IBM Rational Developer for System Z and ISPW help streamline software development

August 16, 2010, Calgary Canada – Today ISPW is proud to announce the availability of a new interface between IBM's Rational Developer for System Z (RDz) and ISPW's cross-platform software change management product. This new integration is designed to simplify software development and management by streamlining application updates, reducing change-related programming errors, and facilitating compliance audits. Currently being implemented at several launch customer sites the new interface standardizes processes for central and distributed servers while reducing development costs

Developers use RDz to off-load mainframe development, while ISPW automates software lifecycle management tasks such as versioning, integration of utility programs, change tracking, approvals and deployment. From a single Eclipse interface, developers have access to industry leading of tools to assist them with analysis, development and testing, right through to deployment on the desired runtime systems.

The RDz / ISPW partnership allows a new generation of developers on Windows and Unix workstations to build both mainframe and distributed code from a single Eclipse user interface. Even better, real cross platform software change management capability adds site-wide approvals and deployment to deliver a major productivity boost. Whether the eventual destination is the mainframe or Open Systems servers, the RDz / ISPW solution delivers.

The new RDz/ISPW component augments the traditional 3270 interface with the full graphical capabilities of both RDz and ISPW within an integrated development environment (IDE). ISPW knows the file names, step sequences and tool parameters so developers save valuable time while eliminating thousands of unnecessary keystrokes. Implementing a comprehensive testing plan with RDz's advanced tools has never been so easy.

Audit improvements are also a compelling factor. Since ISPW provides a single point of control from analysis through to implementing in run-time environments Auditors can now trace back from executables running in production through every approval and modification step to see the exact origin of specific modules. This contrasts with current practice which requires looking in several separate products with blind spots where code is "thrown over the wall" to the next product in sequence.

Paul Kuszyk, President of ISPW says "Supporting RDz gives our mutual customers a functionally rich environment that really delivers on the promise of offloading mainframe development. At the same time it recognizes that, in many large companies, the mainframe is still at the heart of serious business applications and will be for many years."

The major win for most companies is reducing the cost of mainframe ownership. Streamlining the development process offloads the workload while eliminating many points of failure. Simply put this means more success, more often, with less effort.

The ISPW / RDz interface has been released to early customers and will be generally available in August.

References to IBM, Rational Developer for System Z and RDz are trademarks of IBM Corporation