Gary Thornhill, PopUp founder and CEO, had the privilege of presenting a fully featured PopUp demo to a group of mainframe and tech enthusiasts at Tech Field Day at SHARE Kansas City, 2024.
The delegates came from a wide range of backgrounds including appdev, mainframe education, security, DevOps, mainframe services, and Open Mainframe Project.
“What is PopUp? Well, we can popup a full mainframe platform in under 10 minutes, in the cloud or on prem.
We are proud that PopUp runs on IBM zD&T under the covers – tried and true industry-leading z/OS virtualisation software.”
Welcome to the Wonderful World of PopUp Mainframe!
PopUp was born out of a direct need to provide customers with mainframe environments so they can action the mainframe transformations they desire.
PopUp is pipeline-ready, and can be fully administered in a distributed way, using APIs to spawn, clone, and tear down a PopUp just like other virtual machines.
Using PopUp to deploy and test code quickly, test the latest security features, meet regulatory requirements, and test upgrades of Z can liberate your teams to achieve their goals more quickly than before.
Modern mainframes are incredibly efficient, cost effective, and provide better per-core performance than the alternatives.* Migrating workloads away from the mainframe requires careful consideration.
Using PopUp to augment your physical mainframe by enabling faster, cheaper testing on ephemeral environments is a fast track to modernising your mainframe processes and continuing to reap the benefits of the physical mainframe.
Gary discussed the key features of PopUp. Some of the call out points are:
PopUp provides system and helper utilities. For example, to help automate archiving, and CPU utilisation monitoring to assist in capacity management.
We have extended the Delphix Continuous Compliance engine to enable masking of ANY mainframe data sourcein a consistent, robust fashion across the entire organisational data estate, maintaining referential integrity across all systems, whether they be mainframe or distributed.
Using PopUp & Delphix for Data masking
PopUp Integrates fully with Delphix to utilise the industry-leading data masking capabilities against mainframe data.
Data can be masked on the physical mainframe, or on the PopUp, depending on your needs. Then we use Delphix Continuous Data self-service portal to provision compliant copies.
“Being able to rewind a full production-like mainframe environment at the touch of a button is absolutely massive for productivity and cutting time-to-market.
Marty McFly would be right at home with the 4D mainframe. Think of it as the ‘undo’ button for a mainframe.”
PopUp is a great way to train people new to the mainframe, as PopUp is a disposable, completely isolated environment with zero risk to the physical mainframe – perfect for training.
“With PopUp everyone is welcome and able to be productive with tools of their choice.”
Use cases on the PopUp are only limited to your imagination
Just some use cases for a dedicated mainframe environment:
Development
Use with a desktop IDE
All aspects of Testing including Regression testing against mainframe
Software evaluation
R&D
Proof of concept development
Offshore or 3rd party environment
Training environment
Use of a mainframe data “gold copy” on demand across the enterprise
Checkpoint, forward and rewind data
What we’ve all been waiting for… the demo!
Gary’s demo covered:
Spinning up a PopUp Mainframe in the cloud through the Azure MarketPlace. The PopUp can be ready to go in 6-8 minutes
Deploying and configuring an application using a GitHub Actions pipeline (covering tasks which would usually be done by a sysprog, automated testing of the UI through Selenium)
Masking the sensitive data through Delphix Continuous Compliance
Creating the baseline ‘Gold copy’ PopUp containing the masked data and full application
Enabling easy creation of on-demand virtualized PopUp instances with fast, efficient checkpointing
Provisioning compliant dev environment through the Delphix self-service portal
Developer commits code change into Git, pipeline is kicked off to generate, test and deploy the change onto a PopUp, then do UI testing
Failure of automated UI testing
Rewinding the entire PopUp environment back to the previous version (not just the data, the entire app) through the self-service Delphix portal
How a developer can understand what went wrong and fix it without any environment overheads
Some great questions from the audience…
Cameron asked if we need to install DB2. Answer: No, DB2, CICS, MQ, IMS and other apps come out of the box with PopUp and are available in 10 minutes.
