Back to Blue

Well, I've come full circle as a database professional. I was working for IBM in a branch office in Dallas when DB2 was announced back in 1983. A few years later, still in that branch office, I helped some organizations install DB2 Version 1 Release 2 (so, I wasn't quite on the ground floor, with respect to DB2 release experience). I wanted to do all DB2, all the time, and in 1990 that wish was granted when I became part of the mainframe DB2 national technical support team at IBM's Dallas Systems Center. The nineties was a really fun decade for me, work-wise, as I helped organizations all over the world succeed with DB2 -- being part of the roll-out of DB2 data sharing/parallel sysplex technology was especially gratifying.

Great as that situation was, I left IBM in 2000 to become part of the user segment of the DB2 community, joining Atlanta-based CheckFree Corporation (later acquired by Fiserv). As a DB2 user, I was eligible to serve on the Board of Directors of the International DB2 Users Group, and I was presented with that opportunity in 2001 (I was a member of the IDUG Board for seven years, and served as the Organization's President in 2006-2007). I was also invited to be a regular columnist for IBM Data Management Magazine (formerly DB2 Magazine), and I'm in my 11th year of that enjoyable extracurricular activity.


In mid-2007, I again shifted career gears, this time hanging out my own shingle as President of Catterall Consulting. Soon thereafter, I started blogging about DB2, sharing lessons learned in my work as a DB2 consultant and trainer. After a few years, I realized that being part of a larger organization was a better fit for me than going it alone, and when I had the chance to rejoin IBM in a DB2-related capacity, I took it. It feels good to be back at Big Blue. I plan on being here for a long time to come.



The 121 entries in my Catterall Consulting blog are still viewable at http://catterallconsulting.blogspot.com/, and I will continue to respond to comments left by readers of those entries. New posts will appear in this blog. As before, most of what I write will be about DB2 for z/OS, but I'm a big fan of DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows, as well, and I'll occasionally have something to say about some aspect or another of DB2 for LUW.


In entries to come, I hope to provide DB2 information that will be useful to readers. Thanks for stopping by. Please visit again.