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Open Mainframe Project Continues Rapid Growth as Three New Academic Members Commit to Modernizing the Mainframe through Open Source for Enterprise Applications

By December 19, 2019No Comments

Inaugural Open Mainframe Summit to Debut in September 2020

San Francisco – December 19, 2019 – The Open Mainframe Project (OMP), an open source initiative that enables collaboration across the mainframe community to develop shared tool sets and resources, continues to see rapid growth with a new project Polycephaly, based on IBM DBB using Groovy script to build z/OS applications with Jenkins and Git, and three academic institutions from China: Beijing Institute of Technology, South China University of Technology, and Xidian University. The new project and members solidify Open Mainframe Project’s mission to educate and train the next generation of developers and engineers.

“As lifelong mainframers begin to retire, it is our job to make sure that we equip students, developers and engineers with the training and resources they need to continue innovating mainframes and enterprise applications,” said John Mertic, Director of Program Management for the Linux Foundation and Open Mainframe Project. “We are particularly ecstatic to collaborate with these universities from China as our geographical footprint expands.”

Hosted by The Linux Foundation, the OMP is comprised of more than 30 business and academic organizations that collaborate on vendor-neutral open source projects with the mission of building community and adoption of open source on the mainframe. The OMP 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 Project Summit

The inaugural Open Mainframe Project Summit will focus on all open source projects and technologies impacting mainframe. It will be a two day event, September 16-17, 2020, where seasoned professionals, developers, students and leaders share best practices, discuss hot topics, and network with like-minded individuals who are passionate about the mainframe industry. Hosted by Open Mainframe Project Member Marist College, the event will be held at Marist College Executive Center, located at 420 5th Ave, NYC.

The sponsorship prospectus is available immediately. Registration and the Call for Papers (CFP) will open January 15, 2020. Full information available here: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-mainframe-summit/

“We are central point for deployment and use of Linux and open source software on mainframes, and the Open Mainframe Summit will be a key opportunity for focused learning and networking opportunities in this space,” said John Mertic, Director of Program Management for the Linux Foundation and Open Mainframe Project. “Collaboration in the mainframe community is expanding, and our projects are developing shared tool sets and resources that are making mainframes, with their performance and security, more broadly available.”

New Project and New Members Enable New Collaboration Opportunities

The OMP welcomes Polycephaly (formally zJenkins) and three new academic members from China: Beijing Institute of Technology, South China University of Technology, and Xidian University. The newest members under the OMP umbrella will great help expand how modern mainframe technology integrates with existing systems. Projects hosted by OMP have a vendor-neutral governance structure to encourage participation from a diversity of vendors and individuals.

Polycephaly is intended to be a key technology in expanding access to mainframes. The name comes from the Greek word meaning “a condition of having more than one head,” because the project marries two different development life cycle methodologies, distributed and z/OS. Polycephaly requires minimal z/OS system programming, and provides flexible development paths and options, moving from linear to non-linear development. It removes the need for separate development paths for distributed and z/OS workloads. Developers can develop on any platform, store to Git and Jenkins to deploy. Plus it has all the benefits of the 1000+ Jenkins plugins. The project is actively looking for individuals or companies to assist in extending and moving the project forward.

“We are excited to be part of the Open Mainframe Project. Our mission aligns well with the Open Mainframe Project. Polycephaly is a stand-alone application, called by a z/OS application, to build and deploy applications to z/OS, and therefore is an excellent bridge to mainframe,” said Jerry Edgington, Project Lead, Polycephaly. “Also, since most shops have multiple vendor tools, we work with many of those products. We believe Polycephaly will be a key technology in expanded access to mainframes moving forward.”

If your organization is interested in joining the Open Mainframe Project, please see: https://www.openmainframeproject.org/about/join

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 the 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.

Open Mainframe Project resources

About the Linux Foundation

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