IDUG NA 2026: Full Schedule

11:30am EDT

Monday October 26, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT

With fewer schools teaching DB2 for z/OS, it often falls on the DBAs to provide instruction for the programming staff. This is a very basic introduction to DB2 concepts and vocabulary, aimed at the novice user of DB2, or anyone who must train novice users.

Speakers

Mark McNary

DBA, umb bank n.a.uu

I have been working with DB2 since 1989 in a variety of positions, from heads-down development, to systems design to database design and DBA work. . I love to talk about databases in general, and especially DB2. I also have extensive experience with Oracle, SQL Server, and Sybase... Read More →

Monday October 26, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Magnificent 4

Track C, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area Back to Basics, User Stories

11:30am EDT

F2 | Introduction to SQL-PL

Monday October 26, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT

Magnificent 7

In this session, we'll go back to basics and look at SQL-PL, Db2's built in server-side application logic. We'll take a look at the code constructs and how to leverage in stored procedures, user defined functions and triggers. We'll also look at more complex scenarios like code for a Data Partitioning Feature (DPF) environment. The majority of this session will be looking at and executing source code.

Speakers

Les King

Owner, Professor, Les King Learning, Seneca College

Les King is a part-time professor at multiple Ontario Colleges, offering courses in Mathematics, Programming and Data Management. Les has also been an instructor at the University of Toronto in the Mathematics department. Les effectively draws a connection between what the marketplace... Read More →

Monday October 26, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Magnificent 7

Track F, Technical Session

Audience Beginner
Subject LUW
Area AppDev, Back to Basics, Modernization in Development, Working with SQL

2:00pm EDT

E3 | Amazon RDS for Db2 Service Deep Dive: Architecture, Operations, and Best Practices

Monday October 26, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

Magnificent 6

Amazon RDS for Db2 addresses growing demand for Db2 cloud migration by delivering a fully managed service with push-button deployment — provision a production-ready Db2 instance in minutes, not days. Automated patching, backups, scaling, and failover eliminate undifferentiated heavy lifting. This deep dive covers RDS for Db2 through the Well-Architected Framework: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization. Attendees learn how a managed service reduces admin burden, improves uptime, and frees teams to focus on innovation. Leave with a blueprint for modernizing Db2.
Self-managed Db2 means manual patching, complex HA, and rising costs. Amazon RDS for Db2 fixes that — deploy production-ready Db2 in minutes with a fully managed service.This deep dive covers RDS for Db2 through the Well-Architected Framework: Operational Excellence (automated patching, backups, monitoring), Security (encryption, IAM, VPC), Reliability (Multi-AZ, cross-region DR), Performance Efficiency (right-sizing, storage tuning), and Cost Optimization (Reserved Instances, TCO savings vs. self-managed).Live demos and customer patterns show how to provision, secure, and optimize RDS for Db2 for production. Migrating from Linux or AIX? Optimizing an existing deployment? Leave with a well-architected blueprint for Db2 as a managed service on AWS.

Speakers

Ashish Prasad

Solutions Architect, AWS

Ashish Prasad is a Solutions Architect with a focus on relational database (Db2, Oracle, PostgreSQL) and analytics at AWS. He works with AWS customers and certified partners to provide technical assistance and design customer solutions on cloud migration projects, helping customers... Read More →

Monday October 26, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Magnificent 6

Track E, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Modernization in Operations

2:00pm EDT

F3 | Debugging SQL PL - Without a Debugger

Monday October 26, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

Magnificent 7

Db2 enables developers to write Procedures, Functions, and Triggers using SQL PL (SQL Procedure Language). While IBM does provide a debugger that can be used to debug SQL PL, users may not want to run a debugger in production. This session will explore alternatives to using the Unified Debugger. At the end of this session, you should be able to use the techniques discussed in this presentation to Debug an SQL PL application (Procedure, Function, or Trigger).

