Best Mainframe Application Development Software for COBOL

BMC AMI DevX transforms the mainframe development landscape by enabling teams to create high-quality code with increased efficiency, smoother workflows, and a more contemporary development experience. It integrates various stages of the software development lifecycle—including agile development, testing, debugging, promotion, and delivery—into a comprehensive toolchain that caters to developers of all expertise levels. By allowing teams to operate within their preferred environments, like Eclipse and VS Code, it minimizes interruptions and facilitates easier onboarding for newcomers. The platform enhances processes such as editing, building, source code management, approvals, and deployment with its Code Pipeline feature, which promotes simultaneous development, accelerates release cycles, and ensures secure delivery. Furthermore, Code Insights provides developers with immediate visibility into intricate mainframe applications, aiding in the visualization of logic, dependencies, and monolithic structures, while generative AI explanations foster quicker comprehension of complex COBOL, JCL, PL/I, and Assembler code. This holistic approach not only streamlines the development process but also empowers teams to innovate more rapidly and efficiently in a constantly evolving technological landscape.

Mechanical Orchard's Imogen platform confidently transforms mainframe applications by leveraging genuine data flows rather than merely translating code, thereby modernizing outdated systems into contemporary code. The process of legacy modernization is frequently hindered by temporary fixes, cloud simulation challenges, accumulated technical debt, integration uncertainties, and critical transition phases; however, Imogen alters this risk landscape by implementing a behavior-first, test-driven methodology. Rather than concentrating solely on the code, Imogen focuses on understanding how individual workloads genuinely perform through real data flows, enabling the creation of an accurate behavioral clone of a complex system via a clear, iterative, and transparent approach. It generates a detailed behavioral specification from the operational system, followed by a feedback loop of swift code generation and validation against those specifications, resulting in software that is of audit-quality, idiomatic, and well-prepared for future advancements. This innovative approach not only enhances reliability but also streamlines the transition to modern technologies.

Rocket® Enterprise Analyzer is an application intelligence and static analysis solution designed to empower organizations with comprehensive insights into their intricate mainframe application ecosystems. Tailored for enterprises undergoing modernization, it minimizes risks and expedites transformation by delivering in-depth analysis of source code, databases, job schedulers, and system definitions—regardless of complexity or scale.

Legacy Assembler code can be dense, costly to maintain, and reliant on a shrinking talent pool. But modernization doesn't have to be a painful, high-risk process. We partner with you to make the transition seamless. Rocket® Assembler Code Refactoring™ automatically restructures your complex legacy code into modern languages like COBOL, C, or Java—or structured pseudocode—without changing how your applications behave. - Eliminate conversion risk: Our fully automated engine uses mathematically guaranteed logic equivalence, so your refactored code performs exactly like the original. - Accelerate your timeline: Drastically speed up modernization projects with secure, auditable transformations that help prevent costly outages. - Empower your team: Shift away from relying on hard-to-find specialists and make your core systems easier to maintain for the future. Transform your legacy systems with total confidence. Contact us to start your secure modernization journey today.

Your modernization journey doesn't have to be risky. Rocket® Enterprise Suite™ empowers you to securely migrate mainframe applications using your existing code. This approach minimizes failure risk and delivers much faster project timelines. We partner with you to support both COBOL and PL/I workloads across on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environments, giving you complete flexibility. - Accelerate development: Access comprehensive tools for analyzing, securing, testing, and deploying your critical applications. - Simplify complexity: Leverage an AI-powered natural language assistant to easily understand and document complex code, improving your DevOps practices. - Ensure reliability: Trust in four decades of experience and thousands of successful modernization projects. Build the foundation for your future IT infrastructure today. Discover how we can help you accelerate modern application development with total confidence.

