Tandemworld eNewsletter for December 2009

Season’s Greetings and a prosperous New Year with Partners

Partners Remarketing, Inc would like to take this time and wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season. We hope the New Year brings you good health, happiness and prosperity.

We would also like to thank all of our customers for their business and continued support throughout this past year. For those who haven’t had the opportunity yet, we would like to introduce Partners Remarketing and provide you with some additional information regarding our company, its products and services. We welcome the opportunity to assist you and hope it meets with your approval.

Partners Remarketing has supplied many organizations with high quality refurbished NonStop computer equipment at a savings of 30-80% versus the cost of purchasing new equipment. Many of these organizations are fortune 500 companies that are the core of the financial, healthcare, technology and retail industries all across the world.

All products sold are fully tested by trained technicians before shipping in accordance with manufacturer specifications and arrive to your facility ready to install. We guarantee all of our hardware to be eligible for manufacturer’s maintenance.

We currently have a large inventory of equipment available, including systems and parts from the following platforms.

HP NonStop S-Series

HP NonStop Integrity NS-Series

HP StorageWorks XP Series

HP Proliant Series

Please contact us anytime with general questions or requests for HP NonStop hardware quotations. We are also interested in purchasing your surplus hardware and or trading other equipment for it.

Please visit our website for additional information and other brands of equipment offered at www.partnersremarketing.com . Call us today, or feel free to send an email anytime to the address listed below.

Sincerely,

PARTNERS REMARKETING, INC.

5637 La Ribera Street, Unit A

Livermore, CA 94550

(800) 234-4312 Toll Free
(925) 449-2120 Local and International
(925) 449-0815 fax

info@partnersremarketing.com

Achieving Century Uptimes

Is Your Application Active/Active Ready?

Active/active systems achieve their scalability and continuous availability by distributing application and database copies across an application network. The database copies are kept in synchronism via data replication, and in the most flexible architectures a transaction can be directed to any node in the network. Applications can be scaled and load-balanced easily by simply adding nodes or redistributing traffic. Should a node fail, failover is fast and reliable since all that needs to be done is to route all transactions to surviving nodes.

However, distributing applications and database copies can result in serious problems that must be considered. In this article, we review many of these problems. Some are caused by the distribution itself, while others are related to characteristics of the asynchronous or synchronous data replication technology used.

Read the rest of the article by Dr. Bill Highleyman, Paul J. Holenstein, and Dr. Bruce D. Holenstein in the January/February 2010 issue of The Connection or by clicking here to read the article on our website.

Please Visit Gravic at these Upcoming 2010 Shows:

SATUG
Southern African Technology User Group
2010 Summit and Conference
Emerald Casino Resort
Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, South Africa
March 8-11, 2010

EBUG
User Group of ACI Worldwide Products in Europe, The Middle East, & Africa
2010 Annual Conference
Hotel Puerta America
Madrid, Spain
April 27-30, 2010

For additional information about Gravic’s products and services, including free whitepapers on how Shadowbase data replication solutions can solve your company’s business continuity, data integration and synchronization, and real-time business intelligence challenges, please visit: www.grav.com/shadowbase.

Advanced Systems Concepts Extends ActiveBatch® Support To HP NonStop Kernel

Advanced Systems Concepts Extends ActiveBatch® Support To HP NonStop Kernel, IBM i5/OS, SuSe Linux, SCO UNIX

Support for Four OS Platforms Gives ActiveBatch Job Scheduler Increased Flexibility For Job Execution Across Wider Range of Platforms

MORRISTOWN, NJ – Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. (ASCI), a leading provider of system software solutions that enhance enterprise systems has extended its ActiveBatch® Job Scheduling and Workload Automation execution system support to include the HP NonStop Kernel (NSK), IBM i5/OS, SuSe Linux and SCO UNIX platform families. With the added support, ActiveBatch further increases the flexibility and cross-platform compatibility that has made it one of the world’s most widely-used job scheduling and workflow automation applications.

Deployed at enterprises in 36 countries, ActiveBatchof Marketing and Sales for Advanced Systems Concepts. “Our goal with this extension, as with all enhancements to ActiveBatch, is to continually meet the real-world requirements of our full range of customers.”