Speakers

Chris Crone

Distinguished Engineer, Broadcom

Chris is a Distinguished Engineer for Database Technology and a lead architectfor the Data Management portfolio within the Mainframe Division of BroadcomSoftware Group. He oversees strategy and architecture decisions for theBroadcom database products IDMS and Datacom, as well as for... Read More →

Monday October 26, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Magnificent 7

Track F, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area AppDev, Back to Basics, Working with SQL

3:20pm EDT

D4 | A Modern Approach to Db2 Backup & Recovery: Snapshot Technology with Cloud Integration

Monday October 26, 2026 3:20pm - 4:20pm EDT

Magnificent 5

This session presents a comprehensive approach to database backup and recovery using Snapshot Backup technology integrated with Cloud infrastructure. The solution leverages the Db2 ACS Scripted interface to automate backup operations on Linux systems, enabling efficient data protection strategies for enterprise databases. The implementation utilizes Linux LVM (Logical Volume Manager) to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of database volumes, ensuring data integrity during backup operations. By combining snapshot-based backup techniques with cloud object storage capabilities, this approach delivers a robust disaster recovery solution that minimizes backup windows, reduces storage costs, and enhances data availability. The scripted automation through Db2 ACS interface ensures consistent, repeatable backup procedures while maintaining operational efficiency in Linux environments. This methodology addresses critical requirements for modern database management, including rapid recovery time objectives (RTO), minimal recovery point objectives (RPO), and compliance with data retention policies through cloud-based archival strategies.

Speakers

Thomas Rech

Architect Db2 SAP Dev. & Client Adoption Engineering, IBM

Monday October 26, 2026 3:20pm - 4:20pm EDT
Magnificent 5

Track D, Technical Session

Audience Intermediate
Subject LUW
Area Automation, Back to Basics, Db2 Cloud and Warehouse, Modernization in Operations, Utilities

3:20pm EDT

F4 | SQL Oldies but Goodies and the Power of the SQL Rewrite

Monday October 26, 2026 3:20pm - 4:20pm EDT

Magnificent 7

There have been so many enhancements in Db2 SQL for developers in the last 3 or 4 versions that many developers have never really taken advantage of. This presentation picks my personal favorites that I believe all developers should get knowledgeable on and possibly applied to current and future applications. Developers should be informed of all of newer features in Db2 and this presentation is a great summary for this topic. When it comes to performance, often times the answer to better performance is rewriting queries different ways, and redesigning programs differently. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of some great SQL enhancements, application table designs, along with getting stronger in the SQL language. This is a great session for developers on Db2 LUW or Db2 z/OS. Developers 'Get Empowered'.

Speakers

Tony Andrews

Mainframe developer, Db2 SQL Performance and Tuning, Db2 trainer, P&T Solutions, Inc.

Tony Andrews has more than 30 years’ experience in the development of relational database applications. Most of this time, he has provided development and consulting services to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Tony has written literally thousands of queries and programs... Read More →

Monday October 26, 2026 3:20pm - 4:20pm EDT
Magnificent 7

Track F, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject Cross Platform
Area AppDev, Back to Basics, Best Practices, Latest and Features z/OS, Working with SQL

4:30pm EDT

C5 | Common made performance mistakes, when coding SQL

Monday October 26, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT

Magnificent 4

The blessing of SQL is: when logically correct it will return an answer. Unfortunately, this is also the curse. Depending on how you write your SQL, you give the optimizer more or fewer choices .In this session we will go over understanding performance basics and common made SQL mistakes and the impact they have on the optimizer's choices.
Bring our application DBA's and developers to this session to train them and avoid common SQL performance pitfalls

Speakers

Kurt Struyf

consultant, lone-star

Kurt Struyf is an independent consultant/contractor and president of Lone Star consulting. He has over 25 years experience as a (system) DBA and has been installing, migrating, troubleshooting and tuning DB2 systems throughout Europe. Besides his consultancy missions he has been teaching... Read More →

Monday October 26, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT
Magnificent 4

Track C, Technical Session

Audience Beginner
Subject AppDev
Area AppDev, Back to Basics, Best Practices, Performance and Monitoring, Working with SQL

10:20am EDT

D6 | Db2 z/OS Index Strategy: Architecture, Usage, and Recovery

Tuesday October 27, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Magnificent 5

Not all indexes are created equal. We explore the architectural differences between Partitioned, Non-Partitioned (NPSI), and Data-Partitioned (DPSI) indexes and when to deploy each for performance. Crucially, we explore each type's optimal recovery strategy so you can stop guessing between Rebuild and Recover.

