Open Mainframe Project
| Company type | Collaborative initiative |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mainframe computer technology, Open source software |
| Founded | August 17, 2015 |
| Founder | IBM and 16 founding participants including SUSE, CA Technologies, BMC Software, Compuware, RSM Partner, ADP, Marist College, University of Bedfordshire |
Area served | Global |
| Parent | Linux Foundation |
Open Mainframe Project represents a collaborative initiative overseen by the Linux Foundation aimed at advancing Linux-based operating systems and open source software within the realm of mainframe computer technology. The project was publicly introduced on August 17, 2015, with IBM, a prominent mainframe hardware manufacturer, spearheading the effort alongside 16 founding participants. These included companies such as SUSE, CA Technologies, BMC Software, and Compuware, as well as clients like RSM Partner and ADP, in addition to educational institutions including Marist College and University of Bedfordshire. Concurrently, IBM collaborated with Canonical to provide the Ubuntu platform on their z Systems hardware.
During 2016, primary development priorities encompassed technologies like OpenJDK, Docker, and Hyperledger. In February of that year, the Linux Foundation welcomed new members—Hitachi Data Systems, Sine Nomine Associates, East Carolina University, DataKinetics, and Canonical—resulting in a 35% increase in membership and the introduction of a summer internship program.
Zowe
Zowe stands as the inaugural open source project targeting z/OS, officially announced in August 2018 at the SHARE conference held in St. Louis, featuring contributions from IBM, Computer Associates, and Rocket Software. The initial version 1.0 became available in February 2019. By September 2019, Phoenix Software International had attained Zowe conformance for their (E)JES Command Line Interface plugins along with REST API extensions.
Designed to narrow the skills divide between legacy and modern z/OS developers, Zowe offers diverse access methods including a Command Line Interface, the "Zowe Explorer" extension for Visual Studio, web browser access through the Zowe Application Framework, and REST APIs or web sockets facilitated by the API Mediation Layer. This extensible platform supports tool integration through CLI plugins, new web-based desktop applications, and seamless onboarding of REST APIs.
The Zowe conformance program validates Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and System Integrators (SIs) who create and distribute extensions built on the Zowe framework.