SHARE Archives - IBA Group - USA https://us.ibagroupit.com/tag/share/ Tue, 08 Oct 2024 08:50:43 +0000 en-EN hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 IBA Group Showcases Modern Tools at SHARE Kansas City 2024 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-showcases-modern-tools-at-share-kansas-city-2024/ Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:43:06 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/?post_type=events&p=13183 The post IBA Group Showcases Modern Tools at SHARE Kansas City 2024 appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Showcases Modern Tools at SHARE Kansas City 2024

At SHARE Kansas City 2024, IBA Group showcased its expertise in modernization of mainframe systems through leading technical sessions, contributing to the discussions around Zowe™, and debuting the new Zowe™ COBOL Plugin.

Mainframe Testing Sessions

Led by Alex Burak and Uladzislau Kalesnikau, IBA Group’s testing sessions focused on integrating modern tools like Galasa, test4z, Cobol Check, and IntelliJ with mainframe environments. These sessions emphasized the importance of automating testing processes within CI/CD pipelines, highlighting the critical role of early bug detection in achieving improvements in software quality.

The sessions discussed the following key testing methodologies:

Unit Testing. Focuses on testing individual components of the system, such as a single program or code paragraph, to ensure they work correctly in isolation. Common tools include Cobol Check and Test4z.

Integration Testing. Evaluates how components interact within the mainframe and with external systems. It ensures that combined applications function correctly. Uses tools like CICS Interdependency Analyzer.

Functional Testing. Verifies that the application’s features work as intended across various scenarios. Tools like HCL OneTest and Galasa are used for this stage.

The sessions emphasized the benefits of automating these testing stages, including reduced defects, faster testing, and higher SLA compliance. Challenges such as dealing with legacy systems and integrating testing into modern CI/CD pipelines were also addressed.

IBA Group will be publishing a series of articles to explore mainframe testing, the associated challenges, and potential solutions.

Zowe™ Project

As a contributor to the Zowe™ project since 2020, IBA Group featured the following key sessions:

Zowe™ v3 Preview. In collaboration with Zowe™ team members Joe Winchester, Rose Sakach, Jan Prihoda, Billie Jean Simmons, and Andrej Chmelo, IBA Group participated in the session that outlined new functions and upcoming changes in Zowe™ v3.

Zowe™ and Galasa Integration. Alongside Joe Winchester, Gerald Mitchell, and Billie Jean Simmons, IBA Group contributed to the session that demonstrated how Zowe™ and Galasa work together to enhance mainframe management and testing, providing practical insights into their integration.

New Zowe™ COBOL Plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™

A highlight at IBA Group’s booth was the live demo of the Zowe™ COBOL Plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™. Designed to enhance a developer experience, the plugin features automatic completion and syntax highlighting, and is seamlessly integrated with IDEs like VS Code and IntelliJ. The demo was well received and the visitors recognized the potential of the plugin for the streamlining of COBOL development.

IBA Group extends its sincere thanks to everyone who attended the sessions and collaborated with the company’s team at SHARE Kansas City 2024. Your insights and feedback were invaluable. Special thanks to John Mertic and Maemalynn Nokdhes Meanor from the Open Mainframe Project for their leadership and support.

IBA Group is committed to continuing the work on addressing the challenges and opportunities in mainframe technology. Looking ahead, we are excited to explore new possibilities and remain dedicated to providing solutions that meet your needs.

Thank you for your support and trust. IBA Group looks forward to continuing this journey together at SHARE in Washington, DC, in 2025.

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IBA Group’s DevOps Team Presents at SHARE Fort Worth https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-groups-devops-team-presents-at-share-fort-worth/ https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-groups-devops-team-presents-at-share-fort-worth/#respond Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:43:09 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-groups-devops-team-presents-at-share-fort-worth/ The post IBA Group’s DevOps Team Presents at SHARE Fort Worth appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group’s DevOps Team Presents at SHARE Fort Worth

The SHARE conference, one of the major events in the mainframe industry, took place in Fort Worth from February 23 to February 28. Our DevOps team were among 1,300 participants who gathered to educate, share, and connect. The conference featured 500+ technical sessions and hands-on labs on enterprise IT hot topics such as security, open source, DevOps, and cloud.