HP’s NonStop Kernel, first introduced by Tandem, is used by many major financial and telecom companies to provide fault-tolerant operation. ActiveBatch supports the HP Integrity NonStop Server platforms (single and multi-core) as well as the S-series MIPS based systems. IBM’s i5/OS (formerly named OS/400) operating system on the company’s i-Series platforms, including both PowerPC5 and 6 systems. ActiveBatch already supports IBM e-Series, p-Series, and z-Series platforms.

SuSe Linux, sponsored by Novell, is one of the most popular open source operating systems and

is built atop the Linux kernel. SCO UNIX brings the reliability, scalability and performance of the UNIX OS to a wide range of enterprise systems.

ActiveBatch’s new OS support is available to new purchasers of Version 7, as well as via

automatic upgrade to companies participating in ASCI’s ActiveBatch Version Upgrade program.

Latest Updates

ActiveBatch 7 has also been certified by SAP AG for integration with the SAP NetWeaver^® technology platform. The SAP® Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) has certified that ActiveBatch 7 integrates with the SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaver AS) component via the background processing and job scheduling 6.10 integration scenario (BC-XBP 6.10). The certification denotes that ActiveBatch 7 automates and manages workflows involving both SAP solutions and non-SAP applications, databases and platforms.

The ActiveBatch new V7 Service Pack 2 incorporates a series of new extensions and add-ins supporting Oracle jobs, SAP and VMware platforms, as well as expanded capabilities for the product’s Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Management Pack.

ActiveBatch, currently available in Version 7, is a versatile and powerful enterprise application for Windows, UNIX, Linux, z/OS, and OpenVMS platforms. The solution uniquely adds strategic business value by automating operations in real-time for improved IT operations throughout an organization.

About Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.:

Headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. offers many software products and options for users of Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, and HP OpenVMS systems. These products provide answers to software developers and system managers with improved system efficiency and utilization. Advanced Systems Concepts today has over 200,000 licenses installed and a worldwide base of customers in 36 countries around the world. Advanced Systems Concepts technology partnerships include Microsoft Independent Solution Vendor, HP Business Partner, Oracle Partner, Sun Catalyst member, Red Het Ready program partner, IBM Business Partner, VMware Technology Alliance Program (TAP) member, and HP-UX Power Partner. For more information, see the company’s website at http://www.advsyscon.com or call (800) 229-2724 or 1 973 539 2660.

Copyright © 2009 Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. ActiveBatch is a registered trademark of Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. Other company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective firms.

comForte and Infrasoft sign Joint development and marketing agreement

We wish all our customers and friends in the NonStop community a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Exciting news as we recently signed an agreement with Infrasoft to jointly develop and market a new software solution enabling communications between NonStop and IBM mainframe systems in a move to allow customers to cut the ties to SNA and to migrate to TCP/IP instead. Please see the press release below and watch this space for more news to come.

comForte and Infrasoft sign Joint development and marketing agreement

Neuruppin/Sydney, December 9, 2009 - comForte GmbH, a global provider of connectivity and security solutions for the HP NonStop platform, and Infrasoft, an Australian-based software company offering connectivity middleware solutions for the HP NonStop platform, today announced the signing of a joint development and marketing agreement. Under the agreement, comForte and Infrasoft will jointly develop a software solution, which enables communications between HP NonStop servers and IBM mainframe applications running in the CICS or IMS environments. This software solution will be marketed and sold under the brand name “uLinga”.

"We are very excited about partnering with comForte GmbH, a leading software vendor to the global HP NonStop market and well-versed in selling and supporting middleware and infrastructure products,” says Peter Shell, Managing Director for Infrasoft Pty Limited. "With more than 500 customers, comForte’s platform and product expertise is an ideal match for helping Infrasoft create a go-to-market plan and to deliver Infrasoft’s products to a worldwide audience.”

"We are very pleased to join forces with Infrasoft, which allows us to create a strong alternative to existing software solutions in this market," says Dr Michael Rossbach, CEO of comForte GmbH. "We are responding to customer demand for such a solution and by leveraging Infrasoft's highly skilled development team with a lot of experience in developing solutions for the communication between HP NonStop and IBM mainframe systems and comForte's expertise in communication middleware and security solutions, we are well positioned to offer a best-in-class yet cost-effective software solution."

For more information please contact Dr. Michael Rossbach at M.Rossbach@comforte.com or Peter Shell at peter.shell@infrasoft.com.au.

About comForte
comForte is a global leader in the market for HP NonStop solutions — offering customers a comprehensive suite of proven and innovative middleware, connectivity, and security products. Organizations in all industries are using comForte products to more effectively leverage their investment in NonStop systems.

