DB2 Magazine E-Newsletter

October 21, 2003

DB2 Magazine Email Newsletter
Volume 4, Issue 11
www.db2mag.com

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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Q4, 2003 Issue Now Online: Boosting applications with DB2
2. IBM News
3. DB2 Magazine Trivia Contest: Play to win $100
4. Skills And Certification News
5. At the Bookstore: DB2 UDB V8.1 Certification Exam 700 Study Guide
6. Now Playing at the DB2 Developer Domain
7. Seminars and E-Books from Intelligent Enterprise

1. Q4, 2003 ISSUE NOW ONLINE: BOOSTING APPLICATIONS WITH DB2
What good is having the right data if you can't do anything with it? People and businesses now have access to more information than ever before. But too many companies have trouble finding and using the information that exists in their own systems, let alone in external sources. Read how IBM business partners and customers are using DB2 as a launching pad for applications designed to remedy that situation.

Getting a Boost From DB2 explains how a DB2 framework can free business intelligence application developers from having to duplicate database functions on other layers of the application stack, so they can focus on getting deeper insight from information.
http://www.db2mag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15300101

In Smart Wells and Smarter Databases, Informix guru (and DB2 convert) Joe Lumbley demonstrates how Telegnomic uses Informix Dynamic Server and DataBlades to pump intelligence from reservoirs of time-series data.
http://www.db2mag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15300104

To tame the surprisingly complex content management challenges inherent in catalog publishing, A2i added unique technology to a solid DB2 UDB base. Brenda Castiel explains in More Than Meets the Eye: Simplifying Catalog Publishing.
http://www.db2mag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15300094

In Remote Control, learn about mobile applications built on DB2 Everyplace for multinational corporations, window cleaning agencies, and everything in between.
http://www.db2mag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15300111

Read articles that cover archiving for better performance, query processing, DB2 UDB performance tuning, stored procedures, and more
http://www.db2mag.com/db_area/archives/2003/q4

2. IBM NEWS
IBM Signs Agreement to Acquire CrossAccess Software IBM announced that it signed an agreement to acquire the software assets of Santa Clara, Calif.-based CrossAccess Corp., a privately held company that provides software that enables access to information in mainframe databases. IBM expects to complete the acquisition later this month.

CrossAccess technology will be integrated into DB2 Information Integrator software, to provide a comprehensive enterprise information integration infrastructure. IBM plans to integrate CrossAccess's software assets and personnel into the Data Management Software group and to market and sell CrossAccess technology worldwide through the IBM sales force.
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/integration/mdi.html

Web Seminar: Integrating the Real-Time Enterprise
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Time: 11 a.m. PST
Fast and effective corporate decision-making requires a single, integrated view of an organization's most critical information assets, which are typically spread across structured and unstructured sources. IBM and Informatica are offering this Web Seminar with Dr. Claudia Imhoff, President of Intelligent Solutions, Inc. and author of Mastering Data Warehouse Design, to show how to extract value from existing systems by providing transparent access to legacy and other non-relational data sources.
http://www.informatica.com/info/db2ii/default.htm

Getting Started With DB2 Information Integrator This one-day, no-charge workshop will help ISVs understand the data integration challenge customers face and how DB2 Information Integrator addresses that challenge. The course is offered in November in Waltham, Mass. and Shanghai, China. Additional dates and locations are available on the Web site.
https://www.developer.ibm.com/spc/events/db2_infointeg.html?ca=dsp-4qdm1db2nm

3. DB2 MAGAZINE TRIVIA CONTEST: PLAY TO WIN $100
What new product, based on DB2, was introduced in 2000 to handle multimedia asset management? Answer correctly and enter the drawing for a $100 American Express Gift Cheque.

