We are delighted to announce the next meeting of the WebSphere User Group, which will take place on 25th September 2012 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
As usual there will be no charge for this meeting and we are putting together what looks like being another very strong agenda. As well as the main meeting on the 25th, there will be an social gathering the night before which will provide an excellent opportunity for more networking.
If you're located in the south, don't be put off by the cost of travelling to Edinburgh - return flights to Edinburgh from London are usually under £60 with easyJet.
Provisional Agenda
Registration and Coffee begins from 8:30am, with the Chairman's Intro at 9:00am. The first session begins at 9:30am.
A buffet Lunch is served at 12:30pm, with coffee breaks included in the morning and afternoon.
WebSphere Application Server 1
09:30 - 10:15
Title:
WebSphere Foundation Update and Technical Direction
Abstract:
This session will cover new and improved features in WebSphere Application Server V8.5, with a particular focus on broad programming model support, a fast, flexible and simplified application foundation, extensive deployment environments, including virtualization and clouds, and integrated tooling.
It will also look further ahead to where the WebSphere foundation is heading over the next few years.
Speakers:
Ian Robinson
Ian is a Distinguished Engineer and the Chief Architect of the WebSphere Application Server and foundation technologies, with over 20 years experience working in distributed enterprise middleware. Previously Ian has been responsible for the transaction processing capabilities of the WebSphere platform and the strategy for emerging server-side application programming models.
10:45 - 11:30
Title:
How Lightweight is the Liberty Profile?
Abstract:
WebSphere Application Server V8.5 introduces the new Liberty Profile. A new dynamic server profile designed from the ground up to provide a simple, fast, dynamic lightweight server runtime. It provides a radically different development and production experience. This session will give an overview of the liberty profile with a focus on demoing it on an apple mac, Raspberry Pi (a new credit card sized micro computer which costs $35) and mobile phone!. This session is mostly demo (gremlin) based, so come to watch the Liberty Profile and Raspberry Pi and interact with WebSphere running on a mobile phone!
Speakers:
Simon Maple
Simon Maple is a technical evangelist, working for IBM on WebSphere Application Server. Previously he has worked as a tester and developer on WebSphere Application Server since v4. His current focus is on developer experience and has more recently been playing with IBM software on a Raspberry Pi.
11:40 - 12:25
Title:
OSGi Best Practices - live coding session
Abstract:
Since the first release of the OSGi Enterprise specification in March 2010 the use of OSGi in the enterprise has increased dramatically. WebSphere Application Server v8.5 supports OSGi applications. In order to utilise OSGi technologies, you need to covert traditional JEE applications to OSGi applications. Moving traditional Java EE applications to an OSGi stack is intentionally as easy as possible, however there are a number of common mistakes that can make it feel very hard. This session will describe some best practices for developing Enterprise OSGi applications and OSGi bundles, allowing developers to utilise the power of OSGi in a painless way. This is a live coding session to demonstrate how to use OSGi best practices to make your application modular.
Whilst this session is primarily aimed at enterprise developers new to OSGi, much of the content is equally applicable to OSGi development in general, and is definitely recommended to anyone looking to brush up on their OSGi principles!
Speakers:
Emily Jiang
Emily Jiang is an OSGi and Liberty developer for WebSphere Application Server and works for IBM. Based at IBM's Hursley laboratory in the UK, she has worked on WebSphere Application Server since 2006 and a senior developer on OSGi support in WebSphere Application Server. She is an active member of OSGi Enterprise Export Group and one of the key members in standardising the next OSGi Enterprise specification. Emily also participates in open source projects. She is a committer of the Apache Aries project.
13:30 - 14:15
Title:
WebSphere eXtreme Scale with WAS: Implementing Popular Use Cases
Abstract:
IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale provides a flexible framework for implementing a range of in-memory datagrid and distributed caching solutions but from customer experience there have emerged several use-cases that deliver high value for relatively little cost. These include HTTP Session persistence and Dynacache caching. This session will include a brief introduction to WXS and its integration with WebSphere Application Server, followed by a look at these use-cases. For each of these, we will go through the steps required to implement or enable it with WAS and review the benefits.
