Carlton Doe has developed some great new "Proof of Technology" courses for IDS 11. These are aimed at business partners and ISVs. The idea is that you will be introduced to new technology by means of some training and some hands-on walkthroughs. The walkthroughs are scripted, but they're on fully working instances and you can play around with them to your heart's content, with an expert handy in case you get stuck.

There are PoTs covering:

• advanced features (including a MACH11 taster)
• ER and MACH11
• performance tuning

Even though they are aimed at ISVs and BPs, end-users are welcome to come along if the PoT isn't fully booked. I therefore encourage you to get out there and get your local ISVs and BPs to arrange the delivery of one or more PoTs via your friendly local Tech Sales person.

One of my customers has gone live on IDS 11.5 in production. I mention this because it's one of the most demanding sites I've worked on. This isn't a "server in the corner", this is not even the heart and soul of the customer's business -- it *is* the customer's business. I can't go into detail or mention the customer's name, but it is a very high-traffic instance with a very complex infrastructure and application. Touch wood and whistle, but it's all looking good!

There were one or two problems, but nothing substantial considering the scope of the migration (which involved a major hardware upgrade as well!) Performance is better, but because there was a tin upgrade at the same time, it's hard to attribute how much of that is due to the IDS upgrade. The instance does seem to get through logical logs quicker, but this is expected behaviour.