Thanks for all the emails about the DB2 10 and z/OS discussion. It’s always nice to hear the many points of view on a topic. The most interesting email I received was “Why aren’t there any DB2 10 or big z/OS systems in Italy?” I think there are z/OS and probably some DB2 10 systems in Italy but the discussion and question made me think of the following three reasons why it might not be apparent.
First, according to Jeremy Rifkin’s new book, Third Industrial Revolution, the world is changing. In the book and in this shorter Forbes article (http://www.forbes.com/sites/terrywaghorn/2011/12/12/jeremy-rifkins-third-industrial-revolution/) Rifkin talks about the latest trends in the IT world are infiltrating the energy infrastructure world. In his book he describes how the IT and energy world is changing from a centralized silo world to more of a distributed, collaborative, and horizontal world. Talking about energy and five pillars of the new distributed model for generating, distributing, storing, sharing and integrating energy, he compares the change to the evolution of information systems and all types of data due to the influence of the internet.
Many companies have not been able to make their z/OS and DB2 systems leverage these distributed, collaborative and horizontal architectures. The companies that are struggling with z/OS thought too late about hooking z/OS to the web, horizontal performance of data sharing, using z/OS to set up and host 100s of Linux VM workloads. Or they simply don’t realize that z/OS now runs the Windows operating system. Distributing z/OS computing power is easier than it has ever been. Data sharing, reliability, scalability and availability of all types of large and small systems allow everyone to collaborate, distribute and integrate data.
Next, the top CIO trends for 2012 shows that everyone will be focusing on business intelligence and analytics, mobile computing and cloud computing in the next year. (http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240114141/Gartner-CIO-spending-2012) These trends align nicely with Jeremy Rifkin’s observations about distributed, collaborative and horizontal systems trends since both ideas focus on measurement, efficiency and capturing distributed input sources. These trends further extend to all the core issues IT wrestles with every day: all types of disparate devices producing more data faster that has to be analyzed rapidly to discover its value.
These trends have always been happening. Now, it’s just happening faster. The companies that survive will be the ones that hook their systems up to every type of device, can structure and develop relationships within its data to provide meaningful measurements of Big Data’s value. Google’s main ad revenue dropped last quarter and the stock lost $50 in one day. Maybe their big distributed systems can’t analyze, compare it and measure it all fast enough.
Finally, developing and implementing large application and especially big systems is difficult. According to a 2010 Dr. Dobbs survey (http://drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/226500046) the rates of failure for all types of development continue to be very high. The failure rate continues to drive project budget and probably causes the platform to take the blame.
Even though it wasn’t the platform’s fault, the mainframe people were the last to embrace new development techniques like Agile methodologies. This delay in trying new methodologies, combined with all the college graduates not knowing the z/OS platform didn’t help. So probably not knowing how to make a system work on z/OS and only wanting UNIX or Windows systems helped replace those big systems. My last several consulting assignments have been with Agile and SCRUM projects. One project recently was a brand new 22 billion row data warehouse designed and implemented in only 6 months. Agile, SCRUM and other project development methods are now embraced and it is definitely helping the success rate of all types of projects especially DB2 and z/OS projects.
So why is it more difficult in Europe and especially in Italy for DB2 and z/OS? It is probably because everyone already rebels against centralization rule either from the church or the family. Does the culture rebel against an old controlling centralized z/OS computing model also?
Every way you look at it, z/OS and DB2 are great solutions for a growing number of companies because of their scalability, reliability performance and ability to distribute all types of cloud z/OS, UNIX or Windows computing resources.
Based on the trends reported by Rifkin and CIO magazine, as well as the emergence of Agile-type methodologies in the z/OS and DB2 world, expect to see more distributed systems using z/OS and DB2 as the hub and driver of distributed systems that require intense Big Data analysis. Who knows? The experience might emigrate to Italy!
I am beginning to plan my Regional DB2 User Group support for 2012 year. Please send an email to me at moc.ekluebevadnull@evad if you would like me to come and speak or offer a DB2 class at your local user group.
I look forward to speaking at the IDUG DB2 Tech Conference 2012 North America conference. The conference will be held in Denver, Colorado on May 14-18, 2012. Sign up today at www.idug.org.
Public DB2 Performance Tuning & SQL Training Education classes in February in Chicago.
Dave Beulke & Sheryl Larsen Chicago February 22-24
February 22: DB2 SQL and Optimization Enhancements by Sheryl Larsen
February 23: DB2 10 for z/OS Performance Training by Dave Beulke
February 24: Two great seminars to choose from
Tuning SQL for Performance by Sheryl Larsen
or
DB2 Performance for Java Developers by Dave Beulke
http://davebeulke.com/db2-performance-tuning-and-sql-training-feb-2012/
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