IDUG EMEA 2026

IDUG EMEA 2026

2:00pm BST

D202 IBM z Cyber Vault from a z/OS perspective Workshop

Sunday September 27, 2026 2:00pm - 6:00pm BST

As cyber threats against critical infrastructure grow in sophistication and frequency, organizations running mission-critical workloads on IBM Z require more than perimeter defences — they need proven, platform-native strategies to detect, contain, and recover from successful attacks with minimal business disruption.

The IBM Z Cyber Vault workshop brings together IBM technical specialists, product experts, and early adopter customers to explore the full spectrum of cyber resilience on the IBM Z platform. This focused session series covers architecture, tooling, and real-world experience across four core topics:

In this workshop, we’ll provide a comprehensive introduction to the IBM Z Cyber Vault architecture. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of how an isolated recovery environment (IRE) is constructed, how data is protected through air-gap principles and immutable copies, and how Cyber Vault serves as the cornerstone of a mainframe cyber resilience strategy. We will exami

Speakers

Patric Becker

Principal Solutions Advisor, Rocket Software

Patric Becker is a Senior Director at Rocket Software within the IBM Db2 for z/OS Tools development organization, partnering with enterprise clients to optimize their mainframe strategies and deliver business-critical outcomes. He provides expert guidance on tooling solutions that... Read More →

Sunday September 27, 2026 2:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Luis

Track D, Workshop

Audience All
Platform z/OS

11:30am BST

E2 Improved availability and modernization of legacy systems through the evolution of Universal Table Space (UTS)

Monday September 28, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST

Customers are constantly striving to perform essential DBA related tasks being driven by application improvements and evolutions. Non-Disruptive schema changes have been a major objective for the Db2 for z/OS ecosystem. Db2 will discontinue to support several legacy table space types and deprecated functions. Organizations must migrate to Universal Table Spaces (UTS) and remove unsupported functions prior to the deadline to ensure long‑term database viability. In addition to user‑defined objects, the work file database and many Db2 catalog tables that reside in deprecated table spaces must also be considered in the migration plan. This session highlights the invaluable online schema enhancement features in Db2 that can be exploited to achieve the highest level of availability.

Speakers

Frances Villafuerte

Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM

Frances Villafuerte is a senior technical leader in IBM’s Db2 for z/OS core engine development team, where she plays a strategic role in shaping the capabilities that drive Db2’s value proposition for enterprise clients. She has led the architecture for key features that enhance... Read More →

Monday September 28, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Data Movement and Analytics, Latest and Features z/OS
Audience All
Platform z/OS

2:00pm BST

E3 Autonomous Auditing: High Score on Db2 Security Features

Monday September 28, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST

Stuck on a tough audit level? Tired of seeing the "Game Over" screen when a report asks: "Who had access three months ago?" Many Db2 sites rely on clunky log tools for this security quest. Get ready to discover the secret power-ups! We'll expose the relatively new, native Db2 security information stored right in the catalog—the hidden cheat code you need. Join us to unlock these features, score a Pixel Perfect audit, and conquer your compliance quest by augmenting your current processes. No extra quarters needed!

Speakers

Steen Rasmussen

Customer Services Consultant, Broadcom

Steen Rasmussen is a Customer Services Consultant currently instrumental in the ongoing development and support of the Broadcom Db2 solutions. In 1985 Steen started as an IMS/DB2 DBA at a major insurance company in Denmark working with all aspects of DB2 - like tuning, application... Read More →

Monday September 28, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Latest and Features z/OS
Audience All
Platform z/OS

3:20pm BST

E4 Smarter Db2 REORGs : A Real-World User Story

Monday September 28, 2026 3:20pm - 4:20pm BST

Many Db2 environments still depend on inherited, legacy home-grown housekeeping processes, increasing cost, risk and instability. This session shares a customer journey that modernized REORG strategy using data-driven principles and operational criteria. We discuss organizational challenges, architectural decisions, and unexpected outcomes, offering guidance for a more sustainable and scalable Db2 housekeeping model.

