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.

In a world where product lifespans are often measured in months, the IBM® Transaction Processing Facility has remained relevant for more than four decades by continuing to process high volumes of transactions quickly and reliably. As the title of this book suggests, the z/TPF system uses open, standard interfaces to create services. Integration of new applications with existing z/TPF functions is a key factor in extending application capabilities. The ability for service data objects (SDO) to access the z/TPF Database Facility (z/TPFDF) provides a framework for data application program development that includes an architecture and application programming interfaces (APIs). SDO access to z/TPFDF provides remote client applications with access to z/TPF traditional data. In the simplest terms, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a means by which like, or unlike, systems can communicate with one another despite differences between each system's heritage. SOA can neutralize the differences between systems so that they understand one another. SOA support for z/TPF is a means by which z/TPF can interact with other systems that also support SOA. This book discusses various aspects of SOA in the z/TPF system, including explanations and examples to help z/TPF users implement SOA. IBM WebSphere® Application Server was chosen as the partner system as a means of demonstrating how a world class transaction server and a world class application server can work together. This book shows you how you can exploit z/TPF as a transaction server, participating in a SOA structure alongside WebSphere Application Server. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides an introduction to z/TPF and the technologies critical to SOA. z/TPF is positioned as a provider or consumer in an SOA by supporting SOAP processing, communication bindings, and Extensible Markup Language (XML). An example is used to show how z/TPF can be used both as a Web service provider and as a consumer. A second example shows how to use WebSphere Operational Decision Management to apply business rules. A third example shows how business event processing can be incorporated in z/TPF applications. An example is also used to discuss security aspects, including z/TPF XML encryption and the z/TPF WS-Security wrapper. The main part of the book concludes with a discussion of z/TPF in an open systems environment, including examples of lightweight implementations to fit z/TPF, such as the HTTP server for the z/TPF system. The appendixes include information and examples using TPF Toolkit, sample code, and workarounds (with yes, more examples).

This book is designed to be of value to anyone who is studying management, whether as a subject in its own right or as a module forming part of any business-related degree or diploma.However, it provides complete coverage of the topics listed in the Edexcel Guidelines for Units 15 (Managing Business Activities to Achieve Results) and 16 (Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information), of the BTEC Higher Nationals in Business (revised 2010). The book contains these sections: * Managing activities to achieve results * Managing communications, knowledge and informationFeatures include summary diagrams, worked examples and illustrations, activities, discussion topics, chapter summaries and quick quizzes, all presented in a user friendly format that helps to bring the subject to life.

Principles of Transaction Processing is a comprehensive guide to developing applications, designing systems, and evaluating engineering products. The book provides detailed discussions of the internal workings of transaction processing systems, and it discusses how these systems work and how best to utilize them. It covers the architecture of Web Application Servers and transactional communication paradigms.The book is divided into 11 chapters, which cover the following: Overview of transaction processing application and system structureSoftware abstractions found in transaction processing systemsArchitecture of multitier applications and the functions of transactional middleware and database serversQueued transaction processing and its internals, with IBM's Websphere MQ and Oracle's Stream AQ as examplesBusiness process management and its mechanismsDescription of the two-phase locking function, B-tree locking and multigranularity locking used in SQL database systems and nested transaction lockingSystem recovery and its failuresTwo-phase commit protocolComparison between the tradeoffs of replicating servers versus replication resourcesTransactional middleware products and standardsFuture trends, such as cloud computing platforms, composing scalable systems using distributed computing components, the use of flash storage to replace disks and data streams from sensor devices as a source of transaction requests. The text meets the needs of systems professionals, such as IT application programmers who construct TP applications, application analysts, and product developers. The book will also be invaluable to students and novices in application programming. Complete revision of the classic "non mathematical" transaction processing reference for systems professionals Updated to focus on the needs of transaction processing via the Internet-- the main focus of business data processing investments, via web application servers, SOA, and important new TP standards Retains the practical, non-mathematical, but thorough conceptual basis of the first edition

This book constitutes the proceedings of the joint International Conference APWeb/WAIM 2009 which was held in Suzhou, China, during April 1-4, 2009. The 42 full papers presented together with 26 short papers and the abstracts of 2 keynote speeches were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The topics covered are query processing, topic-based techniques, Web data processing, multidimensional data analysis, stream data processing, data mining and its applications, and data management support to advanced applications.