Mark asked if there is an option for customers who can’t move unmasked data off the mainframe. Answer: Yes, masking can be done on the physical mainframe, and only the masked data ported onto the PopUp.
“Using PopUp allows organisations to easily start doing DevOps and automation on the mainframe in exactly the same way they do for their distributed applications today.”
Thanks to all the fabulous delegates who attended and joined in the conversation with energy and insight.
What a great experience! Thanks to the Tech Field Day team, in particular Stephen Foskett, for running such a great session.
We are very proud to announce that PopUp Mainframe has been awarded Highly Commended in the category ‘DevOps Tool/Product of the Year’ at the DevOps Excellence Awards 2024.
Gary Thornhill, PopUp founder, at the awards ceremony
We are thrilled to be recognised alongside some well-established players in the DevOps space.
For many organisations, mainframe is often the last piece to achieve automation. Most businesses have established automation and DevOps ways of working for the distributed teams, but haven’t managed to apply these to the mainframe areas yet.
Adopting DevOps for the mainframe poses some unique challenges. These include a lack of dev and test environments in which to trial automation, new ways of working and new tools, as well as lack of innovation opportunity. Compounding this, there is a skills shortage in mainframe and sometimes resistance to change.
At PopUp, mainframe modernisation and mainframe DevOps is at the heart of everything we do.
Our mission is to empower mainframe businesses to deliver changes faster, cheaper and better with on-demand environments for dev and test. We see this as a necessary pre-requisite for organisations to move into this final ‘Automation & DevOps frontier’ (where ALL teams, including mainframe, can embrace automation and DevOps practices), and truly achieve their agility aspirations at all levels.
PopUp enables customers to take mainframe on their DevOps journey by creating fully functioning z/OS instances on-demand, on-prem or in the cloud, and controlling them through pipelines. This overcomes dev and test mainframe unavailability – the number one blocker to mainframe DevOps.
PopUp liberates mainframe teams, enabling automation, DevOps innovation and continuous improvement with no risk to the physical mainframe.
PopUp helps fast track DevOps initiatives in the following ways:
Aiding the implementation of automation and pipelines (e.g. with BMC tooling pre-installed on a PopUp)
Continuously improving ways of working and increasing collaboration
Helping to create real, lasting cultural change
Increasing productivity by reducing wait times
Modern tools boost the productivity of all team members
A catalyst for mainframe innovation and fast feedback
PopUp also provides additional features to boost your DevOps journey which are not available on the physical mainframe. For example, PopUp can be replicated to create multiple z/OS clones including applications and data, and mainframe instances can be deployed and torn down using APIs or pipelines. In conjunction with Delphix, mainframe instances can be bookmarked at any stage, then they can be rewound or fast forwarded to the snapshot using a self-service portal.
Curious to know more about DevOps for the mainframe, how ephemeral mainframe instances can accelerate your projects, or automating your mainframe processes? Contact us.
Git is everywhere in the world of distributed applications, but not yet for mainframe.
Should you consider Git for your mainframe? Why?
Git is excellent at facilitating and accelerating collaboration for software teams. People with a distributed background already know this, but some of us are resisting a bit in the mainframe world.
Git is a distributed version control system which can store not just code, but nearly everything related to software development – including test packs, data, documentation, configuration and more. It is a common repository which can be shared across teams. This helps to break down silos between teams, as it means that everyone can access what they need and work together more effectively.
Why embrace Git?
Work with teams more easily as you can simply give them access to see the source code for your projects that they need to see. Collaboration is not shut down like it is when they don’t have a hope of getting access to your code.
When a change is made to part of your system which impacts another system, there is no need to send the edited code/new specifications across to other teams. Instead, you can inform them that there has been a change, share a link to where the new version is in Git, and they immediately have visibility. Pipelines can be shared between teams so when Team 1 edits an artefact e.g. copybook, Team 2’s API can be automatically rebuilt with the updated version.
