Following are reviews written by members of WebSphere User Groups.

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• Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence by Chris Stakutis & John Webster^NEW
• IBM WebSphere System Administration by Leigh Williamson et Al
• IBM WebSphere: Deployment and Advanced Configuration by Roland Barcia, Bill Hines, Tom Alcott, Keys Botzum
• Enterprise Messaging Using JMS and IBM WebSphere

Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence by Chris Stakutis & John Webster

This book was so interesting that I couldn't put it down. The title made me think of data, database systems and how they are used with today's programming methods. It does talk about XML, but this book is much more of a deep dive into how we as consumers of information are wrapped around data technologies in our daily lives.

You will learn about how the military uses data, how some industries tap huge amounts of computer power from external sources (such as your home computer), and what locations you can move to for free wireless access anywhere in the city. If you want to learn about cutting edge science such as using chip implants in your body… then this is the book for you.

This is a fun read. You will gain lots of insight into how people are using technology in ways that have drastically changed the way we interact. If you are fishing for innovative business ideas, perhaps the most important section is the last chapter. It covers predictions on how data will be used in the future. As a developer, I could imagine how to make some of those things happen today fairly easily. So, this section was my favorite. I highly recommend reading this book if you are trying to figure out what's going on with all the new communication technologies… and you will definitely enjoy reading over what may happen in the near future.
    - Review by Michael J. Cunningham "Mike Cunningham" (Shawnee, KS USA), Kansas City WebSphere User Group

IBM WebSphere System Administration by Leigh Williamson et Al

This is a book that every systems administrator should have, but is hard to categorise due to its different levels of detail. It starts by giving a high level overview of administration and then leaps into details of JMX, XML files, and the admin console, yet covering some things in detail and other not at all (where is the installation config???), followed by every possible detail of scripting and coding for administration and management, finishing up with appendices on zSeries specifics and more JMX documentation.

Why is it hard to categorise this you may ask? Well, the first chapter ignores initial setup of the environment and the tie in to the platform, which are essential parts of systems administration, yet give great detail as to how the XML configuration files relate to each other and how the JMX MBeans work. This all takes 86 pages and 4 chapters. The next chapter is a whopping 148 pages long filled with sample wsadmin scripts in Jacl and Jython for every conceivable task in a standalone or network deployment environment (i.e. set up a cluster, start and stop servers and applications, create a new server, etc). This long chapter makes it worth getting this book as the scripts include the things that are needed for enterprise deployment like error logging and failure handling. Steal this code and use for your production environments!!!!!!! The chapter following on how to write Java code against the MBeans really belongs in a developers book and not an administration guide. The appendices give a good explanation of how things differ on zOS, and a glossary, along with how to do a sample install of a WAS trial copy with the defaults selected.

Overall the book is worth getting to steal the production ready admin code, but it does have some fatal flaws as a book because it is hard to see who it is aimed at. An Administrator needs more information on installation and configuration, particularly reproducible silent installs, and how to set up related packages such as IHS and other web servers, the web server plug-ins, and JMS/MQ. An Administrator does NOT need to know how to code to the JMX and MBeans interfaces.

Thus, if you are an administrator buy this book to "steal the code" and get an understanding of the XML files and JMX in a way beyond the documentation. However, make sure you have other books, such as the System Management and Configuration Handbook to tell you how to do Systems Administration. To make this book a real winner it needs to have the additional information.
    - Review by Rick Smith, WebSphere User Group UK

Moving beyond the Admin Console, November 18, 2004
Reviewer: Michael J. Cunningham "Mike Cunningham" (Shawnee, KS USA) - See all my reviews Once you have used the admin console.... it's pretty easy. I then started to move over to running commands from the command line within the 'bin' directory. This book takes the administrator past this into the scripting realm. You can get an excellent handle on using Wsadmin scripts just by modifying some of the many examples presented in this book. I found this book to be more of a solid reference manual for the WebSphere Administrator. It has several scripts for common tasks. In addition, you will find quick reference charts for taks, functions and AdminControl commands (to mention a few). I would consider this book to be an essential quick reference guide for any WebSphere Application Server administrator.
    - Review by Michael J. Cunningham "Mike Cunningham" (Shawnee, KS USA), Kansas City WebSphere User Group
This review is also published in amazon.com

IBM WebSphere: Deployment and Advanced Configuration by Roland Barcia, Bill Hines, Tom Alcott, Keys Botzum

"IBM Websphere: Deployment and Advanced Configuration" provides a single reference for your organization's IT staff to design and most importantly, use J2EE applications and technologies.

The most useful concepts learned from this book were how to automate so many tedious processes that are bound to the development and deployment cycle. The text provides a great starting point for understanding surrounding technologies like ANT and wsadmin. Implementing these automated processes has saved time and eliminated errors.

Aside from recommending best practice deployment concepts, the text provides a hefty resource on application server settings as well. This book has been such a blessing in its ability to provide not only the "how" we enable or modify a setting, but also answers the "why" we would want to do such a thing.

Finally, the text does an excellent job conveying information regarding J2EE technologies and advanced server configurations to provide high availability systems, performance increases, and security hardening.
This book is a must have for any enterprise running J2EE architectures and doubly so if you are using IBM Websphere.
    - Review by Michael J. Cunningham "Mike Cunningham" (Shawnee, KS USA), Kansas City WebSphere User Group
This review is also published in amazon.com

Enterprise Messaging Using JMS and IBM WebSphere by Kareem Yusuf, PhD.

This is a very useful book that covers the usage and architecture of the JMS environment as provided by the WebSphere product set - including WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker. It is well written and has a friendly tone, including a suitable explanation of the constant re-branding of the Message Broker product set. The book initially starts out by explaining the underlying requirements of a JMS provider and how to use it, including simple code to explain each scenario, with the scenarios covering real world situations such as how to use XML with JMS. Both JMS 1.02 and JMS 1.1. are covered, with explanations of the differences between the two. Next the book looks at the IBM offerings in the JMS space, covering the WebSphere MQ and Embedded Messaging, MQ Everyplace, and Message Broker/Event Broker, explaining the architectures, related tools, and issues with each. The explanation of the RFH2 header to JMS header mapping is a useful example to be found in this section. The administration and configuration, from the GUI and scripting perspective, of the IBM providers is covered next. Example development and deployment examples abound for the next chapter, including usage of the tools to generate code, the code requirements, the management requirements, and even security. The step by step guides in this section make the book worth its purchase even if the other sections aren't read. The books final main body chapter covers enterprise deployment in terms of clustering architectures and their characteristics. This is an excellent "catalogue" of patterns for use by an architect or infrastructure designer. The Appendices cover explanations of relevant sections of the JMS specification, how to code for and use the XA standard for transaction management in a Java and JMS context for use on the IBM technologies, and finally how the Message Broker product set is used to implement publish and subscribe, with these last two appendices offering step-by-step guides with tooling screen shots for coding and configuration. Overall this is an excellent, if niche book, that covers JMS and the complete IBM sphere of products in a detailed, yet usable way. The step-by-step guides, coupled with a readable style, and the only real source of message broker usage documentation make this an essential purchase for anyone using WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker, JMS with WAS, or who is a technical architect in an environment where these tools are used.
    - Review by Rick Smith, WebSphere User Group UK