Speakers

Shivam Pratap Singh

Database Performance Specialist, Kyndryl CIC S.R.O., Brno

Shivam pratap singh is a Senior Lead Database Administrator specializing in Db2 Z/OS, with extensive experience supporting large enterprise environments. His work focuses on Db2 operations, performance optimization, automation and modernizing existing processes. He works with customers... Read More →

Monday September 28, 2026 3:20pm - 4:20pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Automation, Best Practices, Modernization in Operations, Performance and Monitoring, User Stories, Utilities
Audience All
Platform z/OS

4:30pm BST

E5 Power-Up for Db2: A Guide to Modernizing Administration with Python and Ansible

Monday September 28, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm BST

As Db2 environments grow in complexity, traditional shell scripting often reaches its limits in maintainability and modern DevOps integration. This session serves as a high-level roadmap for Db2 administrators and developers to leverage Python and Ansible for modernizing their daily workflows. We will explore foundational database connectivity using the ibm_db driver and demonstrate how to transition from static text logs to interactive analysis using Pandas for efficient data wrangling and visualization. By utilizing modern tools like Jupyter Notebooks for exploration and Visual Studio Code for development, we will discuss the benefits of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in creating modular, reusable connector classes. Finally, the presentation dives into the DevOps world, showing how to extend Ansiblethrough custom filter, action, and lookup plugins to build flexible, database-driven automation frameworks.
Key Presentation Highlights:
Connectivity Essentials: A practical guide to se

Speakers

Norbert Munkel

Senior Software Engineer, ITGAIN Consulting GmbH

Norbert Munkel is a veteran of the database and enterprise IT ecosystem with a career spanning nearly four decades. Currently a Senior Consultant and Specialist for Db2 (LUW), Python, and Ansible at x1F MTS GmbH he is a recognized speaker and regular contributor to the International... Read More →

Monday September 28, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Audience All
Platform LUW

10:20am BST

E6 High Availability Q-replication in a heterogeneous Db2 HA environment

Tuesday September 29, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am BST

When using Q-replication in evironments with different Db2 HA configuraions like HADR and pureScale and even single server Db2 installations or Db2 z/Os all together, configuration of Q-replication can become quite complex, especially on pureScale when trying to integrate the capture and apply programs into the resource model.
In this presentraion we will go through a different approach and build a seperate HA cluster for the Q-replication environment. This approach simplifies the setup of Q-replicatation and makes the target and source Db2 environment trasnparent to the replication environment, and it works with all possible Db2 setups.
And the best part, if you use Q-replication and Db2 LUW, you already have all the needed parts for this setup.

Speakers

Sven Heidorn

Senior Sales Engineer, CSN

I have 35 years of experience with Db2 starting with Db2 on z/OS but have spent the last 25 years working with Db2 LUW as a DBA and system programer. Primary expertise is with HA environment e.g. pureScale GDPC. I also have extensive experience with both SQL- and Q-replication.

Tuesday September 29, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Database Resiliency, Data Movement and Integration, User Stories
Audience Intermediate
Platform LUW

11:30am BST

E7 Why this query runs so slow? Step-by-step SQL troubleshooting with MON_GET interfaces and event monitors

Tuesday September 29, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST

It is the classic DBA dilemma: the statistics are current, the access plan looks "clean" at first glance, yet the application is dragging. When the low-hanging fruit has been picked, how do you move from intuition to evidence-based troubleshooting?
This session follows a real-world "detective story" of a slow-running SQL statement originating from a Java (JDBC) application. We will move beyond basic EXPLAIN facility outputs to uncover the hidden bottlenecks that standard tools often miss. Using a step-by-step methodology, we will demonstrate how to:
- Capture the invisible: Isolate specific statements from the Package Cache and extract elusive parameter marker values.
- Leverage MON_GET: Use light-weight monitoring interfaces to identify where time is actually being spent (CPU vs. Wait times).
- Analyze the "Why": Utilize Activity Event Monitors and Section Actuals to compare estimated vs. actual cardinalities within a live execution.
- Apply Surgical Fixes: Explore advanced remediatio

Speakers

Kamil Kuduk

Solution Consultant, IBM Poland

Working for IBM Db2 in support role for over 10 years. Last few years in the Advanced Problem Determination team, specializing in performance problems and operating system troubleshooting.

