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December 2020


SPARTA President’s Corner

contributed by Randy Springs


As we wrap up this strange year of 2020, we all hope that 2021 will be more stable and more productive. Many of us will still be working from home for the foreseeable future, and some of us may even hope to retire in 2021. Let’s keep our eyes on the important things in life and be thankful for the opportunities that we have to improve ourselves and others, especially younger co-workers who are not as familiar with the mainframe platform.

For our December meeting, our virtual speakers will be Mark Wilson and Chad Rikansrud from BMC Software speaking on mainframe security and how they teach this on the road to non-mainframe security technicians.

Please join us at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1, on Zoom. Watch for meeting connection information coming your way soon.

Randy Springs
Truist


Future Speakers

(subject to change)


Dec. 1, 2020 - Mainframe Security by Mark Wilson and Chad Rikansrud of BMC Software


Jan. 5, 2021 - No meeting! Happy Holidays!


Feb. 2, 2021 - TBA


We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.



2020-2021 SPARTA

Board of Directors


Randy Springs - President

Truist                  (919) 745-5241

3200 Beechleaf Court, Suite 300

Raleigh, NC 27604


Ron Pimblett - Vice President

MDI Data Systems

Land line 613 599 6970

Mobile 613 981 6919

190 Guelph Private

Kanata, ON K2T 0J7


Chris Blackshire - Secretary

Retired (Dell, Perot Systems, Nortel)  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Durham, NC 27713


Randy Springs - (Acting) Treasurer

BB&T                  (919) 745-5241

see Randy

Springs earlier


Ed Webb -  Communications Director

Retired (SAS Institute Inc.)  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Apex, NC 27523


Mike Lockey -  Web Master

Guilford Co. Information Services  336-641-6235

201 N. Eugene St.

Greensboro, NC 27401



Meetings


Coronavirus Change: All meetings for the foreseeable future will be held online via the Zoom App. The link to meeting is sent to SPARTA Mailing list within 24 hours of the meeting time for security reasons. Stay safe.

Meetings are scheduled for the first Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in January), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.


These monthly meetings usually are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto T.W. Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building (1912 T.W. Alexander Drive). In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Bill Johnson. Bill will escort you to the conference room.


Call for Articles


If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.


Newsletter e-Mailings


The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-RTP Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-RTP Group is maintained by Chris Blackshire; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Chris at chrisbl@nc.rr.com.


May 2020 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online


The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V499 (dated May 17, 2020) are available from www.cbttape.org.


If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Ed Webb (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).


Minutes of the November 3, 2020 Meeting


• The meeting was called to order at 7:07 PM by Randy Springs, the SPARTA President.


• This virtual SPARTA meeting was held via the Zoom Software.


• Six (6) people were present at the virtual meeting.


• Our business portion of the meeting followed after the presentation.


• For the Roundtable, everyone introduced themselves, told where they worked, talked about working from home, and briefly described their job functions and what they've been doing at work and home.


OLD BUSINESS


• The minutes of the October 6, 2020 meeting as published in the November 2020 Newsletter were approved.


• The October 31, 2020 Treasurer's report (no April-October income or expenses) as published in the November 2020 Newsletter was approved. As of October 31, 2020, the current balance was $1,429.66.


• Call For Articles: Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don't really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.


• The SPARTA Web page is available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.


• 2020 meeting dates, Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):


Date

Company

Speaker

Topic

December 1, 2020

BMC

Mark Wilson and
Chad Rikansrud

Mainframe Security


If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

• The next SPARTA monthly meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

• The 2020 membership fee is due ($30) starting in February 2020. Please pay Randy Springs.

• Thanks to Randy Springs for virtually hosting the meeting via Zoom.

• There are currently 101 people on the SPARTA-RTP e-mail list.

• Send any e-mail address changes to Chris Blackshire so he can update the SPARTA-RTP Listserv. You will be added by the moderator (Chris = SPARTA-RTP-owner@yahoogroups.com) sending you an invitation to Join the list.

