The challenge for modern IT Teams
Development on core business applications today demands highly scalable environments and an optimised DevTestOps cycle to build, test and deploy small software increments frequently and securely. IBM i is no exception. Since an estimated 70% of IBM i users run over half of their mission-critical business applications on IBM i, the teams developing these applications are poised to make the greatest gains from DevTestOps automation in the cloud – from agile software delivery to reduced downtime risk.
Modernising traditional IBM i Applications
Northdoor, Skytap and ARCAD have partnered to bring RPG source code management and the IBM i application delivery pipeline in Azure.
Using enterprise-grade, open-source tooling with distributed platforms, deep analysis of these traditional apps, and unique repository-based dependency knowledge, ARCAD accelerates the rate by which software changes from Dev to QA to Production. This maximises the “shift left” of defects for reduced IT cost and risk.
Accelerate continuous delivery
IBM i customers are able to take advantage of a rapid, secure and scalable DevTestOps framework to automate and optimise the development process. This is complemented by a proven methodology and suite of cloud-native tools and services, which can be used to modernise IBM i applications in Skytap, infrastructure-as-a-service purpose-built to run IBM Power in the cloud.
Using Skytap features, teams can replicate, template and share complete applications in minutes.
Copy within your local region or across Skytap regions, ultimately enabling follow-the-sun deployment. This allows DevTest teams to make existing applications more powerful, improve testing and increase the pace of innovation.
Deploy and test complete IBM i applications in the Skytap on Azure Cloud directly from Azure deployed DevOps platform, quickly and simply, and scale down after use.
With a clear path to the cloud, IBM i applications stand to gain the greatest benefits from DevTestOps automation, including agile software delivery, increased disaster recovery capabilities, and reduced downtown.
DEVTestOps: Complete CI/CT/CD Cycle for IBM i Orchestrated by Jenkins
- Continuous Integration (CI): 100% build automation with ARCAD-Builder “smart” dependency build for IBM i.
- Continuous Test (CT): data-oriented regression testing for IBM i with ARCAD-Verifier for maximum “shift left” of defects. Optional test Data Masking/ Anonymisation for Data Protection (GDPR) Compliance.
- Saving an application environment as a template preserves a copy of the environment in a read-only state and contains some or all of the environment
VMs, networks and settings so you can quickly recreate the environment from a known state at a later time. - The ability to copy and template environments allows for quick deployment of complete applications, with no configuration required by IT.
This allows teams to work at the pace of their own innovation. - Continuous Delivery (CD): Rapid provisioning of IBM i environments with automated tear-down & rollback-on-error using DROPS. One single solution to deploy to any environment – hybrid, cloud or on-premises – across any target platform IBM i, UNIX,
Application Modernisation:
Integrate legacy applications with cloud-native tools using ARCAD Transformer to transform IBM i source code databases into modern languages.
- Convert RPG or Synon CA 2E -> modern Free Form RPG
- Convert DDS -> DDL (SQL)
- Expand field size.
Northdoor can help by bringing in specialist products from Arcad to provide analysis and contextual support to IBM i code.
Read Tom Richards’ blog: Modernising IBM i Development.
Ready to modernise?
Get started with zero risk. Email us, fill in our contact form or call 020 7448 8500 to arrange a free initial consultation and transform your IBM i applications with agile DevTestOps automation on Azure Cloud.