With comForte, organizations can …

o Connect NonStop platforms with the systems, applications, users, and initiatives required to meet their business and technical objectives.

o Protect mission-critical data as it is stored in and exchanged with NonStop environments.

o Modernize their environment by seamlessly integrating NonStop with Web services and SOA initiatives.

o Streamline administrative efforts though intuitive interfaces, and sophisticated, robust management capabilities.

Today, more than 500 customers around the world rely on comForte products to manage access to mission-critical NonStop server applications and data.

For more information about comForte please visit www.comforte.com.

About Infrasoft

Infrasoft Pty Limited is an Australian-based software company offering connectivity middleware solutions and services initially to HP NonStop users worldwide. Infrasoft’s newly formed development team includes highly experienced and proven software engineers. The company is committed to providing quality products and services to ensure complete customer satisfaction.

For more information about Infrasoft please visit www.infrasoft.com.au.

Seasons Greetings from CAIL

All the best to you and yours during the holidays and for the New Year.

And for solutions to leverage current IT investments with improved security, support for Web Services and application modernization, as well as superior connectivity (including being part of the enterprise standard) – please contact CAIL to better position NonStop information services to address new business needs and be integral to the future of the business.

For more information, please visit www.cail.com/adapt , or contact CAIL at info@cail.com or call 1-800-668-5769 or 1-905-940-9000.

www.cail.com/holidaygreeting

It Ain’t The CPU!

When we review performance and capacity for our clients nowadays, rarely do we see CPU issues. The advances in chip technology have created a situation where CPU power is quite affordable and easy to obtain. No more “forklift” upgrades and $100K+ processor boards, at least in our “midrange” marketplace.

But the basic rule in performance and capacity management is: “There’s always a bottleneck. You may just not have hit it yet.”

That’s why it’s important to watch anything and everything that may cause a slowdown. In our most recent “save” with a client, it was communications bandwidth and communications threads to a back-end authorizer that had messed up last year’s holiday season for their payments system. They engaged us in January and all the fixes are in place for this season’s traffic. I can report that their “Black Friday” last month was a piece of cake.

With over 20 years of performance management experience on the NonStop and other architectures we know how to watch everything, inexpensively, unobtrusively, and securely. We know how to correlate it and project it into the future so that your holiday season is quiet and productive.

Happy Holidays from Jon, Janis, and Inga at Ban Bottlenecks!

Please visit Jon Schmidt’s blog at www.banbottlenecks.com

For more information and a free consultation contact us at:

1.415.256.8369

inform@banbottlenecks.com

NonStop, VOS, Windows, Unix

Clients Worldwide

A very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from Insider Technologies to all our new and existing customers and friends.

Insider Technologies – 20 years of Creativity in HP NonStop, Windows and Unix

Once again, we would like to say a very big Thank You and Happy Christmas to customers and friends as Insider Technologies celebrates 20 NonStop years of software and product development for HP NonStop, Windows, Unix and Linux, including diagnostic monitoring, batch scheduling, messaging and payments tracking.

Join our LINKEDIN Group at : http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=80660&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Reflex Product Overview – “The most advanced, CPU friendly, HP NonStop Monitoring and Automation Toolset”

Reflex is a dynamic Operations and Service Management product for the HP NonStop arena and is in use in many of the worlds most demanding Financial, Retail and Telecommunications sites.

The Reflex web page has been FULLY updated. A full list of the subsystems Reflex monitors on the HP NonStop platform (GUARDIAN and Open System Services – OSS) can be found at the following annotated link :

http://www.insidertech.co.uk/Products/Reflex/tabid/87/Agg780_SelectTab/2/Default.aspx

Reflex’s unique design lies in its ability to pull together a massive amount of active monitoring (objects, subsystems, events, applications) into a single set of screen objects, providing the means to diagnose a problem object in more detail via context sensitive drill-down.

There is NO reliance on CPU intensive MEASUREs or application polling for day-to-day monitoring making the Reflex product extremely efficient.

For further details of Reflex and the benefits it provides, plus a copy of the Product Overview, please access the following link:

http://www.insidertech.co.uk/Products/Reflex/tabid/87/Default.aspx

RTLX Reactor Product Overview – “Bring the Transactional Heart of your BASE24 Systems to Life”

If you're looking for a real-time, highly integrated transaction / payments monitoring WEB Browser solution to ensure your BASE24 and BASE24-eps systems are always at their highest level of availability, then you’re looking for RTLX Reactor, incorporating NonStop EMS alerting, as well as monitoring for generic log files, JMX counters and XML data feeds.

