ASAP University Conference 2026

Miami Advice

May 17 – 20, 2026

Embassy Suites by Hilton, Miami International Airport

Miami, Florida

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40+

Training Sessions

90+

Industry Experts

Latest Conference News & Updates

Class T403c – High-Speed Data Governance: Orchestrating Enterprise File Transfer with MQ, Sterling, and Aspera is now Shaping the Future of DWC: 22 Improvements and How You Can Help

The Sunday evening Welcome Reception has been moved to the Key West banquet room.

Class Schedule is available online.

Course
Catalog

Abstract: File transfer failures and manual processes are a leading source of operational risk, batch delays, and critical compliance gaps in modern enterprises. By leveraging the native File Transfer job type within your Workload Automation platform, your organization can transform these high-risk, ad-hoc processes into fully monitored, auditable, and automated workflows.

This class directly addresses operational stability and cost reduction. Investing in this training ensures your staff can design secure, auditable, and fully recoverable file transfer operations. Attendees will learn to treat all data exchange protocols as native, monitored jobs, which will significantly reduce manual intervention, improve SLA adherence, and enhance compliance with mandated data exchange protocols, directly contributing to faster business cycle times and a stronger security posture.

Benefit: Attendees will gain a complete, practical understanding of the dedicated File Transfer job type and its end-to-end capabilities, ensuring they can immediately apply these skills to production environments. The session will include deep dives into the job type’s features, covering both local and remote transfers. You will receive hands-on experience with the integrated Dynamic Workload Console (DWC) screens for modeling and monitoring file transfer jobs, and gain clarity on required authentication protocols and best practices for secure data exchange. Practical training will cover dependency management, troubleshooting common failures, and ensuring full recoverability. A live demonstration will showcase successful implementation and real-world dependency integration, providing actionable steps for implementing reliable, automated file transfers.

Abstract: Failure to meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) directly impacts business revenue, customer satisfaction, and regulatory compliance. This course empowers your organization to transform reactive troubleshooting into proactive business process management by implementing Workload Service Assurance (WSA). By leveraging WSA, your staff can proactively manage business risk, providing clear, early alerts on potential scheduling delays and instantly prioritizing resources to the jobs that matter most. Investing in this training improves the overall predictability and efficiency of your operations, guaranteeing on-time business outcomes.

Benefit: This session provides a comprehensive guide to implementing and maximizing WSA, an essential function for organizations that rely on the predictable and timely completion of mission-critical workloads. Attendees will gain the skills necessary for setting up a Service Level Agreement (SLA) within the Workload Automation environment. We will detail the features for SLA monitoring and how to configure effective alerts for both possible and actual SLA breaches. The session includes a deep dive into the Dynamic Critical Path function, which automatically identifies and highlights the sequence of jobs vital to an SLA’s success. This hands-on understanding enables your teams to optimize resource allocation and minimize operational risk. A live demonstration of WSA will showcase how to apply these concepts in real-time, providing actionable knowledge that can be immediately implemented in your production environment.

Abstract: Operational delays often stem from inefficient UI usage and slow performance, directly impacting the speed of business execution and your time-to-market for new initiatives. By investing in this essential course, you ensure your staff master the techniques necessary for optimal DWC performance configuration, significantly reducing lag time and accelerating troubleshooting. Furthermore, leveraging the intuitive Graphical Designer simplifies complex scheduling tasks, minimizing reliance on specialized scripting skills and leading to faster, more reliable automation rollout. This training guarantees an immediate uplift in team productivity and operational efficiency across your enterprise.

Benefit: This indispensable course provides a deep dive into mastering the Dynamic Workload Console (DWC), the central graphical interface for managing and controlling your enterprise workloads. The session focuses on configurations and techniques that maximize operational speed, enhance usability, and empower technical teams. Attendees will learn advanced configuration techniques for the DWC to achieve maximum speed and responsiveness. We will share expert tips and tricks for effectively utilizing the DWC’s new features and provide comprehensive, hands-on training on the powerful Graphical Designer for intuitive workload modeling, visualization, and validation. This practical knowledge is essential for improving daily productivity and transforming your approach to workload management.

Abstract: Inefficient, siloed SAP integration is a leading cause of costly batch delays and unnecessary manual interventions. This session is crucial for ensuring your team selects and implements the optimal integration strategy. Mastering the dedicated SAP job types will drastically reduce development time, eliminate complex scripting, and establish a single point of control for all SAP and non-SAP processes. Investing in this training directly improves SLA adherence and accelerates critical business processes like Finance and HR cycles, providing clear organizational agility and efficiency.

Benefit: This course provides a detailed, practical roadmap for integrating SAP workloads seamlessly within your automation platform. Attendees will receive a comprehensive comparative analysis of the traditional SAP xagent connection versus the modern dynamic job type approach, examining the pros and cons of each method for deployment, scalability, and maintenance. The core of the course provides business examples demonstrating the practical application of each dedicated SAP job type, including ABAP programs, Process Chains, and Background Jobs. By enabling technical teams to design and implement the most efficient solution for their specific SAP workloads, this session ensures high performance and reliable automation of your mission-critical SAP environments.

