IBM HourGlass for z/OS 8.1 becomes generally available on 30 August 2024, providing many new capabilities, enhancements, and improvements, including:

• Date and time simulation beyond the year 2042, allowing users to test time-sensitive programs using simulated dates and times through the year 2099
• Productivity enhancements, including expanded capabilities for searching, finding, and modifying control elements; and the time-saving ability to share CICS date and time settings across multiple CICS instances
• Improved eligibility-checking performance for date and time requests, helping customers with large numbers of date and time values be more productive and reduce CPU consumption
• Online help for all Control Center panels, improving usability
• Customization settings that are persistent and not affected by applying maintenance, which improves serviceability
• Support for embedding simulated timestamps in IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition for z/OS 11 and 17 programs for testing past, present, and future dates and times

HourGlass 8.1 offers more compelling reasons to be your chosen tool to simulate past and future dates and times when testing time-sensitive applications on IBM z/OS.

For more information, use the following resources: 

• Product page
• IBM Documentation
• Announcement letter