Rocket Software Upgrades Job Control Management Offering

June 15, 2022

Rocket Software introduced the next version of its PRO/JCL, a job control language (JCL) management solution that includes a new interface through VS Code®1 extension, Enhanced Directed Execution to include options for sending PROCs and PARMLIBs to remote LPARS, and improved visibility for NODE and LPAR in the primary panel. These updates help mainframe data centers achieve and operate a JCL environment that is error-free, standardized, and optimized.

Enterprises with mainframes typically have a higher number of experienced developers retiring, and an influx of new professionals joining the workforce. A recent survey from Rocket Software found that companies continue to face skills gaps in their talent pool, and modernizing systems is the most popular way respondents are working to maintain talent pipelines with 45% of IT professionals citing it as the top method.

This version of PRO/JCL provides customers with new interface options that are appealing to today’s mainframe professionals and the organizations hiring them. A new interface through a VS Code® extension adds to Rocket Software’s list of current interfaces, including through ISPF, Eclipse®, IBM® Developer for z/OS® (IDz), BMC® Compuware® Topaz® Workbench, and a RESTful API.

Nearly all growing organizations are modernizing, making PRO/JCL and its many interfaces the strongest choice for any mainframe ecosystem. Benefits of PRO/JCL include:

Simplified JCL management: Reduce the complexity of JCL management through DevOps capabilities, more integrations, and increased automation.

Increased developer productivity: Reduce elapsed time of the JCL management cycle by including tools within users’ favorite IDE for a seamless DevOps integration, enabling developers to increase business value.

Improved production quality: Detect JCL inconsistencies before execution and easily make changes to production environments to help ensure error-free production runs, reducing backlog and production turnover while increasing throughput and value delivered by the system. 

Improved responsiveness to change: Reduce mainframe bottlenecks to meet service level agreements more reliably.

Reduced costs: Eliminate costly re-running of production jobs.

“Existing DevOps initiatives often omit JCL management from the DevOps toolchain, causing critical interruptions to business value streams, resulting in slower processes and potential revenue losses,” said Phil Buckellew, president of Infrastructure Modernization, Rocket Software. “Our customers often operate several mainframe solutions and require a JCL management solution that can integrate with all of their critical mainframe software. The newly released PRO/JCL will do just that.”