WebSphere

User Group UK

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We are delighted to announce the next meeting of the WebSphere User Group, which will take place on 30th September 2014 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.


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.

WAS 1


09:30 - 10:15


Title:
WebSphere Foundation Update and Technical Direction
Abstract:
Our world - and how people interact with it - is changing with the convergence of mobile, social, big data, and cloud. WebSphere Application Server (WAS) has also been changing, to set the standard for application hosting in the cloud: from rapid development of lightweight and engaging applications in PaaS environments to deployment of complex enterprise topologies via patterns on IaaS infrastructure. In this session, I'll talk about some of the latest WAS features and describe how WAS is evolving to continue to meet enterprise needs, on native, virtualized and PaaS infrastructure. I'll talk about developer ease of use, deployment flexibility, operational resiliency, partner ecosystem and the future direction of WebSphere Application Server including the ways in which we expect to deliver it.
Speakers:

Ian Robinson

Ian Robinson is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and the Chief Architect of the WebSphere Application Server, based at the IBM Hursley Software Lab in the UK. Ian has over 20 years' experience working in distributed enterprise middleware across product development, open standards and open source. He is responsible for the strategy and development of IBM's WebSphere Application Server, including the lightweight WAS Liberty Profile, and the tools that support it.

10:45 - 11:30


Title:
How to take advantage of new WebSphere development initiatives to help speed up your development!
Abstract:
Do you want to spend more of your time building innovative and engaging applications for customers instead of standing up development environments? This session will talk about how to utilize the right tools and development environment for your application. We'll cover new enhancements in the WebSphere Application Server developer tools (WDT), WDT and Liberty integrations with devOps and how to leverage the new Bluemix development environment.
Speakers:

Anita Rass Wan

Anita Rass Wan is a Senior Worldwide Product Manager on the WebSphere Application Server Infrastructure team. She is responsible for helping improve the customer and developer experience with building and managing applications for the WebSphere Application Infrastructure family both on premise and in the cloud. Anita has held various senior positions in development, release management and product management. She has published various papers, and has disclosures and a patent in application development and performance tools.

11:40 - 12:25


Title:
A discussion on Next Generation Security Threats
Abstract:
Mobile and Cloud have changed the landscape of enterprise security; business drivers are overriding security requirements left right and centre, creating complex solutions (and complexity is the enemy of security). Systems are integrating with internet based services to provide functionality and meet business requirements, but more and more security architects are finding their enterprise corporate data suddenly protected by security systems that are not entirely under their control. This talk is a frank discussion on strategies and mechanisms to start to deal with this evolution, focussing on the art of the possible. This is intended to be a two-way discussion; the speaker is also here to listen to your needs and requirements, this is your chance to influence direction by raising what is important to your business.
Speakers:

Simon Kapadia

Simon Kapadia is IBM's MobileFirst Platform Security Architect. He previously had a long career with IBM's Software Services for WebSphere (ISSW) focussing on Security and Appliances, and is co-author of the WebSphere DataPower Handbook. Simon holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Drama and a Master’s degree in Computer Science, and is both a Chartered Engineer (IET) and Chartered IT Professional (BCS). He has owned a computer since six years of age, and has turned a lifelong hobby into a career. Prior to joining IBM, Simon developed software for digital exchanges at Bell Laboratories, worked for a Polish ISP, and supported and consulted on DCE, DFS and Encina for Transarc Corporation.

Download:
(empty)

13:30 - 14:15


Title:
DevOps with Liberty and Chef
Abstract:
The IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile is a simplified, lightweight runtime for development and production use. It is simple to configure through a single XML file. It is dynamic and flexible - recomposing itself in response to configuration changes. It is extensible through the use of system programming interfaces. Its self-extracting Jar file makes it quick and easy to install. Configured with a basic web application, it starts in under five seconds. This makes it highly compatible with DevOps tools and cloud. Chef is one such tool. Chef embodies "infrastructure as code." Teams write code to describe how the machines in the infrastructure should be configured. As organizations scale out their development and production infrastructure, Chef will configure it all. Presenters introduce Chef and the part the IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile Chef cookbooks play in standing-up a load balanced web application.
Speakers:

Jeremy Hughes

Jeremy Hughes is the WebSphere Application Server development architect for DevOps and Open Source, based at IBM's Hursley development laboratory in the UK, recently focusing on enabling the Liberty Profile to be managed by popular DevOps frameworks, including Chef. He is an IBM Lab Advocate, helping customers make the most effective use of WebSphere products. He has led technology development in OSGi Applications and Web Services delivering to many WebSphere Application Server releases. He is a committer and PMC lead on the Apache Aries project. He is passionate about building a wider ecosystem of technology, often Open Source, around IBM products to help customers build their solutions.