Git liberates developers to work in a more agile way which results in changes being released faster. For example, using Feature Branches each person can perform their work at their own pace without affecting anyone else, and merge it to the Main Branch when its ready. This encourages small and frequent code check ins and ultimately a more agile way of working.
Git is the standard for version control across industries and systems. Even if your existing mainframe team members need upskilling to use Git, new joiners to your team will likely already have the skills and be productive quickly. Git (as well as the agile processes Git enables) can also be an attractive pull for people to join your company as Git skills will be key for most developers in future.
Git works extremely well with continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipelines. Git integrates by default with all CI and CD tools, which enables you to build mature automation and streamline your entire SDLC. Pipelines provide consistency and traceability, ensuring that every piece of code goes through the same rigorous validation and quality checks. For example, your pipeline could include mandatory code scanning for security standards.
Automate testing for higher quality changes. Streamline processes by creating automated test packs for unit as well as system and integration testing, which are associated with the code and run in pipelines. Test packs can be stored in Git alongside the code so they are always available and its easy to keep them in sync. Once you have completed your development, you can kick off an automated pipeline to do testing and deploy to the next environment. No need for slow, error-prone, manual testing.
Reduce handovers. No need to create a ticket to another team since the automated pipeline does the build, testing and deployment. There is no information lost/misunderstood, and no time wasted on ticket systems/calls to discuss the work/waiting for another team to be ready.
Empower the dev team to make infrastructure changes. No need to raise a ticket and wait on another team. For example, if you need to make a database change, add the DDL scripts to your Git repo and it will be included in the pipeline, tested and deployed. Terraform patterns and other infrastructure definitions can be incorporated into a pipeline.
Since Git is standard across most platforms, third party products are increasingly providing Git integration out of the box. This reduces the overheads in setting up a new system for your team.
Git is by no means the only distributed version control system available, but Git is regarding by many as the best, easiest to use, and the most effective.
If you want to talk about how to migrate from your existing SCM to Git, how Git can boost your dev and test practices, and hear some client stories, contact us.
Modern development teams require agile, flexible environments to be able to deliver quick change reliably and enable business competitiveness. But the reality is that fixed, shared mainframe environments cause environment bottlenecks that hinder projects, slow time to market, and result in quality issues and spiralling costs.
The shortage of mainframe test environments is a big blocker to any project across the enterprise which relies on mainframe. Many projects involve a change only in the “front end” but depend on testing the “back end” (i.e. mainframe) even when it is not changing, and suffer from lack of mainframe test environments.
How does PopUp Mainframe solve this problem?
PopUp Mainframe is a complete virtual mainframe environment, running on x86 hardware, which can be provisioned and deprovisioned on demand. Read more about PopUp Mainframe here.
High-speed provisioning of dev and test environments becomes a reality with PopUp Mainframe – it provides agile test environments that you can quickly save, delete and restore via self-service.
What can PopUp Mainframe be used for?
PopUp Mainframe can support all kinds of development testing – including unit testing, system testing, regression testing, integration testing, UAT, and break-fix testing.
Note: The ZD&T license terms don’t allow pre-production testing, stress testing or performance testing.
What does typical mainframe testing look like compared to testing with PopUp Mainframe?
During a mainframe test cycle, traditionally the team would use a dedicated LPAR or have a MIPS allocation for their test phase and a strict time window to complete the testing in. With PopUp Mainframe, all that changes.
PopUp Mainframe is a complete, fully functioning substitute for physical mainframe. To the user there is no difference in the experience using a PopUp Mainframe compared to physical mainframe. It is a hardware emulator with z/OS installed and can run the full IBM mainframe stack to mirror exactly your physical mainframe envs. This means that PopUp Mainframe runs REAL MF CODE + any 3rd party software needed, so testing using PopUp Mainframe can give 100% test coverage and confidence that the code will behave identically on the physical mainframe.
