The Blog Log

Big iron bigots in the blogosphere

Wouldn't that be a great name for a mainframer's blog? It doesn't have quite the tongue-taunting twist of, say, Bob Loblaw's Law Blog, but it captures the unabashed admiration for and admitted bias toward the mainframe I've observed in many DB2 blogs. Of course, distributed DB2 enjoys a healthy presence, too, as do other information management topics. A search for DB2 on blogsearch.google.com turns up more than 26,000 results. Here's a list of the most useful, up-to-date, entertaining, and surprisingly funny entries I've found. Of course, these selections represent my humble opinion. Which blogs do you read? Drop me a line at db2mag@cmp.com to share your favorites.

—Kim Moutsos
Editor, DB2 Magazine

Getting the Most out of DB2 for z/OS
Blogger: IBM's Willie Favero, a certified IT software specialist for DB2 for z/OS (and self described "big-iron bigot")
Best bits: Tips on new features in v.8, big-iron poetry, acronym-soup observations
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/database/db2zos

DB2 Portal Blog
Blogger: Craig S. Mullins, data management strategist, researcher, and consultant (self-described mainframe bigot #2)
Best bits: DB2 for z/OS programming and performance tips, links to positive mainframe press and useful mainframe resources
http://www.db2portal.com/blog.html

An Expert's Guide to WebSphere Information Integration
Blogger: Vincent McBurney
Best bits: Transcript of a data warehouse help center call, solutions to embarrassing row leakage problems, a CIO's guide to ignoring data quality, a day in the life of a metadata zookeeper, plus actual advice on the WebSphere Ascential suite
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/bi/websphere

Build your Skill on DB2: books, certifications, tutorials, and more
Blogger: Susan Visser, IBM Information Management press program manager
Best Bits: Certification advice, sample questions and answers, and special offers, plus book news and discounts
http://ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/dw_blog.jspa?blog=551&roll=0