IBM z/OS Connect overview

The IBM® z/OS® Connect offering is a Liberty feature that encapsulates calling z/OS target applications using REST (Representation State Transfer) calls.

z/OS Connect is designed to provide a fast, secure, reliable connector to reach any z/OS asset. z/OS Connect provides a standard way to identify these assets and reach the assets using REST technology. Where these assets run is specified in the z/OS Connect configuration, relieving clients applications in the cloud, mobile, and web worlds of the need to understand the details about how to reach them and how to convert payloads to and from the formats that the applications require.

Stabilized features: The zosConnect-1.0 and zosConnect-1.2 features are stabilized. You can continue to use the features. However, consider using the IBM z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition product.

Benefits of using z/OS Connect

z/OS Connect adds value for z/OS customers by enabling users to consolidate multiple client connect pathways into a single common gateway or concentrator for synchronous calls to reach business assets and data on z/OS operating systems. Virtually any z/OS asset, applications and data, can be reached by using standard REST HTTP calls. This feature also provides the ability to inquire about, or discover, all assets that are defined in the z/OS Connect configuration repository. The following is a summary of the benefits of z/OS Connect:

  • Provides RESTful access to identify and invoke z/OS-based business assets in CICS®, IMS, UNIX System Services, and traditional batch environments, opening up these assets to cloud and mobile-based system of engagement environments.
  • Functionality that is based on Liberty server technology, is lightweight and easily configurable, and provides z/OS differentiation with System Authorization Facility (SAF) security integration, z/OS Workload Manager (WLM), and Resource Recovery Services (RRS) integration. WLM integration means different URIs can have varying levels of priority and performance criteria.
  • As a feature in the Liberty server on z/OS, you can integrate z/OS Connect with z/OS standard system management, which can run as a started task and integrate with z/OS automated operations.
  • Provides the ability to secure individual or groups of z/OS Connect services with SAF security in which only specific users or groups can have access to specific services.
  • Provides the ability to uniformly track requests from cloud, mobile, and web environments by using z/OS System Management Facility (SMF) services. This tracking means that z/OS customers can use their existing processes for auditing and chargeback for requests from these environments.
  • Enables the ability to do an automatic conversion of the request payload from JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) form on input to binary form consumable by z/OS applications such as Cobol, PL/I, and C. The reverse for the response from the z/OS application, converting the output from binary to JSON form is also true.