Presentations

Our team gave two presentations at the conference. IBA Group’s presentation DevOps for DevOps aimed to show that DevOps engineers, just like other developers, feel the need to have VCS for their processes, automatic build, and auto testing for CI/CD pipelines.  It is especially true for the mainframe, where DevOps involves a great deal of custom code. The presentation was well received. It was nice to get the feedback not only inside the SHARE network but also on LinkedIn and Twitter.

IBA group told about technical and cultural solutions for building DevOps on the mainframe in the presentation zDevOps: What We Do, How We Do on February 25. Many last year’s participants were looking forward to find out about the project progress in the past four months.

Hot Topics

This year’s hot topics were DevOps and open source. New technologies open up the mainframe to the new generation of developers. With automation and DevOps, Devs and Ops start working as one team. As a result, you have better visibility, more frequent releases, and happier customers.

Hybrid cloud is another popular technology that makes the mainframe more affordable while maintaining the same security level.

The quick-paced development of open source projects like Zowe was at the center of attendees’ interest.

Sessions

Our team focused on DevOps and test automation sessions. The presentation about Galasa framework Solve Your DevOps Pipeline Headaches With an Open Source Framework for Test Automation by William Yates from IBM UK Laboratories was a real blast. IBM developed the framework released in open source git-repository. Galasa makes the mainframe more accessible to non-mainframers. It is an excellent opportunity for young developers to play with the mainframe outside the native environment. Extensible nature and open source make it easy to integrate with other testing tools of your choice. At the moment, the team are discussing the applicability of the framework to their projects.

Another interesting session was from Rosalind Radcliffe and Suman Gopinath from IBM, titled True Unit Testing for z/OS Application. They were talking about the importance of unit testing at lower levels on developers’ side. The more unit tests you have, the less tests you will need at further levels. ZUnit is an automated testing tool delivered in IBM Developer for z/OS. With time, its scope will widen beyond Cobol and CICS and it will help attract more users.

The presentation Lean Mean Machine – Keeping the Lights on for Agile/DevOps by Jeremy Hamilton focused on how DevOps engineers should define and deliver the best value to the customer. For this purpose, Dev and Ops teams, and the customer need to keep close contact to level the expectations and desired outcomes on the way.

Expertise

The mainframe lies at the very core of the IBA Group’s expertise and the mainframe journey dates back to 1993 when the company was founded as an IBM partner. IBA Group has special expertise in mainframe software development, both system and applied, and in legacy systems migration. More than 400 professionals are engaged in mainframe system and application development and support. Currently, IBA is a Platinum Business Partner of IBM.

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IBA Group Releases Smart Mainframe Plugins https://us.ibagroupit.com/news/iba-group-releases-smart-mainframe-plugins/ https://us.ibagroupit.com/news/iba-group-releases-smart-mainframe-plugins/#respond Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:34:43 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/news/iba-group-releases-smart-mainframe-plugins/ The post IBA Group Releases Smart Mainframe Plugins appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group developed plugins that enable those familiar with modern Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) to work comfortably with mainframes. The For Mainframe IntelliJ IDEA plugin leverages z/OSMF to interact with mainframe data sets and USS files. The Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ plugin provides support for browsing, editing, and creation of data on z/OS via z/OSMF REST API.

The goals of the mainframe plugins are:

  • Connect mainframes to the modern tech stack and development tools
  • Make mainframes more accessible and appealing to a wider developer audience
  • Improve user experience when developing for mainframes
  • Bring open source principles and tools to mainframes
  • Provide flexibility to IT teams coding in Java or Python
  • Encourage development teams to use IntelliJ IDE for mainframes

Background

After half a century, mainframes are a necessary reality for a variety of large businesses. Although viewed by many as an outdated technology, mainframes are still processing data for airlines, government agencies, financial institutions, and others. The mainframe platform remains unbeaten in terms of security and performance.

However, mainframes are also notorious for having unfriendly user interface, which is hard to learn and use, especially for young developers who prefer well-documented and intuitive technologies.  The mainframe tech stack looks fundamentally different from the modern tech stack and is outdated in many ways. Addressing the problem, IBA Group came up with the plugins built on the IntelliJ IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and Zowe, an open source software framework that bridges the divide between modern applications and the mainframe.

The development team set the following requirements for the plugins.

  1. No complex configurations, just a connection to the mainframe and a working set
  2. Follow the IntelliJ user flow to make the interface as modern as possible

After the winter SHARE 2021 conference, where IBA Group presented the first version of the For Mainframe plugin, developers from Broadcom joined the project and the two companies began cooperating to produce a Zowe client Kotlin SDK and a Zowe plugin for the Intellij platform.

