Some of the world’s most powerful, mission critical applications reside on the IBM mainframe. They have to be constantly updated, enhanced and improved to meet today’s ever-changing needs. Changing complex systems is not easy, and only a very smart, comprehensive and dedicated technology can help manage, control and automate that process.
That’s what Micro Focus ChangeMan ZMF has been doing for some of the world’s largest clients for decades.
The best just got better
What better news then than another exciting update to the large enterprise’s SCCM technology of choice. This week Micro Focus unveils its latest release of the Micro Focus ChangeMan ZMF products:
– Micro Focus ChangeMan ZMF 8.2 is a comprehensive source code and change management solution for customers developing, testing and releasing applications into production on the IBM z/OS platform.
– Micro Focus ChangeMan ZMF 8.2 Client Pack provides an Eclipse- and Windows-based interface which enables developers to integrate to ZMF without leaving their IDE
Release Themes
As with all our products, ChangeMan ZMF 8.2 is a customer-driven release, in which we have addressed a significant number of change requests – making this is the most stable release of the product to date. Discussing the release with the product teams, I learned of the three key customer-suggested themes that pervade this release of the products – they are:
Upgradability
– ChangeMan has been enhanced to enable clients to maintain their own configurations from one release to the next. Building on the HLLX framework introduced in release 8.1, this release further enhances the portability of user customizations, incorporating procedure name alternates, exit points, and other flexible administrative features.
Usability and Consistency
– ChangeMan has been further improved to make the interfaces more intuitive and consistent, reducing administrative time and improving throughput of tasks. A great example of this is the new support for Mobile and web based approvals, which further speeds up delivery procedures. Additional improvements to the Client Pack and ISPF interfaces and more flexibility for transaction usage and library cleanup operations further improve usability.
Mainframe Currency
– This release continues to track the mainframe environment for innovations and improvements in 3rd party products as used by our clients. It is vital that users can leverage new technology, but equally important they manage and deliver these assets in a controlled, repeatable and auditable manner. In this release, we have added further support for z/OS connect, and supports artifacts such as the Service Archive, JSON schemas and WSBIND and API archives. Additional support has also been added for z/OSMF, multifactor authentication, CICS Web Services and JSON REST bundles and DB2 support updates.
Supporting Mainframe Modernization
Consistent with the wider mainframe solution from Micro Focus, investment in the ChangeMan ZMF technology is in direct response to our customers’ needs. Al Slovacek, Product Owner for the ChangeMan ZMF release, explained “Input from our users at the Customer Advisory Board and other meetings was loud and clear – ChangeMan ZMF is hugely powerful, and they want to use it to streamline and automate our processes even further. So we’ve invested heavily in improving the usability and ensuring our client’s own configurations can be taken forward when they move to the latest release. 8.2 is another stride forward to help our customers get the most from their investment.”
The ChangeMan ZMF technology sits at the heart of Micro Focus’ mainframe modernization solution, other elements of which have also been recently updated. This reflects a busy marketplace where the pace of change continues to grow. Product Director, Eddie Houghton, summed it up “Our customers include major organizations who are undergoing significant change. IT needs to support that change and ChangeMan ZMF sits at mission control in managing and delivering major mainframe modernization projects. Streamlining improvements to applications and delivery processes is where we’ve spent our focus for this release and, in 8.2, our customers can look to make further improvements in core system delivery. ChangeMan ZMF is a superb asset for accelerated mainframe delivery and part of our comprehensive solution for agile mainframe modernization.”
Learn More
Watch the 8.2 launch webinar and find out more about the release on our web site. Learn more about the Micro Focus broader solution for mainframe application modernization, or read IDC’s white paper on the same topic.
