10.3.16
Compuware today announced the availability of new REST APIs for ISPW, the industry-leading agile source code management and release automation solution that it acquired in January 2016. The new APIs enable large enterprises to flexibly integrate their numerous other mainframe and non-mainframe DevOps tools with ISPW to create their own custom cross-platform DevOps toolchains.
These DevOps toolchains are becoming increasingly important for two reasons. First, enterprises must aggressively adopt DevOps disciplines in their mainframe environments to fulfill business requirements for digital agility. Traditional mainframe dev, test and code promotion processes are simply too slow to meet the demands of today’s fast-moving markets. So—given the central importance of mainframe applications and data to the overwhelming majority of global enterprises—those processes must be accelerated to compete successfully with new, digitally nimble market disruptors.
Second, enterprises need to better integrate the toolchains that support their newly adopted mainframe DevOps workflows with those that support DevOps across their various other platforms. This is because mainframe applications and data so often function as back-end systems-of-record for front-end web and mobile systems-of-engagement in multi-tier/cross-platform environments. Fast, well-coordinated DevOps across all platforms is therefore a competitive necessity.
“As our business increasingly depends on software, we have to be able to get more software of higher quality into production faster at less cost,” said Simon Hu Senior Advisor, Mainframe Delivery for AARP. “Technologies such as ISPW and Topaz that help streamline our DevOps processes and make them more agile are thus of greater business value to us than ever.”
The new APIs provide essential integrations for automating end-to-end build-and-deploy processes across heterogeneous/best-of-breed DevOps toolchains. They allow ISPW users to create, promote, deploy and check the status of code releases from third-party solutions running on both mainframe and non-mainframe platforms. These integrations are especially important for DevOps teams seeking to achieve continuous delivery capabilities in multi-platform enterprise environments.
The APIs are architected as REST web services. No expertise in specialized mainframe technologies is required. The Promote Release and Deploy Release APIs support Webhook notification. Use-cases include integration with popular Agile/DevOps tools such as Jenkins, Slack, HipChat and XebiaLabs’ XL Release.
“To fully support the end-to-end software lifecycles so essential to digital efforts, mainframe development and deployment must move faster and integrate seamlessly into the rest of the digital enterprise,” said industry analyst Jason Bloomberg of Intellyx. “By implementing RESTful API-based integration in ISPW, Compuware has elevated mainframe dev and test tooling to full participants in modern DevOps toolchains.”
Introduction of these APIs follows on the heels of Compuware’s acquisition of ISPW technology in January, integration of ISPW with Compuware’s Topaz Workbench mainframe development environment in April, and the release of ISPW Deploy—an advanced release automation solution for IBM z/OS environments built on ISPW technology—in July. This relentless quarterly pace of customer-driven innovation is unprecedented in the mainframe market.
“Enterprise IT leaders desperately want to transform the way they do software development, testing, promotion and ongoing management on their mainframes, but their incumbent vendors have almost universally chosen to abandon much-needed product innovation—and to instead exploit their captive customer bases for maximum profit,” said Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley. “By delivering Web APIs for an Agile mainframe solution that we acquired a mere nine months ago, Compuware is once again proving that we are the only mainframe software partner ready, willing and able to help customers compete at digital speed and with digital excellence.
Latest quarterly enhancements to Topaz Workbench
Compuware also announced several new enhancements to its Topaz Workbench IDE for mainframe DevOps. Some of those enhancements further simplify mainframe DevOps in order to enable less mainframe-literate developers to perform routine mainframe-related tasks without having to master the intricacies of IBM’s native TSO/ISPF tools for the z/OS platform. Those enhancements include:
• Direct access to File-AID Compare within Topaz Workbench so developers can more quickly and accurately understand differences between data files.
• Built-in support for Dynamic Transaction Routing for CICSPLEX sites that use Xpediter for application debugging.
Delivering ongoing customer experience improvements
Compuware also continues to enhance Topaz installation, deployment and maintenance with:
• Cloud-based licenses that make it easier to launch Topaz Workbench trials.
• Automated configuration of Compuware integration points within Topaz Workbench.
• A centralized update facility for Compuware Eclipse components that makes it easier to keep DevOps team workspaces in synch.
In addition, Compuware has made it easier to order, install and manage all of its web-based solutions by providing a single installer and web patching across the product line.
Compuware today also announced integration of Compuware Abend-AID and Syncsort Ironstream® to help enterprises get better insight into their mainframe development, test and ops issues through analytics (see release here) and new SEA JCLplus+ Remote and $AVRS plug-ins for Topaz Workbench that make it easier for mainframe experts and novices alike to manage batch processing and output-related tasks (see release here).