Abstract: System outages and security risks stemming from expired or invalid certificates are no longer acceptable; they are a critical threat to business continuity and regulatory compliance. This training ensures your staff can master the entire certificate lifecycle necessary for platform stability and security, proactively preventing system outages due to certificate issues. Proper certificate distribution to agents and platforms like the mainframe (z/OS) is crucial for maintaining secure and compliant communication, mitigating security risks, and guaranteeing uninterrupted enterprise workload execution. Investing in this course is an essential measure for maintaining a secure and highly reliable automation infrastructure.

Benefit: To achieve this level of operational security, attendees will gain in-depth technical knowledge and hands-on proficiency in certificate handling. The session will cover the specific requirements for self-signed certificates in version 10.2.2 and newer. Attendees will master the use of the certman utility for generating and managing certificates, understand the precise process for upgrading certificates from version to version, and master the automated methods for secure certificate distribution to agents. Furthermore, we will explain exactly which specific certificates need to be shared with other critical platforms, such as the mainframe (z/OS), to establish fully secure and compliant connections.

Abstract: Implementing OpenID Connect (OIDC) is a key strategic step toward achieving a robust, modern security posture. This critical training ensures your technical teams can successfully deploy Single Sign-On (SSO), which delivers measurable business benefits: reducing the number of passwords users manage, improving security compliance by centralizing user provisioning, and cutting down on IT helpdesk costs related to password resets. This strategic upgrade simplifies the user experience while simultaneously strengthening enterprise security and IT efficiency.

Benefit: Key Takeaways: Attendees will receive comprehensive, hands-on instructions on how to set up and configure the OpenID Connect connection with Workload Automation. The course will thoroughly explain the operational advantages of using OIDC over traditional authentication methods, and provide expert, practical solutions for common configuration headaches and troubleshooting issues encountered during implementation.

Abstract: Workload Automation APIs: Driving Enterprise Integration and Agility – APIs are the foundation of modern enterprise agility and the key to leveraging your Workload Automation (WA) investment to its fullest potential. This training equips your staff with the technical expertise to seamlessly integrate WA into high-value platforms such as DevOps pipelines and cloud orchestration stacks. The direct management benefit is the acceleration of service delivery and a substantial reduction in operational expense achieved by automating manual, cross-platform handoffs.

Benefit: The class structure ensures a clear understanding, starting with the core concepts of APIs and RESTful architecture. The focus then shifts to the practical application of WA APIs, specifically covering the programmatic management of jobs (start, stop, query status) and the configuration required for end-to-end orchestration by third-party tools focusing on outgoing and incoming api’s. We will provide detailed case studies illustrating successful integrations across the IT landscape.

Abstract: Elevate your Workload Automation reporting capabilities from simple views to scriptable, enterprise-grade data management. This specialized training provides your technical staff with the expertise to leverage the Reporting CLI and custom data extracts, resulting in significantly reduced manual effort for operational reporting and the ability to automate compliance and audit functions. The management benefit is clear: faster, data-driven decision-making and irrefutable proof of SLA performance and platform value.

Benefit: Attendees will quickly establish a foundation using all available canned reports for immediate insights. The core of the session will detail advanced methods for taking reporting beyond templates via custom queries and external data visualization. Crucially, the training focuses on full mastery of the Reporting Command Line Interface (CLI), enabling your team to implement scriptable, batch report generation and automated, high-volume data exports for seamless integration with external analysis and auditing systems.

Abstract: Data security and compliance are paramount; improper configuration poses a direct threat to business continuity and regulatory standing. This training ensures your technical staff masters the platform’s native encryption capabilities and secure credential management, directly mitigating the risk of data breaches for sensitive business information. Proper implementation of these security features is vital for passing stringent security audits, safeguarding your operations, and maintaining full regulatory compliance.

Benefit: The course is designed for configuration experts, detailing how Workload Automation provides encryption and compression job types for enhanced data handling. We will provide an in-depth explanation of where and how Workload Automation encrypts data when stored locally, focusing on configuration details and file locations for verification and auditing. Furthermore, the session will thoroughly cover the specific security measures taken to protect highly sensitive data, such as user IDs and passwords, ensuring secure credential management across the enterprise.

Abstract: In today’s security landscape, strong, centralized authentication is paramount for protecting critical enterprise workloads and achieving regulatory compliance. This session provides a complete guide to understanding and implementing the robust security models within IBM Workload Automation. We aim to show management that by mastering these authentication methods, your teams can enforce least-privilege access, simplify the audit process, and significantly mitigate the risk of unauthorized system access.

Benefit: Attendees will gain practical, in-depth knowledge necessary to secure the environment, including:

Authentication Fundamentals: Understanding the distinction between authenticating to the Dynamic Workload Console (DWC) and authenticating to the Workload Automation engine itself.

Authentication Methods: A complete overview of the different forms of authentication available, including methods for creating and managing local users and passwords.

Secure Credential Management: Detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to encrypt passwords within the system so that credentials are not visible in configuration files or logs, enhancing local data security.

