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We are pleased to confirm that the next meeting of the WebSphere User Group (UK) will take place on Monday 25th April 2016, to be held in the IBM Client Centre at IBM South Bank, London. There will be no charge for this meeting and as usual we aim to have an excellent agenda lined up, covering a range of current and emerging WebSphere technologies.
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.
Application Platform 1
Session 1
Title:
WebSphere Technical Update - On Premise and in the Cloud
Abstract:
Over the last year WebSphere became the first production-ready Java EE 7 certified runtime, and we delivered it on the cloud as well as on-premise - running in Docker containers as well as VMs on a variety of clouds. Our recent announcements at InterConnect set the direction for new hybrid cloud scenarios to access cloud services from on-premise and to manage on-premise WebSphere deployments from Bluemix, including the integration of our new API Connect technologies with WAS as part of WebSphere Connect. I'll talk about all the latest WAS announcements and discuss the strategic direction of WAS, including the evolution of portable, open and composable dockerized application patterns and our progress on putting WebSphere at the heart of every cloud.
Speakers:
Ian Robinson
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
Liberty Profile @ Fidelity
Abstract:
This session aims to show Fidelity’s journey to using lightweight containers and how automation & self-service now drives wider adoption of the Liberty profile.
Speakers:
Lee FitzHenry
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
Touring WebSphere in the cloud through live demonstrations
Abstract:
If you are thinking about moving to "The Cloud" but are hesitating because your IT environment is firmly anchored to the ground. Come and find out how to leverage your current WebSphere application and data investments to make the cloud work for you. Using sample applications, we will demonstrate how to deploy and run your WebSphere applications in the cloud, connecting to your enterprise data, without changing application code, and leveraging your existing automation scripts and WebSphere skills.We will also demonstrate enhanced scenarios that showcase endless possibilities, which are at your fingertips with WebSphere in the cloud, connecting to new born on the cloud Node.js applications, APIs, and Bluemix services, together bringing new innovative and engaging experiences to your customers. You will see that getting your applications to the cloud is easier than you might have thought.
Speakers:
Kevin Postreich
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
Is WebSphere Liberty the Right Choice?
Abstract:
This session compare capabilities at a low level and will share advice on how to choose the best WebSphere option for your deployment. It will also discuss how to examine applications using WebSphere migration tools to determine where they will run. Attendees will see how WebSphere Liberty has increased in capabilities, both API and operational, and how the considerations for WebSphere deployments have been evolving
Speakers:
Alex Mulholland
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
WebSphere Liberty In The Wild
Abstract:
Alex will present the latest updates on Liberty and take a closer look at how customers are building new application infrastructures around this flexible Java EE production runtime. Attendees will learn about the latest Liberty capabilities and how other users are exploiting the unique characteristics of liberty to build modern java application platforms using new dev/ops patterns both on-premise and in the cloud.
Speakers:
Alex Mulholland
Download:
[not available]
Application Platform 2
Session 1
Title:
IBM CICS and Liberty: What You Need to Know
Abstract:
This session provides an overview and update on the embedded WebSphere Liberty Profile included in CICS TS v5.3. Covering technology essentials, supported core Liberty features and new and enhanced CICS TS Liberty features, as well as a set of real-life application development scenarios, you will learn about the benefits of using this new CICS capability. The session will include a demo of how to expose an existing CICS COBOL application as a Liberty Web Application and as a JSON Web Service.
Speakers:
Jonathan P Lawrence
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
Using IBM WebSphere Liberty and Swagger to Make your Services Accessible
Abstract:
Most enterprises already have a wealth of services in production, but there's no list or documentation to help clients understand use what's available. Find out how IBM WebSphere Liberty can help applications self document their APIs using Swagger.
Speakers:
Anita Rass Wan, Kevin Postreich
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
WebSphere Liberty, Microservices and Bluemix
Abstract:
This session will explore why WebSphere Liberty is the ideal runtime for microservice architectures, either as part of new cloud native application, or as part of the evolution of an existing monolithic WebSphere application to a hybrid cloud solution. It will look at how Liberty can be used to develop 12 factor applications and additionally cover the areas of security and how to test your microservices. Finally, the IBM GameOn microservice reference architecture (running in Bluemix), will be used to provide a demonstration of the topics covered.