Why IntelliJ and Zowe?

  • IntelliJ with the For Mainframe plugin solves mainframe’s UI/UX problems
  • IntelliJ provides a modern way to interact with the mainframe
  • For Mainframe uses the z/OS management facility (z/OSMF) for many tasks:
    • Task-oriented, web browser-based UI with integrated user assistance
    • Includes Rest API to perform this functionality using http/https protocols
  • The Zowe community created SDKs to send http requests to z/OSMF

These tools significantly improve the quality of code and increase productivity of developers.

Core Features

The solutions provide the following core features that make them powerful, easy to use, and above the existing options in the mainframe world.

  • Low Requirements: only an IntelliJ-based editor and internet access
  • Accessibility: installed directly from the JetBrains marketplace.
  • Foolproof File Systems: low probability of breaking any files when using the solutions
  • Ease of Use: drag and drop operations in both directions between OS and z/OS
  • Strong Safety: enable developers to call z/OSMF functions correctly
  • Easy Configuration: a single configuration file shared across the team
  • Free and Open Source

Next Steps: Roadmap and Community

Working in close collaboration with Zowe development teams, IBA Group is planning to add many new features to the existing plugins, including:

  • Closer integration with the Zowe platform
  • Code highlighting for COBOL, PL/1, JCL, and REXX
  • Dataset presets and edit/view modes
  • Capability to copy between different remote systems
  • Support for VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method), DFSMS (Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem), and other cool features that are available only for mainframes

Currently, IBA Group is working to improve the For Mainframe and Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ plugins, as well as on development of an SDK in the Kotlin language. In addition, the IBA team is developing a Jenkins DevOps plugin with z/OSMF API support based on Zowe client Kotlin SDK.

The developer community can benefit from the IBA plugins in multiple ways, including using these for their everyday work, contributing to the plugins’ development and improvement, and bringing their own ideas to the community and exploring them.

Try out For Mainframe plugin

Try out Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ

 

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IBA Group Demos Mainframe DevX at SHARE Orlando 2024 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-demos-mainframe-devx-at-share-orlando-2024/ Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:48:14 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-demos-mainframe-devx-at-share-orlando-2024/ The post IBA Group Demos Mainframe DevX at SHARE Orlando 2024 appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Demos Mainframe DevX at SHARE Orlando 2024

IBA Group discussed Mainframe DevX at the SHARE Conference in Orlando held from March 3 to March 7, 2024. As both presenters and exhibitors, IBA Group had the opportunity to share expertise in open source, DevOps, and Zowe™ plugins with fellow attendees.

SHARE stands out as the premier event for mainframe technical professionals seeking to connect with peers and vendors, enhance their skills, and explore new directions. This year’s conference gathered an impressive list of participants, featuring many emerging names in the mainframe market. Highlights included discussions on AI, product updates, system administration, application development topics, and cybersecurity. Additionally, this year’s conference marked the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the mainframe, adding a special significance to the event.

During the session, Uladzislau Kalesnikau, IBA Group’s speaker, delved into Next-Gen Mainframe DevX with tools like IntelliJ IDEA, Jenkins, and GitHub. The presentation offered insights into how to improve the Developer Experience (DevX) for mainframe systems, streamline source code development, and harness modern tools for automation and efficiency. Specifically, it detailed the Build Stage of IBA Group’s DevOps suite, which includes Open Mainframe Project’s Zowe™ plugins. The audience well- received the live demo of IBA Group’s DevOps Suite, giving positive feedback and valuable suggestions during the Q&A session.

The conversation about mainframe DevX carried on at IBA Group’s booth, drew interest from SHARE attendees, including prospective clients and vendors. Another highlight was AutoMan, a tool engineered to enable automation and interaction between all parts of the mainframe software, making fully autonomous z/OS systems possible.

We extend our gratitude to the SHARE Association for organizing this remarkable event. The collaboration of volunteers, speakers, partners, and attendees made SHARE Orlando 2024 an invaluable forum for sharing knowledge, learning, and progressing together. IBA Group eagerly anticipates future discussions on DevOps, Zowe™, and the transformative impact of mainframe technology at upcoming SHARE events.