Play the Trivia Contest:
http://www.db2magazine.com/
Get a hint from the DB2 anniversary poster:
http://i.cmpnet.com/db2mag/db_area/archives/2003/q1/AnvPostrTimelineSide.pdf

4. SKILLS AND CERTIFICATION NEWS
New DB2 Blended Learning Solution
A new skills package from IBM blends self-study and instructor-led training to enable DBAs with experience on other relational databases to quickly learn DB2 UDB for Linux, Unix, and Windows. The course teaches real-world DB2 UDB administration skills and provides a fast path to certification on version 8.
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/us/catalog/blended/db2.html

New Book: DB2 for Sun Solaris: The Official Guide
IBM experts on DB2 for Solaris offer guidance on key decisions and challenges, including how to choose the right DB2 edition. The book also includes tips on monitoring and optimizing performance, implementing clustering, and managing backup and recovery.
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/education/bookstore/ref.html

Free Certification Exams at the Data Management Tech Conference
Data Management Technical Conference attendees can take the DB2 certification exams - including the new DB2 UDB Problem Determination Exam - for free at the conference in Las Vegas, October 27 - 31. IBM offers a free tutorial to help candidates prepare for the Problem Determination Exam.
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/conf/us/dm/certification.html

5. AT THE BOOKSTORE
DB2 UDB V8.1 Certification Exam 700 Study Guide
By Roger E. Sanders
This comprehensive study guide by DB2 Magazine columnist Roger E. Sanders covers everything certification candidates need to know to pass the DB2 UDB V8.1 Certification Exam (700). The book leads readers step-by-step through deployment planning, database security, SQL, DB2 database object creation and management, database concurrency, and more. Each chapter contains an extensive set of practice questions (and carefully explained answers) modeled on the actual exam.

Details about the book
http://www.db2mag.com/bookstore/
Roger Sanders' Distributed DBA column on DB2 UDB tuning
http://www.db2mag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15300098

6. NOW PLAYING AT THE DB2 DEVELOPER DOMAIN
Creating an Intelligent and Flexible Solution with Business Process Management, Business Rules, and Business Intelligence: Part One, Introduction
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0310medicke/0310medicke.html

Thinking Big - Java Development with LOBs in DB2 UDB
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0310bhogal/0310bhogal.html

Developing DB2 UDB User Defined Functions with .Net
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/tutorials/0310jamshidi/index.html

Connectivity Cheat Sheet for DB2 UDB Part 2 - DB2 for z/OS
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0310chong/0310chong.html

Diagnosing and Resolving Lock Problems with DB2 Universal Database
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0310wilkins/0310wilkins.html

DB2 Universal Database and the Highly Available Data Store
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0310melnyk/0310melnyk.html

7. SEMINARS AND E-BOOKS FROM INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE
Data Analytics In Strategic Decision Management
Presented by Fair Isaac Corporation and Intelligent Enterprise
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2003 Time: 10:30AM Pacific
Join speakers from Intelligent Enterprise magazine and Fair Isaac Corporation for an in-depth look at how companies are moving beyond traditional business intelligence concepts to incorporate advanced data analytics in their strategic business operations. We will cover areas such as predictive modeling, neural networks, and modern simulation/optimization techniques to not only understand what has happened in the past, but to forecast the effect of business actions and maximize their impact on bottom-line returns. We will include examples of Fair Isaac products that make use of data analytics and see how they are being applied in real world business scenarios. An "ask the experts" question and answer session will let you clarify both technical considerations and business level concerns.
https://placeware.viewcentral.com/events/cust/ search_results.asp?cid=fairisaac&pid=2&lid=2&tstamp= 1065801649488&postingForm=calendar.asp &bFromCalendar=1&event_schedule_id=89

Get Real: Real Time Data Warehousing
This e-book includes exclusive articles by Ralph Kimball and Neal Raden as well as resources from Sunopsis and Intelligent Enterprise. "The process of extracting, transforming, and loading data from source systems into a data warehouse (ETL, for short) has never risked being called fast or cheap. Now the pressure is on to speed it up, to feed the ever-growing hunger for current, reliable decision support."
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/register/ebook/realtime/

The Soul of the Data Warehouse
Presented by Intelligent Enterprise and sponsored by Informatica and Trillium software, this exclusive online ebook provides details for building a data warehouse that is easy to use and runs fast...and presents powerful architectural guidelines that should not be compromised.
Now online only at:
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/register/ebook/DWSoul/

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