Speakers:
Adam Pilkington
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
WebSphere and Docker: The Next Chapter
Abstract:
In previous WebSphere User Group meetings we've looked at the value that containerising applications with Docker can bring and the initial work that was done in creating a WebSphere Liberty image for Docker Hub. This session will cover the next chapter as the story unfolds. We'll demonstate the support being added to WebSphere Developer Tools for working with containerised Liberty instances, using collectives to manage containers running WebSphere Liberty and Node.js, and scaling a Liberty application across a Docker Datacenter deployment with Docker Compose. We'll also look at how WebSphere Application Server traditional can benefit from the use of containers.
Speakers:
David Currie
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
WebSphere eXtreme Scale advanced caching topics
Abstract:
Please attend to hear Greg Reid (a WXS SME with several years of experience at some of our "most challenging" WXS clients) present and also demonstrate some of the more advanced features of WXS, including: •How to choose between the implementation options (e.g. WAS-managed vs standalone; XDF vs non-XDF, heap vs XM, WXS vs IMDB)•Production topology considerations / suggestions•Partitioning data for best query performance•A technique for using a multi-tiered key/value rather than ObjectQuery or EntityManager•How to effectively use near cache•How to use indexes, composite indexes, and global indexes •Continuous Query•Loaders•Several ways of preloading cache content•Dual-datacenter topologies with MMR•Grid-side processing (e.g. map/reduce Agents)•Keeping the cache content in synch with the backend resources•And more!Some of these topics may be of interest for your current or future projects
Speakers:
Greg Reid
Download:
[not available]
Hybrid Cloud & DevOps
Session 1
Title:
Best Practices for Integrating Your Applications Using IBM Digital Experience
Abstract:
As a leader in the Gartner magic quadrant for horizontal portals, IBM WebSphere Portal offers a comprehensive set of technologies to integrate and aggregate content and functionality from other applications. As a result, it can sometimes be difficult to decide on the best approach to use in a given integration scenario. In this session we examine the characteristics of a number of different integration techniques (Web Application Bridge, Digital Data Connector, Web Application Integrator, custom portlets etc.) and give you some practical advice on which might be the best for particular scenarios.
Speakers:
Andrew Tomlinson, Graham Harper
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
WAS Liberty Install: For Dev, Ops and DevOps
Abstract:
WAS Liberty has a number of install approaches. Each exists for a reason but sometimes it's not clear where to start. This talk will focus on WAS Liberty's zip, command line install, server package and configuration capabilities. It will describe how developers can get started with small targeted installs and add new capabilities as and when they're needed. It will show how operators can get an all-in-one package that fits their entitlement, and it will show how developers and operators can collaborate, easily taking a runtime from development, through to production, providing configuration for the different environments.
Speakers:
Ashley Robertson, Graham Charters
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
Eclipse Maven Jenkins Lars and Docker. A continuous delivery pipeline using WebSphere Liberty
Abstract:
Organizations that deliver value quickly gain the competitive edge. Long release cycles with waterfall processes requiring long maintenance windows are yesterday's way. Today, development teams have adopted Agile processes to deliver valuable function in small, short increments. DevOps makes that real by enabling the automated testing and configuration management required to maintain an enterprise application in production. This session will show the build out of a continuous delivery pipeline for an application developed in Eclipse with the WebSphere Developer Tools and Apache Maven, pushed to Git, built by Jenkins into a Docker image, by making use of the Liberty Asset Repository Service (LARS), and deployed to 'production'. This is just one combination of technologies you can use to build a continuous delivery pipeline with WebSphere Liberty.
Speakers:
Jeremy Hughes
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
DevOps: The Harmonious, Polygamous Marriage of Agile, Lean and ITSM
Abstract:
In this session Helen will explain why, in many respects, DevOps isn’t something new but the natural evolution and convergence of three key IT methodologies that all contribute to the goal of making better software, faster and more safely. Together they bring to life key DevOps concepts such as releasing on demand, shifting left, measuring ideation to realisation and failing smartly. Using case studies from projects she has worked on, Helen will show how embracing these principles and others, such as Agile Service Management contribute to changing cultures so that they are frictionless, innovation machines with their eye firmly on the customer’s needs along with sharing practical advice on how to drive change.