Secure Credential Flow: Learning the proper techniques for passing user IDs and passwords securely from the DWC to the Workload Automation engine, ensuring secure communication and credential integrity across the entire environment.

Abstract: AI integration is crucial for maintaining a competitive advantage and transforming reactive IT into a predictive operational model. This training enables your staff to build self-optimizing workflows that leverage watsonx’s predictive capabilities, allowing the business to anticipate and resolve issues before they impact critical services. By mastering this integration, your organization will reduce operational costs through intelligent resource allocation, guarantee timely business outcomes, and establish the essential foundation for advanced AIOps.

Benefit: The course is geared towards expert practitioners, providing essential coverage on how watsonx Orchestrate works seamlessly with Workload Automation, specifically focusing on dynamic resource allocation and intelligent workflow management. We will demonstrate common business usages where Orchestrate enables self-healing and service automation via API integration. Additionally, the session will detail the configuration of Workload Automation to consume watsonx AI models for predictive analytics, including technical use cases for forecasting job duration, optimizing resource consumption, and proactively preventing SLA breaches.

Abstract: Installation errors directly translate to costly project delays and system instability. This training helps your staff master the precise installation roadmap and best practices for the Workload Automation 10.2.6 upgrade. By sending your experts, you guarantee they can anticipate and avoid common pitfalls, ensuring faster time-to-production, reducing reliance on external support, and establishing a robust, reliable foundation for your mission-critical workloads.

Benefit: This session is a live, comprehensive demonstration of the upgrade process, geared toward technical implementation teams. Attendees will receive a detailed checklist of prerequisites and preparatory steps required for a successful transition to version 10.2.6. We will clearly outline the correct sequence of installation steps necessary to ensure a clean, stable deployment. Crucially, the training will highlight common pitfalls, known issues, and advanced troubleshooting tips encountered during real-world installations of version 10.2.6, providing actionable solutions you can apply immediately.

Abstract: Failed upgrades cause severe, costly unplanned outages. This training is essential for mitigating that risk, ensuring your staff fully understands the precise upgrade roadmap, best practices, and rollback strategies for version 10.2.6. By sending your team, you guarantee they can anticipate and avoid common pitfalls, resulting in minimal system downtime, reduced reliance on external support, and rapid access to the enhanced security and features of the latest platform version.

Benefit: This session is a live, comprehensive demonstration geared towards technical implementation teams. Attendees will receive a detailed checklist of prerequisites and preparatory steps required ahead of time for a successful upgrade. We will clearly outline the correct, sequenced steps necessary to ensure a clean, reliable transition, with a strong focus on defined rollback strategies for maximum business continuity. Crucially, the training will highlight common pitfalls, known issues, and advanced troubleshooting tips encountered during real-world upgrades to version 10.2.6.

Abstract: Unplanned downtime and missed SLAs are costly and damage business credibility. This specialized training directly addresses these major risks. By attending, your staff will master the procedures necessary for guaranteeing high availability through effective Master failover planning and execution. Furthermore, they will learn to leverage Workload Assurance to proactively prevent failures, ensuring your business-critical processes run on time and eliminating reactive “firefighting”.

Benefit: This comprehensive session demos two areas:

Failover Resilience (Master-to-Backup): We will execute a live demonstration of a Master-to-Backup Master failover, detailing all major steps required to perform the switch. The session will cover best practices for planning, determining the ideal frequency of failover exercises, and highlighting common mistakes seen during Master failovers.

Workload Assurance (SLA Prevention): We will provide a live demo showcasing how Workload Assurance actively resolves scheduling issues. This includes demonstrations of scenarios where job abends cause delays, workstations create bottlenecks, and other factors threaten SLA targets, showing you exactly how the platform proactively prevents failures.

Abstract: Reliance on the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for repetitive tasks is highly inefficient. This specialized training enables your staff to automate and streamline operational procedures using the Command Line Interface (CLI), significantly reducing manual effort and accelerating troubleshooting speed. Mastering these tools is crucial for seamlessly integrating Workload Automation into existing scripts and DevOps pipelines, ensuring consistency, and maximizing the productivity of your expert scheduling staff.

Benefit: This session provides comprehensive, in-depth instruction on the core Workload Automation CLI utilities:

conman: For real-time monitoring and operational control.

composer: For programmatic modeling and defining scheduling objects.

ocli: For extended operational commands and data retrieval.

We will demonstrate how to manage workload templates entirely through the command line and showcase practical examples of how these tools can be used in scripts to automate complex operational tasks, implement bulk changes, and accelerate the transition of scheduled objects across environments.

Abstract: Don’t be jealous that those distributed folks have all the fun with their plugins, Z can too. This session will show you how to add your own features to the ISPF dialogs and many wonderful things you can do with messages and exits.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– Where the customization and integration points are in Workload Automation on Z
– The kind of added value features that can be added to the product
– How to customize messages to extend observability
– How to obtain some of the pre-built extras demonstrated for free

Abstract: Did you know Workload Automation on Z has a REST API? If you have a DWC you have the REST API. This session will introduce you to the REST API and show you some practical uses.