Tuesday September 29, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Audience Intermediate
Platform LUW

2:00pm BST

E8 "No pain - no gain - story of optimizing DELETE purge processing"

Tuesday September 29, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST

A critical Db2 for z/OS purge batch is repeatedly abending after hitting CPU limits—without deleting a single row. What followed was a six-month troubleshooting marathon. With the batch spending over 80% of its time in I/O wait and racking up 500 million GETPAGEs on a 2-million-row table, standard tuning simply wasn't enough.This session dives into the gritty reality of complex performance tuning: the dead ends, the false starts, and the eventual breakthroughs. We will walk through the entire investigation—from utilizing monitoring tools to experimenting with UTS conversions and dedicated buffer pools. Finally, we’ll reveal how rethinking our DELETE index strategy, host variables, and leveraging ON DELETE CASCADE NOT ENFORCED transformed a CPU-crushing failure into a consistent, 20-minute purge process. Attendees will leave with a practical, battle-tested methodology for rescuing failing batch processes.

Speakers

Tereza Binarova

Technical Lead zProducts, Kyndryl

Tereza Binarova is a Db2 for z/OS Database Administrator at Kyndryl, where she has worked since 2021. She specializes in performance optimization, concurrency tuning, and complex production problem resolution in enterprise mainframe environments. Her responsibilities include maintenance... Read More →

Tuesday September 29, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Back to Basics, Best Practices, User Stories
Audience Intermediate
Platform z/OS

4:30pm BST

E9 Seamless SNA/VTAM migration (preconditioning for next version of Db2)

Tuesday September 29, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm BST

This session provides a technical overview of migrating Db2 for z/OS connectivity seamlessly from SNA/VTAM to TCP/IP. We will outline key configuration updates, and performance considerations involved in the transition, with a special focus on strengthening security through modern encryption using TLS and AT‑TLS for secure Db2 traffic. Attendees will gain practical guidance, best practices, and lessons learned to ensure a smooth and secure migration to an IP‑based infrastructure.

Speakers

Derek Tempongko

PM, IBM Silicon Valley Lab

Derek Tempongko is a Senior Software Engineer on the Db2 for z/OS distributed development team at the IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory. With over 20 years of experience in Distributed Data Facility (DDF), presented at previous IDUG events, authored a Redpaper on TLS/SSL which has been... Read More →

Tuesday September 29, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Best Practices, Latest and Features z/OS
Audience All
Platform z/OS

10:20am BST

E10 “Stabilize your Dynamic SQL and don’t let it remain Unpredictable”

Wednesday September 30, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am BST

In the world of Db2 for z/OS, SQL performance tuning is one of the most critical and often most complex of DBA tasks. While static SQL has long been the standing order for traditional mainframe applications, the growing use of dynamic SQL - driven by modern applications, APIs, and distributed workloads - has changed the tuning game.Dynamic SQL’s agility and flexibility introduces a new layer of complexity that can hinder performance if not well managed and cause inconsistent performance and even be unpredictable. Dynamic SQL is becoming more prevalent as agile development and hybrid workloads become the norm. But with the flexibility of dynamic SQL comes responsibility - DBAs must adapt and develop new ways of monitoring and tuning dynamic workloads in real-time and across the application lifecycle. Colin Oakhill will share a proven approach to bring order to chaos by giving DBAs the visibility, control, and insight they need to ensure that dynamic SQL performs efficiently and predic

Speakers

Colin Oakhill

Db2 LUW DBA, Insoft Infotel Software GmbH

Colin has been working with mainframes since 1974. Along his career he has worked as a systems programmer, DBA and developer. He started with CICS & IMS systems and with Db2 since 1988. He founded InSoft in 1986 and was chief architect and developer for the Db2 products. As part of... Read More →

Wednesday September 30, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Best Practices, Latest and Features z/OS, Performance and Monitoring
Audience Intermediate
Platform z/OS

11:30am BST

E11 Exploring Db2 explain facility for the next Gen of Db2 DBAs and using AI to bridge the skills gap.

Wednesday September 30, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST

Poorly written or optimized Db2 SQL queries can use huge amounts of CPU and render applications unusable causing business impact.
This session will cover the different types of access paths the Db2 Optimizes uses to return data for queries and discuss their merits and use cases. We will look at the data written by the DB2 optimizer in the EXPLAIN tables and how we can interpret the data using AI to determine if an SQL is going to be cheap or expensive to run.
The session will cover filter factors and the role of RUNSTATS on access path selection and cover how one can influence the access path.

