With a network of thousands of independent insurance representatives throughout the U.S. and Canada selling term life insurance, Primerica’s corporate commitment to 24x7 processing with continuous availability and support goes without saying, as does its commitment to zEnterprise technology in its data centers. However, supporting and building upon a sound technology base also includes the ability to grow staff along with the technology and to implement more effective technology monitoring and problem diagnosis and resolution tools.

 Most of us, at one time or another, solicit the help of advisors in areas ranging from tax preparation to physical fitness. Why? Because they have expertise we don’t have and we can take advantage of that expertise to make more intelligent, better-informed decisions. Advisors gather data about our particular situation, analyze the information, and make recommendations. In some cases, we even entrust advisors to take action for us based on their analysis.

Here we continue our discussion of security over each path into the system, considering more complications over system access through batch jobs. With z/OS, the security comes from SAF; that is, the security software—RACF, ACF2, or TopSecret. We will examine some less well-known ways a user can submit a batch job that runs with some other userid, including through CICS submissions, Network Job Entry (NJE), and IBM’s Sterling Connect:Direct.

Archive and long-term data storage requirements are growing at a record pace. As a result, many businesses are wrestling with deciding whether to build their archive strategy on disk, tape, or a combination. According to IDC's June 2011 Digital Universe Study, the world's digital data is more than doubling every two years with approximately 1.8 zettabytes to be created and copied or replicated in 2011 and up to 7.9 zettabytes by 2015. In addition, individuals now generate up to 75 percent of all digital information. According to the study, the magnitude of 1.8 zettabytes of data is equivalent to:

In the March/April 2011 Mainframe Executive article, “Efficient Business Processing With Batch Modernization,” we explained the term “modern batch” and offered insights into why there’s a growing need to modernize batch processing. This article builds on that and explores IBM's Java batch product offering: WebSphere Compute Grid (WCG).

Customers face a glut of applications, including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Internet order processing, hotel check-in and check-out, cable television stations and retail clerks, to name a few. Customers demand the availability of accurate, timely data to complete their transactions.

Reputation-damaging corporate scandals, such as the Enron case in 2001, have highlighted the need for stronger compliance and regulations for publicly listed companies. Compliance regulations—such as Sarbanes-Oxley, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act—were created to ensure that financial, customer, and patient information is safeguarded and available for long periods of time.

Continuous availability and disaster recovery solutions aren’t just for disasters. System and application outages can be due to server or disk storage hardware failure, improper maintenance procedures, local building issues, human error, and, yes, disasters. IBM System z and IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex (GDPS) can help protect you from data loss and help ensure application availability from planned and unplanned outages.

A business provides value by meeting the needs of its customers. To deliver better service to customers, both the business and the IT department must understand the impact of any problems that occur with technology components or applications. When an application or technology component experiences a performance issue or a failure, how does the business or the IT department know exactly what business process or business transaction was affected and what impact it had on the business?

Callout: Batch processing is such an integral part of business operations that you should approach modernization in phases and with proper planning.