RTLX Reactor also incorporates full escalation, e.g. Tivoli, HP Operations Center, Email, SNMP and Mobile SMS.

RTLX Reactor provides real-time monitoring of the transaction flow information created by ACI’s BASE24 and BASE24-eps ATM/POS applications and the HP NonStop EMS subsystem.

RTLX Reactor maintains a centralised database of transaction data from one or more BASE24 nodes and analyses the information in real-time. The outcome of the analysis will be dashboards, service level alerts, charts depicting the behaviour of nominated metrics and management reports to help set and achieve business objectives for the BASE24 world.

For further details of RTLX Reactor ATM & POS Payments Monitoring and the benefits it provides, plus a copy of the Product Overview, please access the following URL:

http://www.insidertech.co.uk/Products/RTLXReactor/tabid/89/Default.aspx

For any information on any of our products, please contact support@insidertech.co.uk. Or visit our website at www.insidertech.co.uk and sign-up for our FREE newsletter.

Insider Technologies Limited, Spinnaker Court, Chandlers Point, 37 Broadway, Salford Quays, Manchester, M50 2YR, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 161 876 6606.

Quality Certified to ISO9008 / 2000 (DNV). All Trademarks acknowledged

CommitWork announce the new CommitWork Developer Suite (CDS),an Eclipse Plugin for NonStop programmers

This new product allows traditional NonStop programmers to use the modern Eclipse IDE with COBOL85, Screen COBOL or TAL without changing their underlying development environment. This means that, customers can use their existing compile macros and commands.

First experience of users:

"With CDS, I can perform my work faster than with my old environment in a modern style. Now I can also use modern software technologies like using software repositories with my traditional code.“

Features and benefits

-There is no need to change to native Cobol Compilers.

-No need of OSS. CDS can also be used in an only GUARDIAN Environment

-Comfortable COBOL Editor with syntax highlighting, keyword assistant, folding regions, outline view of sections for quick navigation, customizable coloring.

-Showing compile warnings and errors inside the editor. Error navigation is also possible.

-Starting customers host compile process out of Eclipse.

-Timestamp validation between local and host file versions.

-Access and visualization of spooler entries and spool jobs.

-Using all features of a modern integrated development environment, like
Software Repositories, History view of source code, task management like mylyn or bugzilla and many more features of existing eclipse plugins.

-Young people with eclipse experience can now enter quick into the traditional world of NonStop without start learning old stuff.

Next Roadmap

-Full TAL Support will follow in spring 2010.

Contact:

For a demo license, please contact:

CommitWork GmbH

Hermannstrasse 53-57
D-44263 Dortmund, Germany

Fon: +49-231-941169-0
Fax: +49-231-941169-22
eMail: kirschbaum@commitwork.de

www: www.commitwork.de

MOMI – 10 years on NonStop!

BlackWood Systems announces the ten year anniversary of MOMI! This economic, easy-to-use Performance Monitor and Operations Utility is assisting companies in all industries around the world with real-time monitoring, troubleshooting and diagnosing of System performance on all NonStop platforms.

BlackWood Systems would like to thank all our MOMI customers and free mini-MOMI users for their continued loyalty and support, and we look forward to celebrating with you at the NonStop Summit in September!

www.momi.com www.blackwood-systems.com

Kathy Wood

BlackWood Systems, Inc.

kwood@blackwood-systems.com

602-569-8766

Ascert Announces Driver Development Partnership Program

Ascert’s program provides users new flexibilities in driver creation

Sausalito, California (PRWEB) December 1, 2009 – Ascert announced today the creation of its Driver Development Partnership Program. The program provides members with the tools and commercial rights necessary for them to create and market their own automated test drivers based on the Driver Framework Standard (DFS) implemented by Ascert’s VersaTest Automator testing tool.

Key to this announcement is the availability of the Driver Development Kit (DDK) which was unveiled at the November 12, 2009 Ascert User Group Conference in London. “We’re excited about both the release of the DDK and the Driver Development Partner Program” says Rob Walker, Managing Partner at Ascert. “Taken together, they enable our partners to bring the automated testing functionality of VersaTest Automator into their organizations while also allowing them to benefit commercially from their development efforts.”