Speakers:
Helen Beal
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
Infrastructure as Code (IAC): A Review of Tools & Techniques for Managing WebSphere Middleware
Abstract:
Treating infrastructure as code is starting to gain attention in the industry. It is an approach that can be used to manage complex middleware environments. Also known as programmable infrastructure, IAC, means writing code (using a high level or any descriptive language) to manage configurations, automate provisioning of infrastructure and for application deployments. IAC is not too different from scripting, that is commonly used for infrastructure automation. The problem with scripts is that they automate static steps and have limited flexibility and ability to implement complex actions. How many times have you manually applied the same steps or run the same script when creating a WebSphere Application Server, MQ or IIB instance. , or relied on another team to set up WebSphere environment for you? What if all of these actions were scripted and versioned just like the rest of applications using the WebSphere middleware.? This talk examines the concepts behind IAC, the key approaches being used and the different tools on the market that use IAC. Our experience with tools like Chef, Puppet, Urbancode and Talos will be shared. The basics of each of these tools — along with their similarities, use cases, and differences will be discussed.
Speakers:
Scott Bybee, Richard Caldeira
Download:
[not available]
Hybrid Cloud
Session 1
Title:
Real-time, Operational Intelligence for Java Applications
Abstract:
Application developers often need to get real-time diagnostics for the entire Java application – logs, metrics and transactions.  Specifically, developers need to detect anomalies, discover topologies, and analyze application behavior to rapidly diagnose issues and determine causality. This presentation examines various methods that developers can use to turn machine data such as logs, metrics and transactions into operational intelligence.
Speakers:
Scott Corrigan
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
Managing complex Applications in a Hybrid World
Abstract:
Understanding the behaviour of todays ever more complex applications can be a daunting task. With an ever increasing reliance on direct customer engagement, it is critical that we consider measurement and optimisation of performance from design inception to production delivery. See how IBM's service management tools can help to provide valuable insights to your applications behaviour, from a user's interaction, down to code level diagnostics, utilising powerful analytics capabilities to predict anomalous patterns of behaviour from underlying service metrics.
Speakers:
Stephen Ferguson
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
Introduction to Blockchain
Abstract:
Blockchain is a shared, replicated ledger that underpins technology such as Bitcoin. Blockchain's reach is wider than cryptocurrency however, as it sets out to provide the foundation for a new generation of transactional applications that establish trust and transparency, while streamlining business processes. Are you curious about Blockchain and what it can do for your business? This session gives an overview of Blockchain, why it is so important and how IBM can help on your path to adoption of this exciting technology
Speakers:
Matt Lucas
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
Introduction to Bluemix
Abstract:
Learn the fundamentals of IBM's digital cloud platform - API's and services, rapid prototyping and flexible compute options.
Speakers:
Edmund Shee
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
Making Sense of the madness around Security Tokens
Abstract:
Today we have a lot of "standard" security tokens, formats and protocols, such as OAuth, SAML, OpenID, OpenID Connect, SPNEGO, and so on. Why so many? What are they? Which one(s) do I really need? During this presentation we will examine these questions to establish a basic level of understanding on what these tokens are and how can they can be used in your organization
Speakers:
Michael Cheng
Download:
[not available]
Integration
Session 1
Title:
Hybrid Integration: Extending the reach of your enterprise
Abstract:
The ownership boundary of the typical enterprise now encompasses a much broader landscape, reaching out to cloud native development platforms, software as a service, depnedencies on external APIs from business partners, a mobile workforce and digital channels. The integration surface area is dramatically increased and the integration patterns to support it are evolving just as quickly. Find out IBMs vision for this new Hybrid Integration landscape, and how that plays into the direction for products that make up IBM Application Integration Suite (IBM Integration Bus, CastIron, API Connect) , and understand the value of the brand new offering IBM AppConnect.
Speakers:
Kim Clark
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
What's New in IBM Integration Bus
Abstract:
As IBM's strategic integration technology for all enterprise integration use-cases, IBM Integration Bus (IIB) continues to deliver new capabitilites that address diverse integration needs. This session will describe all the latest developments up to and including the 10.0.0.4 release (delivered end of March 2016) which provided improved REST and JSON support, a Callable Flows feature for hybrid cloud scenarios and a Salesforce Request node.