• Randy Springs is looking for a new Treasurer volunteer. He projects about 2 hours per month is needed.
- The treasurer position duties are:
- - Collect dues and pay expenses at each monthly meeting.
- - Deposit income at the Truist bank monthly.
- - Make an updated monthly Excel income-expense list for the monthly newsletter.
- - Give a Treasurer report at each meeting.
- - One Time: Be added to the checking account authorization.
- Contact Randy Springs if you are interested.

• LabCorp Meeting Place Update: no update needed from Bill Johnson.

NEW BUSINESS

• Yahoo is ending their Group email ListServ service on December 15, 2020. Chris will start looking for a replacement Listserv service to use for the Feb 2021 meeting announcement emails. Possibilities discussed were Mail Chimp, Google groups, GoDaddy, Gaggle Mail, and Lsoft Listserv. If anyone has ideas, please contact Chris.

• Changing the SPARTA web page from HTTP to HTTPS. Chris to contact Mike Lockey about what would be involved.

• The Business portion of the meeting ended about 8:15 P.M.

• Presentation Topic: ASG Mainframe Offerings and Data Security

by Jeff Cherrington, VP of ASG Product Management, ASG Technologies


AGENDA
• ASG Background
• Where ASG Fits in Infrastructure Management & Application Development
• ASG Business Partners and Customers
• ASG Differences and Proof Points
• ASG Systems Management Portfolio
• A Trusted Partner
• Appendix


• Presentation Access
- See Below for a full outline of the presentation. See the SPARTA webpage for the complete presentation.


Contact Info:
Speaker: Jeff Cherrington
ASG Technologies
VP of Product Management
Office: 1-414-207-3988 or toll-free 800-932-5536
Email: jeff.cherrington@asg.com
Website: www.asg.com

• The November 3, 2020 monthly meeting ended about 8:15 P.M.

Treasurer’s Report for November 2020

contributed by Randy Springs

The balance in the account is $1429.66 as of November 30, 2020. There's been no change since March 31.


SPARTA Financial Report
11/01/2019 through 11/30/2020


INCOME


Opening Balance 4/1/2020

$1429.66

Total Deposits


Food money donated

0.00

Dues

0.00

Sponsorships

0.00

TOTAL INCOME

$0.00



EXPENSES


Food

0.00

Web Site

0.00

Petty Cash

0.00

Bank Service Charges

0.00

TOTAL EXPENSE

$0.00



BANK BALANCE

1061.95

PETTY CASH on hand

367.71

TOTAL CASH

$1429.66



Items of Interest



SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2020

contributed by Chris Blackshire



Dec 1, 2020 - BarBQ
Jan. 5, 2021 - No meeting!


Z/OS Hot Topic: What's New in z/OSMF [Performance]?

contributed By Ed Webb


Li Zhi and Wayne O'Brien of the IBM z/OSMF Development Team have provided some important Perfromance Improvement news about z/OSMF.

"IBM z/OS® Management Facility (z/OSMF) provides extensive z/OS system management functions in an easy-to-use, web browser-based UI. With z/OSMF, system programmers can more easily manage the day-to-day operations and administration of your mainframe z/OS systems.

Recent enhancements to z/OSMF offer a new UI for streamlining your z/OSMF operations. You can more easily select which core and optional services to enable or disable without having to edit the z/OSMF parmlib member."

I have APAR PH24527 implemented, but until I can get my web browser to connect to z/OSMF, I cannot try the new features. Read more about what a new slimmed down z/OSMF might mean in your shop in Zhi and O'Brien's November 2020 Hot Topic article in IBM Systems Media.

z/OSMF Software Update - the Gift That Keeps Giving

contributed By Ed Webb


Marna Walle of IBM encourages automated RECEIVE of PTFs so z/OSMF Software Update becomes the preferred way to APPLY service to z/OS and its related products, including more and more from major software vendors.