Speakers:
Alan Chambers
Alan is a freelance WebSphere consultant and trainer specialising in IBM's WebSphere foundation technologies including WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere eXtreme Scale and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, working with business partners such as Orbital, Diegesis and Verhoef Training and a wide variety of clients. Previously he enjoyed a long career with IBM, in a variety of technical roles most recently as a Consulting IT Specialist in the WebSphere brand, where he introduced many customers to WebSphere Application Server in its early days and worked with many of the largest WebSphere implementations in the years from 1998 to 2010.
In 2007, Alan took an interest in a then largely unknown technology called ObjectGrid, then part of IBM's WebSphere eXtended Deployment product, becoming an early expert in its capabilities and implementation, and contributing a paper on IBM's developerWorks site. When ObjectGrid later became WebSphere eXtreme Scale, Alan was able to advise many customers who became interested in implementing this technology, and developed some compelling demonstrations to develop awareness. Since leaving IBM he has continued with this interest, and in 2012 has developed a two-day technical training offering.
14:25 - 15:10
(empty slot)
15:30 - 16:15
(empty slot)
16:25 - 17:10
(empty slot)
WebSphere Application Server 2
09:30 - 10:15
Title:
WebSphere Application Server - Migration to v8/v8.5
Abstract:
If it works – don't fix it !!! Why migrate a working application from one version of WAS to another for seemingly no business benefit.
In this session we'll look at some of the reasons that drive customers to invest valuable time and effort into migration. We'll examine some of the choices, the different strategies and tooling that can help in this process.
Speakers:
Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson is a certified IT specialist with over 30 years experience in IT. Much of this time has been working with IBM's customers helping them address these architectural challenges. Paul is a chartered IT professional and member of the British Computer Society.
10:45 - 11:30
Title:
Rapid cross-platform mobile app development with IBM Worklight
Abstract:
IBM Worklight is a recent acquisition added into the WebSphere brand. It enables the creation of rich, cross-platform apps without the use of code translation, and proprietary interpreters. It's focus is to encourage innovation on the mobile platform, enabling a better user experience across a variety of mobile devices.
This session will give an overview of the technology and the key use cases where it is proving beneficial. This will be followed by a demonstration of creating a mobile app from nothing
Speakers:
Jonathan Marshall
Jonathan Marshall is a WebSphere Technical Professional with 12 years
experience in IBM with WebSphere software. He is currently the mobile lead in the UK WebSphere team, although he still works with WebSphere Application Server at a range of IBM clients. In recent years has done a lot of work with the virtualisation and cloud technologies of WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, WebSphere eXtreme Scale and IBM Workload Deployer. He has published developerWorks articles and a Redbook on the WebSphere eXtreme Scale usage scenarios. He has experience in both
development and infrastructure.
11:40 - 12:25
Title:
IBM PureApplication System – when the rubber hits the road (or
Abstract:
This session will focus on the value that WebSphere clients can gain from implementing a PureApplication System solution - from faster time to deploy WebSphere applications, to reduced maintenance to reduced administration to easy on-premise cloud deployments. In addition, the session will provide experiences from initial PureApplication System deployments
Speakers:
Stuart Foster
Stuart Foster is the UK lead solution architect who is managing some of the first implementations of IBM PureApplication Systems. Stuart has worked for IBM for over 20 years, primarily focusing on WebSphere middleware since 1997 and he was a co-author of the IBM redbook "Patterns: Integrating Enterprise Service Buses in a Service-Oriented Architecture". Stuart was a Software Architect in IBM's Software Group aligned with Central Civil Government clients in the UK including DfT/DVLA, Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. He is chairperson of one of the IT Specialist certification boards in IBM, and is a Senior Certified IT Specialist. In his earlier career, Stuart was a technical specialist for AS/400, leading the introduction of Lotus Notes, Java and WebSphere on the platform across Europe, and was a co-author of the IBM Redbook: "Accessing the AS/400 with Java published in 1997". When he is not working Stuart is a family man and in his spare time loves to watch, play and coach most sports; he currently "scouts" for Reading F.C.
13:30 - 14:15
Title:
DevOps in the enterprise
Abstract:
The adoption of Agile and Cloud platforms is forcing many organisations to re-think how they provision environments and deploy applications. Many organisations are looking to implement a Platform as a Service (Paas) and DevOps strategies as a mechanism to deliver change faster, more efficiently and at a higher quality. Key to this is a very high level of deployment automation. Come to this session to hear how some of the world's largest companies are addressing this.