Speakers:
Ben Thompson
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
IIB and API's, services, applications and libraries
Abstract:
Speakers:
Ben Thompson
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
Microservices: Where do they fit within a rapidly evolving integration architecture?
Abstract:
Do microservices force us to look differently at the way we lay down and evolve our integration architecture, or are they purely about how we build applications? Are microservices a new concept, or an evolution of the many ideas that came before them? What is the relationship between microservices and other key initiatives such as APIs, SOA, and Agile. In this session, we will unpick what microservices really are, and indeed what they are not. We will consider whether there is something unique about this particular point time in technology that has enables microservice concepts to take hold. Finally, we will look at if, when, where and how an enterprise can take on the benefits of microservices, and what products and technologies are applicable for that journey.
Speakers:
Kim Clark
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
APIs: from architecture to implementation
Abstract:
Apis have been around forever.Where is all the buzz around API economy coming from?This session discusses the different types of apis emerging in the architecture of an organisation and how they play a key role in the digital strategy of an enterprise. We are going to position the core components of of a end to end API platform and then move from theory to practice, showing how to rapidly build a micro service and expose an API, leveraging the node.js capabilities included in IBM API Connect after the acquisition of StrongLoop.
Speakers:
Carlo Marcoli, Gary Kean
Download:
[not available]
Messaging
Session 1
Title:
Where is my message?
Abstract:
Every MQ infrastructure team member has been asked the question, and most developers who have worked with MQ have asked it: "Where is my message?". In this session we look into the tools that MQ provides to find your messages. We demonstrate how to analyze the MQ recovery log on distributed platforms to find out what happened to your persistent messages, with the assistance of tools provided with the product. We also look at how to trace the route messages take through your MQ infrastructure, and how to generate and analyze activity reports showing the behavior of MQ applications.
Speakers:
Jon Rumsey
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
An introduction to publish/subscribe with IBM MQ
Abstract:
IBM MQ allows application programmers to use the publish/subscribe application model with ease. This session takes you through the fundamental publish/subscribe concepts and how they relate to IBM MQ. Covering aspects of system design, configuration and application programming.
Speakers:
David Ware
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
Hybrid Cloud Messaging
Abstract:
Integrating cloud apps with your existing systems of record is essential to create truly engaging applications and messaging is the secret ingredient when linking these worlds together. This session will cover how to extend your on-premise MQ infrastructure into the cloud taking advantage of cloud deployment technologies and IBM's Message Hub.
Speakers:
Andrew Schofield
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
What's new in IBM Messaging
Abstract:
Integrating cloud applications with your existing systems of record is essential to create truly engaging applications, and messaging is the secret ingredient when linking these worlds together. This session will cover what's new in IBM MQ and Messaging and how it is continually evolving to integrate into the wider ecosystem. For IBM MQ we'll see how features have continued to be delivered since IBM MQ V8 was first released and how they can be used to create an efficient and reliable messaging infrastructure whether on-premise or in the cloud. We'll also cover new messaging capabilities such as MQ Light and IBM's Message Hub.
Speakers:
David Ware
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
Designing MQ self service
Abstract:
Businesses are transforming their enterprise IT infrastructure so that application teams can provision resources in an automated, self-service or "as-a-Service" fashion, often from a self-service portal or as part of an on-premise Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). In this session, we explain the tools and techniques that are available to integrate MQ into such an environment. This changes an MQ deployment from a high-touch activity with significant interaction between humans on the application and middleware teams to an automated, efficient process.
Speakers:
David Ware
Download:
[not available]
Process Transformation
Session 1
Title:
What's new in BPM v8.5.7
Abstract:
A lot has happened in IBM Business Process Manager over the last year.Come for this quick overview tour of all the new enhancements introduced in 8.5.7.This session provides a broad overview of what's new in the latest release of IBM BPM.If can you only attend a single session on BPM, this is it.
Speakers:
Claudio Tagliabue, Francesca Sutton
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
How ODM Operational Decision Manager can help with the companies ever changing Business Rules
Abstract:
An overview of encapsulating your rules that run the business and allowing a rule engine to make the decisions based on the business data and the current rules defined.
