With its October launch, Compuware once again successfully
met its self-imposed goal of a quarterly delivery of brand new or significantly
enhanced, mainframe solutions. This makes 8 consecutive quarters they have done
so. And, for each quarter, the result has been significant, ground-breaking
extensions or enhancement of capabilities or accessibility in areas that
include mainframe DevOps, risk reduction, app development, systems management
and resolution of significant challenges to smooth mainframe operations. The
current announcement continues the pattern. Congratulations and kudos to Compuware.
Here’s what we found interesting.
Service-based
Acquisition
We commented earlier on Compuware’s acquisition of ISPW
product technology and its integration with Compuware Topaz. ISPW provides
comprehensive, modern functionality for Source Code Management (SCM), Release
Automation (RA) and Application Deployment (AD) for both mainframe and
distributed platforms as a single, integrated solution. We were enthusiastic
about the move and the success of Compuware’s integration. As it turns out, we
weren’t the only ones.
The prospect of having a single solution where three
separate products were previously required was very attractive to
over-stretched IT staffs. Combined with a tight integration to Topaz and you
have a solution that is practically irresistible. Customer demand for help in
moving to ISPW was so high that it motivated Compuware to make its second business
acquisition in 10 months. Compuware purchased the total SCM practice, including
implementation services, experienced staff and proven methodologies from
Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) firm, Itegrations[1]. Compuware’s
SCM
Migration Services[2]
simplifies, speeds and reduces the risk when migrating from existing
vendor-supplied and homegrown systems to ISPW SCM.
Topaz additions, enhancements, extensions and integrations
In
keeping with Compuware’s theme of Mainstreaming the Mainframe, the announcement
included new Compuware Topaz Connect[3] (formerly Itegrations
NxBridge) that automates and simplifies cross-platform connectivity. Customers
can automatically connect Compuware ISPW to various ITSM solutions including ServiceNow,
BMC Remedy and Tivoli. This reduces manual-processes, time and effort while
making the mainframe more accessible, the customer experience better and
improving performance metrics. Recognizing that enterprises may not be able to
migrate to agile ISPW SCM immediately, Topaz Connect enables CA Endevor users
to access required Endevor functionality via Compuware Topaz Workbench[4], a modern Eclipse-based
IDE. Through this integration, developers can perform critical activities such
as add and move elements in the lifecycle; generate (compile) elements; create
packages; and move groups in the lifecycle.
In another major step towards increasing mainframe
utilization, raising the accessibility to modern tools and making the move to
DevOps faster and easier, Compuware is providing REST APIs, in effect “building
blocks,” to be used to control and manage application deployment in both
mainframe and distributed environments. The APIs for ISPW enable
users to create, promote, deploy and check the status of code releases using
popular Agile/DevOps tools including Jenkins, XebiaLabs XL Release, Slack and Atlassian
HipChat with Webhook notification.
Additional
broader scope APIs will be available in coming months. These will be built to
leverage, work with and support open standards and open standards-based tools.
For example, complementing the APIs, Compuware plans to add support for a
number of popular tools.
JCL
has been a longtime hurdle for those looking to develop for mainframes, even
more so for millennials. Compuware tackles the challenge with plug-ins for
Topaz Workbench. Integrations with Software Engineering of America (SEA)
technology include the JCLplus Plugin for Topaz Workbench which will
automatically verify standards, check syntax and do runtime simulation of JCL. In
addition, there is the SAVRS Plugin for Topaz Workbench, which allows easy
viewing and interpretation of Joblog and SYSOUT reports.
Terse
error logs and messages made fault analysis a mainframe frustration for a long
time. Adding to the problem, mainframe groups operated in informational and
data isolation, siloed away from the rest of the enterprise. As a result,
separated and off by itself, the mainframe became a “black box”, sidelined and not
recognized as part of the enterprise operations team.
As
a start to resolving those issues, Compuware partnered with Syncsort Ironstream
to change that. Integrating with Ironstream allows the Abend-AID application fault discovery and analysis solution diagnostic data, together
with the mainframe
logs, security, and environmental data, to be fed in machine-readable form to
Splunk, which combines that data with data from multiple different sources
(security, compliance, behavioral, operations, compliance, etc.) across the
organization. The combination can then be analyzed, correlated, evaluated to yield
operational intelligence. The mainframe’s impact and influence in the context
of the total operations is made visible and the importance of the mainframe to
overall operations established.
There
is much more contained in the announcement. Our recommendation is that you
follow up with Compuware to see how your customers and enterprise development
and operations can benefit from their efforts.
Compuware’s
overall ambition is to expose and confirm the importance of the mainframe to the
enterprise. They do so by removing tool-based barriers that have traditionally
inhibited its use to broader DevOps teams and by resolving significant
shortcomings, including most significantly, dismantling operational silos. A
significant part of the solution is the modernization of mainframe solutions,
tools and capabilities so that developers, operations and business analysts can
function consistently, transparently across mainframe, distributed and mobile
platforms.
A Final word on Compuware’s Vision
If you haven’t noticed already, Compuware operates with a
very customer-focused vision to drive its quarter-to-quarter deliveries. It
isn’t that they are driven to reflexively react with little forethought. They have
an established, consistent product/solution plan with a roadmap of future
deliverables.
The basic, bedrock principle is to develop solutions based
on what they believe are the critical and most-pressing problems confronting
their customers NOW. They are driven by the belief that there are a number of
identifiable and curable challenges that act as immediate roadblocks to keep
the mainframe out of the mainstream. Their goal is to eliminate those
roadblocks and speed the mainframe into mainstream operations. To do that, they
have a prioritized, yet flexible list of which challenge they will take-on and
when.
Compuware’s plans are neither static, nor inhibiting of
creative, responsive innovation. For example, late last year the team conceived
of, built out and delivered Runtime Visualizer, a new feature in Topaz
for Program Analysis[5], in just
84 days. This year they acquired ISPW
and rapidly integrated it with Topaz[6]. On the
heels of that, they acquired and delivered Compuware ISPW SCM Migration
Services. Yet focused attention on customer feedback and the rapidly evolving world
of enterprise IT isn’t completely unique – and it isn’t sufficient to maintain
leadership. Compuware, partners, employees and executives hold themselves to an
exceptionally rapid rate of development and delivery. They are aided by a great
deal of flexibility in implementation due in a significant part to their own
products and organizational vision. They are driven to produce extraordinary
results that demonstrate their own agility, as well as that of mainframe
solutions and operations. As they promise, Compuware’s employees and executives
are delivering “Agility Without Compromise…simple, elegant solutions that
enable a blended development ecosystem.”
We’re impressed with what they are doing. We recommend that
you investigate to see if you agree.
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