TmaxSoft's OpenFrame is an all-encompassing solution for modernizing and replatforming mainframes, allowing organizations to transition their outdated mainframe applications and data to contemporary systems like Linux, Unix, Docker containers, or public cloud infrastructures without altering existing business logic, thereby maintaining core functions, cutting down on total ownership costs, and steering clear of perilous rewrites. This innovative solution features a forward-thinking, standard three-tier architecture that enhances performance, stability, flexibility, and scalability in comparison to conventional mainframes, accommodating over 100K MIPS and boosting processing capabilities. OpenFrame leverages sophisticated compiler technology along with an integrated asset analysis tool known as OF Manager to seamlessly convert user interface logic, application logic, and data structures, enabling applications to function natively in open environments with minimal manual intervention. This capability ensures that current staff and skill sets can be preserved, leading to a smoother transition and continued operational efficiency. As organizations seek to adapt to evolving technological landscapes, OpenFrame provides a strategic pathway for modernization.

CodeTurn, developed by Astadia, is an automated tool designed to convert legacy source code into contemporary, maintainable code that retains 100% functional equivalence with the original. This innovative product efficiently transforms an application's source code, allowing it to run seamlessly in either the same or a different environment. Thanks to its fully automated processes, the modernization project delivers predictable outcomes regarding risk, cost, and duration, making it a reliable choice for organizations. The resulting migrated application operates independently of proprietary Astadia software, instead utilizing standard industry technologies. CodeTurn encompasses every element of the conversion process, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, functionally equivalent code, and is often utilized alongside other Astadia products like DataTurn for legacy data migration, TestMatch for automated testing, and DataMatch for batch testing automation. In this way, CodeTurn not only simplifies the modernization effort but also enhances the overall efficiency of the software development lifecycle.

AveriSource enhances the modernization of midrange and mainframe systems by utilizing application intelligence, extracting business rules, and leveraging AI-driven transformation. This robust technology offers a reliable solution for businesses eager to expedite and refine their modernization efforts, delivering the necessary insights, precision, and adaptability for managing intricate legacy modernization projects. It addresses the entire spectrum of modernization, from preliminary evaluations to complete refactoring, replatforming, or reimagining initiatives, ensuring alignment with modernization objectives while aiding teams in making well-informed strategic choices. By facilitating a thorough assessment of legacy application landscapes and determining which applications warrant modernization, it assists organizations in executing the most suitable strategy. Additionally, AveriSource Inventory cultivates a deep understanding of legacy applications by revealing code insights, pinpointing redundant files, and confirming environmental integrity, thereby ensuring a seamless modernization process that can adapt to future technological advancements. This holistic approach positions organizations to not only modernize effectively but also to innovate continuously in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

2E streamlines the development of IBM i applications by combining design modeling, native code creation, and deployment tools within a unified environment. This integration enables teams to quickly develop and enhance IBM i business applications while maintaining the integrity of existing systems and simplifying the traditional development process. By using 2E, developers can craft applications at a higher level of abstraction, automatically generating native IBM i code, which ultimately boosts productivity, consistency, and the ease of maintenance throughout the entire application lifecycle. The platform supports model-based development, allowing teams to systematically define business rules, data structures, user interfaces, and application logic prior to generating dependable applications tailored for IBM i environments. Additionally, it facilitates organizations in speeding up delivery and elevating application quality, making the development process more user-friendly by significantly lowering the need for manual coding. Furthermore, this innovative approach encourages collaboration among team members, fostering a more efficient workflow and driving overall project success.

SQL-Ease for Db2 for z/OS significantly accelerates the processes of application review, debugging, and SQL performance optimization without requiring a departure from the ISPF edit environment. This tool effectively shortens development timelines by enabling developers to test and refine their SQL queries prior to the compilation of the program. Programmers can seamlessly test, debug, and optimize embedded SQL directly within the ISPF editor, utilizing various functions for generating, standardizing, checking, executing, interpreting, and analyzing SQL commands. SQL-Ease is capable of producing syntactically accurate SQL statements, including SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, MERGE, JOIN, UNION, and subselect queries, for languages such as COBOL, Assembler, SPUFI, PL/I, and C, and integrates the SQL into the designated location within the code. Additionally, it can transform manually written SQL into a uniform, easily comprehensible format, verify the syntax of SQL queries, execute SQL from both application programs and the SQL Editor, while also returning results accompanied by crucial execution metrics that aid in further performance tuning. Ultimately, SQL-Ease serves as an indispensable tool for developers looking to enhance their workflow while ensuring high-quality SQL performance.