IBM Wazi as a Service provides near instant (within just a few minutes), on demand access to z/OS instances for development, unit testing, and training. These instances run in IBM Cloud, and the performance is excellent since they run on real mainframes. Wazi as a Service is in limited preview now and will be more generally available this year. See here for more information:
https://www.ibm.com/cloud/wazi-as-a-service One question we got is, "Great, but can I also do this on premises?" Well, yes, you "always" could/can with development LPARs and z/VM guests. And also on your Linux PC (or a X86 server) with the IBM Z Development and Test Environment (ZD&TE), although in that case it's real z/OS but with emulation overhead. Now there's yet another great option: the IBM Virtual Dev and Test for z/OS, generally available THIS FRIDAY. The announcement letter is available here: https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/US-ENUS222-251-CA/name/US-ENUS222-251-CA.PDF And the landing page is here: https://www.ibm.com/products/virtual-dev-and-test-zos This product also provides virtualized z/OS instances on IFLs for development, unit testing, and training. You will need at least 2 IFLs (on an IBM zSystems or LinuxONE server), although they can be potentially shared with other workloads. Of course you'll need some memory and disk space. The latter can be any reasonable Linux-attachable storage. (It does not have to be specifically ECKD/FICON-attached.) IBM Virtual Dev and Test for z/OS licenses are available via IBM Passport Advantage in your choice of one-time charge license (with annual Subscription & Support) or monthly license (with monthly Subscription & Support). You can start with monthly then switch to one-time charge if you wish. Did I mention it's generally available this Friday? :-) Speaking to z/OS system programmers and other operators for a moment (and my personal views here, as always)... The intention behind these offerings is to make sure developers have whatever they need without constraints or delay. Let them do their jobs and be productive at speed. If each developer wants her own z/OS instance, FINE. If the developer "destroys" that z/OS instance, no problem, the developer can spin up another one from "last known good." (That's part of learning, and that's a good thing.) And if you won't let developers develop (and unit test), and maybe even stumble once in a while, we'll do it...with a very reasonable hourly rate for IBM Wazi as a Service, with "walk up" service just a few clicks/taps away from anywhere. But you can do it, too, so go do it (too), OK? With both Wazi as a Service and IBM Virtual Dev and Test for z/OS developers can use the pre-built "ADCD" z/OS image or use a tool IBM provides to take a "snapshot" of the current development LPAR(s) and use that as a starting point. These z/OS instances can be automated, and we encourage that, so they can be used for DevOps pipelines with automated unit testing. Have fun. — — — — — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM zSystems/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
