This IBM® Redbooks® publication is a detailed technical guide to the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller (SVC), which is powered by IBM Spectrum™ Virtualize V8.2.1. IBM SAN Volume Controller is a virtualization appliance solution that maps virtualized volumes that are visible to hosts and applications to physical volumes on storage devices. Each server within the storage area network (SAN) has its own set of virtual storage addresses that are mapped to physical addresses. If the physical addresses change, the server continues running by using the same virtual addresses that it had before. Therefore, volumes or storage can be added or moved while the server is still running. The IBM virtualization technology improves the management of information at the block level in a network, which enables applications and servers to share storage devices on a network.

This document is intended to facilitate the deployment of the scalable hybrid cloud solution for data agility and collaboration using IBM® Spectrum Scale across multiple public clouds. To complete the tasks it describes, you must understand IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM Spectrum Scale Active File Management (AFM). The information in this document is distributed on an basis without any warranty that is either expressed or implied. Support assistance for the use of this material is limited to situations where IBM Spectrum Scale or IBM Spectrum Scale Active File Management are supported and entitled, and where the issues are specific to a blueprint implementation.

This document is intended to facilitate the deployment of the Multicloud Solution for Business Continuity and Storage as service by using IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS). To complete the tasks it describes, you must understand IBM FlashSystem 9100, IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud, IBM Spectrum Connect, VMware vRealize Orchestrator, and vRealize Automation and AWS Cloud. The information in this document is distributed on an "as is" basis without any warranty that is either expressed or implied. Support assistance for the use of this material is limited to situations where IBM Storwize or IBM FlashSystem storage devices are supported and entitled and where the issues are specific to a blueprint implementation.

This Blueprint is intended to define the infrastructure that is required for a blockchain remote peer and to facilitate the deployment of IBM Blockchain Platform on IBM Cloud Private using that infrastructure. This infrastructure includes the necessary document handler components, such as IBM Blockchain Document Store, and covers the required storage for on-chain and off-chain blockchain data. To complete these tasks, you must have a basic understanding of each of the used components or have access the correct educational material to gain that knowledge.

This IBM® Redbooks® Product Guide is an overview of the main characteristics, features, and technology that are used in IBM FlashSystem® A9000Model 425, with IBM FlashSystem A9000 Software V12.3.2. Software version 12.3.2, with Hyper-Scale Manager version 5.6 or later, introduces support for VLAN tagging and port trunking. IBM FlashSystem A9000 storage system uses the IBM FlashCore® technology to help realize higher capacity and improved response times over disk-based systems and other competing flash and solid-state drive (SSD)-based storage. The extreme performance of IBM FlashCore technology with a grid architecture and comprehensive data reduction creates one powerful solution. Whether you are a service provider who requires highly efficient management or an enterprise that is implementing cloud on a budget, FlashSystem A9000 provides consistent and predictable microsecond response times and the simplicity that you need. The A9000 features always on data reduction and now offers intelligent capacity management for deduplication. As a cloud optimized solution, FlashSystem A9000 suits the requirements of public and private cloud providers who require features, such as inline data deduplication, multi-tenancy, and quality of service. It also uses powerful software-defined storage capabilities from IBM Spectrum™ Accelerate, such as Hyper-Scale technology, VMware, and storage container integration.

This IBM® Redbooks® Product Guide is an overview of the main characteristics, features, and technology that are used in IBM FlashSystem® A9000R Model 415 and Model 425, with IBM FlashSystem A9000R Software V12.3.2. Software version 12.3.2, with Hyper-Scale Manager version 5.6 or later, introduces support for VLAN tagging and port trunking.. IBM FlashSystem A9000R is a grid-scale, all-flash storage platform designed for industry leaders with rapidly growing cloud storage and mixed workload environments to help drive your business into the cognitive era. FlashSystem A9000R provides consistent, extreme performance for dynamic data at scale, integrating the microsecond latency and high availability of IBM FlashCore® technology. The rack-based offering comes integrated with the world class software features that are built with IBM Spectrum™ Accelerate. For example, comprehensive data reduction, including inline pattern removal, data deduplication, and compression, helps lower total cost of ownership (TCO) while the grid architecture and IBM Hyper-Scale framework simplify and automate storage administration. The A9000R features always on data reduction and now offers intelligent capacity management for deduplication. Ready for the cloud and well-suited for large deployments, FlashSystem A9000R delivers predictable high performance and ultra-low latency, even under heavy workloads with full data reduction enabled. As a result, the grid-scale architecture maintains this performance by automatically self-optimizing workloads across all storage resources without manual intervention.

