News

Compuware Applies Continuous Delivery to Mainframes

• By David Ramel
• 06/30/2016

Compuware Corp. this week announced a mainframe release automation solution designed to help enterprises follow continuous delivery best practices in IBM z/OS-based environments.

ISPW Deploy helps enterprises promote new mainframe code more quickly with fewer errors in the best tradition of continuous delivery, a software development approach that produces software in short cycles with frequent coding, testing and releasing.

Compuware said that when continuous delivery is practiced in large enterprises in which distributed/mobile/cloud apps must access mainframe programs and data, the technique suffers from poor automation and visibility into the deployment of mainframe code.

ISPW Deploy alleviates that problem through three key sets of capabilities, Compuware said:

• Automation that rapidly moves code through the deployment process, including test staging and approvals, while also providing greatly simplified full or partial rollbacks.
• Visualization that enables DevOps managers to quickly pinpoint deployment issues in order to both solve immediate rollout problems and address persistent bottlenecks in code promotion.
• Integrations with both third-party solutions and Compuware's own industry-leading mainframe toolkit that allow IT to build complete SCM-to-production DevOps pipelines and to quickly launch associated remediation support tools if and when deployment issues occur.

"Compuware is further empowering enterprises to achieve mainframe agility by integrating Compuware ISPW and XebiaLabs' cross-platform continuous delivery solutions," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "This integration uniquely enables IT organizations to orchestrate and visualize their mainframe DevOps processes in a common manner with their broader cross-platform DevOps automation."

The Detroit-based mainframe specialist also announced numerous improvements to ISPW's source code management capabilities -- building on the ISPW technology it acquired earlier this year -- and other functionality.

"Without intensive modernization, the mainframe will remain an impediment to large enterprises' DevOps efforts," the company quoted Intellyx industry analyst Jason Bloomberg as saying. "The automation and visualization provided by Compuware's ISPW Deploy positions the mainframe as a first-class participant in the DevOps toolchain. Not only does ISPW Deploy support the automation necessary for continuous integration and continuous deployment, but it also counteracts the mainframe 'brain drain' taking place as Baby Boomers age out of the active IT workforce."