Benefits: Attendees will learn
– How to set up the REST API architecture for Z
– How security works
– How to learn and try it out
– Some practical examples of usage

Abstract: It’s been Fifty years since OPC was first released, each year we tell you about all the new features but rarely tell you about the hidden gems that have been around for ages that can REALLY help you manage your workload. This session will delve into the past and dig out some well hidden features, or unexpected techniques, that will give your workload a new lease of life.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– The value of features that are rarely discussed and what they can be used for
– How to automatically quiesce the workload around planned outages
– How to add lead time to some alerts
– How to make jobs automatically run where you want them
– How to vary the running of daily jobs
– How to reduce dependency loops, and speed up resolution by better management of previous day dependencies

Abstract: Durations and Deadlines used to be something you just entered any old value in and forgot about it. However, these have always been extremely important to getting the most out of Workload Automation, and with shrinking batch windows and increasing batch their importance is now coming more into focus. This means many users are finding out their data is in a poor state and could do with freshening up. This session will show you the art and science around getting your durations and deadlines into a useful shape.

Benefits: Attendees will learn
– The importance of accurate data
– How Workload Automation stores and maintains durations and deadlines
– How Workload Automation can handle predictable variations
– Techniques and processes for getting data up to date
– Techniques and processes for keeping data up to date

For maximum benefits attendees should also watch session “Manage the heat in your workload”

Abstract: Getting your critical batch through in time can be quite a challenge, but the “eager puppy” that is your controller will try and run Everything Everywhere All at Once. This session will show you how you can use the Workload Service Assurance feature to manage your critical batch PLUS the Workload Smoothing feature to get your non-critical stuff out of the way.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– How to use the Workload Assurance features
– How to identify your critical end points
– How to ensure critical batch is given the best chance to complete on time avoiding service penalties by automatically exploiting service classes
– How to use the Workload Smoothing features to reduce non-critical batch adding to CPU peaks and potentially reduce licence costs

For maximum benefits attendees should also watch session “The Art and Science of Durations and Deadlines”

Abstract: From 10.2 the DWC can mirror the current plan. So what? I hear you say. It can also be installed directly on Z too. This session will show you how to install your DWC directly on Z, using RACF for authentication. It will also show you how to set up mirroring for Z in your DWC and the advantages this will bring.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– How to install the DWC directly under zOS
– How to use RACF for authentication and admin within the DWC
– How to activate the federated mirroring feature of the DWC to improve performance of the DWC

Abstract: For us mainframe folks Certificates can be like a foreign language, and if you need to delve into Unix System Services to do it this can be almost enough to make you want to retire. This session will look at certificates from a traditional Z perspective. It will show you where they can be used, how to create them in RACF and how to configure Workload Automation on Z to use them. It will also show you how to import certificates into RACF from your distributed counterparts and how to export them from RACF to use on other platforms.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– Where certificates can be deployed in the Z architecture
– How to implement SSL entirely in native zOS without having to resort to Unix System Services
– How to create, import and export certificates in RACF
– How to configure Workload Automation for Z to exploit the certificates

Abstract: JCL is often the most neglected part of the workload definition, yet even without the augmentation Workload Automation can add to it JCL is extremely powerful with new ammunition loaded nearly every release of zOS. This session will give a whirlwind tour from the basics of JCL, to designing your JCL standards to add safety and resilience to your jobs.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– Key features of native JCL that can reduce effort in life-cycle management of JCL
– Ways to use Workload Automation JCL variables to reduce the amount of unique jobs needed
– Ways to use Workload Automation JCL directives to handle predictable variations and reduce the amount of unique jobs needed

Abstract: As an introduction to WAPL Wednesday this session will introduce you to WAPL. What is it? What can it do? How can you use it?

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– What WAPL is
– How it can be used to automate your workload
– How to get started with WAPL

Abstract: It’s very easy to let your database and plans get overgrown and untidy, which in turn can lead to a lot of wasted energy, both human and electrical. This session will show you what you can do to keep your environment neat and tidy.

Benefits: Attendees will learn
– How to use WAPL to identify potentially redundant elements in your database
– How to archive and delete database elements
– How to use WAPL to keep the current plan manageable

Abstract: With the sunsetting of OCL you are probably worried you may need to migrate to something else. This session will show you how you can do everything the OCL Command CHKDATE does in WAPL, and will show you the latest new tricks WAPL has to help with that and other OCL commands.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– How to generate every date OCL CHKDATE creates with native WAPL commands
– How to use and INCLUDE member to emulate CHKDATE entirely in WAPL
– How to do more than CHKDATE does with more formats and more flexibility
– How some other OCL commands can translate to WAPL

Abstract: Fifty Years Ago Operations Planning and Control was born, OPC to most. The planning part is incredibly important, but often neglected and misunderstood. This session is really a core Workload Automation Session with a WAPL bonus. It will help you understand how planning works in the product, what you need in your planning suite and look ways WAPL can help you manage the process, especially for unmonitored development systems.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– How the plans work within Workload Automation for Z
– Resilience and recovery of plans
– What kind of jobs you should include in your planning schedules
– Using WAPL to automate the creation of plans
– How WAPL can aid catch-up for unmonitored test or development environments if a planning failure is not spotted for several days

