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IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack

IBM Z® and Cloud Modernization Stack is built to balance robust reliability with the need for new innovation. By combining the power of IBM Z and the strength of Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform, IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack delivers a modern, managed as-a-service model to complement your most resilient production workloads.

stack overview

Benefits

  • Reduce the talent gap. IBM zSystems supports open and standard programming languages, toolchains, and development practices, opening up a broad pool of available talent.
  • Create a consistent DevOps experience. IBM zSystems supports modern DevOps tools and practices that are common and consistent with cloud application development techniques.
  • Access mainframe data easily. Use your IBM zSystems data without moving off-platform to unlock the full value of your mission-critical data.
  • Optimize costs. Select from a broad set of capabilities, languages, and tools, paying only for what you use.
  • Maintain optionality. Use Red Hat® OpenShift® as a common open hybrid cloud platform to build once and deploy where there is the best fit.

Features

  • Application analysis. Reduce the risk of application changes by rapidly analyzing your code changes to ensure your dependencies are known before getting started.
  • Open-standard-based APIs. Provide highly-secure access to mainframe applications and data through industry standard APIs using Open API specifications.
  • Cloud-native development. Develop and modernize IBM® z/OS® applications with a cloud-native approach, increasing speed and agility for greater developer productivity.
  • The z/OS PaaS experience. Use simple and automated z/OS software management for self-serve access to z/OS environments for developers.

The following illustration shows The IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack delivers a full-stack developer experience.

full stack experience

Use cases

  • Enable low-code Open APIs in minutes. Implement and test new APIs in isolation using an OpenAPI 3 specification and API first mapping.
  • Edit, debug, build and Deploy z/OS applications using cloud native tools. Use industry-standard tools common across platforms for application development.
  • Employ rapid application analysis. Plan your code changes and generate an impact analysis graph to view the dependencies.
  • Enhance apps with Open Enterprise languages. Add new microservices or application enhancements using the open enterprise language of your own choosing.
  • Self-service management of your z/OS environment. Experience z/OS platform as a service (PaaS) by extending Red Hat OpenShift with preconfigured software packaging.
  • Use on-demand z/OS environments and resources. Increase developer and systems programmer productivity with on-demand provisioning of z/OS resources using industry standard skills and practices.

Stack products and capabilities

IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack comes with the following products and capabilities.

Each product in IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack provides an operator to Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform so that it can be controlled from there. An operator extends the Kubernetes API by providing a set of application-specific resources that package, deploy, and manage that application. It is essentially a custom controller.

IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack delivers two types of operators:

  • Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform operators. These operators are installed and run directly on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform. They do not need another operator to install them. Some, but not all, of these operators are certified. These "native" operators are z/OS Cloud Broker, z/OS Connect, Wazi Sandbox, and Wazi for Dev Spaces.
  • Suboperators. These operators can be installed only through the z/OS Cloud Broker Operator. These suboperators are z/OS Package Manager, IBM IMS operator, and IBM CICS TS operator.

The following diagram shows the architecture of the stack.

operators

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Operators

  • Wazi Analyze. Analyzes applications so that developers can quickly discover the relationships between the components of z/OS applications. For more explanation in this wiki, see Wazi Analyze.
  • Wazi Code Provides a familiar experience for developers when they work with z/OS applications. Developers can edit, build, and debug applications through z/OS language support. For more explanation in this wiki, see Wazi Code.
  • Wazi Sandbox Provides a containerized, self-service personal sandbox environment on Red Hat® OpenShift® that runs on x86 hardware. For more explanation in this wiki, see Wazi Sandbox
  • z/OS Connect Provide simple and intuitive containerized z/OS APIs on Red Hat® OpenShift®.
  • z/OS Cloud Broker Integrates z/OS-based services and resources with Red Hat® OpenShift®.

z/OS Cloud Broker-managed suboperators

z/OS Package Manager packages

Getting started

The lists in this section provide steps to get started with a product in IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack.

Checklists

The lists in this section provide checklists to get started with a product in IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack.

Set up workflow

First install on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform the operators that have no dependency on another, then use z/OS Cloud Broker to install the suboperators for z/OS and provision instances of products for use on Red Hat® OpenShift® or other platforms.

The following diagram shows the steps to install IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack.

stack workflow

  1. Install certified operators on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform
  2. Install suboperators through z/OS Cloud Broker
  3. Provision and use instances on Red Hat OpenShift or other platforms

See Installing products for details of the required installation sequence and links to detailed instructions.

References

IBM Partners