Realdolmen

Once in a while, I'm going off topic, but there's always a reason why. So today I would like to tell you a bit about our company :

Realdolmen is one of the biggest independent ICT experts in Belgium. With around 1,250 highly trained employees, we provide services to over 1,000 customers in Benelux. 
We strive to make ICT more personal, to make the most of your employees’ and your organisation’s potential in every collaboration we’re a part of. We do all this with the motto: ‘To get there, together’.

But I especially want to elaborate a bit on our rebranding. You might already have seen we have a new logo  

But there's more than this. It was inevitable: after helping numerous companies with their digital transformation in 2016, we also underwent a radical change ourselves. Our structure, our approach, our story: it all needed updating to better meet our customers’ needs.Here's a video explaining our strategy and why we went through this rebranding exercise.




For this occasion, we also have a special edition of our simplICiTy magazine that you can download over here. A few of the topics discussed include:

• The story behind the new logo and baseline
• Why we – even though we’re still a technology business – are putting people at the centre of our approach
• How we’ve updated our services to support our customers as much as possible at an operational, tactical and strategic level
• The Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), smart machines, the hybrid cloud, big data: what trends and hypes do you as an organisation need to take into account?
• What role can ICT play in your organisation’s digital transformation process?

Well, let me know what you think of it !

Happy New Year

Well here's my last post for this year. If you missed my year review, just scroll down a bit.

We don't know what the next year will bring us but I surely wish every one the best for 2013 : A Happy New Year and good health to you and your family.

Thanks to all my readers for stopping by so regularly, to all the people who linked to this blog, to those who kindly retweeted me and to every one who gave me great feedback during 2012.

Happy New Year

Well here's my last post for this year. If you missed my year review, just scroll down a bit.

We don't know what the next year will bring us but I surely wish every one the best for 2012 : A Happy New Year and good health to you and your family.

Thanks to all my readers for stopping by so regularly, to all the people who linked to this blog and to every one who gave me great feedback during 2010.

IBM's Five in Five and Social Media

IBM has been launching its 5 in 5 predictions for quite a couple of years now. I first mentioned them at the end of 2007. Why did I add social media in the title ? Well, at the time there was a press release with a video, yes, but you had to download it to watch it. So, I uploaded it to youtube (watch it here). This is just an example of how we have come to take social media and also services like youtube for granted. Four years ago, it was still completely new for (parts) of IBM and now IBMLabs uploads it immediately to youtube, I guess, without even thinking about it. Obviously, they didn't see that one coming . . .

So, here we have again 5 predictions that might become reality within 5 years. Are they realistic ? Frankly, I don't think so. Can I prove it ? No, but . . . first take a look at this year's issue.



And now we move on to the first one I've found which dates from about 5 years ago. We can check which one of those have become true. And you'll see : mind reading should no longer be a prediction in 2011, it should already be reality.



If, just for fun, I should have to choose one prediction to become true I would pick the next one. And though it's presented with a woman, I think men would even love this more. I know I would. So for all the men who hate shopping or who think shopping with their wives takes too long. Here's the solution. Well, almost !

Google or IBM Support Portal

We may well be ranting about the young internet generation. You know : if you can't find it on Google, it doesn't exist. Well . . . I think I largely underestimated, or should I say, overestimated the age of lots of mainframe system engineers. Or, by now lots of them are contaminated by the younger generation. Why do I say so ?

Well, yesterdag I put up this new Red Alert on my blog and it referred to APAR PM37396. But what did I see : I really had a lot more readers than on previous days. And that during a holiday period ? So I took a look at the statistics of my blog and what did I see ? More than 50 people who arrived at my blog via the search argument 'PM37396'. I got curious, Googled it too and what do you know, my blog post came up first !

There's an alternative, people, and it's called IBM Support Portal. That's where 'real' system engineers go looking for an APAR ! Try it, if you haven't before. You'll like it.

And for those who still prefer to Google. OK, I admit, I referred to the APAR without mentioning the link. So, as a reward for clicking through to my blog : click here !

Other things of the past

I don't think when you would put a kid in front of a mainframe, it would even have the slightest idea what it is or what it does. But how about some other technologies 'of the past'. This is such a lovely video I just had to share it with you.



Thanks to T-zine where I found this.

Happy New Year

Well here's my last post for this year. I won't be posting for a couple of days, but my year review is still there for those in need of some extra reading material.

We don't know what the next year will bring us but I surely wish every one the best for 2011 : A Happy New Year and good health to you and your family.

Thanks to all my readers for stopping by so regularly, to all the people who linked to this blog and to every one who gave me great feedback during 2010.

Come Together

Here's a little video from youtube to close down the year. It's been there for a while already, but it was the first time I noticed it. Just have a look, it'll give you a good feeling to close the year . . . and start again in 2011 . . . with System z or zEnterprise ! ! !

