CA Partners

GuardIEn 8.0

GuardIEn 8.0 from IET was launched to coincide with the launch of CA Gen 8.0 in May this year.  It offers much in the way of new functionality – some to fit in with what CA Gen r8 is giving, but more importantly, extra functionality which will be of use even if you’re not upgrading to r8 – since GuardIEn 8.0 is compatible with releases of CA Gen back to 6.0 !

The way GuardIEn has developed over the last decade (and more) is largely down to the way that the IET guys have listened to how its used by their customers and come up with ways to solve common problems and requirements. The result of this is a product that ACTUALLY does what you want it to do – rather than one that is advertised as such, and then disappoints – not so with GuardIEn – it does what you’d expect and a whole lot more !

In the new release, for example, are new ways to assess the impact of changes, more granular ways to manage your releases and more !

IET recently issued SpotlIEt’s July 2010 Edition – check it out here….

Date for your Diary – and, yes – it’s FREE !

The 2010 UK & Ireland CA Gen Users Day will take place on 6th/7th October 2010 in the Midlands area of England.

The venue is yet to be decided, but if the last 2 years’ events are anything to go by they will be well worth attending, not just for the camaraderie and meetups with old friends, but for the information and experiences that are gained during the event.
This years’ programme will consist of a social event, followed by a full day of exciting and innovative experiences.

As ever, the USERS of CA Gen are by far the most important focus, so if you have a story to tell, some experiences to share or want to suggest a session, please drop me a line at info@gentalk.biz

Remember – its a USER day, so reserve the dates- 6th/7th October 2010!

To componentise or not ?

I have long postulated over componentisation (generally and within Gen) – I speak to people who evangelise about components and how they are a good thing, increasing productivity, flexibility and getting reuse out of your application assets in a controlled fashion.

I haven’t been particularly “into” components and CBD, preferring the traditional approach of utilising common code, as opposed to components.

One of the things that has always put me off investigating componentisation in more detail is that there seemed to be more management of “bits of stuff” required than “traditional” development. You had to have different models, specifications and implementations etc. whereas just a common action block would do, so, in my opinion, the amount of effort required to manage those “bits of stuff” outweighed the benefits of componentisation (rightly or wrongly!).

I therefore was surprised that I took a fresh look at componentisation – at CA World a couple of weeks ago, in the context of a workshop with IET and their new GuardIEn 8.0 product – when I wasn’t expecting to.

As a long-time GuardIEn user, I was aware of the fact that in a large-scale Gen site, you can’t do without it for model and configuration management, but stretch that a little further and get it to manage your “bits of stuff” in the CBD world. So – now the amount of effort required on the configuration management side of things is reduced/eliminated then the benefits of a component-based approach become more tangible.

Stop Press! May Mainframe Madness extended!

CA have extended May Mainframe Madness into June ! You can still access the presentations, product demonstrations and podcasts until the end of June – the link is the same (http://www.ca.com/mmm). Don’t forget to visit the CA Gen booth and understand the strategy and vision for CA Gen, and hear about the partner products within the ecosystem.

Perhaps someone could suggest a new name – “June Juggernaut Jollines?” – all entries gratefully received – just leave a comment.

Download CA World 2010 Sessions

The sessions from CA World 2010 are available from the CA World website for download – there are many CA Gen sessions (the ones that I attended!) and more of course!