This article is the fourth and final installment in a series providing a z Systems perspective on new announcements and what “a new way to think” means to customers with major investments in the IBM mainframe.

This article covers WebSphere Liberty on z/OS CICS Transaction Server and Transaction Gateway announcements z/OS Connect and z Systems Solution Center activities at InterConnect.

For other z Systems news out of InterConnect check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series.  

WebSphere Liberty on z/OS

There were close to 100 sessions at InterConnect on WebSphere Application Server focusing on how it can help organizations deliver continuous business value for web cloud and mobile applications. WAS provides the optimal infrastructure for a wide spectrum of emerging workloads. Using WAS Full Profile and/or Liberty Profile you can have consistent Java runtime where you can differentiate qualities of service have the freedom to choose the right architecture for your applications and move apps to the cloud at your own pace. 

From a WebSphere perspective this conference had a major focus on WebSphere Liberty with dozens of sessions and many demos on the subject. One great session was ASZ-2592 “WebSphere Liberty on z/OS - What's New” presented by James Mulvey (IBM) and IBM customer Bianca Schneider (Sparda Datenverarbeitung eG). The two shared success stories of using WebSphere Liberty on z/OS.

WAS V8.5.5 delivers significant enhancements to Liberty profile including new programming models administration qualities of service and development tools as you can see in the chart below.

Mulvey presented on what’s new in WAS Liberty up to version 8.5.5 Fix Pack 4 outlining the key enhancements that you can take advantage of including:

• The ability to enhance applications with new Java EE7 features that enable exploitation of HTML5 and associated technologies for dynamic and responsive user experience:
  • Leverage Java Servlet 3.1 feature for ASYNC I/O to improve server-side application efficiency and scalability.
  • Use the new Java API for WebSocket 1.0 feature to support interactive duplex data-exchanges with clients.
  • Simplify data-parsing using the new Java API for JSON Processing feature.
• ND Intelligent Management for Liberty Collectives
  • Automatically scale your Liberty ND collectives based on workload using declarative scaling policies.
• Flexible federated security

The chart below shows the functionality currently available in WAS Liberty and in V9 beta to empower developers accelerate delivery and provide dynamic scaling.

Support for Docker

Docker is an open-source project that allows the user to easily create lightweight portable self-sufficient containers from any application. It is being used by WebSphere Developers.

WebSphere Application Server has enhancements to Liberty that include production support for Docker environments and it has pre-built and extendable Liberty profile Docker images and support for running in Docker containers to accelerate software deployment in hosts containing Docker engines. IBM has announced that the z13 will come with Docker support for Linux on z Systems. So if you are planning to run cloud on the z13 you will now be able to deliver applications with the same speed as x86 and IBM POWER systems. For more details turn to the IBM WAS Liberty multiplatform announcement letter from February 17.

Developers are accustomed to fast development cycles and IBM has focused on improving developer experience with key enhancements to Liberty profile capabilities that enable developers to quickly develop and deliver engaging applications. Enhancements have been made in WAS Developer Tools V8.5.5 and Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software V9.1 to support the new capabilities in WAS/Liberty 8.5.5.x and IBM Bluemix.

To help with WAS migration there is a Liberty Tech Preview tool that is a new part of the wider WebSphere Appliance Management Toolkit eclipse plugin. WAMT provides in-IDE tips and quick fixes to help with the following:

• Migration of applications from foreign app servers to WAS
• Migration from earlier to later versions of WAS
• Migration of Tomcat configuration to Liberty configuration

The tool also contains rules to accelerate application deployment to WAS Liberty runtime of the IBM Bluemix or other Cloud Foundry environments.

Mulvey pointed out the importance of the online WebSphere Liberty Repository for extending the Liberty which can enable more fine-grained early access content and the simplest possible integration with external open source. Liberty Repository is the key to continuous delivery of business value and holds all of the content that you can install on the Liberty Kernel to make your own customized app server container.

Using the online WebSphere Liberty Repository you can download Liberty v9 Beta with Java EE 7 for z/OS which is the lightweight profile of WebSphere Application Server for z/OS. It is Java EE 6 Web Profile certified and also includes Java EE 7 capabilities. To learn more visit https://developer.ibm.com/wasdev/downloads/.   

Session AAI-3031 “WebSphere Application Server Foundation for the Future” presented by Walt Noffsinger (IBM) and Ian Robinson (IBM) had a good overview of WAS Liberty V9 Beta content. One of the very useful new enhancements called “Request Timing feature” can help you dramatically reduce the time it takes to diagnose the source of slow requests by providing details on slow or hung servlet requests and triggering the creation of a set of Javacore dumps. 
 

WebSphere Liberty Profile Mini Virtual Proof of Technology

IBM has made every effort to make it easier for customers to start exploiting WebSphere Liberty Profile and is now offering free WebSphere Liberty Profile Mini Virtual Proof of Technology. VPOT will cover the primary benefits of the WebSphere Liberty Profile and then drill down into the new enhancements that were announced at the end of 2014. Now you do not have to travel to an IBM facility and can do this VPOT including hands-on labs from your office. Register here. You’ll need an IBM customer User ID to register.

WebSphere Liberty z/OS Connect

We live in a “mobile world” where mobile devices in use including both phones and tablets will grow from over 7.7 billion in 2014 to over 12.1 billion by 2018 according to a recent report by The Radicati Group.

The fast advancing worlds of mobile and cloud computing are putting more and more pressure on applications and business logic located on z /OS in environments like CICS IMS batch and others. With mobile workloads accessing z/OS backend data we need to have the ability to handle large workload spikes originating from any number of almost instantly available clients.

