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 that are 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 book was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working with the IBM Redbooks Poughkeepsie Center.

David Draper is an IT Specialist working for IBM UK since 2000. He has over 30 years of experience of IBM mainframe computing as a customer and with IBM. He has been delivering GDPS solutions for over 10 years. His areas of expertise include Copy Services, IBM NetView and System Automation, and GDPS.

Kristina Gryaznova is an IBM Z Software Support SME at IBM. She has 12 years of experience with IBM Z as a customer and with IBM. Kris has been delivering GDPS solutions for 5 years. She is currently delivering GDPS and z/OS software support to the clients, focusing on GDPS and z/OS DFSMS components. Her areas of expertise include GDPS, Copy Services, and z/OS.

Mairi Jane Lee is an independent technical writer with over 15 years of experience working as an Information Developer for IBM. Before working as a member of the GDPS Information Development team, she worked as an Information Developer on the IBM CICS® Transaction Server and CICS TX Series group of products.

Marie-France Narbey is a certified project manager with 20 years of experience in different areas of IBM mainframe. Her different positions in EMEA Product Engineering, Poughkeepsie Labs, Customer Satisfaction Project Office, pre-sales, and field enablement activities led her to join the GDPS test team as Information Development team lead.

Vijay Radhakrishnan is a Consulting IT Specialist working for IBM US. He has over 20 years experience of IBM mainframe computing as a customer and with IBM. He has been delivering GDPS solutions for over 10 years. His areas of expertise include GDPS CA, Copy Services, IBM Z NetView and System Automation, and GDPS.

Chris Shaffer is a Consulting IT Specialist working for IBM. He has 15 years of experience with IBM mainframe computing as a customer and with IBM. He is currently involved in the delivery of high availability and disaster recovery solutions that use GDPS. His areas of expertise include Copy Services, Parallel Sysplex, GDPS, and Cyber Vault.

John Thompson is a Senior Technical Staff Member with 30 years of experience in IBM z/OS software design and development. He is currently involved in IBM Z architecture and strategy, focused on resilience. John is a member of the leadership team for the GDPS Customer Design Council.

Thanks to the authors of the previous editions of this book:

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

George Kozakos
IBM Australia

Thomas Bueche
IBM Germany

Nick Clayton
IBM UK

Stephen Anania
Charlie Burger
Alan McClure
David Petersen
Judy Ruby-Brown
John Sing
IBM USA

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