degree in Computer science from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1982. He started his love affair with IBM on Valentine's Day, 1983. View all of Tom's answers In case you missed it: News and advice from the previous week >> October's top editorial clicks In October, we added a fun new feature but also continued to deliver the tips and advice you have come to expect from Search390.com. The site's editors have compiled the 10 most popular features, tips and advice from the month. Determining how indexes are being used A Search390.com user asked Craig Mullins, our DB2 and database management expert: If I have five indexes on a table, what is the best way to determine if all, some or none of the indexes are being used? Is there a limitation on COBOL internal SORT? A Search390.com user asked Tom Ross, our COBOL, PL/I and LE expert: I have a question on COBOL sort. The program runs normal if we have less than 500,000 records, but when we file more than 500,000 records we get the following message "SVM4000I and IEC030I B37-04" even though we have specified up to 10 sort work files each with 100 primary and 50 secondary cylinders. We run external sort on this file with two sort work files with the 100 and 50 cylinders on each file and it worked fine. Is there a limitation on COBOL internal SORT? Naming convention and space allocation A Search390.com user asked Mark Zelden, our OS/390 and z/OS systems programming expert: I am currently involved in a project that introduces special processing by a third party product to transform data. This product uses JCL to execute. The JCL creates a large number of temp datasets (not statically defined within the JCL). I see, in the messages output from the execution of the JCL, a number of messages like "IGD101I SMS ALLOCATED TO DDNAME (SYS00009)." Sometimes I get a B37-04 failure on these datasets as they are too small for the amount of data I am processing. My client is trying to tell me that my product is defining these datasets and there must be a parameter to change the size allocation. My position is that the system defines these datasets and takes as its size a definition somewhere within the system itself. My question is, am I correct. When JCL executes and requires temp datasets that are not statically defined within the JCL stream, where does it get the naming convention and space allocation from? How and when to use DB2 scrollable cursors A Search390.com user asked Craig Mullins, our DB2 and database management expert: I have a select query that returns 1000 rows and I want to display the rows from 200 to 500. Could you please let me how to code after the where clause? I know how to get the first 100 rows using -- FETCH FIRST 100 rows only clause.  Site Highlights TCP/IP white paper Download this white paper and you will learn how you can manage your Mainframe TCP/IP with simplicity and speed. Download now White paper: Invest or Migrate View this paper to learn how to evaluate the challenges of migrating host applications. It will also analyze whether it is economically and technically advisable to do so. Download now z/OS Console Management and Mainframe Application Deployment Download now This white paper will help data center managers discover how Integrated Solution ESCON Controllers can effectively offer many advantages over hardware-only solutions Free Newsletters Update your profile today at Search390.com and sign up for free newsletters such as daily news, CICS strategies, and Developer Tips. Sign up now Career Center If you want a change, get serious about your search. Check out the Search390.com career center -- post your resume, search over 46,000 jobs and get new listings emailed to you. Go there Join Today Join ITKnowledge Exchange -- an online community on Search390.com where you can exchange knowledge with IT pros like you from around the globe. Check it out   A B O U T   T H I S   N E W S L E T T E R Contact us: Search390 Member Services 117 Kendrick Street, Suite 800 Needham, MA 02494 This e-newsletter is published by Search390.com, a targeted Web site from TechTarget, the most targeted IT media and events company. TechTarget offers magazines, Web sites, e-newsletters, Webcasts and conferences for enterprise IT professionals. Copyright 2004 TechTarget. All rights reserved. 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