10.3.16
Compuware and Software Engineering of America (SEA) today announced the release of SEA’s JCLplus+® Remote Plug-In and $AVRS® Plug-In for Compuware’s industry-leading Topaz Workbench mainframe IDE. These new plug-ins for Topaz significantly ease challenging JCL- and output-related tasks—and allow both expert and novice IT staff to perform those tasks more quickly and more accurately in the context of their other mainframe DevOps activities.
As their most experienced mainframe veterans retire, large enterprises are being forced to shift platform responsibilities to younger IT staff with less expertise in the often arcane native tools for IBM z/OS environments. Job Control Language (JCL) is an especially important such native tool, because it provides the means by which IT staffs define program queueing rules within each batch job, subsystem resources allocation, and other necessary operational parameters on the mainframe. Sub-optimal JCL scripts can therefore cause application errors, reduce the efficiency of mainframe operations, and even threaten compliance.
SEA’s JCLplus+ Remote Plug-In for Topaz Workbench enables mainframe veterans and novices alike to write error-free JCL scripts providing automatic validation of script syntax and detection of resource allocation errors through runtime simulation. The JCLplus+ Remote Plug-In also enforces enterprise policies and integrates with change management controls to prevent disruption of critical jobs.
With the release of the JCLplus+ Remote Plug-in for Topaz Workbench, Compuware and SEA have put this vital JCL-enablement at the fingertips of DevOps staff—so they can quickly and accurately write, check and modify JCL scripts from within the same environment as they perform all of their other DevOps-related activities.
In addition to the JCLplus+ Remote Plug-In, the release of SEA’s $AVRS Plug-In for Topaz Workbench gives developers access to Joblog and SYSOUT from within the Topaz environment, enabling DevOps staff to save valuable time in the development cycle and fulfill mainframe archival and auditing requirements.
“As Baby Boomers gray out of the IT workforce, enterprises must protect their incalculable investments in mainframe applications and data by simplifying and automating core mainframe ownership tasks,” said SEA’s Chief Operating Officer, Jatin Thakker. “By making these plug-ins available for the Topaz Workbench environment, SEA continues to demonstrate its commitment to being the leader in JCL and Output management solutions, and shows that both SEA and Compuware are focused on ensuring that our mutual customers can continue to make the most of their mainframe investments, even as this generational shift in the IT workforce continues.”
“Complexity, esoteric tooling, and excessive dependency on tribal knowledge are all obstacles to mainstreaming the mainframe that enterprises absolutely must achieve without delay,” said Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley. “The addition of plug-ins for SEA’s JCLplus+ Remote and $AVRS offer two more examples of how committed Compuware is to making Topaz Workbench the most powerful and unified DevOps environment for achieving this critical objective.”