Speakers

Ahmed Hamed

Software Engineer, Broadcom

Ahmed Hamed is a Software Engineer at Broadcom, specializing in the development and mission-critical support of Db2 Backup and Recovery solutions for z/OS. With nine years of experience in the software industry, the last seven are dedicated to the mainframe ecosystem. Ahmed focuses... Read More →

Tuesday October 27, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Magnificent 5

Track D, Technical Session

Audience Beginner
Subject z/OS
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Utilities

11:30am EDT

B7 | Db2 LUW Back to Basics - Backup and recovery

Tuesday October 27, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT

Magnificent 1

In this presentation we will examine in detail the backup and recovery options available to DBAs for their Db2 environments. How to tune these utilities will be discussed and results will be reviewed from numerous tests. We will see what is the “art of the possible” from using local files, COS, Storage based copies, etc. … We will take a close look at the new version enhancements and how they can improve your backup and recovery experience.

Speakers

Dale McInnis

STSM, Db2 Client Adoption Engineering, IBM

Dale McInnis is an STSM in Db2 development from the IBM Toronto Canada Lab. He has a B.Sc.(CS) from the University of New Brunswick and a Masters of Engineering(M.Eng) from the University of Toronto and is currently pursuing his PhD in computer science. Dale joined IBM in 1988 and... Read More →

Tuesday October 27, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Magnificent 1

Track B, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Database Resiliency, Latest and Features LUW, Modernization in Operations

4:30pm EDT

B9 | Db2: Explain EXPLAIN

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT

Magnificent 1

Technical details to Db2 LUW usage and optimization of queries
There are many sessions about the EXPLAIN facility in Db2 LUW, but they all lack the concise statements to find the right SQL queries, set everything up, do the EXPLAIN and draw the right conclusions by examples and working statements to copy-and-paste.This is a back-to-basics session, enhanced with experiences from real situations and best practices.This session was presented at IDUG NA 2025 in Atlanta. It was in the Top10 of the user sessions. I will update the material to version 12.1 and preferrably include details regaring AI optimizer

Speakers

Roland Schock

Principal, tasdevil Consulting

Roland is installing, using and tuning Db2 on distributed since 1993 or Version 2.1 for OS/2. After working for 25+ years for ARS Computer und Consulting GmbH as a Db2 expert he is now an independent consultant.His expertise and engagement for the community allowed him to be IBM Champion... Read More →

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT
Magnificent 1

Track B, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, User Stories, Working with SQL

4:30pm EDT

D9 | Db2 DDF and DBATs and Connections re-explained from a user perspective

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT

Magnificent 5

Distributed client applications (from a server) are the most important and common of new workload using Db2 Z.
There are many concepts and terms thrown around which we often too often gloss over without a complete understanding.
This presentation will re-explain basic terms from my user perspective plus share some experiences learned (the hard way?) over recent years.
This presentation covers THREADS and DBATS and CONNECTION. What they mean and how they work and what our Db2 can tell us about their usage and importance.

Speakers

Brian Laube

Db2 DBA, Manulife Financial

Brian Laube is an application DBA for Db2 Z working for Manulife Financial in Canada. Brian has experience with performance monitoring, SQL, application developement, security and everything else in the mainframe world.
Brian has been an IBM Champion since 2017. Brian is one of the directors of the Central Canada Db2 User Group which still holds an annual TWO day in-person user-group event! Brian Laube has presented at many IDUG conferences since 2015 in both NA and EMA. Brian is a volunteer with... Read More →

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT
Magnificent 5

Track D, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area AppDev, Back to Basics, Performance and Monitoring, User Stories

4:30pm EDT

E9 | Basic Automation, Or, How To Make The Database Do Your Job For You

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT

Magnificent 6

In today’s busy environment, there is a lot of pressure to automate as much as possible. To that end, and lacking AI tools to do my job, I have come up with a few shortcuts that allow me to automate some normally onerous tasks. In this presentation, I will describe and document some tasks I have automated in my shop. Hopefully some of this will prove useful.