14:25 - 15:10


Title:
Dive into Liberty development and the Admin Center
Abstract:
So, you're sitting there with Eclipse in front of you, and you need to write an app and get it into your Liberty collective. How do you write an app for Liberty? And what's a collective? In this session, we will look at building up a simple web application using the WebSphere Developer Tools for Eclipse, highlighting how Liberty allows you to perform dynamic updates in a development environment. Once the app is completed we'll explore how you can package your application and server into a single archive which can be deployed into a Liberty collective using the Admin Center. This will give you an insight into some simple development and deployment topologies and how to apply that in your own development, test and production cycle.
Speakers:

Ross Pavit

Ross Pavitt started at IBM in 2008, working in CICS Transaction Gateway. After 3 years he moved to the Liberty team and was involved in developer-focused testing scenarios for the V8.5.0.0 release of Liberty. He then moved on to manage WASdev.net, before moving on to work on the Admin Center, the new web interface for Liberty profile.

Download:
(empty)

15:30 - 16:15


(empty slot)

16:25 - 17:10


(empty slot)

WAS 2


09:30 - 10:15


Title:
Building highly available architectures with WAS and MQ
Abstract:
This talk will look at architectures in which IBM MQ can be configured with the IBM WebSphere Application Server (and Liberty profiles) to give a highly-available scenario. The basis be some of the scenarios that are documented in the developerWorks series "A flexible and scalable WebSphere MQ topology pattern".
(http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/1308_broadhurst/1308_broadhurst.html)
Speakers:

Matthew White

Matthew White joined IBM in 1998 working initially with IBM's implementation of the JVM. Currently Matthew is the Technical Lead of the WebSphere MQ Platform Integration Team. This team works to ensure that the WebSphere MQ product is fully integrated into the IBM WebSphere Platform. Looking at the the MQ messaging product as part of a stack solution ensures our customers truly get an integrated platform. And this platform need not be JavaEE based, but within other frameworks such as Spring or OSGi.

10:45 - 11:30


Title:
Got Cache? Discover how IBM elastic caching for your mobile apps help deliver responsive integration with services and API’s: Demo included!
Abstract:
How might I ensure my mobile solution is responsive regardless of load?
Mobile technology offers a unique opportunity for organizations today. Mobile capabilities are disrupting traditional business models, providing businesses with new sources of data and insight, and driving top and bottom-line results.
One of the key benefits of mobile includes enhanced user experiences which lets you respond faster and better to customers, thus improving customer service.

Mobile strategy leaders must put into place the needed building blocks to take full advantage of new mobile opportunities. One of the important building blocks is Elastic caching to deliver responsive integration of mobile with existing services and reusing API’s.

In this session, attendees will learn about practical caching concerns and patterns through presentation and demonstration. The demonstration offers a scenario where customers interact with their bank through a mobile device, which interacts directly with an Extreme Scale Cache, via REST Services or API’s. The Bank administrators load the cache and update the cache content via a separate administrative web application, while maintaining data consistency and application responsiveness.
Speakers:

Kevin Postreich

Kevin Postreich is a Sr. IT specialist / consultant with IBM. He joined the World Wide Application Infrastructure technical sales team in 2012 supporting customer deployments of WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere eXtreme Scale, PureApplication System, and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR). Kevin also has a strong background in in middleware / application performance engineering and troubleshooting methodologies.
Kevin is certified with the following IBM technologies: PureApplication System, WebSphere Application Server, and SOA technologies. He is also a Master Certified I/T Specialist through the Open Group.
In his WW technical sales role, Kevin’s focus has been in the on premise cloud space which includes PureApplication System configurations, deployments, and enablement for IBM technical sales teams and customers alike.
Kevin leads IBM PureApplication System enablement and proof of technologies in the United States and abroad. Kevin contributed to the development and delivery the PureApplication System advanced enablement to IBM technical sellers and IBM business partners.
Kevin also focuses on the development and delivery of WebSphere eXtreme Scale POCs and technical enablement. Kevin developed and leads WXS deep dive workshops, for IBM technical sellers, IBM business partners and customers interested in developing deep technical skills with eXtreme Scale caching implementations.
Kevin recently strengthened his technical abilities with API management, broadening his existing experience with SOA and SOA governance from his tenure in IBM lab services (ISSW) working with clients to architect, design, and implement SOA Governance solutions using WSRR, WMB, and Datapower.

11:40 - 12:25


Title:
Intro to MQ v8 and JMS 2.0
Abstract:
The Java Message Service (JMS) specification was first released in 1998, at the dawn of Java EE, with a major update in 2002. It then remained unchanged during the decade that followed. Meanwhile, technology evolved and many vendors pressed ahead with enhancements outside the specification. During that time, the rest of Java EE evolved significantly, with improvements and new features added. Despite the lack of development of the specification, JMS continued to be a popular and successful standard, with numerous competing implementations, both standalone and as part of complete Java EE stacks, and open and closed source.
Speakers:

Matthew White

Matthew White joined IBM in 1998 working initially with IBM's implementation of the JVM. Currently Matthew is the Technical Lead of the WebSphere MQ Platform Integration Team. This team works to ensure that the WebSphere MQ product is fully integrated into the IBM WebSphere Platform. Looking at the the MQ messaging product as part of a stack solution ensures our customers truly get an integrated platform. And this platform need not be JavaEE based, but within other frameworks such as Spring or OSGi.

13:30 - 14:15


(empty slot)

14:25 - 15:10


Title:
Building a better product with data analytics and the cloud
Abstract:
As we move from traditional waterfall development through agile and onto continuous delivery the approach we adopt to build and test our products needs to evolve.
No longer can we rely on a long stabilisation phase at the end of a release. Quality now needs to be assured at every stage of the release with every code change.

This talk has two aims. Firstly to take you through a number of the innovations being made in the delivery of Liberty to give you an insight into how we
drive quality throughout the release. Secondly, to inspire ideas on how you can apply data analytics and the cloud to drive your own build and test environments.

Key innovations covered will include our delivery lifecycle as well as our dynamic scalable build environment (based upon Smart Cloud Orchestrator and uDeploy).
Finally we wil cover our use of big data analytics to automatically identify potential regressions any optimise our build and test environment.
Speakers:

Kevin Smith

Liberty Test Architect

15:30 - 16:15


(empty slot)

16:25 - 17:10


(empty slot)

Mobile


09:30 - 10:15


Title:
Fulfilling Retail Expectations with Mobile
Abstract:
One of the world's largest retailers, generating over $100 billion in revenue in 2013, serves millions of customers a week in stores and online. One of the key areas in which they differentiate themselves is in their network of distribution centers, which use advanced technology to support a modern, efficient and cost-effective supply chain. Underpinning its fulfillment process is a Warehouse Management System, based on CICS and running on System z. This session provides an overview of the technical challenges, technology choices and benefits of mobile-enabling a core CICS application. It covers the business value identified in exposing warehouse management capabilities through a Mobile interface, plus the technology design for implementing the solution on System z. The indicative results demonstrated cost savings of about $2.5 million per year, which equated to an approximate return on investment of only 16 days.
Speakers:

Richard Gamblin

Richard Gamblin is an IBM Technical Staff Member, Redbooks Mobile Thought Leader and zChampions Global Leader for Mobile. As a Software Architect based in the UK & Ireland, Richard works with clients to develop new solutions and capabilities with WebSphere, Mobile and System z technologies. He has worked in a number of Technical Sales roles during his time in IBM, including an Integration and Connectivity Specialist and WebSphere Architect. Prior to joining IBM, Richard was a researcher at the University of Leeds, from where he obtained a doctorate in the field Bioinformatics.