The DDK contains the tools necessary for development of drivers that conform to the Driver Framework Standard (DFS). Ascert’s DFS provides a comprehensive set of core functions that are common to all drivers. This unique methodology eliminates redundant code development and streamlines driver creation which translates to lower development costs.

DFS drivers also offer standardized test definition and operation. This enables them to operate as dual role drivers, allowing them to be usable for both functional and performance testing. “The DDK provides everything you need to build drivers for your own operation. We empower our customers by allowing them to either create their own drivers or to contract with us. Also, we enable approved external parties to benefit from the DDK via our partner program,” adds Walker.

The Driver Development Partnership Program is open to both individuals and organizations who wish to expand their experience, customer reach, and revenue opportunities. In addition to providing partners the technology, tools and licensing rights needed for them to develop their own drivers, Ascert will promote their efforts by making partner-developed drivers commercially available via the Ascert web site. For more information on becoming an Ascert partner, visit http://www.ascert.com/partners.html

Company Background:
Ascert is recognized as a leading provider of premier testing software solutions. Ascert was founded in 1992 to provide automated software testing solutions that help companies measure the performance, reliability and scalability of their mission-critical back-end servers and applications. With over 100 clients worldwide, Ascert's products and services are used at some of the world's most successful companies. Off-the-shelf simulators include solutions for EFT testing, POS testing, ATM testing, IFX testing, EMV/chip card testing, ISO8583 testing and 3270 & 6530 terminal testing. Ascert’s custom simulators have been used for testing air traffic control systems and biometric payment systems. Ascert's products assist testing professionals across industry segments to better manage their testing processes and environments through an end-to-end tool set.

For more information on Ascert or its products, contact:

For inquiries in the America’s and Asia-Pacific:
Dr. Richard B. Greene, DBA
Ascert, LLC
759 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA 94965, USA
Telephone: 1-415-339-8500
Toll Free: 1-877-ASCERT-IT Fax: 1-415-339-8501
E-mail: info@ascert.com
www.ascert.com

For inquiries in Europe, Middle East, and Africa:
Mr. Mike Wainwright
Ascert, Limited
63 Mansell Street,
London, E1 8AN, England
Telephone: +44 (20) 7488 3470
Fax: +44 (20) 7488 3477
E-mail: ukinfo@ascert.com
www.ascert.com

Tandemworld & LinkedIN

Tandemworld have created a Group on LinkedIN through which you can view the latest Tandemworld eNewsletter.

Please view this at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2602432&trk=hb_side_g

Tandemworld within EMEA

Tandemworld specialise in the recruitment of HP NonStop / Tandem specialists.

We Currently have a number of Highly skilled NonStop / Tandem professionals seeking new projects and assignments

within the EMEA Region.

Do you have Project Work that you need assistance on? Hardware upgrades to perform?

These professionals are available on a short or long Term Basis (1 Week to 1 year +) at Very Competitive rates.

We can also supply Permanent employees and other technical resources e.g. IBM, Unix, Unisys DEC/VMS etc.

If you have a requirement for Contract or Permanent Resources or require further information please contact us :-

+44 (0) 20 8304 7979

info@tandemworld.net

www.tandemworld.net

To place article(s) within our future eNewsletters please Email us.

For Future Sponsorship opportunities please Email us.

User Groups

A NonStop Summit will take place at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA, from September 26 through September 29, 2010.

For further information please contact Connect Worldwide

BITUG

Mark your diaries - BITUG's Dates for 2010

Date Event

17 Feb Modernisation SIG

03 Mar Education Day

14 Apr Management and Performance SIG

21st-24th June HP Technology Forum and Expo, Las Vegas

07 Jul Availability SIG

27^th-29^th Sep NonStop Summit Connect Event, San Jose

06 Oct Migration and Solutions SIG

01 Dec Education Day

02 Dec Big SIG

www.bitug.com

SATUG
Southern African Technology User Group
2010 Summit and Conference
Emerald Casino Resort
Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, South Africa
March 8-11, 2010

http://satug.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=72

EBUG
User Group of ACI Worldwide Products in Europe, The Middle East, & Africa
2010 Annual Conference
Hotel Puerta America
Madrid, Spain
April 27-30, 2010

Further information will be available at www.ebug.org.uk

Looking for a Solution or an answer to a particular problem ASK Tandemworld. We will contact the vendors for you and find a suitable solution that meets for current and future needs.