This information is intended to facilitate the deployment of IBM® FlashSystem for the Epic Corporation electronic health record (EHR) solution by describing the requirements and specifications for configuring IBM FlashSystem® 9100 and its parameters. The document also describes the steps that are required to configure the server that host the EHR application. To complete the tasks, you must have a working knowledge of IBM FlashSystem 9100 and Epic applications. The information in this document is distributed on an "as is" basis, without any warranty that is either expressed or implied. Support assistance for the use of this material is limited to situations where IBM FlashSystem storage devices are supported and entitled and where the issues are not specific to a blueprint implementation.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication presents an overview of the IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex™ (IBM GDPS®) offerings and the roles they play in delivering a business IT resilience solution. The book begins with general concepts of business IT resilience and disaster recovery, along with issues related to high application availability, data integrity, and performance. These topics are considered within the framework of government regulation, increasing application and infrastructure complexity, and the competitive and rapidly changing modern business environment. Next, it describes the GDPS family of offerings with specific reference to how they can help you achieve your defined goals for disaster recovery and high availability. Also covered are the features that simplify and enhance data replication activities, the prerequisites for implementing each offering, and tips for planning for the future and immediate business requirements. Tables provide easy-to-use summaries and comparisons of the offerings. The extra planning and implementation services available from IBM also are explained. Then, several practical client scenarios and requirements are described, along with the most suitable GDPS solution for each case. The introductory chapters of this publication are intended for a broad technical audience, including IT System Architects, Availability Managers, Technical IT Managers, Operations Managers, System Programmers, and Disaster Recovery Planners. The subsequent chapters provide more technical details about the GDPS offerings, and each can be read independently for those readers who are interested in specific topics. Therefore, if you read all of the chapters, be aware that some information is intentionally repeated.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication documents and addresses topics to set up a complete infrastructure environment and tune the applications to use an IBM POWER9™ hardware architecture with the technical computing software stack. This publication is driven by a CORAL project solution. It explores, tests, and documents how to implement an IBM High-Performance Computing (HPC) solution on a POWER9 processor-based system by using IBM technical innovations to help solve challenging scientific, technical, and business problems. This book documents the HPC clustering solution with InfiniBand on IBM Power Systems™ AC922 8335-GTH and 8335-GTX servers with NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 graphics processing units (GPUs) with NVLink, software components, and the IBM Spectrum™ Scale parallel file system. This solution includes recommendations about the components that are used to provide a cohesive clustering environment that includes job scheduling, parallel application tools, scalable file systems, administration tools, and a high-speed interconnect. This book is divided into three parts: Part 1 focuses on the planners of the solution, Part 2 focuses on the administrators, and Part 3 focuses on the developers. This book targets technical professionals (consultants, technical support staff, IT architects, and IT specialists) who are responsible for delivering cost-effective HPC solutions that help uncover insights among clients' data so that they can act to optimize business results, product development, and scientific discoveries.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides both introductory information and technical details about the IBM System z® Personal Development Tool (IBM zPDT®), which produces a small System z environment suitable for application development. zPDT is a PC Linux application. When zPDT is installed (on Linux), normal System z operating systems (such as IBM z/OS®) can be run on it. zPDT provides the basic System z architecture and emulated IBM 3390 disk drives, 3270 interfaces, OSA interfaces, and so on. The systems that are discussed in this document are complex. They have elements of Linux (for the underlying PC machine), IBM z/Architecture® (for the core zPDT elements), System z I/O functions (for emulated I/O devices), z/OS (the most common System z operating system), and various applications and subsystems under z/OS. The reader is assumed to be familiar with general concepts and terminology of System z hardware and software elements, and with basic PC Linux characteristics. This book provides the primary documentation for zPDT.

