What can you do with zCX?

IBM zCX allows you to bring "Dockerized" Linux applications as close as possible to your enterprise z/OS resources without first having to port lots of open source infrastructure to z/OS. For instance,applications that communicate over TCP/IP with z/OS data or services can take advantage of z/OS's high speed SAMEHOST networking that is only available to processes running on the same LPAR.

Since IBM zCX instances run in a regular z/OS address space, they inherit many of the same qualities of service as other z/OS processes. All of the capabilities z/OS provides through VSAM and the TCP/IP stack to enable encryption, disaster recovery, and dynamic workload relocation, can all be applied to the zCX instance without disruption of the Linux applications running inside. In this way, IBM zCX enhances the Linux deployment environment in ways that other platforms can't.

From a Linux perspective, IBM zCX supports a large population of Docker images that allow z/OS to integrate more tightly with common pipelines and workflows that the open source community has created over the last several years. This allows z/OS to participate in common devops and automation environments through projects like Jenkins and Github, or for data science and analytics purposes through Jupyter and Jupyterhub. There are also assortments of languages, build frameworks,and web servers that can be built into Docker images and deployed on IBM zCX to enable much fuller z/OS participation in the open source arena with the agility that modern enterprises require.