IDUG (International Db2 Users Group), an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides education, services, and conferences, all based on the IBM® Db2® database, recently held the 2023 IDUG NA Db2 Tech Conference in Philadelphia, PA. BMC was pleased to be a gold sponsor for the event, with many BMC team members participating in or presenting seven individual sessions.
Per Ron Coleman, advisory IDUG board member and director of product management for BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI), “We had a great experience at the conference, and we look forward to continuing the conversations we started centered around best practices and solutions for optimizing and automating for peak performance.”
BMC Presentations at IDUG NA Conference
In case you missed any of the presentations, they are available via the IDUG site here (registration required), and several of BMC’s IDUG presentations will be made available on demand.
Here are a few highlights:
Anne Hoelscher and David Schipper presented “Let’s See Db2! Observability With BMC AMI Data—Turning All That Noise Into Action,” where they discussed the barrage of stats and metrics that teams deal with on a daily basis, and how too much of a good thing can easily turn into overwhelming noise. They also explained how BMC AMI Data can help you take control and turn all that noise into actionable insights.
Anne explains, “Our BMC AMI Apptune for Db2®, part of BMC AMI SQL Performance for Db2®, and BMC AMI Reorg for Db2®, part of BMC AMI Database Performance for Db2® integration, make it possible for DBAs to implement best practices across their data management and create actionable events from the performance data collected by BMC products.” You can learn more about this integration here.
Dave adds, “BMC AMI Change Manager for Db2®, part of the BMC AMI Database Administration for Db2® solution, provides usage data to BMC AMI zAdviser. BMC AMI zAdviser analyses and correlates this information to provide management-level visibility dashboards that enable DBAs and management to understand database and product usage activity and identify areas for efficiency improvements.” You can learn more about this integration here and watch this video.
Todd Mollenhauer and Chad Reiber presented “From Recovery to Database Change Management—Shift-Left DBA and Developer Collaboration for Data-Driven DevOps Efficiencies.” This session covered ransomware, and how organizations face two demanding questions: Is our data recoverable? How long will it take? By shifting both the recovery process and database change management left, DBAs and developers can use the same recovery solutions and change processes in both development environments and production environments and validate the install and back out process during development.
Per Todd, “Development pipelines continue at full speed despite [IBM®] Db2® z/OS® schema changes. BMC brings the full power of BMC AMI Change Manager for Db2® to automate this complicated process. Integration with current orchestration software makes it a seamless process for developers, supporting the goal of rapid code deployment.”
Chad adds, “Everyone is moving data. The five techniques presented in this session featured an all-star team of BMC AMI Db2® products to increase availability, provide consistent data, and reduce machine costs. Your current processes are not broken, but perhaps you can fix them with process improvement using these products and solutions.”
If you’re interested in learning more about best practices for Db2 z/OS data recovery in the ransomware era, you can watch the on-demand webinar presented by Chad Reiber here.
Other Technical Presentations at IDUG NA Conference
BMC’s Db2 experts also hosted technical presentations:
- Mike Behne presented “Who Does That? Using SQL Data Insights to Spot Unusual Behavior” and explored SQL Data Insights (SQLDI) capabilities, reporting on early efforts to apply SQLDI to learn more from available data. Per Mike, “SQL Data Insights, available with Db2 13, offers a new AI-enabled way to look at your Db2 data; and BMC is on the leading edge of investigating and exploiting new Db2 capabilities.” Learn more about BMC’s own BMC AMI SQL Performance for Db2® here.
- Louise Comeaux presented “Back-To-Basics: Table Space and Index Fundamentals,” giving a review of the various types of tablespaces and the indexes that are defined to them.
- Chad Reiber also presented “Copy Up, Buttercup,” and discussed Db2 z/OS image copies and how and why they are important, and when they should be taken.
- Todd Mollenhauer also presented “Moving Data—Mystical and Magical Ways to Get From Source to Target,” which explored the various techniques to move data from source to target Db2 environments
- Michael Cotignola presented “Things About Db2 for z/OS I Wish I’d Remembered When…,” which discussed often overlooked or forgotten options, commands, and syntax that could prove to be invaluable in managing your Db2 environment.
We also have other webinars and information that may be of interest.
- Learn more about best practices for Db2 z/OS data recovery in the ransomware era at the on-demand webinar here.
- Get the inside scoop on our newest release of BMC AMI Data for Db2® here.
- Join us on June 7 for “Enable High-Quality Database Changes in a CI/CD Pipeline,” an IDC and BMC co-hosted webinar that will review the findings of a recent IDC survey about how organizations are thinking about, piloting, and using an automated CI/CD pipeline for mainframe database changes. Register here.
We hope that you find these sessions useful and informative. If you have any questions about the topics covered or about our BMC AMI Data solutions, please visit bmc.com/amidata or reach out to us here.