Speakers:
Mike Johnson
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
Process Transformation & IBM Blueworks Live
Abstract:
Business Process Management is a discipline that leverages technology to provide total visibility into your organization to discover, document, automate and continuously improve business processes. This session will start with an overview of Business Process Management and an introduction into the IBM solutions for this area, followed by a deep dive into Blueworks Live with a live demonstration and discussion.
Speakers:
Sam Weeks
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
Introduction to Cognitive Business Operations
Abstract:
Cognitive business operations are processes and decisions that can sense, respond and learn when infused with Cognitive capabilities. Using dark data unused to the business to better understand and learn can make a major difference to enhance knowledge workers and the tasks they do as well as decision-making context and the external business environment. In this session Matt & Andy will share the value of doing this along with patterns on how to bring cognitive capabilities to business operations by infusing business process management (BPM) solutions and ODM business rules with IBM Watson technologies.
Speakers:
Andy Ritchie, Matthew Roberts
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
DevOps and IBM BPM - Shifting Left Together
Abstract:
In this session, you will learn how IBM have enabled a major UK financial services establishment to begin the journey towards DevOps, by automating application deployment using IBM UrbanCode Deploy.Whilst the session focuses upon IBM BPM, we will also cover how UrbanCode is being used more broadly with a wider range of IBM middleware, including IBM Integration Bus, IBM Operational Decision Management and IBM Business Monitor.We will finish by describing the journey upon which the client is embarking as they move towards the automation of environment builds, over and above application management.
Speakers:
Dave Hay
Download:
[not available]
Runtimes
Session 1
Title:
Emerging Web Application Architectures with Java and Node.js
Abstract:
Node.js has been rapidly growing in popularity in recent years. Now backed by enterprise vendors like IBM, Intel and Microsoft through the Node Foundation, and in use at companies like LinkedIn, WalMart and PayPal, Node.js is a serious option for enterprise web applications. But that doesn't diminish the importance of Java and Java Application Servers. In fact, a number of emerging architectures for enterprise web applications bring together the web scale and integrated browser experience characteristics of Node.js with the highly optimized and resilient transactional characteristics of Java to deliver reliable, high-performance and engaging web applications. Come learn more about the complimentary characteristics of Node.js and Java and how you will want to use both to build the next generation of web applications.
Speakers:
Chris Bailey
Download:
[not available]
Session 2
Title:
Introducing Swift: the mobile language that's coming to the cloud
Abstract:
Swift is a new programming language, designed by Apple to be the future of iOS development. Since it was open-sourced last year, IBM has been working to bring Swift to the cloud, on Linux. Why? Join this talk to learn the basics of Swift, how IBM is working to bring it to the enterprise, and how you can get started with Swift today.
Speakers:
Ian Partridge
Download:
[not available]
Session 3
Title:
What's new in the IBM SDK for Java
Abstract:
Java SE 8 is the latest release of the Java platform that powers much of IBM's software and provides functionality for you to get your work done. In this session, we describe the new features currently under development in the virtual machine and associated libraries and tooling. Come and learn how to be more productive as a developer, use new techniques for exploiting modern hardware to process large volumes of data in parallel, move data efficiently across the network, and exploit the virtualization potential of your data center.
Speakers:
Will Smith
Download:
[not available]
Session 4
Title:
Self-monitoring applications with the Health Center API
Abstract:
IBM Health Center is a free tool for Java that allows real-time monitoring of Java applications to track things like CPU usage, memory usage, garbage collection patterns and class/method invocations. It has been present in every version of IBM Java since version 5. Over the last year considerable work has been put into the tool to allow access to the data it provides via a lightweight API, allowing application programmers to create their own monitoring clients, or to monitor their applications from directly within the application itself. This session will present the API framework and have several demos to showcase what can be done with the new technology.
Speakers:
Matthew Colegate
Download:
[not available]
Session 5
Title:
IBM and Node.js: Open source development and the Node.js Foundation
Abstract:
The IBM SDK for Node.js is based on the community's open source Node.js codebase. Over the past two years or so we have added functionality to Node.js codebase to support more platforms and add functionality such as internationalisation and FIPS-enablement. This presentation will cover our community contribution story and the issues involved, and talk about the Node.js foundation that controls the project.
Speakers:
Stewart Addison
Download:
[not available]
