IBM Redbooks
To be more clear, when I said IBM writes them, I should have said that IBM sponsor them and guides the writing. Some are written by IBMers but many are written by IBM's customers who are actual technology practitioners. Redbooks are written via residencies. A residency is an intensive, multi-week work effort where small teams explore and document product implementation, integration and operations. Each team is directed by an IBMer from their technical publications group. The team will consist of professionals from IBM field and development, from IBM Business Partners, from customers, and from the marketplace in general. So, you too, can research and write an IBM redbook! Of course, you have to make sure that you have the expertise, willingness, and time to work on the project.
But more importantly, anyone can enjoy the results. IBM publishes all of its redbooks on the web in Adobe PDF format. And anyone can download any redbook for free! So all you need is an Internet connection and the free Adobe Reader software to start reading redbooks.
And don't worry if your shop is not a big blue shop, you still might benefit from perusing the redbooks that are available. Yes, there are many redbooks on DB2, Informix, WebSphere, CICS, Tivoli, and other IBM software products, but there are also redbooks on Linux, Windows, and other non-IBM software. There are even several SQL Server and Oracle redbooks. And these books are always very high quality - I've never read one that is sub-par... and the price is right.
So if you haven't checked out the IBM redbook library before - or even if you have, but not lately - take a moment to click over to the redbook site and search for a topic of your interest. You might be surprised at what is available there...