10:45 - 11:30


Title:
Client-side mobile architecture choices
Abstract:
With the recent IBM-Apple announcement fresh in everyone's minds, in this session we are planning to focus on client-side architecture choices for mobile apps. We'll take a look at the various different options, including hybrid apps - exploring JavaScript toolkits such as Dojo, AngularJS + Ionic, and others, as well as looking at options for Android and iOS Native Coding, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We'll explain how this relates to the latest versions of the IBM Worklight Foundation platform, as well as a brief exploration of how these options fit in with the IBM Bluemix cloud offering.
Speakers:

Andrew Ferrier

Andrew is technical lead for the IBM Software Services for WebSphere Mobile
Practice in Europe, taking a leading role on consulting engagements to build
B2C and B2E applications for IBM's customers.

He has presented extensively on Worklight, Dojo, Mobile, REST, and Web APIs,
contributing Intellectual Capital to the IBM and WebSphere communities, as
well as writing two Redbooks, and numerous posts on Dojo and Worklight Tips
'n' Tricks (http://dojotipsntricks.com/) and SOA Tips 'n' Tricks
(http://soatipsntricks.wordpress.com/), both of which co-founded. He also
regularly speaks at internal and external customer conferences, including IBM
IMPACT and the European WebSphere Technical Conference. Previously, he
specialised in ESBs and integration middleware, specialising in WebSphere ESB
and WebSphere Process Server.

11:40 - 12:25


Title:
Need API’s? Explore the value of IBM’s API Management solution for sharing service APIs with mobile applications: Demonstration included!
Abstract:
How do I share service APIs with mobile applications?
To be a successful business and provide increased value to clients, you need to continue to innovate while achieving cost optimization. With IBM’s API management solution, you have an opportunity to expose key business services to business partners to drive new forms of collaboration, increase revenue opportunities, and provide higher value services to your customers.
Business services are exposed with APIs. An API management solution is imperative to the success of externalizing the core services by providing easy assembly of new APIs, enabling security and different levels of service, providing management and insight to developers and business users, and socializing those APIs to developers, through communities and portals. This enables organizations to participate in the API economy, with rapid, highly secure connections between API providers and API consumers.

API Management V3.0 provides capabilities for creating, proxying, assembling, securing, and scaling the APIs. This solution also provides detailed analytics and operational metrics to the business owner and a customizable developer portal to socialize the APIs and manage applications that can be used by the developers.
In this session, attendees will learn how to quickly configure an API management solution and rapidly create new APIs from existing business assets and cloud services through configuration and a no-coding approach.

This session also includes a demonstration of the solution whereby a new API is defined that assembles existing cloud services running on IBM Bluemix and IBM PureApplication System. The API developer exposes a simple interface that exposes the Bank Location and Branch Services from the system of record REST service and SOAP service in the cloud. We will demonstrate how WSRR and API management work together to build new APIs from existing services registered in WSRR.
Speakers:

Kevin Postreich

Kevin Postreich is a Sr. IT specialist / consultant with IBM. He joined the World Wide Application Infrastructure technical sales team in 2012 supporting customer deployments of WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere eXtreme Scale, PureApplication System, and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR). Kevin also has a strong background in in middleware / application performance engineering and troubleshooting methodologies.
Kevin is certified with the following IBM technologies: PureApplication System, WebSphere Application Server, and SOA technologies. He is also a Master Certified I/T Specialist through the Open Group.
In his WW technical sales role, Kevin’s focus has been in the on premise cloud space which includes PureApplication System configurations, deployments, and enablement for IBM technical sales teams and customers alike.
Kevin leads IBM PureApplication System enablement and proof of technologies in the United States and abroad. Kevin contributed to the development and delivery the PureApplication System advanced enablement to IBM technical sellers and IBM business partners.
Kevin also focuses on the development and delivery of WebSphere eXtreme Scale POCs and technical enablement. Kevin developed and leads WXS deep dive workshops, for IBM technical sellers, IBM business partners and customers interested in developing deep technical skills with eXtreme Scale caching implementations.
Kevin recently strengthened his technical abilities with API management, broadening his existing experience with SOA and SOA governance from his tenure in IBM lab services (ISSW) working with clients to architect, design, and implement SOA Governance solutions using WSRR, WMB, and Datapower.

