When I Joined IBM 6 years ago, I had almost no idea what z/OS was. To intrduce me to Z I was given an IBM ZPDT (Z Personal development tool) USB key, and told to go and install and configure it, stand up a z/OS system and then install CICS. That was a steep learning curve, but Im sure fewer people have ever been happier to see an ISPF screen on a 3270 terminal than I was when it was all up and running! I was working in IBM Early programs for CICS and kept working to educate myself on Z, including the other products in the portfolio.
When I got the chance to join the Z Trial team as Offering manager, I saw it as a chance to help make the process of getting hands on with z/OS easier. This was an opportunity to make the mainframe more accessible to more people than ever before. We were able to offer people the chance to come and experience a number of different Z portfolio products, without needing to install, without them needing access to a mainframe and without needing to pay. We are supporting sales, the growth of Z Skills inside and outside IBM, and helping people understand the ecosystem more and more each year.
Z trial was built originally to introduce z/OS Connect to our mainframe customers. This was a new product, with its own unique place in the z/OS software catalogue, and our customers needed to kick the tyres to understand what it was and what it did. In order to do this, Z trial was put together on 3 original principles:
1) No charge. The Trials should be free for anyone who wants to use them, inside or outside IBM.
2) No download, No install. Users should be able to access the trials without any specialist software, without a VPN or downloads, within 2 hours.
3) Acccessible and usable by anyone. The trials needed to be an experience that was useful to anyone who wanted to use them, whether they were brand new users wanting to learn their way around, or experienced Z professionals wanting to get a feel for the benfits of new software or technology.
Once we'd published the first z/OS Connect trial in 2017, we started working with other teams to grow the catalogue and enhance the experience for our users, and we've been growing Z Trial ever since!
So how does Z trial work?
From the Z Trials landing page (where you can find all of the currently vailable Z Trials), you can select a trial and submit a request using the online form. This request is then processed by our Z trial provisioning infrastructure. We ask users for their country, so that we can provision their Virtual machines in the closest datacentre to them. This provsioning request then creates 2 Virtual machines:
- The First is a Linux VM running ZD&T, a virtualised z/OS with all the required software and data for the trial installed and configured. This also autostarts the z/OS, and all of the required components before the trial is delivered to the user.
- The second is a windows VM, which acts as the front end interface. This will have all the required software needed to interact with the z/OS (x3270, z/OS explorer etc), as well as the Z Trial wizard, which will guide the user through the scenarios. It is also configured with remote access software that allows the user to connect using Remote desktop through a web browser with just a URL and login credentials.
The user receives an email within 2 hours of receiving a request with their login credentials and instructions to access their trial. this is as simple as clicking the URL, putting in the username and password provided, and you're into your Z trial! Each trial environment is fully independent, and lasts for 3 days with the option to request for extensions if more time is needed.
Each of the trials is built on a number of scenarios (usually 3), that are guided using the Z Trial wizard. This interface guides you through the 3 scenario exercizes using clear, detailed instructions with annotated screenshots and Gifs. Each scenario should take around 30 minutes to complete, and can be completed in any order. these scenarios are carefully created by the software developers and designers to be approachable and understandable by users of all skill levels. The wizard will tell you not only what to do, but why you're doing it and what the real world value of the solution is!
A screenshot from the ZOWE Z Trial, showing the ZOWE desktop on the lef (connected to the backend z/OS), and the Z Trial wizard guided scenario on the right.
Every Z trial environment is fully independent, and only accessible to the user who requested it. This means that once you've completed the guided scenarios, you're free to explore the z/OS system further at your own pace!
At the time of writing there are 19 Trials currently available across 4 different categories, with several more in development.
Cloud DevOps and APIIBM z/OS® Connect Enterprise Edition
IBM Z Development and Test Environment
Bring Your Own (BYO) IDE for Cloud Native Development
IBM Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence
IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS
IBM Application Delivery Foundation for z/OS
Database and application server softwareIBM CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS
IBM SDK for Node.js - z/OS
IT operations software IBM Z Operations Analytics
IBM Service Management Unite Performance Management
IBM Service Management Unite Automation
IBM z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF)
IBM Z OMEGAMON® for JVM
Zowe™
IBM z/OS Automation via Red Hat® Ansible®
IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect
Machine learning and AI IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/OS
IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS
All of the Trials are available to any user, and can be requested at any time (including weekends). You can have 2 Trials provisioned at any one time, and can re-request trials as many times as you want! If you're interested in getting a feel for what the Trials are like, both the z/OS Connect EE and ZOWE Trials are fantastic experiences for new users.
Id encourage anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding in any of the above products, or wanting to develop their z/OS skills in general to try out IBM Z Trial. You can access our full catalogue of available trials here:
www.ibm.biz/z-trialCheck back often, as new trials are always in development, and existing trials will have new scenarios added as new features become available!
Myself and the Z Trial team are also working to support the IBM Z Advocates program, and the IBM Z Champions with the resources we have available. We will continue to work on bringing more z/OS experiences to more users than ever before.
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Mark Hostler - Offering manager IBM Z Trials Program