IBM eNews - U.S.

There's much to read, to watch and to explore in this months issue of IBM eNews.

Poll results from March indicate a large percentage of you have an interest in IBM software offerings. So, stop talking and start doing.

If you already have a fever for the “boys of summer”, read in the news how IBM analytic software helps players be the best they can be.

As always, enjoy IBM eNews for April.

Top software vendors are partnering with IBM and making waves. We showcase the various reasons why more companies are choosing to partner with IBM with testimonials and video case studies from Amdocs, SAP, Kana and Icarus Studios and more.

IBM DB2® Web Query for IBM System i™ takes the complexity out of data analysis with parameterized reports, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and customizable Web-based dashboards. Dashboards make it quick and simple to see what's driving the business; OLAP functions let you interact with data to get to the information you need. Display data in graphs and other visualizations or easily drop in to reports and boardroom-quality presentations.

With a simple graphical user interface, stakeholders can extract data and compile reports themselves, instead of asking the IT department.

Complete essential storage applications such as backups and batch processing at lightning speed. In the Web seminar, "Increase Efficiency and Decrease Costs with New IBM System Storage DS8000™ Turbo Enhancements", top experts will tell you how to do both.

Find out what IBM Tivoli® solutions are all about. Check out these 60 second videos and see how Tivoli can help IT management and workplace shenanigans learn to live in harmony. Mastery of IT abnormalities can be within your reach.

IBM TS3100 and TS3200 Tape Library Express Models now support the IBM LTO™ Ultrium™ 4 Half High (HH) Tape Drive and the LTO Ultrium 3 HH Tape Drive. These tape libraries are designed to support cost-effective backup and archival storage in sequential or random access mode with a standard bar code reader.

More data and faster transfer rates create a functionally rich and economical tape storage solution.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was first reserved for large, high-volume trading partners; evolving technology and the needs of smaller companies has made electronic interchange critical to businesses of all sizes. IBM Premier Business Partner LANSA offers the Web seminar "Beyond EDI: Succeeding in Today’s Internet-Driven Business Environment." Well-known ebusiness editor and columnist Nahid Jilovec and David Brault, LANSA product manager, demonstrate how to extend the reach of EDI and build on its infrastructure.

Learn from the best and then see for yourself. Save the date for the IBM System Storage and Storage Networking Symposium, coming to California this July. Address the growing challenge of managing and securing retention-managed data using storage solutions from IBM and IBM Business Partners.

The IBM POWER™ Systems Technical University featuring i5/OS is a new event, replacing the well-known IBM System i™ Spring and Fall Technical Conferences.

• Learn about POWER6 processor technology and the latest advances in i5/OS V6RI.
• Receive in-depth instruction from the best in the business.
• Discover why POWER 570's provides the performance needed for today's most intensive applications.
• Choose from 100+ technical presentations and hands-on labs.

The IBM POWER™ Systems Technical University is a new event, replacing the well-known IBM System p™, AIX and Linux event. POWER6 processor technology, combined with new functionality, make this event essential to stay on top of developments. Choose from 100+ sessions and hands-on lab sessions. Harness training to ensure better infrastructure and efficient solutions for your organization.

Attend the IBM System x™ and IBM BladeCenter® Technical Conference for hands-on experience with our newest Modular Systems servers. Learn to leverage the powerful IBM eX4 Architecture and BladeCenter technologies that bring mission critical design to the x86 server environment.

The IBM System z™ Expo, coming to Las Vegas this October, provides expert insight about the System z9, the foundation to integrate and manage your mixed IT environment. Learn how z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE and Linux - along with virtualization, business continuity, intelligent workload management and autonomic functionality - put the System z9 in a class all its own.

Get the high-quality content and personal interaction of an IBM Tivoli® classroom course with the convenience and cost-savings of online training.  Through Instructor-Led Online (ILO) training, our top-rated Tivoli instructors bring some of the most popular classes direct to you.  Browse our rich course catalog and watch an ILO demo.

In February, IDG's Computerworld named IBM the top "green" information technology vendor for 2008. Learn why at the IBM See Blue, Think Green Technical Conference featuring IBM Systems™ coming to Chicago August 25 – 28. In addition, enjoy technical sessions and hands-on labs.