Abstract: Sometimes you can’t quite get what you want from WAPL, or you are trying to find a needle in the haystack of the MLOG but don’t even know what the needle looks like. Perhaps you find yourself needing to write hundreds of commands to process a list of jobs, but your fingers can only do so much. If this is you, then you need to come to this session to help you unleash the power of the ISPF/PDF editor. It has many commands and techniques to help you breeze through data manipulation on Z digitally, without too much use of your digits. Presented to you by the experts at avoiding having to work too hard, with practical use cases to help you do your job.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– How to speed up day-to-day maintenance, automation and recovery tasks for your workload definitions
– Lesser known, but very useful features of the ISPF Editor
– How to write your own macros
– How to link all this to Workload Automation and WAPL

Abstract: Learn about all the latest product functions and features, along with hints and tips, and also what maintenance you should be applying.

Benefits: Attendees will learn:
– Awareness of important maintenance and HIPERs that should be applied
– All about latest Technotes to help with complicated processes
– How best to engage with support

Abstract: To maintain competitive advantage, businesses must ensure that data pipelines deliver timely, reliable, and high-quality information for critical decision-making. In this session, we will demonstrate how the combination of IBM DataStage and IBM Workload Automation creates a cohesive, governed, and highly efficient data delivery system. We aim to show management that this integration breaks down information silos, minimizes data anomalies, and accelerates the time-to-insight, guaranteeing that your analytics and reporting systems always operate with the most trustworthy data available.

Benefit: Attendees will receive a practical, focused education on managing the entire data journey, including:

Data Pipeline Fundamentals: Reviewing the three core stages—Extraction (gathering raw data from diverse sources like APIs, files, and databases), Transformation (cleaning, filtering, and aggregating complex data at scale), and Loading (delivering transformed data to target warehouses or data lakes).

DataStage Capabilities: Understanding DataStage’s key functionalities, including its support for various integration styles (batch, streaming, replication), high-performance processing, development flexibility (no-code, low-code, and pro-code options), and crucial hybrid cloud support.

Intelligent Orchestration: Learning how to leverage Workload Automation to manage DataStage jobs, ensuring the entire pipeline is efficiently controlled and monitored. This integration prevents common pitfalls and inefficiencies, allowing for the creation of reusable pipelines that guarantee end-to-end data flow control and reliability.

Abstract: To maintain competitive service levels, organizations must transition from reactive monitoring to predictive operational excellence. This session demonstrates how integrating specialized tools like Instana and AIOps with IBM Workload Automation creates a self-aware, intelligent environment capable of anticipating and neutralizing threats to your mission-critical batch processes. We aim to show management that this integration significantly reduces Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR), eliminates operational blind spots, and guarantees workload stability toward meeting all Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Benefit: Attendees will gain a practical understanding of this integrated ecosystem, including:

Observability Fundamentals: Defining observability as the practice of understanding system performance through analyzing generated data (logs, metrics, and traces), enabling proactive measures to improve reliability.

Instana’s Role: Exploring how Instana provides deep, real-time application and infrastructure visibility, using AI-powered insights for automated anomaly detection and root cause analysis, with a strong focus on cloud-native environments.

AIOps for Action: Detailing how AIOps solutions, which incorporate Instana’s observability data, use broader automation and data analysis from various sources to trigger automated remediation procedures, such as incident management and resource allocation, resolving issues faster.

Intelligent Workload Management: Learning how to seamlessly integrate these tools to make Workload Automation monitoring effective, proactively keeping your batch jobs running smoothly toward their critical SLAs.

Abstract: As enterprises accelerate their AI-driven transformation, integrating advanced intelligence into mission-critical systems like IBM Z is essential for maximizing ROI and reducing operational risk. This session introduces Agentic AI—autonomous, goal-oriented systems—and explores how they are revolutionizing mainframe operations.

Join us to see how AI Assistants and Agents are reshaping the IBM Z user experience, driving productivity, and accelerating task resolution. Discover how IBM watsonx Assistant for Z delivers conversational AI for instant answers and provides a powerful runtime environment for AI agents that automate operations and deliver actionable system insights—all through an intuitive AI chat interface – targeted at mainframe users.

Through live demos, you will:
* Experience AI Agents in action—interacting with IBM Z environments to provide real-time insights and automate workflows.
* Explore integrations with tools like IBM Z Workload Scheduler for streamlined operations.
* Learn how to ingest enterprise knowledge and rapidly build custom AI agents tailored to your business needs.

Unlock the potential of Agentic AI to simplify complexity, enhance agility, and transform IBM Z operations for the future.

Abstract: To maximize the value of the mainframe, IT leaders must eliminate data silos and achieve a single, AI-powered view of system availability and risk. This session demonstrates how IBM Concert for Z transforms reactive mainframe management into a proactive, intelligent operation. We will show how the event correlation available in Concert for Z significantly reduces noise, accelerates incident resolution, and provides holistic risk assessment, ensuring predictable execution of your most critical z/OS and hybrid cloud workloads. Further integrations with IBM Z Workload Scheduler are in the roadmap and will enable an easier analysis of the long running job problem and others.