Speakers

Phill Baker

Software Consultant, BMC

A passionate technologist specializing in BMC mainframe solutions. Twenty plus years experience working as a Database engineer across Db2, SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle. Working on mainframe z/OS, AIX, Linux, UNIX and Windows, supporting large scale data warehouse applications to... Read More →

Wednesday September 30, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Back to Basics
Audience Beginner
Platform z/OS

2:00pm BST

E12 SQL Injection on SterAIds: Is Your Db2 Ready for AI-Assisted Attackers?

Wednesday September 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST

SQL injection remains one of the most damaging classes of flaws against data-driven applications—and the workflow around it has changed: security testers and attackers alike can pair classic tooling with generative AI to iterate payloads faster, interpret ambiguous responses, and explore injection chains with less manual trial and error. This session focuses on Db2-backed applications: how SQL injection manifests in practice, how to recognize fragile dynamic SQL and unsafe integration patterns, and how to prioritize prevention (parameterization, safe composition, and tight error handling). We will connect that baseline to today’s landscape—examples include AI-assisted DAST/exploration tools, AI-augmented automation around sqlmap, and red-team harnesses that probe whether LLM-driven apps avoid unsafe database access—so you leave with a clearer understanding of both defenses and new risks.This is an upgraded version of my session on IDUG EMEA 2022: SQL Injection and Db2 - Pathology and P

Speakers

Petr Plavjaník

Db2 Architect, Broadcom

AI assistants are most useful when they can act on real systems through well-defined tools. Zowe MCP brings the open Model Context Protocol to z/OS so assistants in VS Code and other MCP clients can work with data sets, jobs, USS, and commands in a structured, guardrailed way. This... Read More →

Wednesday September 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic AI GenAI and Machine Learning, Security and Compliance, Working with SQL
Audience Intermediate
Platform Cross Platform

4:30pm BST

E13 Efficient Scans on Columnar Tables

Wednesday September 30, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm BST

It often makes sense for analytical applications to store the data in column organized tables instead of row organized tables to get better performance. Especially scans on column organized tables are different from scans on row organized tables. This presentation investigates these differences. One major difference is the usage of Synopsis tables to speed up scans. Therefore, we will look in depth at how Synopsis tables work, how one can check Synopsis tables e.g., with SQL statements, and how one can ensure to get "good" Synopis tables, i.e., Synopsis tables which allow the elimination of unneccesary page accesses during the scans of important queries.

Speakers

Andreas Weininger

Principal Information Architecture Technical Specialist, IBM

Andreas Weininger is part of the Information Architecture team of IBM in Munich. He has more than 20 year of experience with scalable solutions for data intensive solutions focussing especially on the performance aspects. He is a regular speaker at database and data warehousing events... Read More →

Wednesday September 30, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Best Practices, Data Movement and Analytics, Performance and Monitoring
Audience All
Platform LUW

5:40pm BST

E14 Detect, analyze and reduce IX Splits using RTS History.

Wednesday September 30, 2026 5:40pm - 6:40pm BST

Index pages splitting is a normal DB2 process when inserting or updating rows into table. However, this process can consume CPU resources and generate latch contention especially in a Data Sharing environment. Index page splits in also the main cause of index disorganization. In this presentation we will see how to identify costly index page splits and reduce their frequency with the help of RTS history tables.

Speakers

Laurent Kuperberg

Db2 technical consultant, SQLK

Laurent has 30 years of experience in the DB2 world as a consultant. He has acquired expertise ranging from database design to system administration and data sharing.
He has developed his own REXX tools, which he makes available to everyone.
He also provides DB2 training... Read More →

Wednesday September 30, 2026 5:40pm - 6:40pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Best Practices, Performance and Monitoring, User Stories
Audience Intermediate
Platform z/OS

9:00am BST

E15 Vibe Coding with a Serverless Database

Thursday October 1, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am BST

In this session we will show you how application building with a serverless database gives you superpowers. Serverless databases are built for the AI Era handling the workloads of the future and turning you into a 10X Engineer. We will show you how to develop applications for Db2 from prompt to production and demonstrate how a serverless database tackles AI and Machine driven workloads all while reducing cost and effort. Join us for this groundbreaking session and experience the future of Db2 SaaS services!

