Here are the show notes for Episode 9 "Back in Black". The show is called "Back in Black" because:

• We've been away for a long time, traveling for Martin and on vacation for Marna.

• A vague reference to a BBC tv show about British fantasy author, Terry Pratchett

We are very happy to be resuming our episodes, and the next isn't far behind this one!

Continuous Delivery Follow-up Announcements

• January 10, 2017 IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.3 is further enhanced with the continuous delivery model and the IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.4 open beta offering is updated

• January 19, 2017 IBM Customer Insight for Banking V2.0, IBM Client Insight for Wealth Management V2.0, and IBM Incentive Compensation Management V10.0 follow the IBM Continuous Delivery Lifecycle Policy.

Where we've been

Martin has been all over since our last podcast! Whittlebury UK (with Marna), Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Toronto, Chicago, and the IBM Silicon Valley Lab.

Marna has been to the IBM Technical University in Austin, TX.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was an interview with John Eells, z/OS System Test and lead on the Software Installation Strategy.

This topic is very important for z/OS system programmers to understand. IBM and ISVs have been working on a common install method, that handles both SMP/E and non-SMP/E. This would go beyond laying down code, and would eventually hook seamlessly into doing configuration tasks (via z/OSMF Workflow). It would even be able to package software, if you wanted to, and all delivered within the base z/OS operating system.

The common install method would be provided through z/OSMF's Software Management plug-in, so make sure you are setting up and becoming familiar with z/OSMF now.

John and Marna also talked about some of the wishlist items we'd like to see in this solution.

Performance

Our "Performance" topic was about some about additions and changes to Martin's Parallel Sysplex Performance presentation that he's been presenting over the years. Somehow this presentation never seems to get any shorter.

This presentation has several sections: Structure-Level CPU, Matching CF and PR/SM views of CPU, Structure Duplexing, XCF traffic, CF link information, and CF Thin Interrupts.

The new parts and changes he has made in this presentation are:

• Asynchronous Duplexing for lock structures. You can also find a good Mainframe Insights article about this by David Surman here.

• XCF traffic and Data Sharing Group topology

and

• CF Thin Interrupts and CPU.

The updates have been presented in both Munich (at the System z Technical University) and at GSE Annual Conference. Slides are found on SlideShare's Parallel Sysplex Performance Topics from Munich 2016.

Topics

Ahoy! In our "Topics" section we discuss voice-activated assistants that have been hitting the market for a while now.

Martin has a good amount of experience in Siri from Apple and Alexa (Amazon) Echo and Dot. A third one is Google Home.

Martin talks about the various pros and cons on each. Considerations for using these include: inadvertent waking, integration with household devices (such as Philips Hue lights and Wemo switches), extendable capabilities (for Alexa they're called "Skills") that you can create yourself, what tasks you want it to do, future growth (where competition will help), and country availability.

 

Customer Requirements

Marna talked about two customer requirements that caught her eye:

• 100505 on developerWorks RFE: Specify DSN HLQ for Healthchecker Debugging

• 100362 on developerWorks RFE:z/OSMF create your own category on left bar

Where We'll Be

Marna will be at SHARE in San Jose, California March 6 through March 10, 2017.

On The Blog

Martin has published three blog posts recently:

• Lost For Words With DDF

• The Suite Spot

• SMT - Some Actual Graphs

Marna has written one: Trying out the new z/OSMF Workflow Editor

Contacting Us

You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.

You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email.

Or you can leave a comment below.