Introducing GitLab Ultimate for IBM Z: Next-gen tooling in DevOps for IBM Z

7 May 2025

Author

Andy Bradfield

Vice President, IBM Z Hybrid Cloud

IBM

In an era of constant technological evolution, strategic partnerships are key to driving meaningful innovation. That’s why GitLab and IBM are bringing their DevSecOps solutions together, combining GitLab Ultimate with IBM Z. This powerful integration delivers a unified experience for Mainframe and cloud-native development, helping enterprises modernize their software delivery and unlock new levels of speed, security and scalability.

Introducing GitLab Ultimate for IBM Z

We’re launching GitLab Ultimate for IBM Z, a powerful, integrated DevSecOps solution tailored for the mainframe environment. This solution integrates GitLab’s robust capabilities such as Source Code Management (SCM), Continuous Integration (CI) and more, with IBM Developer for Z Enterprise Edition (IDzEE), which offers modern editors, as well as advanced dependency-based build, test and deploy functionality. The joint solution allows customers to modernize mainframe development workflows, enabling a seamless migration off outdated legacy library managers resulting in accelerated innovation and reduced operational costs.

Key capabilities include:

  • GitLab Add-in for IBM Z provides a native support for GitLab Runner on IBM z/OS, enabling seamless integration with GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
  • End-to-end project visibility and control, leveraging GitLab’s project management features across the entire software development lifecycle from planning to production.
  • Single Source Code Management (SCM) tool that houses all necessary files and scripts to create builds.
  • GItlab CI for integrating all your code changes, driving pipeline from build to deploy.
  • Tight integrations with IBM Developer for z/Enterprise Edition (IDzEE) to streamline build, code scanning, and deployment within the GitLab ecosystem.

Modernization benefits:

  • Modernize the toolchain by transitioning away from outdated source code managers (SCMs)
  • Reduce costs through lower licensing and maintenance overhead
  • Deliver software faster with streamlined, automated DevOps workflows
  • Enhance quality and security across the application lifecycle
  • Retain talent through the use of next-gen tools

GitLab Ultimate for IBM Z is built to support business-critical applications and emerging technologies, including Gen AI-powered development. By reducing silos, manual handoffs and tool fragmentation, this solution helps organizations boost developer productivity while maintaining a low total cost of ownership (TCO). In collaboration, GitLab and IBM are reshaping how enterprises build and deploy software on IBM Z, modernizing the mainframe development process, and making DevOps a truly unified experience across the enterprise.

“We are proud to partner with IBM to deliver GitLab Ultimate with IBM Z to address the need for modern, efficient mainframe development workflows,” said Mike Flouton, vice president of product management at GitLab. “By combining GitLab’s powerful DevsecOps platform with IBM’s leading mainframe development tools, this joint solution offers development teams a unified experience for modernizing their mission-critical applications with cloud-native speed and security.”

Learn more on our product page

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