Every decade since the 1960s, researchers at companies like IBM, Amazon, and many others have introduced major new frameworks and techniques to handle rising data management problems. This concise ebook explains how these new systems helped data science evolve quickly—from hierarchical and relational databases to big data and cloud computing to streaming and graph data. Computer scientist Paco Nathan shows members of your data science team how major companies created each of these data management systems not just to deal with new data types but also to take full advantage of the opportunities the data presented. Their efforts over the years have propelled an entire industry. This report covers the historical progression of data management topics including: Hierarchical databases—1960s mainframe batch systems are still used in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and other industries. Relational databases—these enabled faster transactions, mathematical optimization, and budgeting guarantees for many businesses. Big data—this includes relatively cheap horizontal scale-out systems for collecting huge amounts of customer data. Cloud computing—large companies began managing reliable, scalable, cost-effective data centers; Amazon turned the concept into a business. Cluster schedulers—managing horizontal clusters was difficult before schedulers such as Apache Mesos appeared. Streaming data—data continuously generated by different sources requires responses in "real time"—generally milliseconds.

Note: This is a republication of IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition V1.2.6: Installation and Configuration Guide with new book number SG24-8445 to keep the content available on the Internet along with the recent publication IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition V1.3.0: Installation and Configuration Guide, SG24-8333. This IBM® Redbooks® publication helps you with the planning, installation, and configuration of the new IBM Spectrum™ Archive V1.2.6 for the IBM TS3310, IBM TS3500, IBM TS4300, and IBM TS4500 tape libraries. IBM Spectrum Archive™ EE enables the use of the LTFS for the policy management of tape as a storage tier in an IBM Spectrum Scale™ based environment. It helps encourage the use of tape as a critical tier in the storage environment. This is the sixth edition of IBM Spectrum Archive Installation and Configuration Guide. IBM Spectrum Archive EE can run any application that is designed for disk files on a physical tape media. IBM Spectrum Archive EE supports the IBM Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium 8, 7, 6, and 5 tape drives in IBM TS3310, TS3500, TS4300, and TS4500 tape libraries. In addition, IBM TS1155, TS1150, and TS1140 tape drives are supported in TS3500 and TS4500 tape library configurations. IBM Spectrum Archive EE can play a major role in reducing the cost of storage for data that does not need the access performance of primary disk. The use of IBM Spectrum Archive EE to replace disks with physical tape in tier 2 and tier 3 storage can improve data access over other storage solutions because it improves efficiency and streamlines management for files on tape. IBM Spectrum Archive EE simplifies the use of tape by making it transparent to the user and manageable by the administrator under a single infrastructure. This publication is intended for anyone who wants to understand more about IBM Spectrum Archive EE planning and implementation. This book is suitable for IBM clients, IBM Business Partners, IBM specialist sales representatives, and technical specialists.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication covers IBM TS7700 R4.2. The IBM TS7700 is part of a family of IBM Enterprise tape products. This book is intended for system architects and storage administrators who want to integrate their storage systems for optimal operation. Building on over 20 years of virtual tape experience, the TS7760 now supports the ability to store virtual tape volumes in an object store. The TS7700 has supported off loading to physical tape for over two decades. Off loading to physical tape behind a TS7700 is utilized by hundreds of organizations around the world. Using the same hierarchical storage techniques, the TS7700 can also off load to object storage. Given object storage is cloud based and accessible from different regions, the TS7760 Cloud Storage Tier support essentially allows the cloud to be an extension of the grid. As of the release of this document, the TS7760C supports the ability to off load to IBM Cloud Object Storage as well as Amazon S3. To learn about the TS7760 cloud storage tier function, planning, implementation, best practices, and support see IBM Redpaper IBM TS7760 R4.2 Cloud Storage Tier Guide, redp-5514 at: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5514.html The IBM TS7700 offers a modular, scalable, and high-performance architecture for mainframe tape virtualization for the IBM Z® environment. It is a fully integrated, tiered storage hierarchy of disk and tape. This storage hierarchy is managed by robust storage management microcode with extensive self-management capability. It includes the following advanced functions: Improved reliability and resiliency Reduction in the time that is needed for the backup and restore process Reduction of services downtime that is caused by physical tape drive and library outages Reduction in cost, time, and complexity by moving primary workloads to virtual tape More efficient procedures for managing daily backup and restore processing Infrastructure simplification through reduction of the number of physical tape libraries, drives, and media TS7700 delivers the following new capabilities: TS7760C supports the ability to off load to IBM Cloud Object Storage as well as Amazon S3 8-way Grid Cloud consisting of any generation of TS7700 Synchronous and asynchronous replication Tight integration with IBM Z and DFSMS policy management Optional Transparent Cloud Tiering Optional integration with physical tape Cumulative 16Gb FICON throughput up to 4.8GB/s 8 IBM Z hosts view up to 496 8 equivalent devices Grid access to all data independent of where it exists The TS7760T writes data by policy to physical tape through attachment to high-capacity, high-performance IBM TS1150 and IBM TS1140 tape drives installed in an IBM TS4500 or TS3500 tape library. The TS7760 models are based on high-performance and redundant IBM POWER8® technology. They provide improved performance for most IBM Z tape workloads when compared to the previous generations of IBM TS7700.

