IBM Technical University in Orlando 2018 Day 4 Meetup and Universal Studios

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This week, I am in Orlando, Florida for the [IBM Technical University], with focus on IBM storage, IBM Z mainframes and IBM Power servers. This is my recap for day 4.

Social Media - Isn't it time you took the plunge

Angela Fresne, IBM Social Media, presented this "Career Development" session on how technical employees can benefit from using social media in their jobs. She organized this into three sections:

• Dipping your toe in
• Wading in waist deep
• Taking the full plunge

Afterwards, she provided some useful resources, including IBM's [Social Media Guidelines], which are publicly available for other companies to follow.

Machine Learning for IBM z/OS, a Db2 guy's point of view

What do you call it when IBM brings together PHP, Scala, R, Spark, and the Anaconda open source collection of machine learning libraries?

• For Linux, Windows and MacOS desktops, it is called the [IBM Data Science Experience Desktop]. (I have this running on my laptop.)
• For Power Systems, it is called [IBM PowerAI]
• In the public IBM Cloud, it is called [IBM Watson Studio]
• For your private cloud, it is called [IBM Cloud Private for Data]
• For IBM Z, it is called [IBM Open Data Analytics for z/OS], or IzODA for short.

Confused yet? Fortunately, the speaker Mark Rader, IBM Z, focused entirely on the z/OS platform version of these tools.

Storage Meetup: Cloud and Object Storage

In past years, the conference would organize three huge rooms, one for IBM Z, one for IBM POWER, and the last for IBM Storage. These would be Q&A panels, with a dozen experts at the front of the room, and a large audience asking questions.

This year, these were all split up into smaller "Meetup" sessions. There were Meetups for Spectrum Protect, Spectrum Scale, Encryption, IBM i, z/OS, Power, FlashSystem, TS7700, DS8000, Blockchain, DevOPS, Machine Learning, Spectrum Virtualize.

Andy Kutner and I led the Storage Meetup for "Cloud and Object Storage". Andy and I had both done several presentations on these topics during the week, and we were able to handle the questions that came from the audience. Here is a sample:

	Is IBM Spectrum Virtualize Transparent Cloud Tiering mature enough to use now?
		It is unfortunate that IBM chose "Transparent Cloud Tiering" (TCT) to describe four implementations on four different product families. The one thing they have in common is that they send data to the Cloud or IBM Cloud Object Storage. The TCT feature of Spectrum Virtualize, including SAN Volume Controller (SVC), Storwize and FlashSystem V9000 was made generally available for use last year.
	Our use of S3FS does not perform well?
		S3FS was developed to allow file system access through the FUSE driver for Linux and MacOS operating systems. It was not optimized for performance, and was meant as a convenience instead.
	Does Spectrum Copy Data Management support the Cloud?
		Yes, Spectrum CDM works with a variety of IBM and non-IBM storage to take volume snapshots that can be used for DevOPS, dev/test, and other purposes. These snapshots can be moved to the cloud to make them more broadly accessible to developers.
	How do we size backup configurations to the Cloud
		Several backup software support IBM Cloud and IBM Cloud Object Storage, including Veritas NetBackup and Commvault Simpana. For IBM Spectrum Protect, IBM has published "blueprints" now that include Cloud configurations that have done all the sizing work for you.
	When should we consider using a Co-location facility instead of Public Cloud
		There are pros and cons for each, and there are also options in between. IBM Cloud offers "Dedicated" bare-metal servers, giving you complete control, but still publicly accessible. IBM Cloud also offers "Private" bare-metal behind your firewall.
	Can IBM COS Vault Mirroring employ the Aspera file transfer protocol?
		Andy and I were stumped on this one. Andy agreed to get back to the attendee on this.
	Can IBM COS support Spark Analytic workloads
		Yes, IBM COS supports [Stocator], a high performing connector to object storage for Apache Spark, achieving performance by leveraging object storage semantics.
	We are currently using IBM FileNet to Centera, can the data be moved to IBM COS?
		Absolutely, not only does FileNet offer utilities to make this possible, IBM has partnered with service providers that offer fast data movement from Centera to IBM COS for a variety of specific applications, including FileNet.
	What are the key selling points over Dell EMC Centera?
		Basically, IBM COS is more scalable, performs faster, at a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Contact your local storage seller or IBM Business Partner for a full presentation!
	Is there a database to quickly search through all of the valuable metadata stored in IBM COS and other repositories?
		Great idea! I will pass this on to development.
	How does IBM COS protect against disk failure or data corruption?
		IBM COS slowly rolls through all the data checking the integrity. Checksums are validated, and any corrupted or missing slices are reconstructed using Erasure Coding.
	Who competes with IBM COS?
		IBM ranks #1 in Object Storage. There are several competitors. Established storage companies like Dell EMC, NetApp, Hitachi Vantara, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Simplivity have object storage offerings. Companies also have attempted to build object stores from open source code, OpenStack Swift and Ceph.
	How can IBM Business Partners demonstrate IBM COS to clients?
		The IBM Systems Client Experience Portal [ISCEP] provides a list of demos available for all IBM storage products, including IBM COS.

 

Event Night: Universal Studios

IBM rented out a section of Universal Studios! We were welcomed by various characters to take pictures with! Here are Scooby Doo and Shaggy!

There were several rides to chose from. While waiting for the "Race through New York with Jimmy Fallon" ride, we were entertained by these five acapella singers doing popular rap songs. Laura poses for a picture with two Minions.

The other two rides were "Transformers" and "The Mummy". After Transformers ride, we could take pictures with Bumblebee, one of the auto-bots. I posed with Ahmanet, the mummy played by Sofia Boutella in the 2017 movie.

There was also plenty of food, representing Italian, Mexican, Greek, Chinese and American fare.

You can follow along with Twitter hashtag #IBMtechU, or follow me at @az990tony.

technorati tags: IBM, #IBMTechU, Angela Fresne, Social Media, Career Development, Social Media Guidelines, Machine Learning, PHP, Scala, Spark, Anaconda, Linux, MacOS, Windows, Data Science, Data Science Experience, DSX Desktop, PowerAI, Watson Studio, IBM Cloud Private for Data, IBM Open Data Analytics for z/OS, IzODA, Mark Rader, Transparent Cloud Tiering, Spectrum Virtualize, SVC, Storwize, FlashSystem V9000, S3FS, FUSE, Spectrum CDM, Spectrum Copy Data Management, DevOPS, Veritas NetBackup, Commvault Simpana, Spectrum Protect, Co-Location, IBM Cloud Dedicated, IBM Cloud Private, Vault Mirroring, Aspera, Stocator, FileNet, Centera, Checksum Validation, Erasure Coding, Dell EMC, NetApp, Hitachi Vantara, HPE Simplivity, OpenStack Swift, Ceph, ISCEP, Universal Studios, Scooby Doo, Jimmy Fallon, Minions, Transformers, The Mummy, Sofia Boutella