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Breaking News - Unisys Debuts SOA for ClearPath
Unisys
Corp. yesterday announced Unisys SOA for ClearPath,
a new methodology, portfolio of services and suite
of tools for enabling mainframe applications to participate
in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). This solution
is intended to enable clients of Unisys ClearPath
enterprise servers to quickly transform their strategic
applications, allowing them to realize the business
benefits of an SOA strategy while at the same time
capitalizing on their investments in ClearPath applications.
More coverage on this in the next issue of Unisphere
5 Minute Briefing.
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Unisys Delivers First Models of Next-Generation
ClearPath Mainframes
Unisys
Corp. has unveiled the first models of its next-generation
ClearPath family of mainframe-class enterprise servers
based on multi-core Intel Xeon processors. The new
models are the first major milestone in Unisys' previously
announced plans to deliver a common platform architecture,
leveraging advanced Intel processor technology, for
all Unisys enterprise servers. Unisys' next generation
architecture is designed to help clients create more
agile IT infrastructure and implement SOA more easily.
The
new ClearPath Dorado Model 400 and Libra Model 400
series support advanced releases of the Unisys OS
2200 and MCP operating environments, respectively.
These releases provide optimized support for ClearPath
systems using Intel or proprietary processor technology.
Both operating environments provide full compatibility
of applications written on earlier-generation ClearPath
systems based on CMOS architecture. Transitioning
the OS 2200 and MCP environments onto the multi-core
Intel platform is a key step toward realizing Unisys'
vision for enterprise computing - an advanced architecture
that enables clients to take advantage of emerging
open standards while preserving and extending their
long-term investment in strategic applications. The
Libra Model 400 series is available now. The Dorado
Model 400 will be used by lead clients in the second
quarter, with general availability around October
of this year, Rod Sapp, director of ES and Storage
Solutions, Systems and Technology, Unisys, told 5
Minute Briefing.
Unisys
describes its next-generation server architecture
as the first in the market enabling four operating
environments - Microsoft Windows and Linux as well
as Unisys OS 2200 and MCP - to run concurrently on
the same computer system in a single virtualized partition.
Unisys' integrated virtualization and management capabilities
will enable server resources to be shared dynamically,
with business services from any combination of those
operating environments able to handle the client's
business requirements. "This is all about addressing
our clients' pain points to position them better in
terms of business agility while leveraging their investment
of many, many years," said Sapp. "A lot of those investments
have provided competitive differentiation for our
clients. We don't want to lose any of that; we want
to leverage that but at the same time, help them be
more agile," Additionally, he noted, a goal of the
next generation is to expand the ecosystem "to leverage
more of the Microsoft and .NET environments and Java
and open source and to allow them to leverage that
ecosystem, those skill sets, those business artifacts
and integrate them in to a service-oriented architecture
to extend their business function."
The
two constituents of the new ClearPath Dorado 400 Series
- Models 420 and 430 - employ the Dual-Core Intel
Xeon Processor 7100 Series processors. The new Dorado
models afford clients the mainframe-class transaction
performance, security, availability and resilience
that have long been hallmarks of the Dorado line.
The Model 430 features a pay-for-use capability that
allows clients to pay for the exact amount of processing
power they use, as they use it, monitored by state-of-the-art
metering. The ClearPath Libra Model 400 is the first
Unisys mainframe system based on the Quad-Core Intel
Xeon Processor 5300 Series processors. Doubling the
single-processor performance of its predecessor Libra
Model 300, the new Libra Model 400 offers capacity
on-demand options that help clients handle dynamically
changing workloads.
Unisys
has also extended the SafeGuard Family of disaster
recovery solutions, previously available for the Unisys
ES7000/one Enterprise Servers, to the ClearPath system,
enabling clients to establish integrated management
of business continuity and disaster recovery for both
Intel and CMOS based platforms across multiple data
centers. For more information, go here.
To register for Unisys' Webinars,
including one today on ClearPath MCP Release 11.1
Software Update, go here.
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Industry Leader Q&A with Dean Livingston of DBRESOURCES,
INC.
Tuning
DMSII Databases Can Lead to Big Gains
According
to a recent study by Unisphere Research, 5 Minute
Briefing's research arm, 77 percent of Unisys ClearPath
Plus mainframe platform installations report using
the Unisys DMSII Database, which fills an important
role for specific target applications. Its heaviest
use is for financial applications, but it is also
used for everything from voice messaging to product
testing. By and large, the applications that run on
DMSII are considered mission-critical and DMSII supports
a significant percentage of the mission-critical applications
in the enterprises within which it is used. 5 Minute
Briefing talked to Dean Livingston of DBRESOURCES,
INC., who has been working with DMSII for 25 years,
about his experiences tuning and optimizing DMSII
databases.
5
Minute Briefing: DMSII is well established.
Tell us some of the highlights of your DMSII tuning
experiences.
Livingston:
One site had a program that loaded a database fresh
every night. The program ran for over eight hours.
My manager wanted to see if something could be done
about it. I managed to get the load time down to roughly
45 minutes. At another site the nightly batch would
start at 8 p.m. and usually finish somewhere between
6 p.m. and 8 p.m. the next evening. On a real bad
day it would run past 8 p.m., causing that night's
batch run to be started late - causing even more problems.