-update for Release 8.5 - IBM experts recognize the need for data protection, both from hardware or software failures, and also from physical relocation of hardware, theft, and retasking of existing hardware. The IBM DS8880 supports encryption-capable hard disk drives (HDDs) and flash drives. These Full Disk Encryption (FDE) drive sets are used with key management services that are provided by IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager software or Gemalto SafeNet KeySecure to allow encryption for data at rest on a DS8880. Use of encryption technology involves several considerations that are critical for you to understand to maintain the security and accessibility of encrypted data. The IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager software also supports Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT) data object encryption, which is part of this publication. With TCT encryption, data is encrypted before it is transmitted to the Cloud. The data remains encrypted in cloud storage and is decrypted after it is transmitted back to the DS8000®. This IBM Redpaper™ publication contains information that can help storage administrators plan for disk and TCT data object encryption. It also explains how to install and manage the encrypted storage and how to comply with IBM requirements for using the IBM DS8000 encrypted disk storage system. This edition focuses on IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager Version 3.0 which enables support Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) with the DS8000 Release 8.5 code or later and updated GUI for encryption functions. The publication also discusses support for data at rest encryption with Gemalto SafeNet KeySecure Version 8.3.2.

IBM Storage Solutions for IBM Cloud™ Private delivers a blueprint for multicloud architecture. IBM, delivering solutions to help you win. In this blueprint, learn how to: Combine the benefits of IBM Systems with the performance of IBM Storage solutions so that you can deliver the right services to your clients today. Deliver optimized private cloud services ahead of schedule and under budget with a complete IBM Cloud Private stack. Containerize applications and deliver the SLAs that your team needs to thrive and win. Implement IBM Cloud Private to deploy modern applications like blockchain and AI or modernize what you already have. You now have the capabilities. This edition applies to IBM Storage Solutions for IBM Cloud Private Version 1 Release 5.0.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes storage management functions and their configuration and use with the IBM Hyper-Scale Manager management graphical user interface (GUI) for IBM XIV® Gen3, IBM FlashSystem® A9000 and A9000R, and IBM Spectrum™ Accelerate software. The web-based GUI provides a revolutionary object-centered interface design that is aimed toward ease of use together with enhanced efficiency for storage administrators. The first chapter describes general features of the GUI and installation of the IBM Hyper-Scale Manager server. Subsequent chapters illustrate some typical GUI actions, among many other possibilities, to manage and configure the storage systems, to define security roles, and to set up multitenancy. For most of the GUI-based actions that are illustrated in this book, the corresponding XIV Storage System command-line interface (XCLI) commands are also shown. This edition applies to IBM Hyper-Scale Manager V5.4. IBM Hyper-Scale Manager based GUI information regarding host attachment and replication is covered in IBM FlashSystem A9000, IBM FlashSystem A9000R, and IBM XIV Storage System: Host Attachment and Interoperability, SG24-8368 and IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Business Continuity Solutions, REDP-5401. See also IBM HyperSwap and Multi-site HA/DR for IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R, REDP-5434.

