IBM And CA Ease Mainframe Management Burden

IBM and CA are hoping to ease the pain of managing mainframe environments and developing applications for it, after both companies rolled out separate software offerings.

IBM unveiled a host of of software offerings designed to expand the workloads – from data analytics to application maintenance to collaboration application development – that can run on its System z mainframe systems.

The new offerings come three months after IBM rolled out its System z Solution Edition Series, which are packages of hardware, software and services that helps businesses deploy such workloads as data warehousing, electronic payments and disaster recovery onto their mainframes.

IBM’s IMS 11 is aimed at giving businesses direct SQL access to IMS data from distributed platforms, a move that speeds up the process of connecting applications and data. In addition, better Java support will enable those developers to support IMS software and services.

IBM also is unveiling several new WebSphere products, including WebSphere Process Server for z/OS V7, WebSphere ILOG Business Rule Management Systems, WebSphere MQ for z/OS V7.0.1, WebSphere Message Broker for z/OS V7.0, and Problem Determination Tools V10.

The products will give users greater insights into their businesses to grow innovation and productivity, according to IBM officials.

For developers, Rational Developer for System z version 7.6 brings a more modern GUI environment, which officials say will not only increase productivity to programmers already working on the mainframe, but also attract new – and younger – developers to the platform. It also will help developers cut in half CPU usage, which will help businesses drive down costs.

Rational Team Concert for System z version 2.0 makes it easier for developers to collaborate through a new common repository. IBM also upgraded its set of Rational Compilers for C/C++, COBOL and PL/I to reduce application MIP requirements and increase developer productivity.

IBM’s Tivoli Asset Discovery for z/OS removes software that is not being used or is out of date and enables businesses to better plan their software use. Tivoli NetView for z/OS 5.4 gives administrators greater insight into their networks, while Tivoli zSecure gives automated analysis and reporting of mainframe events while lowering auditing costs.

For its part, CA officials said they are integrating its change management solution – CA Endevor Software Change Manager – and IBM’s Rational Developer for System z V7.6.

The combination will streamline application updates and reduce change-related programming errors, which will help simplify the managing and developing of mainframe software.

Given that many mainframe developers already use both products, the integration of the two makes sense, according to Aline Gerew, senior vice president of software engineering in CA’s Mainframe Business Unit.

“The integration of [the two products] is particularly useful for development teams looking to drive computing workloads back to the mainframe in order to drive down costs and deliver superior service levels,” Gerew said in a statement.

New capabilities will enable Rational mainframe developers to view and retrieve Endevor SCM elements to their Rational projects, filter their Rational mainframe views by environment, system, subsystem, stage ID, and element, create multiple views, and copy projects into CA’s Endevor SCM.