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As organizations embrace digital transformation, implementing a hybrid cloud infrastructure strategy significantly improves agility, flexibility, and optimization for the development and deployment of business-critical applications. If you are currently running or developing COBOL /CICS applications on x86 Linux with a third party, you can now support them on an OpenShift environment with IBM COBOL for Linux on x86 and IBM CICS TX on Cloud 11.1.

A hybrid cloud strategy is emerging as a popular choice where some non-performance critical COBOL/CICS applications can be modernized and deployed on cloud platforms and be integrated with performance critical COBOL/CICS applications and data on z/OS. COBOL for Linux on x86, in conjunction with CICS TX, are compatible with IBM Enterprise COBOL and IBM CICS Transaction Server (CICS TS) on z/OS, although not all features are implemented. You can deploy COBOL/CICS applications developed with COBOL for Linux on x86 and CICS TX close to systems of engagement to optimize processing or build a hybrid topology where applications share data and logic seamlessly across z/OS and Linux on x86 creating hybrid cloud environments.

COBOL for Linux on x86 is the latest addition to the IBM COBOL family, joining Enterprise COBOL for z/OS and COBOL for AIX. It shares the same optimization framework as Enterprise COBOL for z/OS and will become generally available on April 16, 2021. COBOL for Linux on x86 is designed for developing and modernizing applications on Linux for Cloud environments. This offering comes with an optimizing COBOL compiler and a runtime library. Applications compiled with COBOL for Linux on x86 run in CICS or Db2 environments with support of CICS TX and IBM Db2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. COBOL batch applications can access VSAM emulated files stored in IBM Db2, and CICS TX SFS file server.

COBOL for Linux on x86 is also included with CICS TX, a new version of the offering which will also become generally available on Apr 16, 2021. It is designed for developing and deploying cloud native COBOL/CICS applications and supports Red Hat certified operators which simplify deployment and management of applications on Kubernetes.

For more information on COBOL for Linux on x86, please visit:

IBM COBOL for Linux on x86 1.1 announcement
IBM COBOL for Linux product page
IBM CICS on Cloud 11.1 announcement (later renamed to IBM CICS TX Advanced)
IBM CICS TX Standard announcement