13:30 - 14:15


Title:
Delivering Real World Consumer Facing Worklight Apps
Abstract:
<FOR SLIDES, SEE LINK BELOW>
Over the past year we have been working with a client to put a Worklight App into the Android & Apple App Stores. Using innovative strategies such as Continuous Integration and Automated Testing we were able to rapidly build out an App, the Adapters & the Security Model while regression testing as we built. Moving the App away from the developers' laptops and into production comes with more things to consider but powerful tools enabled us to circumvent large volumes of bugs and issues. This talk aims to illustrate the lessons learned, the good practices & gotchas for speedy delivery of Worklight applications to the App Stores

Slides from WUG are available here ::
http://slides.com/donalspring/worklight-lessons-learned#/

FYI -
some more useful CI information is here if you ever need it ::
http://slides.com/donalspring/ci-wl-best-practice#/

And some moving to production material here ::
http://slides.com/donalspring/productionising-worklight#/
Speakers:

Donal Spring

Donal Spring is a recent joiner to IBM in September 2013. Previous to this he studied Chemistry & Biology before completing a Masters in Computer Science. He joined IBM's Software Services for Mobile group and consults with IBM customers on IBM Worklight and how to make them successful with mobile technology. He is currently working on a project with a large UK retailer developing a consumer-facing sales channel application that combines open source tooling with IBM products to maximise the speed of development and optimise integration with other business partners.

Download:
(empty)

14:25 - 15:10


(empty slot)

15:30 - 16:15


(empty slot)

16:25 - 17:10


(empty slot)

Cloud


09:30 - 10:15


(empty slot)

10:45 - 11:30


(empty slot)

11:40 - 12:25


Title:
Developing Cloud Applications using IBM Bluemix
Abstract:
Why do the most difficult tasks in software development often come after you finished writing the application code?

Installing and configuring servers, runtimes, databases.
Setting up security, backup, networking.
Monitoring operations, performance and runtime issues.
The list of tasks needed to deploy finished applications is endless…
Why do developers have to care about infrastructure issues?

Platform–as–a–Service cloud solutions are revolutionising application development. Developers can focus solely on writing application code and leave everything else to the platform. No more installing, configuring and monitoring infrastructure. Used to waiting six weeks for the IT department to provision you a basic virtual machine? You can now provision a new runtime with dozens of integrated Software-as-a-Service offerings in seconds.

In this talk I will introduce IBM's new cloud platform, Bluemix, which is now publicly available. We'll see how easy it is to provision brand-new application runtimes, integrate popular open source technologies, automate elastic scaling in response to user demand and much more. All this functionality operates on a "pay as you go" pricing model, allowing developers to only pay for exactly the resource they need and nothing more. IBM's cloud platform is based upon popular open source technology (Cloud Foundry), which provides a stable and mature platform without locking the user into a proprietary vendor solution.
Speakers:

Brian De Pradine

Brian DePradine is one of the lead developers of the Liberty buildpack based in Hursley, England. He has worked at IBM for over 15 years. During that time, he has worked in a number of different areas including WebSphere Application Server development. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Physics from Columbia University, and a Master of Science in Software Engineering from Oxford University.

13:30 - 14:15


Title:
Enabling hybrid cloud with PureApplication System - Second Generation
Abstract:
This session listed the new features which IBM has built into the PureApplication System, the world's most capable, simplest-to-use and powerful cloud-like infrastructure for running enterprise application workloads.
Covering topics such as hybrid cloud, multi-rack deployments, pattern improvements and many more.
From months to minutes, a change of mind-set: heroics don't scale.
This session describes second generation hardware and firmware, which will offer customers improved performance, lower power requirements and even greater flexibility. IBM PureApplication System v2 is an optimal private, on premise cloud platform for enterprise application.
The session also covers IBM PureApplication Services on SoftLayer. Focus on your application and let PureApplication handle the rest, be it on premise, off premise, a true hybrid cloud solution is waiting to be announced at the next turn: combine traditional on premise environments with often temporarily off premise instances running on SoftLayer.
Speakers:

Claudio Tagliabue

Claudio Tag is a technical pre-sales consultant working for IBM, specialising in process automation and orchestration with IBM Business Process Manager.
He is also an IBM Pure Application System champion and Tech Sales lead for Cloud BPM in UK.
He was worked with clients across a number of industries to design process-based and integration-based solutions including several well-known institutions in the telco, banking and financial services sector.
Tag joined IBM in 2010, after previous work experiences as Technical Project Manager and Electronic Designer in a variety of industries.
He has a Master's degree in Microelectronics and a Bachelor's degree in Electronics.