Today's global organizations depend on being able to unlock business insights from massive volumes of data. Now, with IBM® FlashSystem 900 Model AE3 that is powered by IBM FlashCore® technology, they can make faster decisions that are based on real-time insights. They also can unleash the power of the most demanding applications, including online transaction processing (OLTP) and analytics databases, virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs), technical computing applications, and cloud environments. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces clients to the IBM FlashSystem® 900 Model AE3. It provides in-depth knowledge of the product architecture, software and hardware, implementation, and hints and tips. Also presented are use cases that show real-world solutions for tiering, flash-only, and preferred-read. Examples of the benefits that are gained by integrating the FlashSystem storage into business environments also are described. This book is intended for pre-sales and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators, and anyone who wants to understand how to implement this new and exciting technology.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides a general explanation of data protection through encryption and IBM Z® pervasive encryption with a focus on Linux on IBM Z encryption for data at-rest. It also describes how the various hardware and software components interact in a Linux on Z encryption environment for . In addition, this book concentrates on the planning and preparing of the environment. It offers implementation, configuration, and operational examples that can be used in Linux on Z volume encryption environments. This publication is intended for IT architects, system administrators, and security administrators who plan for, deploy, and manage security on the Z platform. The reader is expected to have a basic understanding of IBM Z security concepts.

IBM® FlashCore Modules (FCMs) are storage devices that are available in 4.8 TB, 9.6 TB, and 19.2 TB capacities. They are a 2.5-inch drive form factor device and use second-generation 3D triple-level cell (TLC) flash memory on which to store data. This paper describes the cryptographic erasure of data that is stored on these devices when used in an IBM FlashSystem® 9100 (9846-AF7, 9846-AF8, 9848-AF7, 9848-AF8, 9848-UF7, and 9848-UF8), or IBM Storwize® V5100 (2077-424, 2077-A4F, 2078-424, and 2078-A4F).

With the ever-growing landscape of national, state, and local regulations, industry requirements, and increased security threats, ensuring the protection of an organization's information is a key part of operating a successful business. Encrypting data-at-rest is a key element when addressing these concerns. Most storage products offer encryption at an additional cost. The IBM® Spectrum Accelerate family, which includes IBM XIV® Storage System, IBM FlashSystem® A9000, IBM FlashSystem A9000R system(s), and IBM Spectrum™ Accelerate Software provides data-at-rest encryption at no charge. Clients can take advantage of encryption and still benefit from the lower total cost of ownership (TCO) that the IBM Spectrum Accelerate™ family offers. For IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R, clients now have a choice between an external key manager-based implementation or a local key based encryption implementation. The local key solution offers a simplified deployment of data-at-rest encryption. This IBM Redpaper™ publication explains the architecture and design of the XIV and IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R encryption solutions. Details are provided for configuring and implementing both solutions.

IBM® Z has a close and unique relationship to its storage. Over the years, improvements to the Z processors and storage software, the disk storage systems, and their communication architecture consistently reinforced this synergy. This IBM Redpaper™ Redbooks publication summarizes and highlights the various aspects, advanced functions, and technologies that are often pioneered by IBM, and that make the IBM Z® and the IBM DS8880 products an ideal combination. This paper is intended for those users who have some familiarity with IBM Z and the IBM DS8000® series and want a condensed but comprehensive overview of the synergy items up to the IBM z14™ server and the IBM DS8880 Release 8.51 firmware.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication helps you with the planning, installation, and configuration of the new IBM Spectrum™ Archive Enterprise Edition v1.3.0 for the IBM TS3310, IBM TS3500, IBM TS4300, and IBM TS4500 tape libraries. IBM Spectrum Archive™ EE enables the use of LTFS for the policy management of tape as a storage tier in an IBM Spectrum Scale™ based environment. It helps encourage the use of tape as a critical tier in the storage environment. This is the seventh edition of IBM Spectrum Archive Installation and Configuration Guide. IBM Spectrum Archive EE can run any application that is designed for disk files on a physical tape media. IBM Spectrum Archive EE supports the IBM Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium 8, 7, 6, and 5 tape drives in IBM TS3310, TS3500, TS4300, and TS4500 tape libraries. In addition, IBM TS1160, TS1155, TS1150, and TS1140 tape drives are supported in TS3500 and TS4500 tape library configurations. IBM Spectrum Archive EE can play a major role in reducing the cost of storage for data that does not need the access performance of primary disk. The use of IBM Spectrum Archive EE to replace disks with physical tape in tier 2 and tier 3 storage can improve data access over other storage solutions because it improves efficiency and streamlines management for files on tape. IBM Spectrum Archive EE simplifies the use of tape by making it transparent to the user and manageable by the administrator under a single infrastructure. This publication is intended for anyone who wants to understand more about IBM Spectrum Archive EE planning and implementation. This book is suitable for IBM clients, IBM Business Partners, IBM specialist sales representatives, and technical specialists.

