Taming Las Vegas: iSOA's IBM InterConnect 2016 Recap

2016 brought another exciting week at IBM’s Interconnect Conference.  If you were not able to join, let us share what we observed while attending the event of over 20,000 people that spanned across the MGM Hotel and the Mandalay Bay.  

The energy across the conference definitely seemed more electric and connected than in 2015.  There were multiple keynotes and the conference was a great opportunity to see the future of IBM, as well as hear what our customers, partners and IBM colleagues had to share.

Hybrid Cloud leadership was IBM’s mantra from day one and this set the tone for the conference.  IBM announced its BM Cloud and VMWare partnership, as well as expanding its support for Apple’s Swift programming language.   Apple’s VP of Product Marketing, Brian Croll, proclaimed that IBM was already the largest developer of Swift applications and their natural partnership would help move and extend the Swift language to servers everywhere.

Always eager to connect with our clients and colleagues, the iSOA Team hosted our annual Integration Round-table breakfast, with our own focus on Hybrid Cloud Integration.  We were joined by our good friends from IBM, Jeff Sinason, Certified Architect and Rich Kinard, Worldwide DataPower Sales leader and author! Discussions revolved around how our customers are looking at the cloud, as well as the challenges of integration. 

iSOA Group, Inc. continued our passion for taming IT Anarchy, as shown on our Sons of Anarchy themed iSOA t-shirts.  

For more information please contact Brian at bsilverman@isoagroup.com or Chery at cbertini@isogroup.com .

iSOA Group, is Controlling IT Anarchy once Again in Las Vegas at IBM's Interconnect 2016 February 21 - 25th

Join Bryon, Cheryl, Peter and Brian as we once again tame the Anarchy of IT in Las Vegas!  (IBM Interconnect 2016)

Announcing iSOA OnDemand Services:  Your iSOA Expert on Call to help you gain the most value from your IBM Software (e.g. DataPower, Integration Broker, WebSphere and MQ).  Helping you with best practices, new features, and helping to solve your challenges with your unique environment.  (please refer to the onsite Interconnect program guide and see our ad on the inside cover)

"Get Fit" With our iSOA IBM Middleware Survey and Drawing for a Fit Bit Blaze Watch: We know you may be faced with certain challenges relating to your particular IBM Middleware solution.   Our Research department is conducting a survey to better understand these challenges, and by completing this quick survey, and you will be entered for a chance to win one of 3 FitBit Blaze watches!

Hybrid Cloud Integration Round Table Breakfast (7am Tuesday February, 23rd):  Join our CTO, Bryon Kataoka and IBM Technical leaders to discuss best practices to developing a Hybrid Cloud Integration framework for your enterprise, leveraging IBM technologies such as DataPower, Cast Iron, and MQ Series.  The iSOA Approach creates a secure and flexible framework that integrates all of an enterprises applications (on premise and cloud) to be more responsive to the needs of your business.  

Education, Networking, and a little socializing:  Find the iSOA team in our T Shirts and hats, and join us in helping to tame the IT Anarchy in Las Vegas and you could win your very own Tame the IT Anarchy tshirt or hat!

Want to know more?, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or reach out to Brian bsilverman@isoagroup.com  and Cheryl at cbertini@isoagroup.com

A View from 40,000 feet and Las Vegas Bound for IBM's Interconnect 2016 Conference

Author: Bryon Kataoka, iSOA Group CTO and Thought Leader

Well it’s that time again.  Time to go to InterConnect 2016 and network with clients, peers and reconnect with some old friends.  It is also a great opportunity to understand the trends, direction and opportunities we are all facing with technology in the New Year.

This year, security is at the top of my mind, and I’m really excited about IBM Security, including offerings such as QRadar to Maas360 to Big Fix to Guardium. You will probably find me at any session that is showcasing these products.    I’m also very interested in StrongLoop and what IBM has planned for its marriage with IBM APIM.  I’m looking forward to announcements in that arena.  There are usually great labs at Interconnect so I hope to attend a few if our schedule permits.

This year I will not be speaking, which is a rarity! I am looking forward to being an attendee and absorbing a lot of new information.  I’m sure there will be many dining opportunities and meetings with clients, but I do plan on using this time wisely and attending what I think will be the important sessions.  I may even schedule a certification test or two.   Nothing like filling your week up to the max!

Once I have my schedule of sessions chosen I’ll post again to let you know what are my recommended sessions.  My team will be tweeting as we progress through the week, so  follow the iSOA Team, to learn where we are at and my thoughts on key takeaways.