Download:

14:25 - 15:10


Title:
Deploying workloads on the cloud with IBM SoftLayer
Abstract:
In June 2013 IBM announced its intention to acquire SoftLayer, the world's largest privately held cloud service provider. Six months later, an aggressive $1.2bn global expansion programme for the service was announced, including plans for a UK-based delivery centre. Come and hear about the latest jewel in IBM's crown, our ambitious plans for the future and how it offers unmatched performance, flexibility and control.
Speakers:

Jim McKay

Jim McKay is an IBM SoftLayer Global Solution Architect supporting Business Partners world wide to maximise the opportunities of cloud computing. Jim has had a wide variety of technical roles within IBM, ranging from senior server development engineer to European technical sales manager. Over the last 10 years he has been responsible for establishing and leading a number of IBM solution architect teams across Europe and has gained a wide range of client consultancy experience in areas of IT infrastructure.

Download:
(empty)

15:30 - 16:15


(empty slot)

16:25 - 17:10


(empty slot)

Integration & BPM


09:30 - 10:15


Title:
Trends in Integration: How Emerging Use Cases in Cloud, Mobile and Analytics are Changing the Game
Abstract:
Organisations today are looking to utilise major market technology shifts from new business models made possible by cloud technologies to new channels of engagement with customers via mobile and social platforms. In this new era, agile movers gain competitive advantage as they are quicker to respond and gain valuable insights into business activities. Is your organization positioned to adapt and capture these opportunities?

Underpinning all of this is a robust and flexible integration layer which has never been more important. This session wiill show how IBM Integration Bus can enable your organization to spend less time keeping up and more time innovating and engaging with your customers.

Learn how to:
• Use integration technologies to speed up the production and hardening of mobile apps.
• Leverage the cloud for universal access to support your needs.
• Gain insight into in-flight data for more informed decision making.
• Use new technologies such as chef to speed provisioning deployment.
• Rapidly deploy integrations with pre-built patterns and tooling.
Speakers:

Andrew Humphreys

Andrew Humphreys is the Senior Product Manager for IBM Integration Bus (formally known as WebSphere Message Broker). He is responsible for ensuring the success of the product by defining and executing the vision, strategy and product roadmap to maximize the product's position the in the marketplace. Andrew has worked for IBM for 18 years and prior to joining the Product Management team he held a variety of roles in GBS, Software Services, Product Strategy and Technical Sales which has helped him build a combination of broad architectural skills, deep specialist knowledge in the areas of messaging, SOA, integration and BPM, and extensive customer-facing experience which allows him to engage effectively at all levels within IBM and customer organisations.

10:45 - 11:30


Title:
Transaction Tracking on DataPower SOA Appliances
Abstract:
This session focuses on how to configure IBM WebSphere DataPower to track message flows and get tips on how to use analytics to perform proactive diagnosis. Key takeaways:
· How to monitor the health and performance of IBM WebSphere DataPower SOA appliances
· Handling incorrect message format processing
· Tracking messages that come into IBM WebSphere DataPower, but are routed incorrectly
Speakers:

Scott Corrigan

VP Technology Services, Nastel
As Vice President of Technology Services, Scott Corrigan manages Nastel's technology related activities in the field, including sales engineering and services delivery. In his role, Scott leads a worldwide team that supports customers, sales and partners. With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Scott has architected software solutions and managed deployments to enable a large number of corporate customers to succeed in their business objectives. Scott's extensive track record in Enterprise Software in the United States and Europe empowers him to understand the technology challenges faced by global organizations. Prior to joining Nastel, Scott was with CA Technologies, Inc., where he held technical leadership roles in IT infrastructure and application management business units.