IBA Group’s DevOps Suite Powered by Zowe™

IBA Group’s involvement in the Open Mainframe Project’s Zowe™ initiative aligns with the company’s strategy to modernize mainframes, making them more accessible to a new generation of developers and users. The Zowe™ plugins developed by IBA Group’s squad automate various stages of mainframe application development, facilitating a comprehensive DevOps pipeline from building to deploying and reporting results. These plugins laid the foundation for IBA Group’s DevOps Suite powered by Zowe™, an ecosystem of tools aimed at enhancing mainframe DevOps. It includes specific plugins tailored for the IntelliJ platform, bridging the gap between traditional mainframe systems and modern development environments, simplifying access to mainframe resources for Java and Kotlin developers, among others.

To dive deeper into IBA Group’s DevOps Suite powered by Zowe™, read our article. Stay tuned for an upcoming article focusing on the updated version of IBA Group’s DevOps Suite, particularly the Build Stage.  Feel free to reach out to us to explore how IBA Group’s DevOps Suite powered by Zowe™ can elevate your mainframe DevOps journey.

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IBA Group Highlights Zowe Advancements at SHARE New Orleans https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-highlights-zowe-advancements-at-share-new-orleans/ Wed, 23 Aug 2023 12:50:33 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-highlights-zowe-advancements-at-share-new-orleans/ The post IBA Group Highlights Zowe Advancements at SHARE New Orleans appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Highlights Zowe Advancements at SHARE New Orleans

From August 13 to August 18, New Orleans hosted the vibrant SHARE 2023 conference, where IBA Group participated as a presenter and exhibitor, showcasing its expertise in mainframe.

SHARE is renowned as a leading platform for mainframe professionals to connect, learn, and explore new insights. This year’s conference encompassed engaging topics, including Machine Learning and AI, DevOps in the Enterprise, New Workloads for IBM Z, Security and Compliance, and the world of Zowe & Other Open Source technologies. In addition to industry giants like IBM, Broadcom, and Rocket, emerging players in the mainframe landscape joined the event.

IBA Group Sessions at SHARE New Orleans 2023

IBA Group has always been at the forefront of advocating for enhanced accessibility of the mainframe to the younger generation of mainframers. At previous SHARE conferences, the IBA Group team presented open source solutions designed to create a more user-friendly mainframe interface for young developers. This commitment to accessibility led to IBA Group’s involvement in the large-scale open source Zowe™project.

At SHARE New Orleans 2023, IBA Group joined the Open Mainframe Project community in celebrating the fifth anniversary of Zowe through participation in two engaging Zowe Day sessions. These sessions highlighted IBA Group’s accomplishments and plans. In the session titled Zowe Day Part 2: Zowe V2 Technical Highlights, IBA Group provided insights into upcoming versions of the Zowe™ Explorer plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™. Collaborating with Zowe Squad leads, IBA Group’s developer Valiantsin Krus shed light on key advancements in Zowe’s journey.

IBA Group also took part in the Zowe Roadmap Open Discussion: Our Plans, Your Influence! session. This session facilitated a productive discussion about Zowe’s direction, promoting the exchange of ideas with participants. Simultaneously, Zowe™ Squad members collaborated to review and adapt the current Zowe™ roadmap in real time.

Zowe™ Explorer for IntelliJ IDEA™

The IBA Group-developed Zowe™ Explorer plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™ opens up direct access to mainframes from a contemporary integrated development environment (IDE). This open source plugin empowers developers with an interface that features a unified toolbar, structured trees, and drag-and-drop functionality for streamlined interaction with mainframes. Similar to the VS Code Zowe™ Explorer, this plugin extends the capabilities of the IntelliJ IDEA™ platform, offering a modern approach to mainframe interaction. It aims to simplify interactions, minimize complexity by necessitating only a mainframe connection and specific working sets, and aligns with the intuitive user experience of the IntelliJ platform. You can download the plugin here: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/18688-zowe-explorer.

In addition to Zowe Explorer, IBA Group’s plugins for IntelliJ IDEA include:

  • Zowe™ Client SDK for Kotlin™
  • Zowe™ JCL plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™
  • Zowe™ zDevOps plugin for Jenkins®
  • MVPs (currently in active development):
  • UI Jenkins® plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™
  • CICS plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™
  • COBOL plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™
  • Test Framework plugin for IntelliJ IDEA™

IBA Group: Shaping Mainframe Innovation since 1993

With over 30 years of experience in the mainframe domain, IBA Group, a Platinum Partner of IBM, is dedicated to maximizing a client’s mainframe investment and enhancing IT flexibility. The vision is clear: to democratize DevOps practices by expertly incorporating Zowe and open source technologies into mainframe development. By embracing open source on the mainframe, IBA Group empowers teams with a diverse range of tools, resulting in amplified efficiency, enhanced agility, and accelerated delivery of high quality software solutions. To learn more about how IBA Group is shaping the future of mainframe development, you can explore the offerings here. Your feedback is valuable to us, so please feel free to get in touch.