Economic globalization requires data to be available globally. With most data stored in file systems, solutions to make this data globally available become more important. Files that are in file systems can be protected or shared by replicating these files to another file system that is in a remote location. The remote location might be just around the corner or in a different country. Therefore, the techniques that are used to protect and share files must account for long distances and slow and unreliable wide area network (WAN) connections. IBM® Spectrum Scale is a scalable clustered file system that can be used to store all kinds of unstructured data. It provides open data access by way of Network File System (NFS); Server Message Block (SMB); POSIX Object Storage APIs, such as S3 and OpenStack Swift; and the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) for accessing and sharing data. The IBM Aspera® file transfer solution (IBM Aspera Sync) provides predictable and reliable data transfer across large distance for small and large files. The combination of both can be used for global sharing and protection of data. This IBM Redpaper™ publication describes how IBM Aspera Sync can be used to protect and share data that is stored in IBM Spectrum™ Scale file systems across large distances of several hundred to thousands of miles. We also explain the integration of IBM Aspera Sync with IBM Spectrum Scale™ and differentiate it from solutions that are built into IBM Spectrum Scale for protection and sharing. We also describe different use cases for IBM Aspera Sync with IBM Spectrum Scale.

Abstract As big data becomes more ubiquitous, businesses are wondering how they can best leverage it to gain insight into their most important business questions. Using machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) in big data environments can identify historical patterns and build artificial intelligence (AI) models that can help businesses to improve customer experience, add services and offerings, identify new revenue streams or lines of business (LOBs), and optimize business or manufacturing operations. The power of AI for predictive analytics is being harnessed across all industries, so it is important that businesses familiarize themselves with all of the tools and techniques that are available for integration with their data lake environments. In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we cover the best practices for deploying and integrating some of the best AI solutions on the market, including: IBM Watson Machine Learning Accelerator (see note for product naming) IBM Watson Studio Local IBM Power Systems™ IBM Spectrum™ Scale IBM Data Science Experience (IBM DSX) IBM Elastic Storage™ Server Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) Hortonworks DataFlow (HDF) H2O Driverless AI We map out all the integrations that are possible with our different AI solutions and how they can integrate with your existing or new data lake. We also walk you through some of our client use cases and show you how some of the industry leaders are using Hortonworks, IBM PowerAI, and IBM Watson Studio Local to drive decision making. We also advise you on your deployment options, when to use a GPU, and why you should use the IBM Elastic Storage Server (IBM ESS) to improve storage management. Lastly, we describe how to integrate IBM Watson Machine Learning Accelerator and Hortonworks with or without IBM Watson Studio Local, how to access real-time data, and security. Note: IBM Watson Machine Learning Accelerator is the new product name for IBM PowerAI Enterprise. Note: Hortonworks merged with Cloudera in January 2019. The new company is called Cloudera. References to Hortonworks as a business entity in this publication are now referring to the merged company. Product names beginning with Hortonworks continue to be marketed and sold under their original names.

Abstract This IBM® Redbooks® publication discusses practical uses of the IBM CICS asynchronous API capability. It describes the methodology, design and thought process used by a large client, Walmart, and the considerations of the choices made. The Redbooks publication provides real life examples and application patterns that benefit from the performance and scalability offered by the new API. The book discusses the homegrown methodology used by Walmart before the API was available and compares it with the design using the new API. A discussion of the process used to migrate older applications to begin using the new API is included so the reader will understand the ease of implementing the new API. A description of real world usage patterns describes the current production application Walmart has deployed as well as other patterns to give the reader a sense of what's possible applying creative thinking with technology improvements. Finally, a section is included on the areas to be considered as you begin to plan and implement asynchronous API capabilities. This book should be read by: Enterprise Architects searching for faster ways to service strategic applications across the enterprise. Solution Architects who want to better understand implementation possibilities for improved response times and better performance for CICS applications. CICS programmers looking to modernize and provide improved response times.