"Way back in May 2018, I blogged about using electronic deliverables (Still using Shopz to pull z/OS PTFs?). In there, I went on my soapbox to encourage use of SMP/E RECEIVE ORDER (vs Shopz). I spelled out all the advantages of doing so, if you were able to have an internet connection from your driving system. And, by the way, not only IBM supports RECEIVE ORDER, other vendors do as well. Check with your ISVs to see if they support RECEIVE ORDER too, as there are even more reasons to use it!

Well, two years later I'm still here to recommend this, but I now have yet another reason to do so. Recently, we released a new z/OSMF Software Management task called z/OSMF Software Update. This is the ability to install PTFs with a web browser in an interactive and easy way, aimed directly at those that aren't enthralled with the batch JCL job method. We've been talking about this function at several conferences, and you can use this link to learn more."

Learn more about the reasons to act now in this Marna's Musing blog entry at SHARE.org.

Water, Water Everywhere

Contributed by Ed Webb


"Data Centers today have changed quite radically from what were once the location of back-office services that provided a company with compute and storage to handle their internal business. Data Centers today have reached hyperscale proportions with thousands of processors, petabytes of storage and power and cooling requirements on the scale of a large city. But these companies that own hyperscale data centers are looking for ways to cut costs. One area showing promise is underwater data centers.

It is difficult to imagine a hyperscale data center completely submerged and thankfully, that is not the approach being taken. In fact, some data centers are being decentralized into smaller units that can be moved closer to where processing is needed and that allows companies to consider different cooling and power technologies, including submerged data centers."

See what Microsoft and other major data center players are up to in S. Michael Benson's article here in the 2020: Issue 5 of the Enterprise Tech Journal.


Humor


Wit and Wisdom continued

contributed by Ed Webb


Kindness makes a person feel good whether it's being done to them or by them.
The average person thinks he isn't.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Variety may be the spice of life, but it's monotony that brings home the groceries.
The best way to lose a friend is to tell him something for his own good.
A small river will carry a lot of water if it keeps running.

Meanness doesn't happen overnight.
Never underestimate the power of denial.
Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people.





Membership Information



Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting


Tuesday, December 1, 2020

7 p.m.


Location: Online


Information about access to our online meeting will be sent to our e-mail list by Tuesday, December 3.


Free Food before meeting: Your Food at Your Home


Program:

Mainframe Security


Speaker: Mark Wilson and Chad Rikansrud of BMC




SPARTA Corporate Sponsors:


DTS Software
                    logo

Rocket Software
                    logo

Software Diversified Services
                    logo

Compuware
                    logo


November 2020 Presentation outline


• Presentation Topic: ASG Mainframe Offerings and Data Security

by Jeff Cherrington, VP of ASG Product Management, ASG Technologies


AGENDA
• ASG Background
• Where ASG Fits in Infrastructure Management & Application Development
• ASG Business Partners and Customers
• ASG Differences and Proof Points
• ASG Systems Management Portfolio
• A Trusted Partner
• Appendix

ASG Background
- 30 YEAR HISTORY
- 1100 GLOBAL EMPLOYEES
- 3500+ GLOBAL CUSTOMERS
- 2019 REVENUE ~ $225M
- 4 YEARS OF GROWTH & INVESTMENT IN PRODUCTS (chart not copied)