Benefit:  Attendees will gain practical knowledge of this integrated control system, including:

Unified Visibility and Risk Assessment: Understanding how IBM Concert for Z aggregates data from various sources and existing tools to provide a single, unified interface for monitoring and managing the health and availability of IT services across z/OS systems and subsystems. We will explore the Resilience Perspective, focusing on proactive risk management, intelligent APAR management and certificate health visibility.

AI-Driven Operations Management: Learning how Concert for Z applies AI to this consolidated data to help teams prioritize events, assess risk, and automate resolution. This includes AI-driven event correlation to group related alerts and the use of the integrated IBM Operations Agent for Z (Generative AI assistance) to investigate anomalies through natural language interactions.

Enhanced Workload Management: Detailing how the integration provides enhanced visibility and insights into Workload Manager (WLM) performance issues, the impact on service class priorities, and job performance, all through the Concert interface.

Streamlined Resolution: Demonstrating how Workload Scheduler metrics and status are visually presented within Concert’s centralized dashboard, allowing operators to manage integrated workflows and automate repetitive tasks, such as opening tickets in systems like ServiceNow, or issuing MVS commands directly.

Abstract: Guaranteeing the reliable, rapid, and secure movement of large data loads is essential for time-sensitive business processes and regulatory compliance. This advanced session demonstrates how to leverage IBM Workload Automation as the intelligent orchestrator for three specialized data transport systems: IBM MQ (for reliable, asynchronous messaging), Sterling File Transfer (for enterprise-managed file governance), and Aspera (for high-speed, large data transport). We aim to show management that by mastering this integrated approach, your teams can guarantee data integrity, maximize transfer speed across global distances, and streamline complex business processes.

Benefit: Attendees will receive practical, in-depth knowledge on utilizing these combined technologies:

Specialized Capability Analysis: Understanding the specific advantages of each solution—how MQ’s inherent reliability enables robust event-driven architectures; how Sterling provides enterprise management and auditing for secure file transfers; and why Aspera excels at quick, high-speed transfers of large datasets [cite: 1.1, 1.2].

Centralized Orchestration: Learning how to use Workload Automation as the central control point to define, schedule, and monitor jobs involving these products. This includes using robust APIs and Plug-ins for native interaction with each system [cite: 1.3].

Event-Driven Workflows: Mastering techniques for event-driven and scheduled automation, such as triggering data processing jobs upon the arrival of an MQ message or initiating an Aspera transfer as part of a complex workflow [cite: 1.4].

Error Handling and Auditing: Gaining proficiency in using the automation platform to manage exceptions, automatically restart failed transfers from the point of failure, and provide comprehensive audit trails for compliance purposes.

Abstract: Installing and navigating the Dynamic Workload Console (DWC) shouldn’t be a solo struggle. Join guest speaker Nigel Jowett as he shares his firsthand, real-world experience deploying the DWC. Nigel has compiled a definitive list of 22 crucial pain points and areas for improvement within the tool and the installation process.

Benefit: This isn’t just a presentation—it’s an interactive forum. Nigel is actively collecting data and feedback to send directly to the development team. Come share your own experiences, make your voice heard, and help us collaborate to change the tool for the better!

Abstract: Guaranteeing the reliable, rapid, and secure movement of large data loads is essential for time-sensitive business processes and regulatory compliance. This advanced session demonstrates how to leverage IBM Workload Automation as the intelligent orchestrator for three specialized data transport systems: IBM MQ (for reliable, asynchronous messaging), Sterling File Transfer (for enterprise-managed file governance), and Aspera (for high-speed, large data transport). We aim to show management that by mastering this integrated approach, your teams can guarantee data integrity, maximize transfer speed across global distances, and streamline complex business processes.

Benefit: Attendees will receive practical, in-depth knowledge on utilizing these combined technologies:

Specialized Capability Analysis: Understanding the specific advantages of each solution—how MQ’s inherent reliability enables robust event-driven architectures; how Sterling provides enterprise management and auditing for secure file transfers; and why Aspera excels at quick, high-speed transfers of large datasets [cite: 1.1, 1.2].

Centralized Orchestration: Learning how to use Workload Automation as the central control point to define, schedule, and monitor jobs involving these products. This includes using robust APIs and Plug-ins for native interaction with each system [cite: 1.3].

Event-Driven Workflows: Mastering techniques for event-driven and scheduled automation, such as triggering data processing jobs upon the arrival of an MQ message or initiating an Aspera transfer as part of a complex workflow [cite: 1.4].

Error Handling and Auditing: Gaining proficiency in using the automation platform to manage exceptions, automatically restart failed transfers from the point of failure, and provide comprehensive audit trails for compliance purposes.

Abstract: To achieve true agility and accelerate business cycles, organizations must eliminate silos between mainframe (z/OS) and distributed (D) scheduling environments. This session demonstrates exactly how dependency functionality works seamlessly between IBM Z Workload Scheduler and IBM Workload Automation (Distributed). We aim to show management that by mastering cross-platform orchestration, your teams can guarantee end-to-end workflow integrity, eliminate manual handoffs between platforms, and significantly reduce batch processing time—all critical factors for modernizing operations.

