Promoting IBM i—TCO, TCA, Reliability and Strategy
September 20, 2017
How to promote the value of IBM i through TCO, TCA, reliability and strategy.
ArticlesEvil Twins: 10 Network Tunables Every Admin Must Understand
September 20, 2017
Setting network tunables incorrectly on AIX systems is a very common problem. Nearly every tunable, be it CPU, memory, networking or storage, affects others to some degree.
ArticlesFocus on Application Testing
September 18, 2017
This is the third post in this series on system and application testing on enterprise systems. In this post, I discuss the daunting job of being a mainframe application programmer and how he or she goes about testing. The testing scope can cover everything from deployment of a new release of ISV software to a […]
ArticlesMonitoring and Administration Needed for CICS Effectiveness
September 1, 2017
This article focuses on CICS performance across all platforms. On the mainframe CICS is known as CICS Transaction Server (TS), but on other platforms the product is named TXSeries, and for special functions, CICS Transaction Gateway. All products are developed and supported by CICS development, and are designed to interact with each other via facilities […]
ArticlesIBM Uses Low-Cost Sensors to Help Address Climate Change Issues
September 1, 2017
Natural gas is considered by many to be a cleaner energy source. The downside to natural gas is the methane that is a primary component. If it leaks into the air—estimates suggest approximately 1-2 percent leakage is common at production sites—it absorbs the sun’s heat and warms the Earth’s atmosphere. Methane is estimated to be […]
CICS Tools Identify Performance Issues
August 1, 2017
This article focuses on CICS performance. On the mainframe CICS is known as CICS Transaction Server (TS), but on other platforms the product is named TXSeries, and for special functions, CICS Transaction Gateway. All products are developed and supported by CICS development, and are designed to interact with each other via facilities such as CICS […]
ArticlesAIO: The Fast Path to Great Performance
July 19, 2017
Asynchronous input and output (AIO) is an essential performance feature of AIX. Without it, our world would be a much slower place.
ArticlesIBM Z Pervasive Encryption Marks a Paradigm Shift for Security
July 17, 2017
Trust is the currency that drives the new economy. It’s the foundation of digital relationships and demands security, transparency and greater value in every interaction and transaction. That’s among the reasons IBM equipped the new z14 system with pervasive encryption. Transitioning away from selective encryption to end-to-end protection helps organizations secure all of their enterprise […]
ArticlesGet Started With CICS Performance and Tuning
July 5, 2017
This article begins with focus on mainframe CICS but as it progresses, the focus shifts to CICS on all platforms, a progression that matches the product’s development. While techniques discussed are initially mainframe-based and oriented to CICS Transaction Server (TS), most principles and concepts apply to all processing platforms; syntax, parameters and implementation specifics may […]
ArticlesUnderstanding and Tuning CPU Throughput
June 14, 2017
Few topics related to AIX performance analysis and tuning are more misunderstood than CPU throughput: how databases, applications, middleware and utilities use CPUs in an IBM Power Systems environment. What follows is a basic primer on determining CPU throughput and usage in your AIX systems. By combining this knowledge with performance statistics, you can tune […]