What are your hot topics this year?  Any sessions you would recommend to your CTO at 40000 feet?   I and my team hope to see you at Interconnect and have a great 2016!

www.ibm.com/InterConnect

Bryon Kataoka is the iSOA Group, Inc. CTO sharing his experience as a technical leader for over  20 years.  In his role at iSOA Group, Inc. he is a thought leader as well as a consultant to many companies helping them be successful with their Middleware strategy and implementations.

The View from 40,000 feet

Author: Bryon Kataoka, iSOA Group CTO and Thought Leader

Happy New Year!  Its 2016 and I’m already traveling across the country to be a thought leader to our various customers. I have a few resolutions, or action plans, I’d like to focus on this year, but first a few thoughts for 2016, before I get into the resolutions……..

For 2016, I have a feeling that this is going to be a fantastic year for Enterprise Innovation!  With the increase in hiring in 2015 I believe we will start to see new products and innovations.  I also believe cyber security continues to be a battle we must continue to wage war on. With so many events happening around the world we cannot be complacent and stick our head in the sand.  So hang on to your hats, it is going to be a wild ride!

As a thought leader I’m always trying to find better ways of conveying information and providing solutions to my clients.  My first resolution is to try to find ways of making that easier for my customers.  My second and last resolution is to find processes and tools that make my first resolution easier.

So here is what I’m going to start with; the first thing that I’m going to incorporate in my lifestyle (both personal and professional) is “Design Thinking”.  For those of you unfamiliar with Design Thinking, it has helped entrepreneurs and engineers develop and create successful new products and businesses.  What Design Thinking does is help identify the obstacles that are holding you back from achieving your goals.

There are five steps in Design Thinking, the first two being the most important.  First is to “empathize”, that is, understand what the real issues are that you need to solve and the second is to “define the problem”.  Steps 3, 4 an 5 follow a path of brainstorming ideas and possible solutions, prototyping or design a plan and finally test the idea and garner feedback from others.

Design Thinking has been around for some time.  It is taught at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley, which is a veritable think tank for creative ideas.  To find out more, check out this 90 minute crash course on Design Thinking:  http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/

For my second resolution I’m going to dovetail with “Design Thinking” and look to implement a tool that would help me with Step 3 of “Design Thinking”.   As I am always looking for ways to keep my brain sharp, I am planning to use “Mind Mapping” tools to help me brainstorm ideas and provide a better way to convey the information.

In the future I’ll follow up on how we are incorporating Design Thinking at iSOA Group and how you might also use Design Thinking in your daily lives.

So there you have it, my resolutions for 2016.

I wish you all a successful 2016, and I hope to see you at the IBM InterConnect Conference 2016 in February.

Bryon Kataoka is the iSOA Group, Inc. CTO sharing his experience as a technical leader for over  20 years.  In his role at iSOA Group, Inc. he is a thought leader as well as a consultant to many companies helping them be successful with their Middleware strategy and implementations.

Something borrowed, something old, and all packaged and integrated for the holidays!

At iSOA Group, Inc. we take time as I am sure you all do to be thankful for the joys this holiday season. 

Thankful for our families, our colleagues and our extended family of partners and customers.

As a company, our mission is to help companies achieve business value from their technology investments with a focus on IBM Integration technologies including DataPower, Integration Bus, API Management, MQ and WebSphere solutions.

In 2012, led by our Senior Solutions Specialist Brian Silverman, we conducted a survey before and during IBM's Impact conference to gain a better understanding of the  business value our customers have realized from our services and solutions with IBM Software.

Whether they were expanding their business, looking to be more responsive to new opportunities or looking to reduce costs, our customers shared how becoming a more integrated business brought real value to their bottom line.  For 2015, we revisited the results and conferred with our consultants.

As you would expect with the further expansion of mobile, social media and APIs the business value only grows for a truly integrated business.

We want to share our updated results of our Agile Integration Solutions Whitepaper and if would like to discuss how we along with IBM can help you become a truly integrated business please reach out to Brian at bsilverman@isoagroup.com or 508-246-7965.

We all wish you and your family a happy, healthy and joyous holiday season!

To learn more please review our Media Showcase at isoagroup.com !

Blogging from 40,000 feet

Author: Bryon Kataoka, iSOA Group CTO and Thought Leader

Another Thursday and I’m jet setting across the US.  Another typical travel day: Up at 3:00am, driving in the fog, both physical and mental (at that time in the morning). Going through TSA-Pre, watching the crowds line up according to boarding number and herding their way into the Airbus.