Benefit: Your team will walk away with practical, memorable skills through a presentation designed to keep them engaged:

The Dean and Leon Show is Back! Prepare for a highly visual and engaging session featuring props and dramatic examples to illustrate complex technical concepts.

Visualizing the Connection: We will provide clear, practical instruction on setting up, monitoring, and managing dependencies that span the mainframe and distributed systems (Unix, Windows, Cloud).

Dependency Functionality in Action: You’ll learn the precise mechanisms and syntax required to define seamless dependencies where a job on one platform (e.g., z/OS) waits for a job on the other (e.g., a Windows server) to complete.

Achieving Greater Efficiency: We’ll show how to leverage these dependencies to build integrated enterprise workflows, ensuring all processes run in the correct sequence automatically, thereby improving overall job throughput and reliability. This time, our two presenters are working together to achieve maximum scheduling efficiency!

Daily
Schedule

9:00 am - 2:00 pm

Customer Advisory Council

12:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Registraton Check-in

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Pre-Conference Training

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

First Timer’s Orientation

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Welcome Reception

8:00 am - 4:00 pm

Registration Station

8:30 am - 9:00 am

Welcome & Plenary

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Keynote Speaker

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Sponsor Exhibit & Partner Exchange

10:00 am - 10:45 am

Sponsors’ Overviews

11:00 am - 5:00 pm

Concurrent Sessions, Certifications & Labs

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Power Hour Event

8:00 am - 4:00 pm

Registration Station

8:30 am - 9:00 am

Welcome & Plenary

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Sponsor Exhibit & Partner Exchange

Concurrent Sessions, Certifications & Labs

6:00 am - 9:00 pm

ASAPU Dine-Around or ASAPU Paints the Town

8:00 am - 4:00 pm

Registration Station

8:30 am - 9:00 am

Welcome & Plenary

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Sponsor Exhibit & Partner Exchange