PopUp Mainframe integrates seamlessly with mainframe IDEs such as IBM Developer (IDz) and Topaz (Compuware), ensuring the developer can use the tools they are comfortable with.
How does it save time, cost and effort?
The savings and benefits of using PopUp Mainframe for mainframe testing don’t just apply to the mainframe teams, they extend to any team which requires a mainframe environment for their testing – potentially most development teams across the enterprise.
Cost savings
Testing can represent a significant proportion of the cost of maintaining a mainframe platform as mainframe test environments often have a large MIPs allocation. Using PopUp Mainframe for testing instead of the physical mainframe will greatly reduce total mainframe MIPS consumption thereby reducing mainframe running and licensing costs. The test processes using PopUp Mainframe will be running on commodity x86 hardware, at a fraction of the cost of physical mainframe.
Using PopUp Mainframe for test environments means MIPS can be reallocated to the business critical production transactions.
With PopUp Mainframe, when a mainframe test environment is no longer needed, it can be switched off and it will no longer consume any resources. When the mainframe test environment is brought up again it will be exactly as it was. This means there are no ongoing maintenance costs for PopUp Mainframe, compared to huge overheads for maintaining and supporting the physical mainframe.
Time and effort savings
The long process required to provision a mainframe test environment (if one is even available) can severely delay project delivery. With PopUp Mainframe, teams no longer need to wait for their mainframe test environment, and any project requiring testing with the mainframe will complete much more quickly. Projects no longer have to wait, worry about or plan for mainframe environment allocation slots or test time-windows. This is a direct cost saving for project delivery and will result in much faster business change, therefore enabling business to be more competitive. This increased delivery speed is particularly vital for those following traditional quarterly mainframe release cycles.
The effort and time taken to provision mainframe test environments manually can also be saved. This is typically a time-consuming and error-prone activity and requires large maintenance, scheduling, and coordination overheads by the test environment management team.
The many benefits of PopUp Mainframe
Aside from just the cost, time and effort savings, there are many benefits of using PopUp Mainframe for your testing…
Scale and replicate test environments on-demand
PopUp Mainframe overcomes the issue of insufficient dev and test mainframe LPAR availability/MIPS allocation. With PopUp Mainframe, mainframe test environments can be provisioned on-demand and scaled according to changing requirements. Mainframe test environment constraints will depend on the availability of commodity x86 hardware.
PopUp Mainframe gives you the flexibility to match environment provisioning to the business needs and adapt your delivery models in line with agile practices. Teams can elect to have one PopUp Mainframe for a specific project, or give individuals their own (identical or different) mainframe environment to work in.
Test automation and integration with CICD pipelines
PopUp Mainframe gives the ability to implement mainframe test automation capabilities, improving test efficiency and drastically reducing the length of mainframe project deliveries. Needless to say there are many benefits of test automation including fast feedback which improves developer productivity.
PopUp Mainframe can also be integrated with CICD pipelines, so a new mainframe test environment can be provisioned and torn down as part of your existing (or new) pipeline. This immediately frees up teams to focus on the development and testing rather than management and setup of test environments.
Introducing test automation and integrating mainframe test environment provisioning into a CICD tool has the potential to completely transform the way and speed that mainframe projects are delivered.
PopUp Mainframe runs on any x86 platform deployed anywhere
PopUp Mainframe can run on almost any existing enterprise hardware – desktops, servers, laptops, containers, VMs and in the cloud. This means that the mainframe test environments are very accessible. They can be provided for external users or for users to work on a project in isolation. This also improves enterprise security, keeping your core mainframe secure and aiding compliance.
As mentioned above, large cost savings can be achieved when using commodity x86 hardware to provision your mainframe test environments on-demand compared to running and maintaining a large physical mainframe system. PopUp Mainframe can also run in the cloud – on prem and/or multi cloud, bringing all the benefits of cloud infrastructure.
