Today there are new and exciting possibilities available to you for creating a robust IT landscape. Such possibilities include those that can move current IT assets into the twenty-first century, while supporting state-of-the-art new applications. With advancements in software, hardware and networks, old and new applications can be integrated into a seamless IT landscape. Mobile devices are growing at exponential rates and will require access to data across the current and new application suites through new channels. Cloud computing is the new paradigm, featuring anything from SaaS to full server deployment. And although some environments are trying to virtualize and secure themselves, others such as IBM® zEnterprise® have been at the forefront even before cloud computing entered the scene. This IBM RedpaperTM publication discusses how transformation and extensibility can let you keep core business logic in IBM IMSTM and IBM CICS®, and extend BPM, Business Rules and Portal in IBM WebSphere® on IBM z/OS® or Linux on IBM System z® to meet new business requirements. The audience for this paper includes mainframe architects and consultants.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication gives a broad understanding of IBM IMSTM integration and connectivity solutions to access applications and data stores across your enterprise architecture. As an application developer, architect, systems integrator, or systems programmer, there is important information that is available in this book that pertains to your responsibilities to continue to include the proven performance, data integrity, and workload distribution that is available from IMS in to selected projects that are related to your entire enterprise. This book updates and adds to the information in the following IBM Redbooks publications: IMS e-business Connectors: A Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6514 IMS Connectivity in an On Demand Environment: A Practical Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6794 Powering SOA Solutions with IMS, SG24-7662 IBM IMS Version 12 Technical Overview, SG24-7972 IMS 12: The IMS Catalog, REDP-4812 Rethink Your Mainframe Applications: Reasons and Approaches for Extension, Transformation, and Growth, REDP-4938

This IBM® Redbooks® publication gives a broad understanding of IBM IMS integration and connectivity solutions to access applications and data stores across your enterprise architecture. As an application developer, architect, systems integrator, or systems programmer, there is important information that is available in this book that pertains to your responsibilities to continue to include the proven performance, data integrity, and workload distribution that is available from IMS in to selected projects that are related to your entire enterprise. This book updates and adds to the information in the following IBM Redbooks publications: IMS e-business Connectors: A Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6514 IMS Connectivity in an On Demand Environment: A Practical Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6794 Powering SOA Solutions with IMS, SG24-7662 IBM IMS Version 12 Technical Overview, SG24-7972 IMS 12: The IMS Catalog, REDP-4812 Rethink Your Mainframe Applications: Reasons and Approaches for Extension, Transformation, and Growth, REDP-4938 Please note that the additional material referenced in the text is not available from IBM.

For more than 40 years, Computerworld has been the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide. Computerworld's award-winning Web site (Computerworld.com), twice-monthly publication, focused conference series and custom research form the hub of the world's largest global IT media network.

In a world of increasing complexity, instant information availability and constant flux, systems approaches provide the opportunity of a tangible anchor of purpose and iterate learning. The five approaches outlined in the book offer a range of interchangeable tools with rigorous frameworks of application tried and tested in the ‘real world’. The frameworks of each approach form a powerful toolkit to explore the dynamics of how societies emerge, how organisations create viability, how to facilitate chains of argument through causal mapping, how to embrace a multiplicity of perspectives identifying purposeful activity and how to look for the bigger picture across multiple disciplines. Systems Approaches offers an excellent first introduction for those seeking to understand what ‘systems thinking’ is all about as well as why the tools discussed herein should be applied to management and professional practice. This book provides a practical guide, and the chapters stand alone in explaining and developing each approach.

The role of IT is becoming more prominent in people's daily lives and we are becoming increasingly dependent on computers. More and more business transactions are being automated, for example, ordering a book at an online bookstore or transferring money to a bank account in another part of the world. No matter the type of transaction, we want it to be accurate and we want to have no doubts about its outcome. Transactions are also becoming more complex, driven by new ways of conducting business and new technologies. Smartphones now allow us to conduct transactions anywhere and at anytime. Technology paradigms, such as Web 2.0 and business event processing, enable businesses to increase the dynamics of a transaction through instrumentation that captures events, analyzes the associated data, and proactively interacts with the client in order to improve the customer experience. To adapt to the increasing volume and complexity of transactions requires an ongoing assessment of the current way of supporting transactions with IT. No matter what your business is, you need to ensure that your transactions are properly completed with integrity. Wrong or incomplete results can adversely affect client loyalty, affect company profits, and lead to claims, lawsuits, or fines. Companies need to be able to rely on computer systems that are 100% reliable and guarantee transaction integrity at all times. The IBM® mainframe is such a platform. Clients that have been using an IBM mainframe are conscious of its added value. For this IBM RedguideTM publication, we surveyed a number of companies that use the IBM mainframe and we asked them to tell us its most distinguishing qualities. They answered unanimously "reliability, availability, and scalability." They also do not see an alternative for running their mission-critical business workloads other than the IBM mainframe. When we surveyed our clients, we also asked them about the future. Clearly, major future trends demand significantly smarter, faster, and bigger transaction processing systems than we have today. Some of these trends are the availability of new computing paradigms, continuing growth of the mobile channel, further integration of organizations, massive growth of unstructured and uncertain data, and increasing complexity of IT systems. IBM continues to invest in mainframe technology leadership, which protects years of client investments on this platform. Today, well-known transaction processing (TP) middleware, such as the IBM CICS, IBM IMS, IBM z/TPF, and IBM WebSphere Application Server products, and also solutions for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) are available and fully optimized on the IBM mainframe running the mission-critical business workloads of many companies the world over. In 2010, IBM announced the IBM zEnterprise® system introducing a hybrid computing platform that combines the traditional IBM mainframe capabilities and the ability to use IBM blade servers, managed by a single management software. With zEnterprise, you can significantly reduce the complexity of your IT and achieve better service levels, while continuing to benefit from traditional mainframe strengths in transaction processing.

For more than 20 years, Network World has been the premier provider of information, intelligence and insight for network and IT executives responsible for the digital nervous systems of large organizations. Readers are responsible for designing, implementing and managing the voice, data and video systems their companies use to support everything from business critical applications to employee collaboration and electronic commerce.