Concurrent Sessions, Certifications & Labs

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

ASAPU Farewell Reception and Awards Ceremony

Class
Schedule

TimeCourse CodeCourse TitleLocation
9:00 AM – 2:00 PMCustomer Advisory Council (CAC)Key West
2:00 PM – 3:00 PMS100OverviewKey Largo 3
3:00 PM – 4:00 PMS201Reading the Fabulous ManualKey Largo 3
3:00 PM – 5:00 PMS301dIntroduction to Workload AutomationKey Largo 1
3:00 PM – 5:00 PMS302MIntroduction to Z Workload AutomationKey Largo 2
5:00 PM – 6:00 PMFirst-timers OrientationKey Largo 3
6:00 PM – 8:00 PMWelcome ReceptionKey West
TimeCourse CodeCourse TitleLocation
7:30 AM – 8:30 AMBreakfast BeveragesGrand Ballroom
8:30 AM – 9:00 AMM100Welcome & PlenaryGrand Ballroom
9:00 AM – 10:00 AMM200Keynote SpeakerGrand Ballroom
10:00 AM – 10:45 AMM300Sponsor OverviewGrand Ballroom
10:45 AM – 11:15 AMGroup Photo & Refreshment BreakGrand Ballroom
11:30 AM – 12:30 PMM400Workload Automation RoadmapGrand Ballroom
12:30 PM – 1:30 PMLunch
1:30 PM – 2:30 PMM500 Concurrent Sessions
M501dSecuring Enterprise Automation: Best Practices for Workload Automation Certificate ManagementKey Largo 1
M502mTake a Look in Z MirrorKey Largo 2
M503COptimizing IBM IWS/IzWS: 5 Best Practices for End-to-End Success in Workload AutomationKey Largo 3
M505ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
M506Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
2:30 PM – 2:45 PMRefreshment BreakGrand Ballroom
2:45 PM – 3:45 PMM600 Concurrent Sessions
M601dMastering File Transfer Orchestration: A Deep Dive into the Workload Automation File Transfer Plug-inKey Largo 1
M602mZ Can Have Plug-ins Too – Adding Extra Features to Workload Automation on ZKey Largo 2
M606CShadow Boxing: Mastering Cross-Platform Dependencies (z/OS and Distributed)Key Largo 3
M605ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
M606Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
3:45 PM – 4:15 PMRefreshment Break Including DessertGrand Ballroom
4:15 PM – 5:15 PMM700 Concurrent Sessions
M701dLive demo install: Ensuring a Flawless Installation of Workload Automation v10.2.6Key Largo 1
M702mThe Golden Age – Old features You Never Thought You’d LoveKey Largo 2
M706CSimplifying and Transforming IBM Z Operations with Agentic AIKey Largo 3
M705ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
M706Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
6:00 PM – 7:30 PMPower Hour EventGrand Ballroom
TimeCourse CodeCourse TitleClass
7:30 AM – 8:30 AMContinental BreakfastGrand Ballroom
8:30 AM – 9:00 AMT100Welcome & PlenaryGrand Ballroom
9:00 AM – 10:00 AMT200 Concurrent Sessions
T201dGuaranteeing On-Time Business: Mastering Workload Service Assurance (WSA)Key Largo 1
T202mCertificates in RACFKey Largo 2
T203COpenKey Largo 3
T205ASAPU Lab & Certification examsKey Largo 4
T206Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
10:00 AM – 11:00 AMT300 Concurrent Sessions
T301dOptimizing Operational Efficiency: Mastering the Dynamic Workload Console (DWC)Key Largo 1
T302mHot JCL AdviceKey Largo 2
T306COpenKey Largo 3
T305ASAPU Lab & Certification examsKey Largo 4
T306Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
11:00 AM – 11:15 AMRefreshment BreakGrand Ballroom
11:15 AM – 12:15 PMT400 Concurrent Sessions
T401dStreamlining Access: Implementing and Troubleshooting OpenID Connect with Workload AutomationKey Largo 1
T402mUpgrading your Workload Automation on ZKey Largo 2
T403CShaping the Future of DWC: 22 Improvements and How You Can HelpKey Largo 3
T405ASAPU Lab & Certification examsKey Largo 4
T406Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
12:15 PM – 1:15 PMLunch
1:15 PM – 2:15 PMT500 Concurrent Sessions
T501dUnleashing Automation Potential: Integrating Workload Automation with REST APIsKey Largo 1
T502mThe Art and Science of Durartions and DeadlinesKey Largo 2
T503cUnified Mainframe Control: Orchestrating Predictability with IBM Concert for ZKey Largo 3
T505ASAPU Lab & Certification examsKey Largo 4
T506Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
2:15 PM – 2:30 PMRefreshment BreakGrand Ballroom
2:30 PM – 3:30 PMT600 Concurrent Sessions
T601dBridging SAP and Enterprise: Deep Dive into SAP Integration and OrchestrationKey Largo 1
T602mManage the Heat in Your WorkloadKey Largo 2
T603cData Delivery: Orchestrating High-Performance Data Pipelines with DataStage and Workload AutomationKey Largo 3
T605ASAPU Lab & Certification examsKey Largo 4
T606Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
3:30 PM – 4:00 PMRefreshment Break Including DessertGrand Ballroom
4:00 PM – 5:00 PMT700 Concurrent Sessions
T701dSeamless Transition: Live Demo of In-Place Upgrade to Workload Automation v10.2.6Key Largo 1
T702mGive it a REST on Z – Using REST API to ingrate with Workload Automation on ZKey Largo 2
T703cJCL check made easy: use SmartJCL with the Visual Studio Code plugin; in batch or in ISPF – including IZWS variable resolution.Key Largo 3
T705ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
T706Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
TimeCourse CodeCourse TitleClass
7:30 AM – 8:30 AMContinental BreakfastGrand Ballroom
8:30 AM – 9:00 AMW100Welcome & PlenaryGrand Ballroom
9:00 AM – 10:00 AMW200 Concurrent Sessions
W201dThe Intelligent Orchestrator: Leveraging Watsonx AI and Orchestrate for Predictive Workload AutomationKey Largo 1
W202mWelcome to WAPL WednesdayKey Largo 2
W203cJCL ExpertKey Largo 3
W205ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
W206Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
10:00 AM – 11:00 AMW300 Concurrent Sessions
W301dPower User Automation: Mastering Workload Automation Command Line Tools (conman, composer, ocli)Key Largo 1
W302mKeeping Your Frogs Clean and GreenKey Largo 2
W306CPredictive Operations: Achieving End-to-End Observability with Instana, AIOps, and Workload AutomationKey Largo 3
W305ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
W306Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
11:00 AM – 11:15 AMRefreshment BreakGrand Ballroom
11:15 AM – 12:15 PMW400 Concurrent Sessions
W401dFortifying Access: Comprehensive Authentication and Security Management in Workload AutomationKey Largo 1
W402mFrom OCL to WAPLKey Largo 2
W403COpenKey Largo 3
W405ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
W406Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
12:15 PM – 1:15 PMLunch
1:15 PM – 2:15 PMW500 Concurrent Sessions
W501dFortifying Data Security: Encryption, Compression, and ComplianceKey Largo 1
W502mI Love It When a Plan Comes TogetherKey Largo 2
W503COpenKey Largo 3
W505ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
W506Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
2:15 PM – 2:30 PMRefreshment BreakGrand Ballroom
2:30 PM – 3:30 PMW600 Sessions
W601dDriving Business Insight: Mastering Advanced Reporting and AnalyticsKey Largo 1
W602mThe Power of the ISPF/PDF Editor – Frogs and Fingers Can Only Go So FarKey Largo 2
W603COpenKey Largo 3
W605ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 4
W606Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
3:30 PM – 4:00 PMRefreshment Break Including Dessert
4:00 PM – 5:00 PMW700 Concurrent Sessions
W701d2 for 1 : Failover Resilience & Workload Assurance Live DemosKey Largo 1
W702mzOS Tech TalkKey Largo 1
W703COpenKey Largo 1
W705ASAPU Lab & Certification ExamsKey Largo 1
W706Strategic Business Partners ExchangeKey West
6:00 PM – 8:00 PMAwards Ceremony and Reception Key Biscayne