Annecy, France and Peterborough NH, USA – 28 August 2020 – ARCAD Software, international leader in DevOps and Modernization solutions, today announced the end-to-end integration of its CI/CD stack for RPG and COBOL application development within CloudBees CI (Core), continuous software delivery system based on Jenkins. Using ARCAD for DevOps, existing CloudBees CI and Jenkins pipelines can now be extended to automate the build, code review, test and deployment of RPG and COBOL on IBM i (aka iSeries, AS/400).

“The holy grail for DevOps leaders is to unify CI/CD tooling across all development technologies in order to boost release management productivity and reduce time to value. CloudBees orchestration solutions based on Jenkins have emerged as de facto standard in this domain. However, many RPG and COBOL applications are still managed separately using native tooling and have been slow to benefit from accelerated, continuous delivery techniques. The goal of the ARCAD CloudBees CI plugins is to provide that missing IBM i technology layer needed to automate the most important DevOps tasks including application build, source code quality and security checks, unit and functional testing and ultimately application deployment, on premise or cloud”, explained Philippe Magne, ARCAD CEO.

With ARCAD’s CloudBees CI plug-ins, organizations can standardize on CloudBees/Jenkins as common orchestration solution across all their development platforms including IBM i. Further, by automating time-consuming and error-prone release management tasks the ARCAD plugins “shift defects left”, shortening development timescales and enhancing the security and quality of applications.

“The ability to automate an end-to-end CI/CT/CD process for RPG and COBOL means that developers receive very rapid feedback – within seconds of a code commit – which translates to a huge potential reduction in the ‘mean time to repair’ of any defect”, added Magne.

ARCAD for DevOps comprises several optional modules all of which are available as plugins to CloudBees CI and Jenkins:

  • ARCAD Builder – IBM i Application Build
    ARCAD Builder automates “smart” dependency build for IBM i. Using detailed application knowledge from the ARCAD repository, any impacted RPG and COBOL artifacts are recompiled in optimal dependency order to ensure build integrity.
  • ARCAD iUnit – IBM i Unit Test
    ARCAD iUnit automates the creation, execution and management of unit tests for RPG and COBOL applications on IBM i. A built-in discovery engine searches for parameters and their data types, enabling rapid developer-side unit test creation.
  • ARCAD CodeChecker – RPG Source Code quality and security checking
    ARCAD CodeChecker automates the creation and enforcement of code quality guidelines for RPG and CL. Complementary to peer review, ARCAD CodeChecker helps eliminate potential technical debt, detecting security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, vulnerable APIs, dynamic SQL at the earliest point in the cycle.
  • ARCAD Verifier – IBM i Functional Test
    ARCAD Verifier automates functional regression testing of RPG and COBOL applications, isolating application defects at the database level from any Webservice, interactive or batch process on IBM i.
  • DROPS –Application Release Orchestration
    DROPS automates the simultaneous deployment of both applications and data, across ALL target platforms, on premise or cloud. Specifically, for RPG and COBOL on IBM i, DROPS uses ARCAD repository knowledge to guarantee integrity of the delivered application components and rollback on error. Advanced features include the deployment of dynamic changes to config files, updates to parameter and configuration data, and synchronized high volume data transfers for minimal user downtime.

“Using ARCAD’s CloudBees CI plugins, customers with legacy or heritage RPG and COBOL applications can now deliver a truly enterprise grade CI/CT/CD pipeline with all the governance and control expected by any mature DevOps organization today”, added Magne.

ARCAD’s CloudBees CI plugins for RPG and COBOL on IBM i will be showcased at the upcoming DevOps World event starting September 22nd. To learn more about how ARCAD can optimize your existing CloudBees build and deployment pipeline, please stop by our ARCAD Software where our experts are ready and waiting to discuss your challenges and share valuable CI/CD tips gleaned from our existing CloudBees customers.

Complete our survey at the ARCAD Software booth during the DevOps World event, for a Starbucks e-giftcard.

About ARCAD Software

Celebrating 28 years serving the IBM i community, ARCAD Software combines DevOps and Modernization in an integrated, in-house developed product range, distributed by IBM worldwide.

With ARCAD solutions:

  • Automate a CI/CT/CD pipeline on IBM i with application analysis, build, test, and deploy
  • Share Git, Jenkins and Jira across all platforms IBM i, Linux, UNIX, Windows, z/OS
  • Transform RPG or Synon applications to modern Free Form RPG and SQL
  • Modernize green-screens and generate Webservices
  • Discover and Anonymize personal data
  • Synchronize Deployment of all your code AND data, on-premise or cloud

Press Contact:  Olenka Van Schendel, WW Marketing Director