To help customers effectively handle new mobile workloads IBM created a common Liberty-based gateway called z/OS Connect that can be used by cloud mobile and web clients. It enables simple discovery and secure access to z/OS business and infrastructure assets using REST technology and JavaScript Object Notation data.

One of the best sessions on z/OS Connect at InterConnect was session ASZ-1670 “IBM WebSphere Liberty z/OS Connect - A Technical Introduction” presented by James Mulvey (IBM).

z/OS Connect provides a secure and simple way to discover and call in to application assets/infrastructure on z/OS from web/cloud/mobile applications using RESTful web services that can be discovered and catalogued by IBM API Management.

z/OS Connect is software written by IBM that runs inside an instance of WebSphere Liberty or CICS Liberty Profile on z/OS and uses existing connector technology to get to the backend systems. There is no charge for z/OS Connect; it is supplied as part of license entitlement to WAS z/OS CICS or IMS. 

The chart below shows the different delivery approaches of z/OS Connect depending on what you have in-house:

Some of the key benefits of using z/OS Connect are:

• Fast on-ramp for z/OS customers to discover and reach z/OS applications securely/simply using RESTful services. Service references can be copied from z/OS Connect and stored in any repository – cloud based (such as IBM Cloud OE) or mobile based (such as IBM MobileFirst) or any other web technology
• Light-weight and modular providing the flexibility to run multiple copies on the same or different z/OS systems
• Integration with z/OS management makes the operations of the environment consistent with the z/OS environments it is exposing (batch CICS IMS etc.)
• The ability to standardize on security access for calling in to z/OS applications in all major environments - CICS IMS batch Unix System Services and ISV software. It supports SAF- and LDAP-based security integration which allows for individual z/OS Connect services to have unique sets of authorized users
• The ability to track requests from cloud mobile and web-based external requestors using standard z/OS mechanisms like SMF. It fulfills audit/chargeback needs for access to z/OS applications
• The ability to prioritize requests across multiple z/OS Connect Liberty servers and within a single Liberty server - based on URIs and z/OS Connect service names – using z/OS WLM

The chart below shows an overview of how z/OS Connect can be used with WebSphere Liberty on z/OS utilizing WebSphere-optimized local adapters

CICS mobile enablement and z/OS Connect

Session 2819 "1 Billion Smartphones a Year and Counting... How is Your CICS Connected?" presented by Robert Jones (IBM) and Russ Teubner (HostBridge) had a great overview of mobile connectivity options in CICS.

CICS TS has many mobile enablement options to choose from as you can see below.

z/OS Connect delivers similar capabilities to the JSON web services included in CICS TS for z/OS V5.2 the CICS TS Feature Pack for Mobile Extensions (for V4.2 and V5.1) and CICS Transaction Gateway V9.1 (and V9.2 open beta). IBM ensured that whichever JSON web services mechanism is used to interact with CICS you can be assured that they will remain supported.

In CICS TS z/OS Connect is supported in the CICS embedded Liberty server. Support is shipped in CICS TS V5.2 with APAR PI25503 and is also supported in CICS TS V5.3 open beta. This provides RESTful APIs and accepts JavaScript Object Notation payloads between CICS mobile devices and cloud environments.

As you can see in the chart below z/OS Connect under CICS Liberty uses JCICS to interact with CICS resources.

CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V5.3 open beta delivers a wide range of enhancement and new capabilities while the CICS Transaction Gateway V9.2 open beta delivers new possibilities for service virtualization and continuous integration testing extending this capability to non-Java clients including JSON Web Services and NET Framework-based applications. For further information refer to Announcement ENUS215-031.

Under the theme of “enhanced interoperability” the CICS TS V5.3 open beta offering includes a technology preview of JCA support in the embedded Liberty profile JVM server. This allows the CICS TG ECI resource adapter to be directly deployed into a CICS Liberty JVM server enabling Web applications built on JCA to be ported from other JEE application servers directly into a CICS Liberty JVM server. This together with the ability for CICS programs to issue an EXEC CICS LINK to a Java application running in a Liberty JVM server in addition to an OSGi JVM server provide the potential for extensive interoperability between modern web applications and existing CICS programs.

See a CICS TS V5.3 overview below:

z Systems Solution Center activities at InterConnect

As you can see from this four-part article there was plenty to learn about  z Systems technologies at InterConnect. And it was not just breakout sessions - IBM set up a z Systems Solution Center where you could meet with specialists have one-on-one meetings or catch up with colleagues. I personally took full advantage of it and had one-to-one discussions with several IBM experts and attended sessions there with panels of experts. IBM put together a great z Systems at InterConnect Guide which listed z Systems breakout sessions z Solution suites activities and a labs schedule.

Last but not least I was impressed with IBM taking advantage of having 21000 people at the conference and having “Help Stop Hunger Now” volunteers packing meals to help feed the hungry. I was glad to be able to participate in the effort.

Summary

Even though IBM InterConnect 2015 was not an IBM z Systems-centric conference it was clear that z Systems play a very important role in companies’ ability to meet growing mobile and cloud needs. IBM has demonstrated its willingness to continue investing in this platform and has spent $1 billion and five years designing the new IBM z13 hardware system. IBM continues to enhance its hardware and software to leverage the strength of the z Systems and take advantage of its highest availability unmatched scalability co-location performance benefits and many z-specific features.

I got great value out of InterConnect and I hope that this review helps you and your organization get the most value out of your investment in mainframe and helps you plan for the future.