IBA Group sends a big thanks to the SHARE Association for setting up this awesome event. Speakers, partners, and attendees all made SHARE New Orleans 2023 a place of sharing, learning, and moving ahead. With excitement, IBA Group looks forward to more talks about DevOps, Zowe™, and the transformative impact of mainframe technology at upcoming SHARE events.

Read about the past SHARE conferences:

IBA Group Presents at SHARE Virtual Experience

IBA Group’s DevOps Team Presents at SHARE Fort Worth

IBA Group Presents Mainframe Open Source Solutions at SHARE Dallas

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IBA Group Presents Mainframe Open Source Solutions at SHARE Dallas https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-presents-mainframe-open-source-solutions-at-share-dallas/ https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-presents-mainframe-open-source-solutions-at-share-dallas/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2022 12:43:25 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-presents-mainframe-open-source-solutions-at-share-dallas/ The post IBA Group Presents Mainframe Open Source Solutions at SHARE Dallas appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Presents Mainframe Open Source Solutions at SHARE Dallas

From March 27 to March 30, IBA Group took part in the SHARE Dallas 2022 conference as one of the event partners and shared its experience in the areas of mainframe, open source on z/OS, DevOps, and Zowe with the conference attendees.

SHARE is the premier event for mainframe technical professionals who want to network with peers and vendors, deepen their skills, and hear about the new directions. The conference features a range of topics, including API Economy, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and AI, Data Privacy, DevOps in the Enterprise, New and Innovative Workloads for IBM Z, Security and Compliance in the Enterprise, Zowe & Other Open Source, and z/OS Systems Programming.

This year, SHARE returned to its in person format. There were also virtual passes available for participants who were not able to attend offline. The list of participants included IBM, Broadcom, and Kyndryl, as well as new players in the mainframe market.

IBA Group Sessions

This year, IBA Group speakers presented the Global Repository for Mainframe Developers (GRMD), the IBA Group’s open source initiative featuring the z/OS DevOps Jenkins plugin, and a solution for the Zowe project.

GRMD is a repository of standardized mainframe artifacts, templates, and scripts that make your work with mainframes easier. Developers can now find all useful MF information in one place.

At the Wednesday session How to Bring Jenkins to the Mainframe DevOps World Using Open Source Tools, the IBA Group speakers Ilya Abnitski and Valiantsin Studzenichnik provided a live demo on how to use GRMD and presented a new solution available in the repository, the z/OS DevOps Jenkins plugin. During the Q&A session, the speakers received positive feedback from the audience and suggestions on possible improvements.

At the session entitled Zowe Kotlin SDK, a New Project to Connect Mainframe to the Modern Tech Stack, Uladzislau Kalesnikau and Ilya Abnitski shared a story on how the IntelliJ IDEA plugin, an IBA Group open source solution, became a part of the Zowe project and presented its latest development, an SDK in the Kotlin language. You can try out the plugin here.

IBA Group would like to thank the SHARE Association for hosting the SHARE Dallas event and all speakers, partners, and attendees for making this event a success. IBA Group looks forward to continuing the conversation around DevOps and Zowe at SHARE Columbus, August 21-26.

IBA Group’s Mainframe Expertise

The IBA Group’s mainframe journey dates back to 1993 when the company was founded as an IBM partner. IBA Group has special expertise in mainframe software development, both system and applied, and in legacy systems migration. More than 400 professionals are engaged in mainframe system and application development and support. Currently, IBA is a Platinum Business Partner of IBM. Learn more about IBA Group’s mainframe services and offerings.

About SHARE Association

SHARE is an independent volunteer-run information technology association that provides education, professional networking, and industry influence. To date, SHARE includes more than 1,000 companies with 13,000 individual contacts within the enterprise IT ecosystem. SHARE organizes two in-person events each year with more than 800 attendees and over 500 educational sessions per event.

