Open Mainframe Project Kicks Off First Quarter with New Members, Additional COBOL and Linux on Z Resources and Launch of the 2nd Annual Open Mainframe Summit

SAN FRANCISCO, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Mainframe Project (OMP), an open source initiative that enables collaboration across the mainframe community to develop shared tool sets and resources, today welcomes ASG Technologies, BMC Software and High School Technical Services as well as COBOL Check and ConzoleZ to its growing global community.

"Despite the pandemic, Open Mainframe Project experienced record growth over the past year," said John Mertic, Director of Program Management at the Linux Foundation. "We more than doubled the number of projects hosted and that is a direct result of the commitment and talent of our members and contributors. Their passions are pushing projects to meet technical milestones and members are collaborating on governance, which has helped Open Mainframe solidify our role as the premiere resource for devops technology and education."

COBOL and Linux on Z Continue to Take Center Stage
COBOL's ability to support digital transformation is measurably faster and lower-risk than any of the alternatives, which is why there is an estimated 200 billion lines of code being used today. COBOL's value to the IT industry and global economy is sometimes underestimated, as is its contemporary usage and viability. COBOL is up-to-date technology, supporting the latest advances and innovations such as micro services, containers and cloud.

COBOL Check aims to enable unit testing for COBOL applications, including those hosted on IBM Z systems, and can support micro testing off-platform on Windows, OS X, Linux, or Unix. It has no dependencies on resources hosted on the Z system, which makes it easy to implement and key to supporting future technologies. For developers, COBOL Check will reduce code modifications and offers a shorter lead time to production. The program also improves the design, understandability, maintainability, and longevity of core business applications and supports IBM's mainframe modernization program by enabling restructuring of existing applications of APIs. COBOL Check will complement the COBOL Training Course and will leverage the support of the COBOL Working Group.

ConsoleZ strives to modernize Linux on Z by offering a new open source tool for z/VM and zLinux. It is a web user interface that gives browser access to z/VM console data and CP commands, while limiting access to certain teams. It can save more time and resources so teams don't have to interact with many z/VM LPARs. ConsoleZ is secure, efficient and has a better user interface.

Continued Growth of the Ecosystem
Open Mainframe Project, which launched in 2015 by The Linux Foundation, is now comprised of 43 business and academic organizations. Today, the project welcomes ASG Technologies, a leading provider of solutions for the information-powered enterprise; BMC Software, a global leader in software solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise; and High School Technical Services, which offers coding and technology services in 50+ topics for students and adults.

"The world's largest organizations continue to rely on the mainframe," said Jeff Boatright, Senior Vice President, Development at ASG Technologies. "As they accelerate digital transformation, advancing the mainframe ecosystem is more critical than ever. We're thrilled to join Open Mainframe Project and contribute our expertise in enabling organizations to modernize mainframe culture, processes and tools and to empower the next generation of mainframe professionals."

"We're excited to bring the combined expertise and experience of BMC, Compuware, and RSM Partners to the Open Mainframe Project to support ongoing innovation on the mainframe," said John McKenny, SVP and General Manager of ZSolutions at BMC. "With mainframe processing and transaction levels increasing in most industries, there is an increased need for compute power to support mission critical applications, and mainframe modernization is absolutely critical. We have a deep relationship and history of collaboration with the Open Mainframe Project and look forward to working with other members for an open source future of the mainframe."

The new members will collaborate on vendor-neutral open source projects with the mission of building community and adoption of open source on the mainframe. The project strives to build an inclusive community through investment in open source projects and programs, career development, and events that provide opportunities for the mainframe community to collaborate and create sustainability.

Open Mainframe invites you to...

Ask Questions! The Linux Foundation is hosting an Open Mainframe Project Open House on March 9 at 1-2 pm PST. Current member companies Broadcom, IBM and Vicom Infinity as well as a professor from East Carolina University and graduate of the Mentorship Program will be online to answer questions and discuss the mainframe community. This session is open to anyone interested in membership in the Open Mainframe Project.  Register here.

Apply! The annual Open Mainframe Project Mentorship program, which has helped more than 40 students learn more and gain experience with Linux, open source, and mainframes, is looking for mentees for the Summer Mentorship. Read more here and apply before March 31.

Sponsor! The 2nd Annual Open Mainframe Summit will take place virtually on September 22-23, 2021. Last year, the digital event brought more than 380 registrants from around the world. This year, the Summit promises to be bigger and better with a stellar roster of speakers and more engagement and networking opportunities. To become a sponsor, click here.

For more details about Open Mainframe Project, visit https://www.openmainframeproject.org/. 

About the Open Mainframe Project
The Open Mainframe Project is intended to serve as a focal point for deployment and use of Linux and Open Source in a mainframe computing environment. With a vision of Open Source on the Mainframe as the standard for enterprise class systems and applications, the project's mission is to build community and adoption of Open Source on the mainframe by eliminating barriers to Open Source adoption on the mainframe, demonstrating value of the mainframe on technical and business levels, and strengthening collaboration points and resources for the community to thrive. Learn more about the project at https://www.openmainframeproject.org.

About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world's top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Maemalynn Meanor
The Linux Foundation
Open Mainframe Project
[email protected]

SOURCE Open Mainframe Project