Some of the concepts we will cover in this session:
·Brief history of DevOps: Where it came from and what does it mean?
·Culture
·DevOps strategies and architecture
·Tooling
·Benefits
An example and demonstration of managing WebSphere middleware environments using key Rational DevOps tools including (using RTC, RAM, RSA and RAF) will be provided.
Speakers:
David Sayers
David is a Co-Founder and Technical Services Director at Midvision LTD - a UK based software vendor specialising in Application Release Automation. He specialises in JEE application server deployment automation working with IBM WebSphere and Oracle WebLogic since 2000 - and more recently many of the open source runtimes such as Redhat JBoss, Glassfish and TC Server.
He has worked widely throughout Europe, North America and Australia consulting across a wide variety of industries including banking, insurance, government and education. He works closely with the IBM Labs in Austin and Raleigh and is a regular speaker at conferences in Europe and North America.
14:25 - 15:10
(empty slot)
15:30 - 16:15
(empty slot)
16:25 - 17:10
(empty slot)
Business Process Management
09:30 - 10:15
Title:
Effectively Manage and scale IBM BPM Infrastructure to support 30,000+ Users
Abstract:
The speed at which process applications can be developed using IBM BPM gets
business excited. The number one blocker to getting that new process
application deployed is poor infrastructure. What's the point of developing
a new process application in 6 weeks if it takes 3 months to deploy into
production. This session covers the BPM infrastructure automation best
practices needed to scale IBM BPM 7.5.1 in order to support 30K users.
Speakers:
Pundarik Ranchhod
Pundarik leads the BPM Practice in Europe for Ascendant, a consulting firm and IBM partner. He is dedicated to helping organisations improve their business performance. Pundarik has 15 years of experience with software development and business management. He has a keen interest in innovation and design. Pundarik championed the use of Design Thinking for BPM at Ascendant.
10:45 - 11:30
(empty slot)
11:40 - 12:25
(empty slot)
13:30 - 14:15
Title:
Enhanced Customer Service with Mobile and Real-time Decisions
Abstract:
Mobile opens up new ways for us to engage with our customers, but our ability to take advantage of these technologies can be limited by our internal systems. The ability of enterprise systems to detect, decide and act in realtime can ultimately limit the services we can offer to our customers.
This session will show how decision management, combining event detection and business rules can provide enhanced customer service and increased business agility. We will discuss the capabilities needed to make our systems context aware and demonstrate an example mobile service that makes use of this awareness to improve customer experience.
Speakers:
Gerry Baird
Gerry Baird is an IBM Consulting IT Specialist in the Business Process Management (BPM) group. Gerry focuses on the use of BPM and Decision Management technology to improve business agility and efficiency. He has 6 years experience of in this area and 20 years in IT.
14:25 - 15:10
(empty slot)
15:30 - 16:15
(empty slot)
16:25 - 17:10
(empty slot)
Social and Portal SIG
09:30 - 10:15
Title:
Upgrading to Portal v8, and What's new in Portal governance.
Abstract:
In this session, users will learn the basics behind upgrading to WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager version 8.0.
We will cover the overall architecture, planning, and best practices when planning for this activity.
We will also discuss the differences between migrating from a 6.1 environment vs. a 7.0 environment, as well as some techniques to consider if you're still on older versions than that.
Additionally, we'll look at how v8 is likely to affect your governance processes, as you become able to delegate more control to non-technical users.
Speakers:
David Strachan
David Strachan is a solution architect in the IBM Software Group Services pan-Europe team. He focusses on Web Experience architecture, bringing together content management, social and portal to deliver exceptional web experiences, and has led large Portal, WCM and Connections deployments at a range of customers. David has been working in this field for more than 10 years and regularly presents on Web Experience topics at IBM conferences.
10:45 - 11:30
Title:
The WebSphere Portal v8 experience.
Abstract:
The session will be focused on discussing and demonstrating how to your organisation can deliver an exceptional web experience with IBM WebSphere Portal v8.
We will start by covering the new capabilities recently introduced into v8, and how infusing v8 with Social, Mobile and Form based solutions we give your organisation a roadmap to delivering a cohesive experience using leading web technologies.
Speakers:
Rob Enright
Rob is a member of the world-wide Exceptional Web Experience strategy group within IBM.