Read about the past SHARE conferences:

IBA Group Presents at SHARE Virtual Experience

IBA Group’s DevOps Team Presents at SHARE Fort Worth

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IBA Group Presents at SHARE Virtual Experience https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-presents-at-share-virtual-experience/ https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-presents-at-share-virtual-experience/#respond Fri, 27 Aug 2021 09:36:16 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/iba-group-presents-at-share-virtual-experience/ The post IBA Group Presents at SHARE Virtual Experience appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Presents at SHARE Virtual Experience

From August 2 to August 13, IBA Group participated in the SHARE Virtual Experience conference. It was a hybrid event, where the delegates could attend either in person or online from wherever they are.

The conference consisted of two parts. From August 2 to August 6, registered users could access more than 120 on-demand technical sessions that they could watch anytime. The live part of the conference lasted from August 9 to August 13 and featured over 100 live presentations.

The event showed a strong focus on open source and Zowe. Practically every presenter spoke about mainframe modernization, and other topics included hybrid cloud and z/OS 2.5. IBA Group presented a Global Repository for Mainframe Developers, For mainframe plugin, and Db2 database development in Git solutions at the event.

DevOps guide for beginners

Two years ago, IBA speakers talked about DevOps unicorns that would make mainframes fly. This time, they took a more practical approach, explaining to mainframe beginners how to start “DevOpsing” on the mainframe from the very scratch.

Mainframe gurus know what it is like to talk about mainframe development in simple words. The reality is that mainframe is never simple unless you couple it with modern approaches like DevOps. Having summed up the experience of a number of successful projects of DevOps implementation on mainframe platforms, the IBA team concluded that the siloed nature of mainframe needs an integrative approach to tackle the problems at the very core.

GRMD: mainframe Klondike

A year ago, the IBA mainframe team launched GRMD, an open source Global Repository for Mainframe Developers, aimed at making the life of mainframe newcomers easier.  The repository contains tested, searchable, and standardized solutions to ad hoc mainframe problems. The DevOps for mainframe solution for beginners that IBA Group presented at the conference is also a part of the repository.

The session hit the record of 80 attendees and attracted 20 new visitors to the repository, and the repository received 11 clones, 425 views, five stars, and five forks on the day of the session.

For Mainframe plugin: fighting black and green screens

Another session by young IBAers answered the question of whether the concept of UX/UI design could be applicable to the mainframe. The speakers presented a newly developed open source For Mainframe plugin that showed how modern UX/UI improves mainframe development. It is a new visual, drag-and-drop plugin that modernizes the mainframe’s black and green screen (available for download at JetBrains).

Earlier, the young IBA mainframers took part in the SHARE Summit of March 2021 and had a session focused on making the mainframe platform more user friendly for the newcomers. In addition, they proved the importance of creating more open source applications for the z/OS platform to make the mainframe look more attractive.

Kirill Branavitski, mainframe software developer at IBA Group:

“At this August SHARE, we went into the details of UX/UI, how it can increase your product’s value and why it is more important to have a good UI  rather than a large number of features. We brought up some problems of existing solutions, such as Eclipse-based enterprise IDEs for the mainframe and traditional terminal emulators. The attendees showed a strong interest in the solution. ‘Looks very promising!’ and ‘Where can we get one?’ were the words that confirmed the interest. There were many questions about the solution’s architecture. Changes are often met with resistance by people used to traditional solutions. This time we could convince them that our For Mainframe plugin can change the way people interact with the mainframe. I think we did a great job this time and hope to share more success stories in the future!”

Db2 database development in Git

IBA Group delivered its third session Managing Db2 Database Development in Git during the on-demand days of the conference, presenting their approach to the design of a DevOps pipeline for Db2 development and showcasing their Git-based solution.

Mainframe leaders and problem makers

The three sessions at the SHARE conference are not just siloed solutions that sprang up accidentally but rather a part of the company’s strategy of mainframe modernization. With 30 years of mainframe development behind, IBA Group went through the years of mainframe decay and was one of those companies who did not let the mainframe die when the shortage of mainframe developers was critical for the industry.

At present, IBA Group offers free courses on mainframe to university students, many of whom choose mainframe development for their first job. However, the vintage look of the legacy systems make many newcomers give up the job after the first few weeks.

A solution to a problem often comes from problem makers themselves. For example, young IBA developers came to IBA after the university course and instead of dropping “green and black” screens they started looking for a solution to modernize the mainframe interface and eventually came up with For Mainframe plugin.

