By Tom Ross, IBM US

Enterprise COBOL V5 was announced on April 23, and will become available on June 21. What's new?  How about new compiler options such as ARCH and new OPTIMIZE levels, NOLOAD class DWARF debug data, instruction generation to exploit new hardware, and even new COBOL language support for UTF-8, XML GENERATE and XML PARSE. Come and hear all about the newest COBOL compiler for z/OS!

Tom Ross is a senior software engineer in IBM COBOL development. Tom has been developing COBOL product for 27 years, including compiler and run-time libraries for every release of VS COBOL II thru IBM COBOL on AIX AND Windows. Tom A7is an expert in migration issues for COBOL and Language Environment for z/OS, and in many issues facing IBM mainframe customers.

By Matthias Korn, IBM Germany

In 2013 not just a new release of the z/OS operating system will be available, but the version changes too. In autumn z/OS V2R1 will be generally available (aka GA).
As the interval - when new releases are introduced - now changed from 6 month via 1 year to meanwhile 2 years, tremendous changes can be expected that become available along with z/OS V2R1.
This session will contain a general overview in form of a pre-GA without too much technical details and internals. It is an overview for system programmers to get a short and compact overview about the new features.

Matthias is a zSeries Software Support Specialist focused on z/OS base components and primarily working on defects in the area of the z/OS kernel as well as Unix System Services for the IBM zSeries system support in Germany. Matthias is working now since 17 years in the area of z/OS SCP (system control program) defect support and since 14 years supporting Unix System Services. He is a member of the european virtual frontend and the Global Competency Center (GCC for Unix System Services and other base components providing worldwide L2 support frontended to component specific change teams (L3) in the US. A former project has been the development of the 'ITSO OMVS Training Camp' course material for example. He frequently presents USS problem debug information at the z/OS Guide GSE conference in Lahnstein, Germany. He was a speaker at the 2010 and 2011 GSE Nordics Conference as well and acts as a teacher in Europe for z/OS debugging.

By  Anthony Papageorgiou, IBM UK

Mobile and the Mainframe, two technologies that most people think have nothing to do with each other, and yet millions of smart phones access mainframe data sand services everyday. Come along to get a overview of the modern enterprise mobile application and the technologies that can help you with everything from development and deployment to connectivity and security. Find out how to make your mainframe accessible to mobile and what to expect from the changing workloads this can bring.

Anthony Papageorgiou is a Software Developer for CICS TS working at IBM Hursley UK. Before he joined IBM in 2007 he worked for Mintel International Group Ltd as a Web Developer. Anthony holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Warwick. His areas of expertise include Web 2.0, Event Processing and Mobile Technologies and he was closely involved with the design an development of their support in CICS V4. He is currently working as a developer on the eclipse based CICS tools.

By  Isabel Arnold, IBM DE

Cloud is still often considered to be a hype. But looking at IT trends, directions and budgets most companies have it on their agenda. IDC predicts that the revenue coming from cloud service will triple between 2011 and 2016. But what does that mean for my mainframe? Join the speaker on a discovery tour to see where we are on our journey and where we still need to go.

Isabel Arnold has been acting as Client Technical Professional for System z since 2004. She started working in the field of Information Technology in 2001 and holds a German Diploma from University of Corporate Education Stuttgart. Her areas of expertise include CICS with focus on integration and modernization as well as modern application development for System z. In her role she worked on two ITSO Redbooks and has been presenting at conferences like System z or WebSphere Technical Conference. Isabel teaches System z Software basics at German universities and is IBM representative for the German CICS user group.

By Allen Wang (CHN)

Nowadays the world is in an era of information exploration. Business leaders are struggling to get deeper insights from massive data. As a platform on which 60%-70% the most valuable operation data exists, system z also offers powerful business analytics solutions to help customers create value from the information. However, in an enterprise, different organizations may have different requirements on the configurations of business analytics products. Facing with rapid changing customer demand, business analytics cloud is needed for flexible deployment and quick implementation. The session will introduce a solution to integrate DB2 for z/OS, IDAA and SPSS in a zCloud environment. With this solution, customers can deploy a new business analytics application easily and quickly, and make the business analytics closest to the data to always respond market in the fastest way. In addtion, we will make an attemption for automatic algorithm decision for new users. Also, the solution can make the most of the reliability, availability,  security and total cost ownership advantage of system z. The solution is being implemented for a China customer with hundreds of millions of accounts.

Allen Wang (Wang Enzhong) is a technical enablement specialist for business analytics on system z. He has been working in financial solution implementation for 8 years with a focus on mainframe and accumulated rich experience in core-banking and  credit card.

By  Morag Hughson, IBM (UK), Mark Zheng, IBM (CHN)

This session discusses the key challenges for banking industry, especially the unique characteristics for major banks in China, like huge customer base, scalability across extensive geographic locations, extremely high peak, complex operational and integration needs, etc. It introduces IBM Messaging solutions to address these challenges, by providing powerful and flexible messaging backbone for core banking IT system. Furthermore, IBM Messaging provides the capacity to enable new generation banking services for Mobile, Internet-of-Things, Financial, Cloud.
This session also discusses best practice cases during the implementation of IBM Messaging solutions for major banks in China.

Miao Zheng is the architect of IBM China Development Lab (CDL) zAIM Solution Center. Miao joined IBM in 2003 and worked in DB2 for z/OS, DB2 Tools, CICS and MQ product teams. Miao has rich experience in DB2 performance tuning, Q Replication performance in GDPS Active-Active solution and is currently the lead of a solution team for developing end2end solutions based on CICS, MQ, WebSphere on z/OS, and WODM.