11:40 - 12:25


Title:
WebSphere MQ V8.0
Abstract:
WebSphere MQ is the world's leading messaging system used by most of the top fortune 500 companies. Millions of messages and trillions of dollars flow though MQ every day. In spite of this success the product continues to evolve and improve. Constant evolution and development is the bedrock of sustained success and WebSphere MQ is no exception to this process.

Why not take this opportunity to come along and listen in about the most recent changes and features in the WebSphere MQ product family, including JMS 2.0 support, LDAP authentication, SSL support for managed .NET, Client MQSC and much, much more. Come to this session to hear all about the latest updates to WebSphere MQ in the version 8 release.
Speakers:

Jon Rumsey

Jon has worked in IBM for 15 years designing, developing and servicing the WebSphere MQ product across a range of distributed platforms. His main areas of expertise include clients, channels, cryptography, the queue manager kernel and the IBM i platform. Jon currently has architectural responsibility for MQ AMS and channels.

Download:

13:30 - 14:15


Title:
Value through BPM: an IT approach
Abstract:
This sessions will show us what BPM is, how can it be a major block in every organization IT architecture and, most of all, how IT can leverage BPM to add real and perceived business value.

The last decade shown us a great journey on organizing the IT landscape in the distributed systems era. What started as large portfolios of decoupled applications, turned into a nightmare of rigid and highly coupled systems. Thanks to SOA, they are now becoming decoupled, presented as core and isolated services, flexible and manageable. Organizing the landscape was one of the major IT challenges we recently faced and SOA gave us the map and guidance on managing that integration complexity.

But that’s only part of the challenge. We addressed the IT pain and that added value. But your end users were not fully onboard yet, we are still talking a different language and IT is still struggling to deliver as quickly as needed.

Learn what BPM is and how it fits in your IT landscaping, while leveraging any SOA initiative you may have in place and orchestrating how things happens across your core systems and your human workers. Even if you don’t have an explicit SOA programme in place, BPM can fill a huge gap orchestrating a lot of system interactions, eventually becoming the ultimate driver for a more manageable IT architecture.
Speakers:

Marcelo Fernandes

Marcelo Fernandes is a Senior Manager leading an Expert Services unit at SAFIRA, an IBM Business Partner specialized in BPM and ODM. Marcelo has 13+ years of experience delivering IT solutions to solve business problems. Over the years Marcelo has worked extensively with Rules based-systems including BRMS-based solutions using ILOG/ODM. Leveraging SAFIRA BPM world class experience Marcelo's teams have worked in BPM initiatives in clients worldwide. Marcelo’s experience includes projects for leading organizations to support business improvement, with IBM technology. Currently Marcelo's teams are working in several clients in the UK, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Colombia and Chile.

Download:
(empty)

14:25 - 15:10


Title:
Differentiating Between Web APIs, SOA, & Integration - And Why It Matters
Abstract:
There are many similarities between the design techniques for the new trend of web APIs, and those we have seen maturing for many years for service oriented architecture (SOA). Indeed SOA could be seen as "just" an evolution of traditional integration, but that type of thinking was the beginning of the end for many SOA initiatives. Drawing on multiple customer experiences, this session will looks at the things that make web APIs unique from what came before, and the differences in how they are designed and implemented. Also, since no sizable enterprise is starting from scratch, we look at how existing integration architectures should be evolved to accommodate these new requirements.
Speakers:

Kim Clark

Kim Clark is a senior IT specialist focusing on design issues within BPM, integration, and SOA. He has been working on projects in the IT industry since 1993, and throughout has been collating, documenting and presenting on best practices

15:30 - 16:15


(empty slot)

16:25 - 17:10


(empty slot)

Digital Experience


09:30 - 10:15


Title:
Integrating Digital Experience with WebSphere Commerce and Connections using the Digital Data Connector
Abstract:
This session will outline and demonstrate the capabilities and latest innovations to integrate IBM Connections social services and WebSphere Commerce into the IBM Digital Experience platform.
Increasingly, businesses require a Digital Experience that integrates e-commerce capabilities alongside the usual suspects of web content, social collaboration capabilities, and self-service applications. Digital Data Connector (DDC) easily enables the display of commerce product information in your portal user interface. In this session you will learn how to configure DDC to consume e-commerce product information using examples such as WebSphere Commerce, Sterling Commerce, and social platforms like IBM Connections and customize the presentation of product listings using IBM Web Content Manager without coding.
Speakers:

Bernd Beilke

Bernd Beilke is a certified IT Specialist in the IBM Collaboration Solutions Brand based in Berlin, Germany. He joined IBM in 1997 and is working as a Client Technical Professional for Digital Experience in Germany, Europe and Middle East supporting customer engagements and doing field enablement and training. His areas of expertise include Portal, eForms and Social Software Solutions.