Improved quality of testing
With PopUp Mainframe, mainframe test environments are guaranteed to be available and the environments are cloned from approved gold copy images so there is low risk of environment config issues/inconsistencies. This generally results in increased mainframe test coverage, even given the same time window as pre-PopUp Mainframe. Mainframe testing can become more comprehensive with negative testing, failure testing etc.
Shift left
Using PopUp Mainframe means that projects can test with the mainframe earlier in the lifecycle and throughout the project, rather than just having 1 test window planned well in advance, or even skipping the mainframe testing entirely. This means that defects are found earlier in the lifecycle, saving on dev/test costs. It also reduces risk as projects can guarantee that they will be able to complete their mainframe testing.
No more test environment config issues
Using isolated mainframe test environments which are created from a gold copy mean you can be confident in the state of the test environment – as you are testing on the exact same environment each time. This reduces errors and time spent on environment config and setup. It also reduces the risk of release as the testing will give you more confidence that the code will perform as required in production.
Version your mainframe test environment, create snapshots, fast-forward and rewind
With PopUp Mainframe, golden copy images with different topologies and different software are created for different requirements. These can also be version controlled.
As with other virtualisation software, snapshots can be taken during development and testing. This provides rewind and fast-forward capabilities within mainframe test environments which are not possible using a physical mainframe.
Reduced business risk
Being able to spin up mainframe test environments on-demand, use automation to test and validate changes enables teams to deliver change in smaller chunks rather than large, infrequent releases. This drastically reduces business risk as each individual change is much lower risk and can be more easily fixed/rolled back if needed compared to a big bang release.
Reduced reliance on niche skills
With PopUp Mainframe, mainframe test environments can be made available to non-mainframe resources via self-service tools complete with pre-configured test packs. This will reduce your dependence on niche, expensive mainframe skills and enable projects to complete more quickly and cheaply.
What impact can PopUp Mainframe have on wider teams, and the enterprise as a whole?
The impact of adopting PopUp Mainframe for mainframe testing on your organisation can be huge. Providing fit-for-purpose mainframe environments on-demand allows mainframe teams (and teams dependent on mainframe test environments) to deliver as fast as other technology areas which already follow agile and DevOps approaches.
This liberates the whole enterprise (including the mainframe teams which have been previously left-behind) to adopt agile and DevOps practices which has a much bigger business impact than piecemeal adoption.
We are very excited to introduce PopUp Mainframe – a brand new offering which finally removes the bottleneck of mainframe test environments by making mainframe self-service a reality.
Mainframe environments are expensive to buy and time-consuming to build and maintain. This leads to a shortage of mainframe test environments, project conflicts and slow production releases and time-to-market.
PopUp Mainframe enables mainframe testing to be agile!
Our new solution, PopUp Mainframe, allows mainframe environments to be provisioned instantly using modern automation tools, and satisfies dev and test environment requirements on-demand in line with project delivery.
Projects will no longer be held up due to unavailability of a mainframe test environment – projects can progress at speed without requiring long mainframe test cycles planned far in advance.
Mainframe in the cloud? Yes!
PopUp Mainframe enables another key capability, which is mainframe in the cloud. Our PopUp Mainframe solution can run on x86 Linux platforms – be that on a server, virtual machine, in a container, or in private, public or hybrid cloud.
With PopUp Mainframe your mainframe test environments can scale at the speed you need, keeping costs down and removing maintenance overheads. Now mainframe can finally be a part of your cloud strategy.
Why now?
The impact of the COVID pandemic has required organisations to drastically find way to save time and money to survive. PopUp Mainframe is one way to do that while simultaneously enabling your organisation with agile and cloud mainframe capabilities to take project performance to new heights.
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At PopUp, mainframe modernisation and mainframe DevOps is at the heart of everything we do.