The customer was looking at a very expensive hardware
upgrade as a solution to their dilemma. Management
put together a team of about a dozen people to see
what might be done to reduce the timeframes to try
and provide some relief.
5
Minute Briefing: What was the solution?
Livingston:
After some testing, I made some recommendations that
the production database administrators implemented
that knocked six hours of elapsed time off the entire
nightly batch process. The other 11 team members implemented
more recommendations that knocked off another six
hours of wall-clock time. Now the site could complete
the nightly batch work by 8 a.m. the next morning;
they didn't need the expensive upgrade anymore. I
continued to do more tuning work for them at the database
as well as application level. One of their critical
programs ran for six hours nightly and I got it down
to an hour and a half. There were numerous other programs
that experienced savings in the 20 percent to 40 percent
range.
5
Minute Briefing: How you go about tuning
a site?
Livingston:
I start out viewing a week or two's worth of database
statistics. I then address any issues in the databases
that might be apparent. I also set up a test environment
for the applications if one isn't available. I want
to run each program individually, seeing how it interacts
with the databases. I generally start with the most
critical and longest running ones and work my way
from there. It is important to observe each program
running independently to eliminate the noise commonly
seen in the production environment. I test any ideas
I might have against that baseline run. If the changes
result in at least a 10 percent improvement in runtime,
then I'll recommend they be made in production after
being thoroughly tested by someone familiar with the
program.
5
Minute Briefing: Do your changes involve
re-writing the program?
Livingston:
No. I look at the program purely from a technical
point of view. I've never re-written a program for
performance reasons. I want the program to work more
in harmony with the database and operating system
if I can.
5
Minute Briefing: Do you have a checklist
of items you go through to achieve results?
Livingston:
I do not have a checklist. Every site is different.
Each of the huge gains I mentioned at the beginning
of the interview came from different solutions applied
to specific issues. Oftentimes, when I find an improvement
to one program it will also apply to others in the
shop.
5
Minute Briefing: Do you only work with larger
sites?
Livingston:
Late last winter I worked with a small site that didn't
have a DBA or systems programmer, and it dawned on
me there are probably a lot of Unisys sites out there
like them that have no idea how much better they could
run if they had someone who could help them out. I'm
hoping to reach those sites as well as the larger
ones.
Dean
Livingston of DBRESOURCES, INC. is a DBA specializing
in DMSII database and application performance tuning.
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Relativity Announces Application Management Tool
Relativity
Technologies has added an Application Portfolio Manager
(APM) module to its Modernization Workbench platform.
The module centralizes business and technical intelligence
for applications across mainframe, midrange, and distributed
environments and allows role-specific views through
browser-based, customizable dashboards. "APM as a
philosophy is combining business information with
the technical information about your applications
ultimately to make decisions about how to manage the
portfolio of applications you have in your organization,"
Charles Dickerson, senior vice president of Relativity,
told 5 Minute Briefing. He explained that organizations
want to include a business context to help make better-informed
decisions about maintaining, outsourcing, or retiring
applications.
Relativity's
APM module offers pre-configured tools and templates
to collect industry-specific business value and application
metrics to allow organizations to visualize the portfolio,
identify trends, and make more informed decisions
on application modernization or outsourcing initiatives.
Users can also customize the module's pre-configured
dashboards to create tailored views for CIOs, analysts,
developers and outsourcing managers. Streamlined integration
with third-party technologies is intended to allow
users to expand the insights available within the
dashboards.
The
vendor also stated that once application modernization
activities have been prioritized, users could gain
better insights into the application code itself using
the tool. Using the same knowledge base as the APM
module, the Modernization Workbench accelerates the
implementation of these initiatives through refactoring,
SOA enablement, business rule modeling, or redevelopment.
"APM for us is not the end of the game. In fact it's
just the very beginning," said Dickerson.
In
a related announcement, Relativity unveiled an offer
to licensees of Micro Focus Enterprise View/HAL kb-AIM
of up to one million dollars in credit toward the
purchase of the Modernization Workbench platform.
Micro Focus last year acquired HAL Knowledge Solutions,
a provider of application portfolio management software.
The
new Application Portfolio Manager module will ship
later this month. For details on the offer to Micro
Focus customers, go here.
For more information about Relativity Technologies,
go here.
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VMware Delivers Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Solution
VMware,
a provider of virtualization software, announced the
general availability of VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition.
VMware ACE enables IT desktop managers to create a
standard PC environment including operating system,
data and applications, wrap it with IT policies to
protect the contents, package it into a virtual machine
and deploy it to any managed or unmanaged licensed
PC client. The product also features Pocket ACE, which
enables deployment of a desktop virtual machine to
a portable media device such as a USB flash drive,
portable hard drive or Apple iPod. End-users can then
access their standard corporate desktop from another
client machine, including home laptops to business
center PCs. In addition to support for Windows Vista,
VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition offers Linux host
operating system support for Mandriva, Novell, Red
Hat and Ubuntu. Go here
for more information.
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