Download:
(empty)

10:45 - 11:30


Title:
Serviceability: how Portal developers can turn administrators into friends AND have more time for development
Abstract:
Developers are experts in delivering business functionality and constantly searching for better methods to meet functional requirements for their businesses but they often miss the opportunity to help meet the non-functional requirements key to satisfying today's users. Applying the same skills and techniques to supportability, configurability, availability and maintainability by considering your operational staff as another key stakeholder can dramatically improve these aspects. And don't despair, you don't need to start from scratch - your organisation's existing common approaches and frameworks can be used to address these aspects across projects. In this session we offer practical design advice to help your Portal applications respect the "-ilities" and to keep your administrators and users happy.
Speakers:

Graham Harper

Graham is a Senior System Architect and Consulting IT Specialist with IBM Software Services for Collaboration. He has been designing solutions using Lotus software for 22 years and with WebSphere Portal for over 10 years. He is a Sun Certified Java Architect and Programmer and an IBM Certified Solution Developer. Prior to joining Lotus 20 years ago, Graham worked as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse. Graham holds a BA in Mathematics and Computation from the University of Oxford.

Richard Shooter

Richard Shooter is a technical consultant with IBM Software Services in the UK.

Richard has led and contributed to a number of large enterprise IBM Portal projects with over the last 8 years.

Richard specialises in architecture design & implementation, and systems programming. Richard also has extensive experience in collaborative solutions, messaging systems and UNIX.

Download:

11:40 - 12:25


Title:
Do your business users control their own portal?
Abstract:
It is tempting - and in many case appropriate - to tightly control the ability to make changes to your production portal. However, the transition to more agile business practices is leading business owners to demand increasingly rapid turnaround on updates. Fortunately, WebSphere Portal offers a number of powerful features (like Managed Pages and the Script Portlet) to allow authorised non-administrators (and non-developers) to modify the portal. And when there is no out-of-the-box user interface for a requested function, there are always APIs with which you can create one. Come along to this session to discover the pros and cons of allowing business users to control different aspects of the portal, along with tips and techniques to make this control possible.
Speakers:

Graham Harper

Graham is a Senior System Architect and Consulting IT Specialist with IBM Software Services for Collaboration. He has been designing solutions using Lotus software for 22 years and with WebSphere Portal for over 10 years. He is a Sun Certified Java Architect and Programmer and an IBM Certified Solution Developer. Prior to joining Lotus 20 years ago, Graham worked as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse. Graham holds a BA in Mathematics and Computation from the University of Oxford.

13:30 - 14:15


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14:25 - 15:10


Title:
What you need to know about ExperienceOne
Abstract:
IBM ExperienceOne is the new IBM brand for Customer Experience Management. Due to the breadth and depth of the IBM software portfolio, ExperienceOne aims to deliver customer experience capabilities through one platform, whilst leveraging the market leading technologies IBM can bring to bear.
At the fore-front of this initiative is the IBM Digital Experience Portfolio, which enables the business to deliver empowering digital experiences to customers, in a seamless and easy way, whilst leveraging what they know about their customers to make the experience personal.
This session will outline this initiative and how IBM Digital Experiences leads the pack.
Speakers:

Chris Moore

My role is to articulate the value that IBM Collaboration Solutions can deliver to clients. My technology focus is around Social Collaboration and Digital Experiences; enabling the implementation of a Smarter Workforce, whilst being able to delight employees and customers using rich and engaging social, mobile and web experiences. I have worked in the social and digital experiences area for over 7 years and I'm aligned to organisations that are interested in pursuing the journey to become a Social Business, and how they make that journey a reality.

Download:
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15:30 - 16:15


(empty slot)

16:25 - 17:10


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Location: ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH - Edinburgh

Royal Society of Edinburgh Map

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.

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