Similarly, members of the IBA Group’s DevOps team came to IBA as students and managed to establish a kind of synergy between young developers, modern open source technologies, and legacy mainframe applications, which resulted in the creation of the Global Repository for Mainframe Developers.

IBA Group believes that the company is on the right track, offering employees from different backgrounds, age groups, and nationalities to work jointly on projects. They might have divergent views and different approaches, but they have a common goal of paving the way for a SMART future. If you feel like joining us on this road, please get in touch.

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IBA Group Shares DevOps Experience on Mainframe at GSE https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/gse-uk-2019/ https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/gse-uk-2019/#respond Thu, 23 Apr 2020 13:05:47 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/gse-uk-2019/ The post IBA Group Shares DevOps Experience on Mainframe at GSE appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Shares DevOps Experience on Mainframe at GSE

IBA Group shared its experience in building DevOps on the mainframe at the GSE UK Conference held from November 5 to November 7 at Whittlebury Hall, Northamptonshire, UK. The Guide Share Europe (GSE) UK Conference is a major event in the mainframe business calendar, featuring executive speakers and practical sessions on the latest hot topics. This year’s strapline was Dock into the Dark Side.

The 2019 GSE UK Conference provided intensive education across a broad range of mainframe topics. Highlights from the agenda included open source projects based on z/OS and DevOps that are transforming the very nature of mainframe. The conference was reported as the biggest and best by both the organizers and attendees. The full agenda comprised up to 18 streams and more than 220 hours of presentations, performance classes, and hands-on labs.

IBA Group was a Silver Sponsor of the event.

IBA Group’s enthusiastic young mainframers shared their DevOps story on how they integrated and automated a development lifecycle for a variety of teams and built CI/CD pipeline for z applications, the problems they addressed and the challenges they are facing today.

Those who missed IBA Group’s live broadcast on Instagram and Facebook can view the presentations following the links below:

DevOps for Mainframe or the Tale of the Unicorns

zDevOps: What We Do How We Do 

The two presentations were well received with standing room only and were followed by an engaging discussion. Numerous delegates came to IBA Group’s stand to ask questions and share their views on DevOps. Students taking part in the event were impressed by the degree of expertise and experience of IBA Group’s young speakers. In addition to DevOps, visitors to the IBA Group’s stand in the exhibition area were able to learn about our mainframe solutions, including APPULSE and automated converters.

The mainframe lies at the very core of the IBA Group’s expertise and the mainframe journey dates back to 1993 when the company was founded as an IBM partner. IBA Group has special expertise in mainframe software development, both system and applied, and in legacy systems migration. More than 400 professionals are engaged in mainframe system and application development and support. Currently, IBA is a Platinum Business Partner of IBM.

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IBA Group Participates in SHARE Phoenix 2019 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/share-21-03-19/ https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/share-21-03-19/#respond Thu, 23 Apr 2020 07:46:10 +0000 https://us.ibagroupit.com/events/share-21-03-19/ The post IBA Group Participates in SHARE Phoenix 2019 appeared first on IBA Group - USA.

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IBA Group Participates in SHARE Phoenix 2019

From March 10 to March 14, IBA Group participated in the SHARE Phoenix 2019 conference. The event gathered mainframe professionals.

At SHARE Phoenix 2019, IBA Group spoke about APPULSE, the company’s proprietary product, demonstrating how to improve ITIL Incident Management process to support business applications running on z/OS servers.

APPULSE is a centralized support platform for business applications that run on z/OS servers. Designed for Level 1 and Level 2 support, APPULSE provides uninterrupted operation of critical business applications, resulting from proactive problem identification and resolution.

In addition, SHARE delegates had an opportunity to familiarize themselves with IBA Group’s mainframe services at the company’s booth.

SHARE Phoenix featured more than 500 tech sessions, taking place simultaneously over the course of the event. The sessions aimed at exchanging mainframe expertise between the attendees.

The event content spans across the eight areas:

  • Operating systems (z/OS, z/VM, Linux)
  • Application development
  • Systems management
  • Middleware
  • Storage
  • Security
  • Databases
  • Network.

SHARE is an independent volunteer-run information technology association that provides education, professional networking, and industry influence. To date, SHARE includes more than 1,000 companies with 13,000 individual contacts within the enterprise IT ecosystem. SHARE organizes two in-person events each year with more than 800 attendees and over 500 educational sessions per event.

The next SHARE event will take place in Pittsburgh from August 4 to August 9.

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