Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for IT specialists. In this issue:
• Tech View: making the most of Middleware ‘glue’
• Update on the Agency Worker Directive and Regulations
• Specialist Profile: Alex Levy, DBA Consultant
• Real People, Real Skills: Sarah Yandle
• B & M SkillSource - expertise for enterprise systems
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Tech View: making the most of Middleware ‘glue’
Technical Consultant Tim Crossland takes a look at the expansion of Middleware in the first of an occasional series on the subject
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Middleware ‘glue’ allows applications to talk to one another
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As Apple launches its latest iPad, the number of different technologies that are used in business every day continues to expand at a prodigious rate. At the same time, the requirement for applications to connect together is also increasing. Today’s Internet shopper expects to interface with stock checking applications, delivery applications and credit checking applications in a matter of seconds. The days of isolated business units with their associated standalone technologies are over.
It goes without saying that connecting forty year-old mainframe-based technologies with distributed graphical front-end applications is not a trivial task. This is where Middleware has emerged as the ‘glue’ that allows applications to communicate with each other without having to worry about the underlying technology of the other applications.
One of the first types of Middleware to emerge and gain almost universal acceptance was Message Oriented Middleware (for example IBM’s WebSphere MQ / Microsoft’s MSMQ and Apache’s ActiveMQ). The reasons for its rapid expansion are:
- An application can put the required data in a message and let the Middleware worry about how the data got there. The Middleware deals with issues caused by different platforms, protocols and data formats (amongst other things!)
- Flexibility: generally a message can contain almost any format of data, whether it is XML, a COBOL data structure or video.
When applications communicate with each other, they can use the following techniques:
- Asynchronous messaging, where messages are sent to another application without requiring a response. This is also called ‘fire and forget’ when the Middleware is trusted to ensure that the data reaches its intended destination
- Request/Response messaging - an application issues a request from another application and expects a response to that query
- ‘Publish and subscribe’, which allows data to be broadcast to a large number of recipients.
The need for robust communication between applications and services is paramount and will ensure that Messaging Oriented Software is likely to continue its role as a backbone for the Enterprise.
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Update on the Agency Worker Directive and Regulations
Jerry Smart, MD of B & M, explains what recent changes to the guidance on these UK regulations could mean for contractors
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Earlier this month the UK Government issued draft guidance on the application of the Agency Worker Directive and Regulations 2010 (AWD) that is due to come into force on 1 October 2011. This Draft Guidance has been the subject of a consultation period that closed on 15 April 2011, and the revised Guidance will be published in due course.
No doubt you will have read articles interpreting who is affected by the new regulations and how, but it is important to consider the practical application of these measures.
One of the key statements is that these regulations will not apply to “individuals who find work through a temporary work agency but are in business on their own account”. Those of you who work though your own supplier (personal service) company and can demonstrate this (probably in much the same way as you do regarding the UK’s IR35) will not be bound by the new AWD.
Why does this matter? Well, the EU directive that caused these regulations to be enacted was intended to protect the rights of agency workers who were treated unequally versus permanent employees doing similar work. This covered pay, annual leave entitlement and other benefits (e.g. canteen facilities). Since these issues are not a matter of contention for those of you working on specialist IT projects, all we are left with is the potential for further red tape. For example, if you were to place yourself within the AWD compass then after 12 weeks on assignment you could be required to provide details of your employment contact between you and your personal service company. This information would be required by the customer (hirer) to ensure that they were meeting their obligations under the AWD.
For those of you working elsewhere in Europe, similar enactments of the EU directive in each country will apply.
At this stage it is important to wait for further guidance and interpretation as a lot of water has to flow under the bridge before October. We will bring you more details once the Guidance is published.
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Specialist Profile: Freelance Database Administrator, Alex Levy
This month, DBA Alex Levy talks about being part of a global team
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Alex Levy is currently on contract in the UK for a leading global information services company. He is one of only 150 IBM Information Champions worldwide – a rare award given for uncompensated contributions to the advance of Information Management.
He works as part of the global technology services team responsible for the organisation’s very large multi-server DB2 Data Warehouse running on Red Hat Linux. Alex’s role has three main strands:
- Designing and configuring databases to enhance the original designs
- Scaling up the data warehouse for extra capacity and future growth
- Working closely with developers and architects to provide best practice advice and implement new functionality.