Morag has worked in IBM for over 15 years designing, developing and servicing the WebSphere MQ product (formerly MQSeries). Her main areas of expertise include security, channels, the MQ API, MQSC and PCF, Publish/Subscribe and the z/OS platform. She regularly presents on these topics at a variety of technical conferences around the world. She is now the architect for the base MQ product with responsibility across both z/OS and distributed platforms.

By Mike Johnson, IBM, US

Leveraging business agility for Cobol applications  in batch, CICS and IMS clients with IBMs ILOGs Operational Decision Manager Rules and Events
The talk will discuss the encapsulation of business rules outside the a business application allowing the Business to react quickly to an increasingly volatile world.
It will cover the use of IBMs Decision Manager product the 'ilog' Rules and Events server for hosting these business rules on z/OS and distributed systems   It will cover how clients in a batch CICS or IMS world can participate using centrally located and maintained Business Rules.

Mike Johnson is a software engineer working in the WODM on z/OS Development group at the IBM Hursley Laboratory in the U.K. Mike has worked in development for many years in MQ and Message Broker and currently develops the ILOG Rules Engine offering on z/OS which is part of the WODM offering from IBM.  Mike provides consultancy on WODM to the Technical Sales teams of IBM and has contributed to IBMs patent portfolio, redbooks and technical papers.

By Phil Grainger, BMC (UK)

We all know that SQL in production should be performing at the absolute best that it can – and the market is full of tools to help you monitor and measure that performance, hopefully against some stated service level agreement
But how does high performance SQL get into production in the first place. Do you ensure that it is coded in the best way possible right at the start of the development lifecycle, or do you only address performance issues when the SQL is about to be promoted into production (or perhaps only AFTER it has been migrated)?
This presentation looks at some ways it may be possible to “quality assure” your SQL as it is promoted through the different environments
We will also look at some development situations that would seem to make SQL QA an almost impossible task
Finally, we’ll finish off with some thoughts on what constitutes normal performance and how could it be possible for a performance monitor to track normality and raise alerts for exceptions – all without annual intervention.

Phil has over 20 years experience of DB2, starting work all those years ago in 1987 with DB2 Version 1.2. Since then he has worked with all versions, including DB2 10 from his beginnings as a DB2 DBA for one of the largest users of DB2 at that time in the UK, through his time at PLATINUM technology and including almost 10 years as Senior Principal Product Manager for CAs line of DB2 solutions, Phil has always been a keen supporter of user groups and is a regular speaker at both vendor sponsored and independent events. His work with IDUG includes being a past member of the European IDUG Planning Committee, an inductee into the IDUG Volunteer Hall of Fame and now Board Liaison for BMC Software Phils focus as Senior Principal Product Manager for DB2 tools at CA was with an international view as to the usage of DB2 In 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Phil was honoured by IBM as an Information Champion Phils is now at BMC Software working as their Lead Product Manager in support of their DB2 tools portfolio In addition, Phil is a regular contributor to the IDUG sponsored DB2-L discussion list.

By Scott Fagan, CA US

Mainframers have been using virtual machines, time-sharing, and managing multitenancy for years. Add to this the flexibility of the new zEnterprise hybrid architecture, and you have the hardware infrastructure for the ultimate private cloud.  Learn how Cloud Computing and zEnterprise intersect to help you leverage your mainframe assets in your complex enterprise integration initiatives – to lower costs, while continuing to offer the highest quality of service. See how CA’s innovative cloud solution can help you simplify application composition, deployment and integration across your z/VM, Linux on System z, z/OS systems and distributed systems.

Scott Fagen, Distinguished Engineer, CA Technologies, began his Mainframe career in 1986 with IBM - Poughkeepsie, working on Sysplex support for what was then the MVS operating system. Over the next 21 years with IBM, Scott contributed to many different facets of the MVS, OS/390 and z/OS products, focusing on improving the reliability, availability, serviceability (RAS) characteristics of the operating system and key subsystems. In 2007, Scott joined CA Technologies, where he successfully led the design and implementation of many facets of the Mainframe 2.0 initiative. In 2009, he was appointed Distinguished Engineer and Chief Architect of the Mainframe Business Unit at CA. In this role, Scott drives the overall strategy for CA’s mainframe business and leads the Mainframe Products Design Council (MPDC), the team of engineers that sets the technical direction for the development of mainframe products at CA Technologies. Scott also plays a leadership role within the Mainframe Strategic Advisory Council (MSAC), which is essentially the mainframe customer “board of directors” for CA Technologies. The MSAC plays a crucial role in the design and implementation of many of CA Technologies’ mainframe products.

By Fraser Bohm IBM UK

With the introduction of the zEC12, IBM has once again demonstrated concerted effort and investment in Java on z. With second generation out-of-order pipeline design, large caches and 5.5GHz core, the hardware packs significant improvement in performance for Java. Beyond this, with the exploitation of new features like Transactional Execution, 1Meg pageable large pages, 2G pages, new trap instructions and branch hint instructions, the IBM Java Runtime Environment continues a long history of aggressive vertical integration on System z. This session will revisit the Java on Z roadmap, provide a high-level overview of Java on Z, and highlight recent performance improvements to Java on the zEC12.

Fraser Bohm started working on CICS TS in 1996 and is now the IBM Senior Technical Staff Member responsible for CICS Modernization. Prior to this Fraser as the Chief Developer for both the CICS TS 4.2 and 5.1 releases. He was the architect for the SOA and Web Services initiatives from Version onwards.