Speakers

Mark McNary

DBA, umb bank n.a.uu

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT
Magnificent 6

Track E, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area Automation, Back to Basics, User Stories

4:30pm EDT

F9 | Data curation as strategic advantage

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT

Magnificent 7

Organizations that have optimized institutional data through governance, stewardship, and quality management are AI‑ready by design. Leveraging that institutional data both internally and externally for competitive advantage opens possibilities at scale never before imagined. This session will discuss:
Tool adoption without data maturity creates risk: Weak data foundations lead to unreliable results, reduced transparency, and diminished business value.AI builds on existing data foundations: Incremental enhancements—such as data scraping, enrichment, and feature refinement—are most effective when layered on curated data stores.Efficient access to data still matters: AI tools need immediate access to data.Data curation presents as a DBA responsibility: DBAs control data curation through standard operating procedures and best practices. Decision engines still matter: AI outputs are only as effective as the decision logic, controls, and context in which they operate.AI is an evolution of data expertise, not a replacement: The role of data professionals becomes more critical, installing guardrails in automation and scalable intelligence.This session reframes AI success as the amplification of long‑standing data discipline. Attendees will gain practical insight into what they are doing today, for better or worse, that is curating data and what approaches they can apply to improve AI positioning. Best practices in database management are not a preparatory step for AI, but translate directly into sustainable AI advantage.

Speakers

Anne Hoelscher

Senior Director, BMC

Anne Hoelscher is a Senior Director of Product Development with many years of mainframe experience, starting in Db2 V1.2. Her early years were focused primarily on Db2 data management, architecture, and enterprise-scale data processing including consulting with new to Db2 customers... Read More →

Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT
Magnificent 7

Track F, Technical Session

Audience Intermediate
Subject z/OS
Area AI GenAI and Machine Learning, Back to Basics, Best Practices

10:20am EDT

D10 | Optimizing Db2 BLU Performance: Defragmentation, Data Clustering, and Reduced Logging at Scale

Wednesday October 28, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Magnificent 5

As BLU workloads scale, maintaining optimal insert performance, log efficiency, and data organization becomes increasingly important. This session addresses these challenges through defragmentation, data clustering, and reduced logging. We will examine internal storage behavior and share proven techniques to reclaim space, reduce log overhead, and sustain high-throughput workloads.

Speakers

Ron Liu

Db2 Columnar Database Engine Developer, IBM

Wednesday October 28, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Magnificent 5

Track D, Technical Session

Audience Intermediate
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Data Movement and Analytics, Performance and Monitoring

2:00pm EDT

C12 | Efficiently Finding and Fixing High Resource Consuming SQL

Wednesday October 28, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

Magnificent 4

This presentation will demonstrate how to find, analyze and tune the top 40 expensive queries. Special emphasis will be on finding the cursors that could benefit from multi-row fetch. In addition, discussions on designing perfect indexes, MQTs and AQTs, along with manual query rewrite, SQL exploitation and most important, proper use.

Speakers

Sheryl Larsen

President, Sheryl M Larsen LLC

Sheryl Larsen is an internationally recognized researcher, consultant and lecturer, specializing in DB2 and is known for her extensive expertise in SQL. Sheryl has over 30 years’ experience in DB2, has published many articles, several popular DB2 posters, and co-authored a book... Read More →

Wednesday October 28, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Magnificent 4

Track C, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area AppDev, Back to Basics, Best Practices, Latest and Features z/OS, Modernization in Development, User Stories, Working with SQL

10:20am EDT

D15 | Db2 Z and the CIA

Thursday October 29, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Magnificent 5

Db2 Z and the CIA is a powerful informational combination. To be clear, the CIA is the Compliance Information Analysis product available for free to many users of Db2 Z (if you have Broadcom products). Broadcom introduced the CIA as a subproduct of ACF2. It is now an independent product available to most users of their products. The CIA provides a series of Db2 tables that can contain all the information from your external-security-manager (ESM), whether it is ACF2, RACF, or TopSecret. Once your ESM is loaded into the CIA, it is relatively more accessible to the curious end-user! SQL SELECT can be used to easily build interesting and useful and focused reports about your security configuration. This presentation will go over the basics of mainframe security and the basics of the CIA and how to build and populate. Finally, interesting CIA tables and views (and sample SELECTs) will be highlighted to show why it is useful.

