May Mainframe Madness 2011
It's that time of the year again. CA Technologies will once again dedicate the entire month of May to the mainframe and will present the virtual event that changes everything: May Mainframe Madness!

Prepare to join us at the largest mainframe-focused event of its kind. Every day brings new insights, tools and strategies to help you understand and maximize the strength and relevance of 21st century mainframe solutions. There are more than 100 valuable sessions over every business day in May, so you won't want to miss a thing! Learn what's new and find out how application development and modernization solutions from CA Technologies are leveraging Mainframe 2.0, CA's innovative strategy to change the way the mainframe is managed forever.

Visit ca.com/mainframe/may for a list of the 150+ keynote presentations, sessions and demos. Registration information is located at ca.com/mmm.

If you have a topic you would like to hear about, or that you would like to present during May Mainframe Madness 2011, please contact Greg Beedy (greg.beedy@ca.com) or anyone else on the CA Datacom® product team.

CA Datacom® Announced End of Service Dates
During CA World® 2010, CA development and support reviewed with customers the planned end of service (EOS) dates for the following releases (have already been replaced by newer GA releases). In addition, individual end of service letters were mailed to licensed customers. These end of service announcements include:

May 30, 2011

• CA Ideal™ Release 2.2 for z/OS. See a copy of the announcement at RI13014.
• CA IPC Release 4.2 for z/OS. See a copy of the announcement at RI13016.

November 30, 2011

• CA Datacom® core products Version 11.0 for z/OS (including all related service packs, base and SP1-SP5). See a copy of the announcement at RI18617.
• CA Datacom® Fast Restore Version 10.0. See a copy of the announcement at RI18619.
• CA Datacom® Presspack Version 9.0. See a copy of the announcement at RI18618.
• CA Datacom® Resource Analyzer Version 9.0. See a copy of the announcement at RI18621.

December 15, 2010

• CA Datacom® Server Version 5.0. See a copy of the announcement at RI08998. All customers should have previously upgraded to Version 11.0.

More information can be found on the CA Datacom product page when you logon to support.ca.com. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact CA Datacom support.

Aggregate Maintenance PTF now Available for CA Datacom® Core Products 12.0
Please see informational solution RI27400 for information on the first Aggregate Maintenance Solution for CA Datacom Core Products Version 12.0 and how it can be used to simplify the download of maintenance for your CA Datacom environments.

CA Datacom recommends you also view the replay of a recent CA Datacom webcast entitled "Keeping Your CA Datacom and CA Ideal Software Healthy" which discusses CA MSM, CA Recommended Service (CA RS) and Aggregate Maintenance.

z/OS Mainframe Stack
This section lists the latest generally available (GA) maintenance levels for the CA Datacom® products that are part of the CA Mainframe Stack. You can view these on the product pages of support.ca.com.

GA Releases for the Datacom® Products
This section lists the latest generally available (GA) releases for the CA Datacom products. You can view these on the product pages of support.ca.com:

z/OS

z/VSE

The beta test program for Version 14.0 CA Datacom® products is currently active. Participants in the CA Datacom Version 14.0 beta program are eligible to test any of the products in the program including CA Ideal™/IPC 14.0, CA Datacom® Server 14.0, CA Datacom® CICS Services 14.0 and CA Datacom® core products 14.0 as they are available. The CA Ideal/IPC 14.0 beta test is nearly complete; the CA Datacom Server 14.0 beta test is active; and we expect CA Datacom CICS Services 14.0 and CA Datacom Core 14.0 to enter beta testing next. The CA Datacom Version 14.0 products contain many new enhancements and benefits:

CA IDEAL™/IPC 14.0

• Mainframe 2.0 and CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA MSM) compliance
• CA Datacom® 12.0 and 14.0 support
• 31-bit conversion for VPE and IPC, expansion of VLS storage, enhanced Web Server Interface