The contract, which has recently been extended, enables Alex to do much of his work remotely from home, as his day-to-day contact is with colleagues in the US, South America and India. “The DBA team looks after some 150 servers, but as there is a major data warehouse sited in the UK, they need a local DBA to be available for UK users and to provide GMT time zone coverage”.
In fact, Alex is the client’s first and only DB2/Linux DBA in the UK, and only has a couple of hours a day when his working hours overlap with those of his colleagues and line managers in the US. “This gives me considerable freedom to plan and organise my work effectively, within some broad guidelines, which is something I enjoy”, he explained, adding, “We learn a lot from each other, and sharing our experience enriches everyone”.
Despite only having been on this contract for a couple of months, Alex has found that it has offered him some really interesting challenges. “There have been some great technical pieces of work here - like adding an extra server to a warehousing collective - that are so rare or unusual that this is the first time I’ve carried them out in a 20-year career with DB2. That was particularly satisfying”.
But what does he see happening in the database management sphere in the future? “Many organisations seem to be increasingly reluctant to plan long term and hire and train in-house DBAs. This is a huge mistake. If a recruit is any good, he or she may well want to leave after some years to seek new opportunities and expand skill sets – it’s the employer’s job to ensure the company gets a good return from the investment in training and developing staff while they’re still there, without driving them into the ground”. Whilst what Alex describes as this ‘shrinking pool’ of experienced DBAs is good news for him personally, he believes that it is bad news for the economy. He adds: “Many companies are beginning to realise that off-shoring is rarely cost-effective in the long term and often delivers poor technical results”.
Alex believes that DB2 is here to stay: “I’m waiting to see pundits who herald the death of the relational database eat their words! The mathematical principles of set theory that underpin DB2 in particular are immutable, eternal philosophic truths. I say it will still be here when Java is history!”
In terms of his relationship with his main contact at B & M, Business Director Ed Hopper, Alex concludes, “Ed is a top guy. He maintains excellent relations with the client and talks straight, which - to put it politely - is not always the case with agencies”.
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Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Sarah Yandle
This month we profile HR Team Leader Sarah Yandle
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HR Team Leader Sarah Yandle joined B & M in 2003. Having gained a degree in Business Studies from the University of Glamorgan, Sarah began her career as Payroll Assistant for a Social Services division in South Wales, later moving into a support role for the Children’s Service Department.
Sarah moved to Hampshire in 2003 and began working for B & M and over the years she has developed an expertise in identifying suitable specialists for our customer requirements. Sarah has succeeded in building relationships with our specialists and has helped to tailor how B & M focuses its attention to meet the needs of our specialists. Sarah is also responsible for delivering valuable and essential support to our internal Account Managers, thus helping to increase our core business productivity.
In her spare time, Sarah can be found visiting family and friends and cycling in the Welsh valleys.
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B & M SkillSource
expertise for enterprise systems
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B & M SkillSource is a professional service that delivers experienced specialists for short or long term contract work on projects for large-system enterprise platforms. B & M's skilled specialists bring new or additional skills, knowledge and expertise to enterprises for projects which typically include:
- Communications projects such as network planning, product installation and support, network performance and connectivity
- Data management including database administration, database design and storage management
- Capacity management and systems performance
- Operating systems management including change management, product installation and transaction processing
- Systems and network security including planning, design, implementation and administration.
We apply stringent best practice standards across all our services, which ensure that they are consistently of the highest quality.
For more information, please contact people@bmeurope.com.
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B & M Europe Limited
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B & M has specialised in delivering skilled ICT specialists to meet the needs of leading organisations throughout Europe since 1992. We focus exclusively on providing technical services, consultancy and support for z/OS, UNIX and Linux enterprise systems, including third-party systems software, open systems and networking connectivity. We add real value for HR and IT professionals by taking the time to understand their needs and applying best practice methods to deliver results. To find out more about our approach to providing the best skills for each business, go to B & M Services.
The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of B & M Europe Limited or any employee thereof.
B & M Europe Limited
Whitehouse Farm, Silchester Road, Tadley, RG26 3PY, United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0) 118 981 1880
Fax +44 (0) 118 981 1881
Registered in England and Wales
Company No. 02696668
VAT No. GB 591718218 Expert Technical Resourcing for Enterprise Systems
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