Speakers

Andrew Hilden

Chief Architect Db2 SaaS, IBM

Andrew Hilden is the Chief Architect of Db2 SaaS. He is involved extensively in the development and architecture of several data-oriented cloud services in IBM. In the past 25 years he has worked in development, architectural and leadership roles in Db2 from SaaS to areas like appliances... Read More →

Thursday October 1, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic AI GenAI and Machine Learning, Db2 Cloud and Warehouse, Modernization in Development
Audience All
Platform LUW

10:20am BST

E16 Getting Started with OpenTelemetry for Db2: Metrics, Traces, and What They Really Mean

Thursday October 1, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am BST

OpenTelemetry is becoming a standard for observability,but what does it mean for Db2? This introductory session shows how metrics and traces help you understand what’s really happening in your Db2 workloads. Learn how SQL activity can be exposed as meaningful metrics, and how distributed traces can follow transactions end-to-end into Db2.We focus on practical outcomes: where time is spent, where bottlenecks occur, and whether issues originate in Db2 or upstream systems. Designed for DBAs and performance specialists, this session gives you a clear starting point to understand what these signals really mean, and how to begin using them in your day-to-day work.

Speakers

Rabah Beggar

Software Developer, Broadcom

Product Manager at Broadcom, part of the team shaping the strategy and roadmap for mainframe database and infrastructure tools (IMS & Db2). I focus on simplifying complex operations and enhancing the experience for enterprise customers running critical workloads on the mainframe... Read More →

Thursday October 1, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Topic Back to Basics, Data Movement and Analytics, Performance and Monitoring, Working with SQL
Audience All
Platform z/OS

11:30am BST

E17 Db2 13 for z/OS – Security updates

Thursday October 1, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST

Maintaining a secure Db2 for z/OS environment is essential for protecting critical business data and meeting continuously evolving compliance requirements. This session explores key Db2 security functions, including quantum safe encryption capabilities, online transfer ownership of application objects, and the process for removing private protocol authorization behavior. The session also covers enhanced usage capabilities of trusted contexts and column masks, as well as auditing security related catalog tables using temporal table support.

Speakers

Gayathiri Chandran

Customer Success Manager and Principal Consultant, IBM

Gayathiri Chandran is a Senior Technical Staff Member in Db2 for z/OS development at IBM Silicon Valley Lab driving Db2 security strategy and delivery. She provides technical leadership across enterprise security initiatives, contributes to database security standards, and is a frequent... Read More →

Thursday October 1, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm BST
Luis

Track E, Technical Session

Audience Intermediate
Platform z/OS

2:30pm BST

B203 Hands-on Lab: Performing AI Queries with SQL Data Insights Pro

Thursday October 1, 2026 2:30pm - 6:30pm BST

Experience the new features of SQL Data Insights Pro, including unstructured text support, model training offloading to IDAA, and incremental retraining. SQL Data Insights Pro combines unsupervised deep learning with traditional SQL queries, allowing you to run similarity, dissimilarity, clustering, analogy, and commonality AI queries on your Db2 for z/OS data.
In this hands-on lab, learn how to train models using both structured and unstructured data to gain deeper insights from your enterprise data. With the new option to run model training on IDAA, you gain greater flexibility while saving valuable system resources. You will also learn how incremental retraining can save time and resources when updating models with new data.
With these capabilities, you can uncover hidden relationships across tables and views in your Db2 data, quickly gain actionable insights to address business problems as they arise, and confidently make better business decisions. In this lab, you will see how AI

Speakers

Jae Lee

Db2 for z/OS Development, IBM

Jae Lee is a Senior Software Engineer at the IBM Silicon Valley Lab, specializing in the development of Db2 AI for z/OS, SQL Data Insights, and the Db2 RDS component.

Thursday October 1, 2026 2:30pm - 6:30pm BST
Luis

Track B, Hands-On Lab

Topic AI GenAI and Machine Learning, Latest and Features z/OS, Working with SQL
Audience Beginner
Platform z/OS