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Reinforcing Rocket's Commitment To Open Source On The Mainframe With Updated Rocket Open AppDev For z

Peter Fandel

March 4, 2022

This week, Rocket unveiled an updated Rocket® Open AppDev for Z, which breaks down existing siloes to unify DevOps for all platforms, including the mainframe, in a single pipeline.

Open source is the future of software development and production, and with this update, customers are better able to access that future. The enhanced offering gives developers the open software they want with the security and support IBM® zSystems® customers demand, enabling them to bring applications to market faster at lower cost and with less risk.

A viable open source solution

A modern DevOps pipeline requires the use of open source languages and tools. Mainframe IT teams continue to struggle with incorporation of mainframe builds into their unified DevOps pipelines for lack of secure and supported open source ports on z/OS. That is, until now.

Open AppDev for Z provides a DevOps/AppDev modernization solution entirely based in open source, enabling faster responsiveness to market needs and the elimination of costs associated with maintaining separate mainframe DevOps infrastructures for your mission-critical software.

Additionally, the updated version of Open AppDev for Z features version currency updates of Bash and Perl. The new version of Bash makes available over a hundred new Bash features to mainframe users, and the new version of Perl introduces seamless and transparent ASCII/EBCDIC conversion that is now standard across the entire portfolio of ports included in this solution.

To demonstrate viability of the solution and to assist customers in getting started with modern DevOps on the mainframe, Open AppDev for Z now includes a working example DevOps pipeline made up entirely of open source and including sample mainframe applications written in COBOL, PL/1 and C that can be built using the example pipeline.

Enhancements for a simplified customer experience

For decades, Rocket has worked to enable innovative development on the mainframe with a focus on quality products with a great customer experience. This latest version of OpenApp Dev for Z continues this commitment for modern DevOps, IT and application development on IBM Z® without compromising data and security.

With the inclusion and integration of IBM® Open Enterprise SDK for Python, Open AppDev for Z alleviates the challenges of dealing with multiple Python versions and multiple vendors—allowing customers to get rid of duplicate z/OS Python installs and standardize on a single Python port and unify open source procurement and support to a single vendor.

For the first time, customers now also have the option to install and maintain via SMP/E, a tool designed to manage the installation of software products on z/OS, enabling customers to choose between conda, the most popular platform-independent way to deploy and manage packages, and SMP/E, the most popular z/OS deployment technology.

For more information on Rocket Open AppDev for Z, visit rocketsoftware.com/openappdev-for-z.