z/OS Connect
IBM software that makes mainframe programs and data available as REST APIs, so web and mobile applications can use them.
Also written z/OS Connect EE, mainframe API, REST API on z/OS, OpenAPI
z/OS Connect is IBM software that puts REST APIs in front of mainframe applications. A mobile app or website can send a normal web request with JSON data, and z/OS Connect turns it into a call to a CICS program, an IMS transaction, a DB2 query or another service, then turns the answer back into JSON.
The key part is the mapping. Mainframe programs expect data in fixed layouts, described by copybooks. z/OS Connect maps each JSON field to a field in the copybook, and back again, so neither side has to understand the other's format.
APIs are described with OpenAPI documents, the same standard used for APIs elsewhere. Developers who have never seen a green screen can use the API like any other.
This is one of the most common ways sites modernise: the existing COBOL programs stay where they are, and new channels reach them through APIs. You will hear it in projects that connect the mainframe to cloud services, mobile banking or partner systems.
Where can I learn this hands-on?
Right here, at ZedBank. You take a junior job at a simulated bank and learn each part of the work by doing it, with Zed beside you. There's nothing to install.
Start at ZedBankRelated
- CICSThe transaction manager that runs online mainframe applications, and the software behind a great many screens bank staff use.
- IMSAn older IBM transaction manager and hierarchical database, still running some of the highest-volume systems in the world.
- DB2 for z/OSIBM's relational database on the mainframe, where a great deal of the world's banking and insurance data is stored.
- Mainframe modernisationA broad name for changing how mainframe applications are built, connected or run, from adding new tools and APIs to moving work to other platforms.
- IBM MQMessaging software that passes messages between programs, on the same system or across many systems, so they can work together without waiting for each other.
- z/OSMFz/OS Management Facility: a web interface and set of web APIs for working with z/OS from a browser or another program.