Speakers

Brian Laube

Db2 DBA, Manulife Financial

Thursday October 29, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Magnificent 5

Track D, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Security and Compliance, User Stories, Working with SQL

11:30am EDT

E16 | Db2 Always On Architecture

Thursday October 29, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT

Magnificent 6

In this presentation we will discuss the resiliency offerings for DB2 and how they can be combined to provide an Always On architecture. What are the process changes required, how to I determine what needs to be done and what can I do today. The IBM Always On architecture allows you to run your client facings systems 24 by 7 by 365 with zero downtime.

Speakers

Dale McInnis

STSM, Db2 Client Adoption Engineering, IBM

Thursday October 29, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Magnificent 6

Track F, Technical Session

Audience All
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Database Resiliency

2:00pm EDT

B201 | From Db2 First Responder to Emergency Technician - The problem determination master workshop

Thursday October 29, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

Magnificent 1

Db2 delivers a wide range of tools for problem determination. Those tools range from the new Log Analysis Capability in IBM Db2 Genius Hub to classical tools that can and should be used for deeper analysis. As the Db2 community constantly welcomes new database administrators and application developers, an effecient tooling and its use is required for those new community mambers. The session will share tools and best practices for the first occurrence data capture (FODC) tools available for DBAs and developers. This session will cover the first steps in the process of problem determination and problem source identification (PD/PSI). It provides hands-on and practical examples for the strategy and process to encircle and find problems by asking the right questions.

Speakers

Thomas Rech

Architect Db2 SAP Dev. & Client Adoption Engineering, IBM

Sponsors

IBM

Thursday October 29, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
Magnificent 1

Track B, Workshop

Audience All
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Performance and Monitoring

3:45pm EDT

B202 | Understanding ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE: A Comprehensive Workshop on Best Practices and Pitfalls

Thursday October 29, 2026 3:45pm - 5:15pm EDT

Magnificent 1

Since 2012, the ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE stored procedure has stood for versatility. Whether you're facing extraordinary challenges or handling everyday tasks, ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE has you covered as a DBA. ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE, or AMT for short, has been continually expanded and new application areas have been added. Today, it's important to understand the architecture and design principles of AMT to understand the best use cases and avoid pitfalls. This workshop will guide you through the AMT functionality, starting with the initial intended use cases, and the most used scenarios. But even more importantly, the instructors will discuss and show pitfalls and will guide trough the problem analysis process for AMT.

Speakers

Thomas Rech

Architect Db2 SAP Dev. & Client Adoption Engineering, IBM

Sponsors

IBM

Thursday October 29, 2026 3:45pm - 5:15pm EDT
Magnificent 1

Track B, Workshop

Audience Intermediate
Subject LUW
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Performance and Monitoring

3:45pm EDT

C202 | The Hidden Mistakes That Hurt Db2 for z/OS Query Performance

Thursday October 29, 2026 3:45pm - 5:15pm EDT

Magnificent 4

Even well‑written SQL can slow Db2 for z/OS when subtle mistakes slip through. In this hands‑on lab, attendees will work with preloaded queries that showcase common pitfalls—over‑indexing, missing or stale statistics, inefficient joins, unnecessary sorting, and predicate mismatches. You’ll identify the issues, apply targeted fixes, and validate improvements using metrics, access path analysis, and supporting tools.
Beyond immediate speedups, this lab reinforces a repeatable diagnostic approach that strengthens day‑to‑day tuning and sets the stage for AI‑assisted operations—where consistent, high‑quality data enables smarter automation and more reliable outcomes.

Speakers

Carlos Davis

Solutions Advisor, Rocket Software

Carlos Davis is a Solutions Advisor at Rocket Software with more than 20 years of hands-on experience powering mission critical Db2 environments across a wide range of industries. As a trusted advisor to his clients, he helps organizations maximize performance, minimize risk, and... Read More →

Sponsors

Rocket

Thursday October 29, 2026 3:45pm - 5:15pm EDT
Magnificent 4

Track C, Hands-On Lab

Audience All
Subject z/OS
Area Back to Basics, Best Practices, Database Resiliency, Working with SQL

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