ARCAD Software announces it has partnered with HCL Software DevOps to offer a full stack, enterprise-grade DevOps solution combining an end-to-end CI/CT/CD pipeline for IBM i (aka iSeries, AS/400) with best-in-class value stream management and test automation capabilities.
Annecy/Noida Utter Pradesh, September 30, 2020 – ARCAD Software, international leader in DevOps and modernization solutions and HCL Software, leading global technology company, today announced their worldwide partnership focused on the delivery of advanced DevOps solutions and services for organizations running all or part of their application portfolio on the IBM i platform.
The integration of proven IBM i technology from ARCAD Software and HCL’s platform-independent solutions for application release orchestration, value stream management and test automation enables organizations to manage hybrid releases – both legacy and new development – from one single interface and pipeline.
Philippe Magne, ARCAD CEO, explains the rationale behind the partnership: “We are excited to offer IBM i customers a clear path to DevOps maturity with a robust integration of the leading technologies on the market today. Leveraging our 28 years of experience on IBM i combined with HCL’s extensive global reach and comprehensive DevOps portfolio, we aim to help IBM i customers modernize their development methods, maximize automation and reduce IT cost and risk“.
Dario Debarbieri, Director of Global Partnerships HCL Software DevOps, shares his view of this strategic partnership, “We are excited to partner with ARCAD Software globally and offer to our customers a clear path to a new era with the most comprehensive DevOps product suite. The HCL portfolio offers robust products for organizations in complex, regulated industries to advance their DevOps practices with continuous delivery, automated testing, and security scanning capabilities and a robust integration of the leading technologies.”
The close technological cooperation between ARCAD and the HCL Software DevOps product portfolio exploits extensive synergy between different tools. In particular, the three principal integration points between the HCL Software DevOps and ARCAD Software solutions include:
1. IBM i Application Build/Deployment
HCL Launch is a multi-platform continuous delivery tool, able to automate application deployments across varying IT environments with advanced governance and hybrid application support. However, in order to handle the specifics of the IBM i platform, HCL Launch relies on the additional ARCAD technology layer which caters for all IBM i language variants and technology evolutions since the inception of the platform.
For example, on IBM i, SQL and ILE technologies require special handling during build and deployment to ensure the reliability of the application in production. In addition, the many CASE tools and software packages on IBM i also demand specific tool support. A typical IBM i application running core back-end business has been developed over 20-30 years, in RPG or COBOL and enhanced with a front-end interface in Java, PHP, or .NET. Deployment tools on IBM i must therefore manage the dependencies between these heterogeneous artifacts and ensure the integrity of the deployed application.
All the required IBM i knowledge and cross-platform support for application build and deployment is encapsulated in the ARCAD for DevOps.
2. IBM i Test Automation and Source Code Quality/Security checking
The ARCAD Verifier functional regression testing solution complements and optimizes the multi-platform capability provided by the HCL OneTest testing suite, by providing the specific IBM i “data-level” comparison needed to detect defects at the earliest point in the cycle.
Also contributing to an overall „shift-left“ of defects, ARCAD iUnit provides developer-side unit testing for RPG, COBOL and CL on IBM i, and ARCAD CodeChecker automates code review to detect quality flaws and security vulnerabilities on IBM i.
3. IBM i Application Release Orchestration(ARO)/Value Stream Management
Finally, ARCAD for DevOps is complementary to the ARO/Value Stream Management functionality provided by HCL Accelerate, providing the specific IBM i metrics to enable DevOps leaders to measure progress across their software delivery pipeline and track the ROI of any adjustments made.
Thanks to the integration of ARCAD and HCL solutions, IBM i customers benefit from maximal automation of several phases in the software development lifecycle on IBM i, including:
- 100% automation of „smart“ dependency build
- Source code quality and security checks
- Developer-side unit testing
- Data-oriented functional regression test
- Synchronized, multi-platform application deployment
- Application Release Orchestration and dashboarding
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
For more information, visit www.arcadsoftware.com
Press Contact: Olenka Van Schendel, WW Marketing Director ovanschendel@arcadsoftware.com