Boy things have changed a lot during my years flying.  It sort of reminds me of Fixed Bid contracts.  Need a change… Pay some money.  Want a better seat… Pay some money.  Now at least there is better technology on the flights.  Oh and yes … want it?  Better pay some money.

As much change as we have experienced flying we have also seen great change in DataPower.  Let’s review DataPower Past, Present and Future.

I first was introduced to DataPower in January 2006 at the IBM Software University.  So readers may not be familiar with the Software University.  Over 10 years back IBM used to have all of its consultants and selected Business Partner come to Las Vegas to learn about IBM technology.  It was a wonderful way to learn about technology.  Its sort of similar to InterConnect and formerly Impact but it excluded customers.  It was just a bunch of technology nerds getting together to talk nerdy.

I became enamored with DataPower.  It seemed like the perfect product given where technology was at that time.  XML and XSL were key technologies and Web Services were the talk of the industry.  It was wonderful to see the security capabilities in DataPower (XML Encryption, Digital Signature and WS-Security).  Remember the colors of the appliances.  Green for the XA35, Yellow for the XS40 and Blue for the XI50.  It makes me laugh when I see resumes with references to XA35, XS40.   I don’t know if they actually worked on them with only 1 year experience but it makes me wonder.

Over the years how DataPower is presented and used has changed.  It started as security but with its routing and transformation capabilities it later was labeled a lightweight ESB.  I even did a presentation at Impact called “DataPower as an ESB”.

IBM has added various addition features during the early years such as the MQ Client and WTX.  Later they added various networking and service additions.  Application Optimization, On Demand Router, Link Aggregation, Web Sockets, OAuth, Web Token Services and the list goes on and on.  There is a saying “if its not broken don’t fix it” but I prefer to label DataPower is “if it not broken, innovate”.  And it’s the innovation that continues to make DataPower a key infrastructure component to many environments.

The future is now.  DataPower now supports virtual environments and even AWS.  It’s the key component in API Management.  Its bigger and faster and I’m sure there will be more additions.

I wonder what the next big feature will be.  Only time will tell.

Ok.  The Fasten Seat Belt sign is off and its time to go!

Bryon Kataoka is the iSOA Group, Inc. CTO sharing his experience as a technical leader for over  20 years.  In his role at iSOA Group, Inc. he is a thought leader as well as a consultant to many companies helping them be successful with their Middleware strategy and implementations.

Your Personal CTO

Author: Bryon Kataoka, iSOA Group CTO and Thought Leader

Blogging at 40,000 Feet

The suitcase is in the overhead, the Bose headphones are on and I’m in my aisle seat and settled in.  The double chimes told me we have reached an altitude where I can turn on my Mac and here we go. 

My name is Bryon Kataoka and some may know me as the home winemaker of Petaluma Gap Pinot Noir or a decent fair weather golfer but first and foremost the CTO of iSOA Group.  Some clients also know me as the DataPower Guy.

With the poor Dad behind me with the screaming twin boys I know it’s time to immerse myself in some deep technical thought.  Actually it’s not a bad idea.  With some deep thought I can drown out the whine of the airplane and the uncontrollable whiners in seat 30 D, E & F.

It’s working.  My thoughts are on topics I’ll blog about in future flights.  Some thoughts I have for future blogs are:

• DataPower Past, Present and Future
• API Management – still growing
• Muscling up with StrongLoop
•  Road Warriors
• Getting your swagger
• And others

But now that the twins have quieted down (or dad’s put them in the overhead), I wanted to focus on DataPower Return on Investment (ROI).  As some of you may know, or might be learning now, your DataPower investment is chocked full of potential ROI.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen basic capabilities implemented with DataPower at the outset and then investment in the capabilities go dormant. 

Why is that?  Did the installers implement a set of use cases and then high tail it out of Dodge?  Were their changes in personnel and the expertise left or moved to another project?  I’ve experienced one client that had DataPower running for years with no changes.  Awesome for the longevity, but so much untapped potential!

So how does one go about getting more ROI out of your DataPower investment?  At the iSOA Group I lead a team of DataPower experts and we run a program called DataPower On Demand Services.  I won’t go into all the specifics but in a nutshell, think of it as having your own personal DataPower consultant.  You can learn more at www.isoagroup.com or reach out to your in-flight DataPower guy at Bkataoka@isoagroup.com.

Well, the flight attendant is here with the cart.  Time to sign off and consider what to write on my flight home!

Bryon Kataoka is the iSOA Group, Inc. CTO sharing his experience as a technical leader for over 20 years.  In his role at iSOA Group, Inc. he is a thought leader as well as a consultant to many companies helping them be successful with their Middleware strategy and implementations.