Choosing energy efficiency is a business decision that can save money now and benefit the IT operational budget for years to come. Discover best practices, innovative power and cooling technologies and eco-friendly asset disposal services.

IBM Training News is a monthly online publication, delivering the latest information for more than 20 hardware and software product areas, including servers, networking, application development, Cisco, Linux and much more. Track new and updated courses, conferences, certifications, special offers and find free training. Subscribe based on interest areas for a customized read.

Did you attend IMPACT 2008? If so, you're eligible for a special training discount of up to $700 on select IBM WebSphere® and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) classes. These instructor-led, online courses can be taken right from your office, so there's no need for travel.

Not only do our annual conferences inspire and entertain you, they deliver unparalleled, in-depth product information from IBM developers and executives. For 2008, William Shatner, Lance Armstrong and Drew Carey are among our renowned keynote speakers.

Explore current and emerging technical hot topics, meet respected industry leaders and network with peers from around the globe. We offer dozens of international conferences to choose from.

Keeping skills current and building the right level of technical expertise is a challenge in a fast-paced work environment. We make it easier with customized training delivered to you. As your training partner, IBM will:

• run a class at one or multiple sites within your company or an outside training facility,
• fine-tune a course by eliminating topics or combining topics from multiple courses,
• design a class that meets varying skills levels, and
• enhance the experience with on-the-job instructor mentoring.

Our thought-provoking Perspectives on Technology Training series of articles addresses how IT training can help companies optimize their most important asset, their workforce. Read how top-performing companies are incorporating IT training into the overall business strategy while improving morale, retaining talent and positively impacting the bottom line.

Building IBM WebSphere® and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) skills is the the first step to set yourself apart in the marketplace. The next is IBM certification to validate and demonstrate new skills to your employer or clients. WebSphere Education is making certification easier than ever by including no-charge testing with many courses.

Sharpen your administration skills with hand-on lab classes. "IBM Lotus Domino 8 System Administration Bootcamp" is geared towards experienced administrators. We also offer courses for those new to Lotus Domino 8.

Technology can be one of the greatest advantages to small and medium business. However, over time, many companies have created an unwieldy infrastructure of underutilized assets. Learn how IT Optimization (ITO) efforts can reduce complexity and help ensure technology performs at maximum efficiency.

Visit with IBM representatives and IBM Business Partners at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, May 13-15, at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The conference brings together industry leaders, winning strategies and powerful new ideas to help transform your business. Visit IBM #514 as we launch innovative solutions designed to help leverage customer insight, expand sales and service channels and modernize core systems and data center operations. Contact your IBM representative to arrange a tailored booth tour or executive meeting.

Check out innovative self-service, kiosk and point-of-sale solutions from IBM at the FMI Show + Marketechnic, coming to Las Vegas May 4 - 7. Attract retail customers with innovative technologies and empower them to interact and transact like never before. Explore strategies for managing and driving growth in the supermarket and grocery industries. Visit our booth #3681 to learn how IBM and IBM Business Partners can help get the best return from your information technology investment.

It's a whole new ballgame with IBM System x™ eX4 servers.  Join product experts from IBM, Intel and VMware on the road as they discuss how to implement virtualization to enhance IT agility, improve performance and reduce costs.  Topics include:

• IBM product announcement overview
• Virtualization advantages of Intel® Xeon® quad-core processors and eX4 technology
• How to attain scalable performance for virtualizing mission-critical workloads with VMware products and System x servers

Look into power and cooling costs at the system, chassis and rack level. IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager V3.1 lets you effectively allocate, match and even put a cap on power usage at every level. See what Active Energy Manager can do for your business; start with a complimentary 60-day trial.

Out with everyday demands, complexity and inefficiency. Join a replay of the webcast "The IBM POWER™ Systems Update" and discover new POWER6 System p servers designed with small and medium business in mind. Find flexible systems that work with your business today and scale as your business evolves.

IBM BladeCenter® is already helping companies integrate servers, storage and networking. Built for smaller office environments and distributed locations, BladeCenter S makes it easier to simplify your IT, virtually anywhere.

Replace traditional phone systems with IP telephony to reduce infrastructure and operating costs. Our unified communications solutions are based on the reliability of IBM System i™ platforms. If you're interested in the single-network management of IP telephony, but have no direct experience with a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, this live demo is for you.

