As we step into 2026, I’ve been reflecting on my first year as a Product Manager for z/OS Connect and the incredible journey the product has taken over the past year. Our monthly continuous delivery cycle has enabled us to deliver meaningful capabilities that support our customers’ modernisation goals and hybrid cloud strategies.
Looking back, I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Here’s a snapshot of some of the key capabilities we delivered:
📘 One Doc (3.0.91)
We unified our documentation into a single, streamlined experience to make it easier for users to find guidance, troubleshoot issues, and explore new features. This change has been a major step forward in improving usability and accessibility.
🔐 Enable Policy for API Requester (3.0.92)
Security and governance are top priorities for our customers. With this release, we introduced policy enforcement for API requesters, allowing fine-grained control over how APIs are consumed by z/OS applications.
📊 OpenTelemetry Support (3.0.96)
Observability took a leap forward with OpenTelemetry integration in both API provider and requester. This enables customers to collect, visualise, and analyse telemetry data using modern observability tools, helping teams monitor performance and troubleshoot issues more effectively.
🧩 Visual Studio Code Extension (3.0.97)
We brought z/OS Connect development closer to where developers work. Our new VS Code extension allows users to interact with z/OS Connect projects directly from their IDE, streamlining workflows and improving productivity.
🔄 MCP Enablement for APIs (3.0.98)
In the zosconnect-3.0 feature you can now enable the API operations as Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools to allow AI agents to access programs and data on z/OS.
🛠️ IMS TMRA Support (3.0.98)
This release introduced support for IMS Transaction Manager Resource Adapter (TMRA), enabling new integration patterns and expanding the reach of z/OS Connect into IMS environments.
📥 Generate API Requester from OpenAPI 2.0 or 3.0 (3.0.99)
We have enhanced z/OS Connect to support generating an API requester from either an OpenAPI 2.0 document or an OpenAPI 3.0 document when deploying to a z/OS Connect Server with the zosConnect-3.0 feature. This gives customers greater flexibility in consuming APIs from external services.
🗂️ Generate API Project from OpenAPI 2.0 or 3.0 (3.0.100)
Enhancing the API-first method, z/OS Connect supports generating an API project from either an OpenAPI 2.0 document or an OpenAPI 3.0 document when deploying to a z/OS Connect Server with the zosConnect-3.0 feature. Giving customers flexibility when using API-first.
As part of the Product Management team for z/OS Connect, one of my personal highlights this year has been delivering OpenTelemetry support. This capability came directly from customer feedback and is already transforming how teams monitor and manage their APIs. The great thing about OpenTelemetry is that it provides end-to-end observability, enabling customers to track API requests across their systems. This helps identify the location of a problem quickly and speed up the time to resolution.
As we begin 2026 we look to continue our journey with you to Single Runtime, this started in 2025 with the releases 3.0.99 and 3.0.100, detailed above, enabling customers to modernise without disruption. Look out for our upcoming blog on this topic.
We’d love to hear from you too. What was your standout z/OS Connect moment in 2025? Did a new capability help you meet a business goal or accelerate your modernisation efforts? And as we look ahead to 2026, what would you like to see next from z/OS Connect?
Drop your thoughts in the comments section of this blog, or reach out to us directly. If you're interested in shaping the future of z/OS Connect, consider joining our Design Partnership Program—we run monthly calls to share direction and gather feedback, and we’re always looking to welcome new voices.
I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with you in 2026!