Rob has a wealth of experience in commercial web technologies and has been responsible for delivering numerous critical Portal/WCM based projects.
Stuart Crump
Stuart is a L2 Certified member of the UK technical specialist team working with IBM Portal, IBM Web Content Manager and many other solution technologies utilising a core WebSphere foundation.
Stuart has spent over 12 years years working with collaborative web technologies and content systems both inside and outside IBM.
11:40 - 12:25
Title:
Using the Visual Configuration Explorer Tool to support/tune your WebSphere Portal environment.
Abstract:
This session provides an overview and demo of the Visual Configuration Explorer(VCE) Tool.
VCE enables you to visualize, explore, and analyze WebSphere configuration information. You can use VCE to:
- Compare WebSphere Application Server/Portal Server/Web Content Management (WCM) configurations.
This facilitates finding out configuration differences
- between Development, Test, UAT and Production Server environments
- for a particular server over time
- Define configuration rules to validate configurations.
Use existing rule sets to validate
- WCM Access Control Performance Troubleshooting
- WCM DRS Performance Troubleshooting
- WebSphere Portal 6.1 Performance Tuning Guide
- Search for specific configuration properties
Speakers:
John Farrugia
John has been member of IBM Software Services since 1997. John is Senior Support Consultant within the Worldwide ICS SWAT Team which regularly gets involved with Customer Critical Situations.
John has worked in the past on supporting Domino and Sametime product. In the last 5 years John has been supporting WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager specialising in Performance issues.
13:30 - 14:15
Title:
Mobile with WebSphere Portal and Worklight
Abstract:
This session will discuss the challenges of mobilising your Portal solution; starting by covering IBM's enterprise mobile strategy then introducing IBM Worklight as a means to create applications to deliver your Portal to a mobile audience. A demonstration will follow to talk through creating a hybrid mobile solution for delivering Portal content to a device.
Speakers:
Daniel Kilpatrick
Daniel Kilpatrick joined IBM in 2011 as a member of the IBM Social Business and Collaboration Solutions CTP team, tasked to cover WebSphere Portal, IBM Forms and Mobile. Daniel brings with him over 10 years of software development experience, largely web systems (Microsoft .NET Framework Certified Technical Specialist) and more recently mobile app development (native Android app development using Java in Eclipse).
14:25 - 15:10
(empty slot)
15:30 - 16:15
(empty slot)
16:25 - 17:10
(empty slot)
Connectivity
09:30 - 10:15
Title:
Managing WebSphere appliances with WebSphere Appliance Management Center
Abstract:
Whether you have one, few, tens or hundreds of DataPower appliances in your local data centre or spread globally, you can use this new (and free) tool to manage your WebSphere appliances centrally. In this session, the speaker will discuss how to get started with the tool, show off tool's capabilities and best practices.
Speakers:
Bharat Bhushan
Bharat is the Principle Architect for the IBM WebSphere Connectivity portfolio. In his 16 years of working in the IT industry, he has undertaken a variety of roles including enterprise software design and development, Consulting and PreSales. He gets his buzz from solving complex, first-of-a-kind architectural challenges and helping customers successfully deploy IBM software to deliver business initiatives.
10:45 - 11:30
(empty slot)
11:40 - 12:25
Title:
Enabling Enterprise Data Access on Mobile Devices with IBM Worklight
Abstract:
This session introduces the IBM Mobile Foundation focussing on IBM Worklight for mobile application development. Cast Iron for application integration will then be covered briefly following by a practical demonstration of Worklight showing how you can easily develop mobile applications that access enterprise data behind the firewall.
Speakers:
Simon Dickerson
Simon Dickerson is a client technical professional working for IBM in the UK and Ireland and has been involved with Worklight and Cast Iron since their acquistions. He has worked in a variety of IT roles from training, support, consulting, and focused technical sales for over 10 years. He worked across a number of application areas including content management and document security, mobile applications, and data quality on a variety of platforms and across many industries.
13:30 - 14:15
Title:
Dynamic Service-level management with DataPower v5
Abstract:
In this session the speaker will provide a snapshot of what's new the latest DataPower firmware v5 and then focus on the enhanced service level management peering and dynamic update function. This new function allows multiple devices to communicate with each other using high-performance network protocols and enforce service level management across a group of devices.
