Compuware Corporation, the leading provider of software for mainframe DevOps, today announced a CloudBees Technical Alliance Partner Program (TAPP) Premier Partnership and new advancements to Topaz that together enable organizations to quickly achieve low-risk, low-cost mainframe modernization by fully leveraging their existing mainframe resources.

Business demand for faster innovation is driving organizations to increase deployment frequency by an average of 41% for new mainframe features and an average of 38% for new features to non-mainframe applications according to a recent study commissioned by Compuware and conducted by Vanson Bourne. The new CloudBees partnership and Topaz advancements enable enterprises to meet this business imperative by increasing software delivery velocity—without compromising quality and efficiency.

“GNP is dedicated to consistently delighting our customers with the best digital products and services whenever and wherever,” said Arturo Sanchez Guerrero, Mainframe Optimization Manager at Grupo Nacional Provincial. “Compuware has been a very important and collaborative partner in helping us remove mainframe software development and delivery bottlenecks so that we can meet customer demands for innovation quickly and efficiently.”

CloudBees Partnership and Product Integrations Ensure Core Mainframe Systems Can be Included in Cross-platform DevOps Toolchains

The CloudBees TAPP provides a formal, unified program for independent software vendors (ISVs) to align their offerings with the global Jenkins community. Participation in the TAPP enables a tighter connection between Compuware and CloudBees so customers’ core mainframe systems can be more easily integrated into a cross-platform DevOps toolchain.

Compuware was invited to participate as a premier member because of the existing product integrations between Compuware ISPW, Topaz and Xpediter, and CloudBees Core, an end-to-end continuous delivery platform, and CloudBees Flow, an adaptive release orchestration platform. The integrations and plugins enable development teams to perform the following tasks within a DevOps pipeline:

• Create, promote and deploy mainframe software releases
• Coordinate mainframe software releases with releases on other platforms 
• Automate unit and functional tests 
• Perform code coverage analysis 
• Submit jobs on the mainframe
• Retrieve mainframe source code for static analysis tools

“CloudBees is thrilled to have Compuware as a TAPP Premier Member," said Francois Dechery, chief strategy officer and co-founder, CloudBees. "Compuware has a unique understanding of the needs and goals of mainframe customers. In addition to other computing platforms, mainframe customers also successfully utilize CloudBees technologies for continuous integration, continuous delivery and application release orchestration applications. We welcome Compuware to the CloudBees ecosystem.”

Topaz Advancements Improve Developer Experience and Empower Novice Developers

The business demand for faster digital innovation and an increased reliance on the mainframe­­—coupled with a necessary influx of developers new to the mainframe platform —means developers must be empowered with a rich and intuitive work experience that automates manual tasks, simplifies complex programs and provides fast feedback on quality and coding standards.

To that end, Compuware announced today a new version of Topaz that includes a new editing experience for COBOL, PL/I and JCL that guides even the novice developer towards optimum results with streamlined usability, native Eclipse integration and real-time COBOL and PL/I syntax checking.

In addition, the ASG-PRO/JCL integration with Topaz Workbench announced last month enables developers to seamlessly access ASG-PRO/JCL’s JCL validation and runtime simulation, simplifying maintenance and support tasks with a modern front end, saving teams time and dramatically improving the experience for next generation developers.

Since Topaz was launched five years ago, it’s evolved from a enterprise data visualization tool, to an Agile, force-multiplying development and testing platform with more than 15 integrations and 5 API enabled products from Compuware, empowering any developer, regardless of experience, to understand and work on any program, no matter how old or complex.