CMG Canada is having its spring two-day session April 24 and 25th and We hope you’ll attend!

See Day 1 Schedule

This program is a great venue for sharing information about IT performance management and capacity planning, whether it’s new products, customer experiences, explaining methodologies or processes or just sharing what you know.

Dates: April 24 and 25
Time: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM both days.
Location: C’est What? on Front St. East in downtown Toronto. (It’s easily accessible by car, by public transit (TTC, GO commuter trains and the UP airport train all stop at nearby Union Station) or from anywhere downtown through the underground PATH.)

April 25th Agenda:

• 8:30 AM – Continental breakfast, sign-in & registration
• 9:00 AM – IBM’s New z14 and LinuxONE Announcement Overview – Jim Elliott, GlassHouse Systems
  • ABSTRACT: On July 17, 2017, IBM announced the IBM z14 and then on September 12, 2017, IBM announced the LinuxONE Emperor II. On April 10, 2018, IBM announced the IBM z14 model ZR1 and the LinuxONE Rockhopper II. This session will provide a technical overview of these new servers.
  • PRESENTER: Jim is a mainframe technical consultant at GlassHouse Systems Inc. Prior to joining GHS in February 2016, he worked at IBM for nearly 43 years. Jim spent most of his career at IBM in technical roles and from 1992 until his retirement was the Product Manager for the mainframe operating systems in Canada. From May 1998 to December 2001 he was also the mainframe Product Manager for z/VM and z/VSE for IBM Americas where he led the launch of Linux on the mainframe. From January 2002 to May 2007 he was the Linux and Open Source leader for IBM Canada and then assumed a mainframe national sales role in May 2007. He is a graduate of the BC Institute of Technology, has co-authored over 20 IBM Redbooks, and is an active speaker on information technology across the US and Canada. He splits his time between Toronto and Vittoria, Ontario.
• 10:05 AM – Break
• 10:15 AM – IBM Z Batch Network Analyzer (zBNA) Tool – Jim Elliott, GlassHouse Systems
  • ABSTRACT: This presentation will discuss zBNA, a tool available to customers to help assess the impact to the Batch Window from implementing new technology options. zBNA has been updated to identify DFSMS Data Set Encryption and CF Encryption candidates, along with zHyperLink candidates. See how zBNA can help you assess your Batch workload and utilize the latest technology options.
  • PRESENTER: Jim is a mainframe technical consultant at GlassHouse Systems Inc. Prior to joining GHS in February 2016, he worked at IBM for nearly 43 years. Jim spent most of his career at IBM in technical roles and from 1992 until his retirement was the Product Manager for the mainframe operating systems in Canada. From May 1998 to December 2001 he was also the mainframe Product Manager for z/VM and z/VSE for IBM Americas where he led the launch of Linux on the mainframe. From January 2002 to May 2007 he was the Linux and Open Source leader for IBM Canada and then assumed a mainframe national sales role in May 2007. He is a graduate of the BC Institute of Technology, has co-authored over 20 IBM Redbooks, and is an active speaker on information technology across the US and Canada. He splits his time between Toronto and Vittoria, Ontario.
• 11:15 AM – Break
• 11:25 AM – Putting your z/OS Operational Data to Work – Paul Hall, IBM Canada
  • ABSTRACT: IBM Z Systems are very ‘chatty’ and produce huge quantities of log data but it has not always been easy to make use of this data for operational purposes. SMF, syslog and application logs are generally used for ‘after the fact’ reporting and analysis and not ‘real-time’ monitoring and analysis. New capabilities now allow you to consume and report on operational data in near real-time to identify and respond to conditions in the execution of the workload. In this presentation, I will show the type of dashboards that can be implemented and how to collect and analyze your z/OS operational data.
  • PRESENTER: Paul Hall is a IBM Z – Software Technical specialist with IBM Canada. Paul has more than 30 years of IT experience with the majority of this time being spent in helping customers with their Z systems and z/OS business requirements.
• 12:25 PM – Lunch on Your Own
• 2:00 PM – DKL – Cost Savings While Increasing Capacity – John Baker, Technical Representative
• 2:40 PM – Flash vs. Flash: What’s In It For Me? – John Baker, DKL
  • ABSTRACT: Flash. Is this the light on my camera, a plugin for my browser, or a superhero that runs really fast? If you’re in IT, flash likely refers to something else: flash memory of some sort. But even then, the term is both ubiquitous and vague. The solid-state drive in your laptop; the new memory in your z14; your new “all flash” storage array. These all boast “flash” technology that promises to make everything faster. Is this the promised land of I/O? Take a stroll with John as we slow down the hype to explore the various implementations of flash technology and which, if any, can best speed up your datacenter. And don’t worry; he won’t be wearing a red, spandex suit!
  • PRESENTER: John Baker has been working with mainframes for over 25 years as both a customer and consultant. The vast majority of this time has focused on system and application performance. Early in his performance career, John was tasked with migrating from Workload Manager (WLM) Compatibility Mode to Goal Mode. This daunting exercise got him hooked on understanding why things do what they do in the mainframe. He has assisted with datacenter consolidations and workload swaps – ensuring no down time – and was a key subject matter expert in designing and implementing one of the earliest and largest GDPS installations in the world (still running today). John has been fortunate to further hone his performance expertise from the world’s best: Dr. Pat Artis, Dr. Gilbert Houtekamer, Tom Beretvas, and his friend of many years, Peter Enrico. Through DataKinetics and Enterprise Performance Strategies, John provides critical performance and optimization software and services to the world’s datacenters. John is on the board of directors of the Computer Measurement Group (CMG) and oversees the mainframe content at the annual conference. He is a popular speaker at SHARE, GSE and IBM conferences as well as local user groups. In his spare time, John enjoys pool, motorcycles, his dog, old port and a spirited political debate. He lives with his family near Toronto, Canada.
• 3:40 PM – Break
• 3:50 PM – Developing Tools for Game Development: How to make tools that support your team – Daniel Saulnier, Sheridan College
  • ABSTRACT: Game Development takes a lot of time and effort from people across multiple disciplines. Making tools for game development teams can drastically improve workflows saving time and money. However, when poorly made or not supported these tools can hinder development as much as help. This talk will cover what programmers can do to help make their tools successful.
  • PRESENTER: Daniel is a freelance Technical Designer, specializing in developing game prototypes for companies. In his spare time, he works and volunteers at programs around the GTA that work to teach programming and aspects of game development to kids.
• 4:20 – Adjourn and Members Reception