Modern Mainframe Development

Foreword

For over 60 years, the mainframe has been the system of record for leading businesses, governmental agencies, and institutions of learning. Today, the vast majority of the world’s largest banks, insurance companies, airlines, and retailers continue to rely on the mainframe. If you’ve shopped, planned a vacation, or done banking online or through a mobile app, your transaction was almost certainly processed by a mainframe.

The mainframe’s reliability, consistency, security, and performance have cemented its role as the workhorse of the digital economy, and reliance on the platform shows no signs of letting up. In fact, 92% of respondents to the 2021 BMC Mainframe Survey see it as a platform for long-term growth. As new technologies arise and demand for better, faster services and applications intensifies, the mainframe continues to evolve to meet changing market needs and power innovation.

The programming environment has advanced from punched cards to ISPF green screens to modern integrated development environments in which developers can edit, debug, and deploy source code from one interface. Meanwhile, modern development solutions have enabled the use of automation throughout the software delivery life cycle and opened the mainframe to integration with cross-platform development tools, monitoring and security software, and modern frontend applications.

These advanced automation capabilities and an “open-borders” approach go hand in hand with increased adoption of DevOps ...