Take part in the historic launch webcast that rewrote the equation of business computing; so powerful it could change how you manage growth, with features designed to help simplify IT Operations and reduce costs.

Learn how you can continue to protect IBM System i™ and i5/OS applications, new platform deployment options and how to keep IT management simple.

Join Paul Boustany and Mark Krasovich and speak to the experts about becoming an IBM Rational® ClearCase (CC) power user. Ask questions and learn tips and tricks for development. Start with the teleconference "Rational Talks to You Teleconference - Calling all ClearCase Power Users - and those that would like to be!"

Enable collaboration by transforming the way everyday business content such as documents, rich media, photos and video can be shared. Visit IBM developerWorks and download a free trial of Lotus Quickr 8.0. Lotus Quickr is designed to make it easier to collaborate across organizational boundaries, while continuing to work within the context of familiar desktop applications.

Analysts, architects and developers with existing COBOL or PL/I skills who want to deploy workloads on the mainframe will find hands-on walkthroughs in our demo of IBM Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for IBM System z™. Scenarios provide examples of how to rapidly design, create, assemble, test and deploy high-quality Web, Web services, portal and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications for IBM CICS®, IBM IMS™ and IBM WebSphere® Application Server.

IBM Data Studio V1.1 contains many new features, including Data Web Services; quickly and easily expose database operations and stored procedure CALLs as a Web service operation to client applications. This tutorial takes you through the steps to deploy a Data Web service created to an IBM WebSphere® Application Server Community Edition Web server.

Learn how to use IBM WebSphere® Process Server relationships to integrate and automate business processes with data spread across different applications. This tutorial walks through the detailed steps of assembling a small integration solution and provides downloadable sample code that you can use to practice this implementation.

Deliver products faster and with higher quality. Start with the IBM Rational® Systems Development Solution eKit. The kit contains the white paper "Model Driven Systems Development”, customer examples, tutorials, informative webcasts and best practices to design, build and manage systems.

If you're interested in IBM DB2® 9 Certification, IBM Information Management Training has a new promotion available. Receive savings of $75 off your DB2 certification exam fee with the purchase of the associated certification study guide.

We've made finding IT training simple and fast with our Web-based, interactive training catalog. With one or two clicks, quickly locate the courses and conferences that interest you. Choose from new or updated courses in Information Management curriculum areas and money-saving offers to make training more affordable.

IBM Redbooks® are excellent guides to various technical topics, often providing step-by-step instructions and "how-to" guidelines. They typically provide positioning and value guidance, installation and implementation experiences and frequently include sample code and other support materials. Available to download at no charge, IBM DB2® 9 Redbooks are published and updated on a regular basis.

Get an edge on the competition with an IBM DB2® HealthCheck Optimized for SAP from IBM Software Services. Designed to maximize the benefits of running SAP on DB2, this service also increases business-critical productivity and competitiveness.

Gain better control of your workload and systems management. IBM Global Technology Services offers consolidation and virtualization server optimization and integration services for IBM System z™. Consolidate your data center to effectively cut costs. System z technology can help reduce your application portfolio, eliminate unused files and eliminate or optimize the use of underutilized hardware.

Join IBM in Orlando, Florida May 4 - 7 at the SAPPHIRE '08 & ASUG User Conference. Visit our booth #1524 to "Ask the Expert" about hot topics, "Choose Your Zone" and focus on your area of business concern, then pick up your complimentary copy of “The IBM Global CEO Study 2008.”

Upgrades. New applications. Outages. Capacity. These issues can create data center strain to your budget, resources and energy use. The average company spends as much as 80% of its IT budget on maintenance and operations. IBM and IBM Business Partner Innovation Centers (BPICs) host a series of complimentary seminars demonstrating how technologies such as virtualization and consolidation can increase energy efficiency and reduce costs in the data center.

Mark your calendars for October and join industry experts at the largest annual event dedicated to IBM WebSphere® Portal business solutions and technical strategies. Explore innovations delivered with WebSphere Portal Version 6.X, and gain insight into emerging technologies, including new Web 2.0 based solutions. Test-drive hands-on training and further develop your credentials with certification testing on-site.

Information Management Books are informative assets that are critical for today’s IT professionals. Listen to Susan Visser, IBM Press Program Manager for Information Management, as she updates you on what’s new in Information Management Books for certification, IBM Informix® and IBM DB2®.