CA Datacom® Server 14.0

• CA Mainframe Software Manager
• Console support for utility commands
• JDBC improvements including type 4 for Linux and UNIX and 64-bit addressing, and JDBC as a Windows service.
• ODBC Windows 64-bit addressing support

CA Datacom® CICS Services 14.0

• CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA MSM)
• Mainframe 2.0 Serviceability features
• Threadsafe and Open Transaction Environment (OTE) support
• Force Syncpoint processing
• Faster STARTUP processing using Skip URT range option
• Batch/console support for CONNECT/DISCONNECT/IMMEDIATE for MUF and DELETE/LOAD/RESTART for URT
• DBEC enhancement for usability

CA Datacom® 14.0

• CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA MSM)
• Mainframe 2.0 Serviceability
• zIIP exploitation enhancements
• Data encryption
• Reorganization advancements
• Performance improvements
• Usability and configuration enhancements

Find out more information and register for the CA Datacom Version 14.0 beta program on CA Support Online (login required).

Gain valuable product knowledge and insight with CA Communities. Could you benefit from practical product knowledge from other CA solution users? Would you like to have insight into product roadmaps, presentations and product specific training? Visit communities.ca.com, where you will find the directory of online global user communities and regional user groups with event listings, message boards/discussion forums, document libraries and more. Joining a CA Community is as easy as logging in with your CA Support Online identification, searching for available communities, and clicking "JOIN COMMUNITY" on the respective community's home page.

CA Datacom® User Requirements Tables (URTs) and Application Programming (Part 1)
This webcast from March 01, 2011, introduced the 'key' User Requirements Table options and how these options define the requirements the application program needs to have success. It also covered options that are:

1. currently considered a Best Practice in usage as well as the options that are tuning specific and also
2. independent of the application program but whose use can either be very beneficial or be a negative overhead

It is available as an On-Demand webcast for viewing at your convenience.

CA Datacom® User Requirements Tables (URTs) and Application Programming (Part 2)
This webcast on March 29, 2011, provided Part 2 of Kevin Shuma's webcast series on how to use URTs for application programming in your CA Datacom and CA Ideal™ environments. It is available as an On-Demand webcast for viewing at your convenience.

Education's number-one priority is to help maximize your CA software investment. That is why we work with you to identify your educational needs, provide a range of flexible learning options, and outline an effective plan to meet your goals. Our latest Learning Paths are available online. Contact us today to discuss your organization or personal training needs.

CA Services helps you derive maximum benefit from your investment in CA Mainframe Solutions, deliver greater business results, and speed time to value. Click here for a list of our Services offerings.

CA Datacom® and CA Ideal™ Maintenance - New Directions
The packaging and delivery of maintenance to our latest releases of CA Datacom and CA Ideal products has evolved. Please see knowledge document TEC544848 to see how our adoption of the CA Mainframe Stack standards and processes is leading to reduced risk and increased customer value from our software maintenance.

CA Datacom®/DB Data Reorganization Green Book
In concert with CA's May Mainframe Madness, the CA Technical Information Department and the CA Datacom group will deliver the first in a series of Green Books for the CA Datacom environment.

The CA Datacom/DB Data Reorganization Green Book delivers a step-by-step process that will assist the CA Datacom user in determining whether a data table needs to be reorganized and how to do it. The Green Book provides detailed information on the various reorganization techniques and how to use them to do the data reorganization. The Green Book uses real life examples to demonstrate the various techniques and the expected results.

The Green Book provides detailed information on a set of new CA Datacom/DB Utility enhancements that are being announced during MAY Mainframe Madness. These new utility enhancements will round out the already significant set of reorganization functions found in CA Datacom DBUTLTY.

Visit the CA Datacom booth at ca.com/mainframe/may for more information on the CA Datacom/DB Data Reorganization Green Book as well as a series of on-demand webcasts that will be provided detailing some of the key processes covered in the Green Book. The registration information for May Mainframe Madness is located at ca.com/mmm.