ENTERPRISE IT - WHERE ASG SYSTEMS FITS
INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT, APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT, AUTOMATION, CONTAINERIZATION
- Infrastructure Management
- - Security - Does Not Play
- - Databases
- - - Mainframe- IDMS DB Tools, Performance Monitoring
- - - Distributed- Performance / Capacity Management
- - Network
- - - Mainframe- Performance Monitoring
- - OS, Subsystems, VM
- - - Mainframe- Performance Monitoring, CICS Change Management, Workload Automation
- - - Distributed- Performance / Capacity Management, Workload Automation
- - Automation
- - - Mainframe- Workload Automation, File Transfer
- - - Distributed- Workload Automation
- - Storage - Does Not Play
- - Hardware - Does Not Play
- Application Development
- - Plan - Does Not Play
- - Create
- - - Mainframe- COBOL, JCL, DevOps-aligned
- - - Distributed- Value Stream Orchestration, DevOps-aligned, Workload Automation
- - Verify
- - - Mainframe- COBOL, JCL, DevOps-aligned, Date Manipulation
- - Pre-Production
- - - Mainframe- Source Code Management
- - Release
- - - Distributed- Value Stream Orchestration, DevOps-aligned
- - Configure - Does Not Play
- - Monitor
- - - Mainframe- Application Performance Measurement
- Digital Automation
- - Distributed- Low Code / No Code Digital Automation Platform
- Containerization, Container Management
- - Distributed- Value Stream Orchestration, DevOps-aligned, Workload Automation

GLOBAL PARTNER ECOSYSTEM
ONE QUALITY BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP AT A TIME
- BUSINESS PARTNERS
- - ENSONO, RMIT, SIRIUS, MainLine, XMEG
- GLOBAL OUTSOURCERS
- - DXC Technology, CGI, ATOS, Syntel, IBM, NTT DATA

CUSTOMERS IN ACTION
- FINANCIAL SERVICES
- - Bank of America, Credit Agricole, Citi, Societe Central, SEI, Morgan Stanley
- INSURANCE
- - Nationwide, American Fidelity, Primerica, AIG, Mutual of Omaha
- HEALTH & PHARMA
- - Celgene
- TRANSPORTATION
- - CSX, United
- GOVERNMENT
- - US Social Security Administration, OPERS
- COMMUNICATIONS
- - Verizon

ASG’S DIFFERENTIATORS AND PROOF POINTS
LEVERAGING TRADITIONAL SOLUTIONS WHILE EMBRACING A MODERN APPROACH
- MAINFRAME TO CLOUD, OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCE
- - Optimize, automate processes
- - Rationalize & consolidate spend
- - With ASG, ONEY broke down silos & ‘discovered’ the mainframe to enhance productivity and mitigate risk.
- DRIVE TRUST IN DATA
- - Mitigate data compliance risks and concerns (LIBOR and Privacy)
- - Rationalize and lower TCO
- - ASG Helped American Fidelity Assurance Cut Duplicate Data Fields by 97.5%
- MODERNIZE, GOVERN, AND TRANSFORM CONTENT CENTRIC PROCESSES
- - Lower TCO, improve time to value
- - Mitigate compliance risks
- - Actionable automation
- - Reliance Nippon Life Increased Sales Productivity 50%, Transaction Size 30% with ASG.

ASG SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT PORTFOLIO
MONITOR, AUTOMATE AND ORCHESTRATE FOR OPTIMIZED PERFORMANCE
- ASG SYSTEMS PORTFOLIO
- - MONITOR & IDENTIFY
- - - Monitor system availability with proven products
- - - Identify performance issues automatically across environments
- - SCHEDULE & AUTOMATE
- - - Schedule the automation of daily operational processes
- - - Automate and simplify the control of production operations
- - ORCHESTRATE & INTEGRATE
- - - Assess, plan and build an application release management process
- - - Integrate seamlessly with value stream production execution
- - IT OPERATIONAL PORTFOLIO
- - - DB2, MQ, ERP, COBOL, Servers, z/OS, JCL, TCP/IP, DevOps, IMS, CICS, VTAM

A TRUSTED PARTNER
- Focus on customers, partners, innovation & quality products
- Continue to deliver & support an extensible platform
- Making products easier to use and consume
- Committed to partner ecosystem
- Investment in global support
- Scale and financial strength
- Continued investments-internally & externally

RESULTS MATTER
PEOPLE MATTER
CUSTOMERS MATTER

(See presentation Appendix for ASG Product Names and Details)

The virtual presentation ended about 7:55 PM followed by the business meeting.