CMG Journal Spring 2014

CMG Issue 136, Spring 2014

Letter from the Editor

Welcome to CMG Journal number 136, our second issue for 2014. This issue features three terrific papers for your reading pleasure.

Our first contributed paper in this issue is the second in a four part series from Ann Dowling and Clea Zolotow. Analytics and the Capacity Management Information System is the second of the 4-part series that examines aspects of the Capacity Management process that are conducive to apply Analytics and Capacity Planning. This part will explore the Capacity Management Information System (CMIS) through an explanation of what the CMIS is, how it can be designed and implemented, and the technical, organizational, and process considerations in doing so. We will examine how utilizing the Capacity Management Information System (CMIS) can enable the value of Analytics using multiple sources of business, service, and infrastructure component data.

Our second paper, Multiple and Multilevel Region of Interest Coding using Selective-SPIHT is from K. Somasundaram and N. Palaniappan. Region of Interest (RoI) coding is one of the techniques used in image compression algorithms. This allows the RoI to be reconstructed with higher quality than the remaining regions, even at low bit rates. JPEG 2000 supports multiple RoIs, but different bit rate cannot be allotted to each RoI. It does not support multilevel RoIs. In this paper the authors propose an algorithm for multiple and multilevel RoI coding at different bit rates by selecting the RoI wavelet coefficients and encoding them using Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT). The proposed method gives better results than that of JPEG 2000 using Maxshift method.
Our third paper is the third in a three part series for CMG Journal titled Networking On the Modern Mainframe.

Part 3: is from Steve Guendert. The first two papers in the series covered the recent past and current state of mainframe networking. Part three will look forward to the two most recent technology developments in networking over the past 3 years: Ethernet Fabrics, and Software Defined Networking (SDN). These technologies are key enablers for cloud computing. Specifically, this paper will provide an introduction to these two technologies, and then will hypothesize on how these two technologies may fit into the world of IBM mainframes and their networks in the near future.

The issue concludes with a call for nominations for the 2014 Michelson award.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this CMG Journal. Even if you have submitted a paper for the Conference, please consider writing a paper for the CMG Journal. You can submit your papers, as well as feedback to us at [email protected].
This will be my last issue of CMG Journal as the editor. After 5 years as editor, including two years as the CMG Director of Publications, I have decided this is a good time to hand over the baton to someone else. I have greatly enjoyed my time serving the CMG  membership as CMG Journal editor and appreciate having the opportunity to have done so for this long.

Thanks again for reading, and we hope you enjoy this issue.
Stephen R. Guendert, Ph.D.