Status on zPrime and TurboHercules

Ok, I just mention this for people who are interested in these legal cases. Let's say I'm just watching this from a distance. Still, I start wondering, are some of you people actually using these products for the moment. Or, as one of the articles says, is time really on IBM's side ?

Here's the article on zPrime : 'Neon zPrime, IBM battle in Limbo'.
The article discusses the lawsuit in the States, the situation in the EC (which might be more favorable to Neon) and the fact that the genie is out of the box. The author indicates that even if Neon loses the battle with zPrime, others will follow and will eventually have a chance to be more successful.

Here's the TurboHercules article : 'Microsoft Quietly Invests in IBM Emulator TurboHercules'.
Well, the title says it all. As Microsoft earlier supported T3, it now also (financially) support TurboHercules. You can find all the details in the article itself.

Total Solution Event for System z 2010 Presentations

I already talked a few times about the Total Solution Event for System z that took place a couple of weeks ago. For those who attended the event and want to have a closer look at some of the presentations or for those who couldn't make it : you can find them all over here.
Or just click on one of the links below. The presentations are put together per track.

• zEnterprise Announcement Overview: Jenna Bucher-Brown
• zEnterprise Announcement Overview: Ray Jones
• Track 1: System z for Managers and Executives
• Track 2: System z for Architects
• Track 3: System z and z/OS Update - Value and overview topics zEnterprise
• Track 3: System z and z/OS Update - Technical deep dive topics zEnterprise
• Track 3: System z and z/OS Update - z/OS topics
• Track 4: Modernization Solutions for z/VSE Clients
• Track 6: Linux on System z - Advanced
• Track 7: Information and Data Management on System z
• Track 9: Implementing the Foundation for Business Continuum on System z
• Track 10: Managing and Monitoring of System z Workloads

You will find some nice introductory presentations on e.g. the new zEnterprise System (track 3) or on the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer (track 7). But don't forget to check out the z/VSE and Linux tracks too.

And there's more good news. you can already fill out your agendas with the dates of the next Total Solution Event : September 27-28-29, 2011. Ok, ok, I'll remind you of it some time next year.

Fourth Blogoversary

"It's been seven hours and fifteen days" (*) , or perhaps even longer since my last post. I admit, I just stopped. Nothing seemed to be interesting enough to blog about or perhaps I encountered my first writers block !!?? Who will tell ? So, I'm going to make a fresh start.

As you can see, I even missed my fourth blogoversary, but hey, better late than never. I already started out blogging four years ago and it appears that even in the entire company (1800 people) I'm one of the pioneers or at least one the more prolific bloggers. What do you think : not bad for an 'oldfashioned' mainframe guy, no ?

So I'm just going to end this post this with the same words I posted last year (and the year before) : thanks for stopping by from time to time and don't hesitate to leave some comments if you have any kind of remarks.

As Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (from The Simpsons) would say : "Thank you, Come again".

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(*) Yes, a quote from Prince of course. He's coming to Belgium in a couple of weeks, so I couldn't resist that one. My inspiration must be coming back, I guess :-)

Happy New Year

Well, that's it for 2009. I'm off for a couple of days now. If you want some reading, my 2009 Year Review is still there.

As this is my last post for this year, I'd like to wish every one all the best for 2010 : A Happy New Year and a good health to you and your family.


Thanks to all my readers for stopping by so regularly, to other bloggers for linking to me and to all those who gave me great feedback during 2009.

By the way, I took the picture about 2 weeks ago in Lille (France). We spent the weekend over there and on Sunday it started snowing. Lille has a lovely Christmas Market, you have a great view from the large wheel and lots of shopping opportunities. Bought some great vinyl from Prince. Couldn't resist that one and I promise, it's the last time this year I'm mentioning Prince.

My third Blogoversary

Time flies . . . when you're having fun !

Three years already and it seems like yesterday that I was writing my first post. I just took a look at the number of posts I made and I see I'm living up to my promises. I'm still hitting an average of two posts per week.

The one thing I miss from time to time is some interactivity. Don't be shy to leave a comment or drop me a note or a mail. I might be having second thought about Twitter, but it sure has a lot more interactivity going on. On the other hand, I see Twitter more as a source of references to the real content that's still more often found in blogs.

So I'm just going to stop this with the same words I posted last year : thanks for stopping by from time to time and don't hesitate to leave some comments if you have any kind of remarks.

As Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (from The Simpsons) would say : "Thank you, Come again".

T-Rexx Mainframe cartoons

Just a quick one, I can't resist mentioning : Reg Harbeck is putting up a series of mainframe cartoons on the CA EXEC I/O Mainframe blog. In a humorous way, they illustrate some of the arguments used to show the advantages of the mainframe (the T-Rexx character, get it ?) as compared to distributed systems. I'm not sure whether these cartoons are copyright protected, so I'm just going to put one up here. You'll have to go to the blog for the rest of them. If any one wants me to remove it again, just drop me a comment.


