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IBM Brings Red Hat Container Platform to Mainframes

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by Mike Vizard

IBM this week announced that the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is now available on the distribution of Linux that IBM makes available on mainframes.

Barry Baker, vice president of IBM Z Software, says this latest offering is part of an ongoing IBM strategic initiative to bring container platforms to the mainframe that will modernize application development and deployment on the venerable IBM platform.

Based on the distribution of Kubernetes curated by Red Hat, the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform running on LinuxOne now makes it possible to build and deploy containerized applications on a mainframe rather than having to employ a distributed computing system. IBM has already committed to making Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform available on both the LinuxONE operating system and on z/OS at some future date, says Baker.

By making Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform available on LinuxOne, it becomes much easier to build and deploy applications on a mainframe versus having to employ a distributed computing system that would have to access data across a network, says Baker. That approach also makes data that resides on an instance of z/OS running on a mainframe more accessible to containerized applications via offerings such as IBM z/OS Cloud Broker integration software, he notes.

Since its acquisition of Red Hat last year, IBM has been steadily making available elements of the Red Hat portfolio on the mainframe. IBM, for example, soon plans to make available an instance of the Red Hat Ansible IT automation framework on the mainframe, says Baker.

IBM has also committed to making available IBM Cloud Paks that containerize IBM and open source software components as an alternative to legacy middleware stacks based on application servers. An IBM Cloud Pak for Applications that provides tools and frameworks to accelerate application development and deployment using DevOps practices was also made available on LinuxOne this week. IBM Cloud Pak for Applications is designed to run on top of the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Baker says IBM is collaborating with Red Hat to advance the adoption of best DevOps practices on the mainframe. Both Ansible and the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform are foundational elements of a hybrid cloud computing strategy that spans everything from mainframes to public clouds.

As far as the adoption of DevOps in mainframe environments is concerned, it is still early days. Organizations that have mainframes in place traditionally have relied on waterfall-based approaches to building and deploying applications. However, with the rise of digital business transformation initiatives, the rate at which new applications are being built that either reside on the mainframe or need to access data on the mainframe has risen sharply.

Of course, there are many IT organizations that also view containers as a method to lift and shift applications off the mainframe. The challenge IBM faces is convincing organizations that not only is the total cost of running modern and legacy applications on mainframe lower but also that the platform is faster and more reliable.

Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard is a veteran IT journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the technology industry, having previously served as Editor-in-Chief of both CRN and InfoWorld and as editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he oversaw titles including eWEEK, CIO Insight and Baseline. Over his career he has also edited or contributed to a wide range of enterprise technology publications, including IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, ComputerWorld, TMCNet and Digital Review, and he later led editorial for CTOEdge.com. His reporting and analysis span software development, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IT channel strategy and, more recently, artificial intelligence and DevOps practices. A recognized voice in enterprise IT journalism, Vizard is known for tracking emerging technology trends as they move from early adoption into mainstream enterprise use. He now serves as Chief Content Officer for Techstrong Group, where he oversees editorial strategy across the full network — DevOps.com, Security Boulevard, Cloud Native Now, Digital CxO, Techstrong.ai, TechStrong.IT, Techstrong Semi and PlatformEngineering.com — in addition to writing and hosting content for Techstrong TV and the Techstrong Gang podcast.

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