The Open Mainframe Project announced the availability of a z15 Mainframe system dedicated for training next generation talent and the development of new open software.
Donated by Broadcom Mainframe Software Division, the z15 will be available for use by all Open Mainframe Projects and the open source community at large beginning in 2023. Broadcom's donation provides a critical, new resource to foster greater collaboration and the development of new tool sets across the mainframe community, according to the group.
This major donation by Broadcom enables Open Mainframe Project to continue evolving its mission as the primary clearinghouse for community involvement and scale it across the ecosystem of vendors, academic partners, and the next generation of mainframe talent. As a result, Open Mainframe Project is now positioned to deliver a new level of value to the ecosystem.
"We support and foster the mainframe ecosystem in many ways—often it's our time and talent," said Greg Lotko, senior vice president and general manager, mainframe software division, Broadcom. "We saw a special opportunity to lift the open mainframe ecosystem to a new level. The donation of the z15 mainframe is an important investment that will accelerate projects, skills, growth, and open innovation for the mainframe community."
With more than 20 current projects and Working Groups, several technical communities have a need to be able to test open source code on hardware. The new z15 not only offers them an opportunity to test their contributions, it also equips them to build use cases and better plan a road map.
Additionally, this mainframe infrastructure will be available for broad open source projects as a development, test, and continuous delivery environment, enabling developers within these communities to be able to support both z/OS and Linux on s390x. The z15 will be hosted at Marist College.
"This valuable donation is a significant investment to our community and serves as an accelerant for our communities like Zowe, COBOL Check, GenevaERS, Zorow, and the COBOL Programming Course," said John Mertic, director of program management at the Linux Foundation. "Having open access to the mainframe will take these projects' initiatives to the next level. As our members, we're thankful that Broadcom and Marist College have helped provide this opportunity and cement the Open Mainframe Project as the cornerstone that will help close the technology gap and inspire innovation."
Availability of these tools and resources also serves as the catalyst to train a new pool of mainframe talent. The Mainframe Open Education and COBOL Working Group are now positioned to offer a real-world environment to better prepare learners as they transition to full-time careers in the mainframe industry.
For more information about this news, visit www.openmainframeproject.org.