Many IBM® clients are excited about the new IBM watsonx™ Code Assistant for Z (WCA4Z) and the opportunity to accelerate mainframe application modernization with generative AI, but they may be facing challenges such as: 

• Scarcity of mainframe skills (COBOL, CICS®, IMS, etc.)
• DevOps costs to modernize applications
• A lack of understanding of best practices to develop agile architectures

Despite those challenges, taking steps to modernize with WCA4Z is likely a very good move for clients because of the many benefits it affords.

Enhanced Developer Productivity – developers will see auto-refactoring of COBOL code, which can be very complex and error prone via manual approaches as well as generative AI-based transformation of COBOL to Java, which accelerates code conversion and extends talent pool to Java programmers

Increased Business Agility – by selectively modernizing business services, DevOps pipelines are faster to market because WCA4Z allows clients to focus on impactful business requirements instead of rewriting 100% of the application code

Improved Operational Efficiency – clients will see lower project costs through automation instead of manual approaches, gaining flexibility to embrace fit-for-purpose strategies

Decreased Operational Risk – decrease application modernization project complexity and scope by maintaining qualities of services that the business depends on to maximize customer satisfaction and overall business resiliency

Generative AI

WCA4Z uses generative AI to make it easier for developers to create code with AI-generated recommendations. Clients can continue in COBOL or transform the refactored code into Java. IBM’s fundamental application modernization design principle is the interoperability of COBOL and Java together. Java introduces user-friendly external Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). With genAI from IBM, clients can:

• Use application discovery (Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence – ADDI) to document existing applications and their relationships (turn source libraries into accurate call graphs)
• Leverage WCA4Z to discover and refactor business services through selected code transformation (automating code slices into modular, resuable services that improves developer time and skills required to maintain)
• Convert code from COBOL to Java into a well architected object-oriented Java that has been optimized for IBM Z® runtimes (not Java code expressed in COBOL syntax – “JOBOL”)
• Validate new code (Java or COBOL) with WCA4Z automating unit test generation

Technical assistance with WCA4Z

The “Build IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z” offering from IBM Technology Expert Labs is a custom engagement that assists clients with planning and provisioning WCA4Z on premises and tune and assess the IBM Z environment, based on the size of the application transformation:

• Provision WCA4Z on premises
• Build ADDI
• Implement Refactoring Assistant
• Assess WCA4Z generated code
• Perform tuning of IBM Z environment and application integration with IBM Z
• Validate the outcome in the client’s environment

Why Expert Labs

Our Technology Expert Labs teams have several key skills that will assist on your WCA4Z application modernization journey, including:

• COBOL application programming skills
• Java development skills
• Expertise with IBM databases including Db2® and IMS
• Expertise with APIs that are leveraging z/OS® assets such as MQ Queue, z/OS Connect EE, AP Connect, Db2, IMS, and VSAM

If you’re ready to explore WCA4Z and realize the benefits, contact Expert Labs via email at systems-expert-labs@ibm.com.