Click on the image for larger version in new window

IBM Introduces PC-DOS for System z

Well, Timothy Sipples really has the scoop on this one. I quote : "Today IBM introduces an innovative, new mainframe operating system: PC-DOS for System z". Timothy tells us how a pre-release was already successfully tested at Marist College. The new OS will be generally available on April 26, 2009 and of course there will be a new pricing mechanism attached to it : HCQLC.

But I don't want to spoil his scoop, so as I always say : do check it out. it's over here.

The mainframe is responsible for Alien Abductions

This is the slogan on a print advertising which is part of the 'Truth vs Myth' Campaign for the mainframe. There's e.g. also an introductory video on Youtube referring to this campain. The link at the end of the video directs you to the Truth & Myth webpage. There you find some more myths and you can test your knowledge on this topic. Both entertaining and educational.

Here's the video from Youtube :

Short Takes

Here some short messages on publications, events, podcasts . . .

• If you want to read some more on CICS TS 4.1, there will be a series of 4 articles about it in the zJournal CICS Spotlight. Here's the first one : 'Compete, Comply, and Control with CICS Transaction Server for z/OS v4.1'. If you want to subscribe to other zJournal Spotlights, just go over here.

• If it's not too late. Diane G. Johnson (IBM) reminds me of an event I forgot to mention earlier : The Total Solution Event for System z in Amsterdam next week from March 10, 2009 till March 12, 2009. This is a no charge event for mainframe customers with lots of parallel tracks on DB2, CICS, SOA, IMS, Linux on z, WAS with lots of well-known speakers. You can find more information and register over here. I know there's a program guide but I can't find it online. If you want more information on content, you can contact Patrick Bruinsma (IBM NL).

• Susan Visser (IBM) blogs about all sorts of publications regarding DB2. She now mentions a very interesting series of podcasts on 'DB2 9 for z/OS pureXML' by Guogen Zhang which you can find over here.

• Last week, there also was an new issue of zJournal itself with its February-March issue with a Q&A on IMS and SOA, the Exploitation of the Crypto Express2 Accelerator, Introducing Open Solaris for System z and 'How zIIP Processors are Changing the Rules'.

• Also out today : the z/OS Hot Topics Newsletter. I' ve only had the time to browse through it quickly and it looks like a very promising issue. It starts out with a series of 'memories of a mainframe' starting off with the punch cards. Did you know you still can buy new ones. Other articles 'z/OS support for Solid State Drives on the DS8000', FlashCopy V2, EAV free space information, zFavorites, cutting costs on z/OS with IMS. It closes with '10 Hot Tips for z'. In case you haven't noticed, I just try to lure you into downloading this newsletter. It' s really worth your time. And I just couldn't resist adding this picture :
  
  
• By the way : if you want to see more of these pictures : take a look over here in the IBM mainframe photo album.
  
  

We won ! We won !

I know I have some catching up to do and I promise I'll definitely make a couple of posts next week, but it's been quite busy the last few weeks.
Still I definitely want to share this with you. You know I'm working as a presales consultant for a Belgian IBM Business Partner NV RealDolmen. Well, we just won an award. No not an Oscar, my acting talents aren't that good. But we did win the IBM "STG Winback of 2008", as we teamed up with IBM to realize the largest winback in Belgium for 2008.

Our customer Belgacom, a Belgian Telecom Operator, is running an IDMS database application on two Siemens BS2000 mainframes. After an intensive presales period of 2 years, Belgacom decided last year to migrate their application to an IBM platform. No, not just any platform : the IBM System z10, of course !

So, we're quite proud that we've been able to realize this winback and to illustrate this, here's a picture of me and my colleague Geert Maes who's our System z Solution Sales Manager. By the way, I'm on the left, but you might've already guessed that ;-)

Click to view larger picture in new window

Vote for DB2 and mainframe crossword

Just a quick note that also gives me the opportunity to mention a couple of valuable DB2 resources. I picked this up from Graig Mullins' Blog via DB2 Planet : Vote for DB2. Just follow this link and you can vote for your favourite DBMS. I have no intention whatsoever to influence you voting behaviour but yours is DB2 of course. The poll isn't that recent, but while you're there, do check out the mainframe crossword they also put up on the site.

Happy New Year

Another eventful year's gone and we're on the verge of a new one. I'm off for a couple of days now, but if you're eager for some lecture, my 2008 Year Review is still there.

We don't know what 2009 will bring us but I surely wish every one the best for 2009 : A Happy New Year and good health to you and your family.



Thanks to all my readers for stopping by so regularly, to other bloggers for linking to me and to all those who gave me great feedback during 2008.