Speakers:
Bharat Bhushan
Bharat is the Principle Architect for the IBM WebSphere Connectivity portfolio. In his 16 years of working in the IT industry, he has undertaken a variety of roles including enterprise software design and development, Consulting and PreSales. He gets his buzz from solving complex, first-of-a-kind architectural challenges and helping customers successfully deploy IBM software to deliver business initiatives.
14:25 - 15:10
(empty slot)
15:30 - 16:15
(empty slot)
16:25 - 17:10
(empty slot)
Java
09:30 - 10:15
Title:
Practical performance: understand the performance of your application
Abstract:
This session will case study the best practice approach to optimizing the performance of a WebSphere Application Server deployment using Rational Performance Tester along with IBM Monitoring and Diagnostics Tools for Java - Health Center to identify Operating System, Java Runtime, and Java Application code level improvements.
Speakers:
Neil Masson
Neil has been involved of the development of a number of software products including aircraft guidance systems, digital telephone exchanges and project management systems. Since joining IBM, he has worked on distributed CICS and Java and is a long-time advocate of the Linux operating system. He currently works in the core Service team for Java and is involved in initiatives to improve the quality and stability of Java releases.
10:45 - 11:30
Abstract:
Java 7 is delivering significant new features in function, performance and usability. Highlights include a new framework for scalable I/O, language syntax improvements, and powerful new concurrency constructs. As with each release, we will also show the IBM-specific JVM enhancements we've been working on. Come to the session and see new Java features in action, complete with time-saving examples and patterns to apply.
Speakers:
Neil Masson
Neil has been involved of the development of a number of software products including aircraft guidance systems, digital telephone exchanges and project management systems. Since joining IBM, he has worked on distributed CICS and Java and is a long-time advocate of the Linux operating system. He currently works in the core Service team for Java and is involved in initiatives to improve the quality and stability of Java releases.
11:40 - 12:25
Title:
Java Garbage Collection: Best Practices for tuning GC
Abstract:
Not all workloads are created equal. Different applications use memory in different ways and thus can benefit from different garbage collection strategies. The IBM® Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM) has always supported several different GC policies to support various types of applications. At the same time, hardware is evolving and software must adapt to make better use of it. In IBM WebSphere® Application Server V8 the default garbage collection policy uses both generational and concurrent collection strategies. This sessions provides an overview of the best practices for tuning garbage collection, including the new default policy.
Speakers:
Neil Masson
Neil has been involved of the development of a number of software products including aircraft guidance systems, digital telephone exchanges and project management systems. Since joining IBM, he has worked on distributed CICS and Java and is a long-time advocate of the Linux operating system. He currently works in the core Service team for Java and is involved in initiatives to improve the quality and stability of Java releases.
13:30 - 14:15
(empty slot)
14:25 - 15:10
(empty slot)
15:30 - 16:15
(empty slot)
16:25 - 17:10
(empty slot)
Vendor Stands
To enquire about a vendor stand please use our Contact Form
Location: ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH - Edinburgh
Address
ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH - Edinburgh
22-26 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PQ.
Tel: (0)131 240 5000
Car Parking
If you are arriving by car please note that parking near The Royal Society is limited to meter parking only which can prove costly. The nearest car parks are at the St James centre; Leith Street or Castle Terrace, where there are 24 hour car parks. Please allow 10-15 minutes after parking to get to the venue.
By Road
Main roads into Edinburgh are the M8 from the West and the A1 from the South. From the East please follow the A90 and head for Queensferry Road
By Rail
Waverley Station is a five minute walk from the Royal Society with frequent local and national services. For Further information on train services please contact National Rail Enquiries on 08457484950
By Air
Edinburgh airport is approximately 12 kilometres from the city centre and is well served by frequent bus services and airport taxis. Car hire is available at the airport . The airport is a 20-30 minute car drive from the city centre.
Note, return flights from London are currently avaliable from budget carriers such easyJet for approx £50.
By Bus
Bus services to and from Edinburgh arrive/depart from St Andrew Square which is a five minute walk away.
By Bicycle
Main roads into Edinburgh are the M8 from the West and the A1 from the South. Cycle paths exist within Edinburgh. If you wish to come by bicycle please advise so that bike storage facilities can be arranged.
