Peterborough, NH, 3 October 2016 – ARCAD Software, leading vendor in Enterprise Modernization and DevOps solutions for IBM i, announces October 30th GA release of Version 3.0 of ARCAD-Builder, an intelligent IBM i build engine supporting several external source code management (SCM) tools, including Git, Subversion (SVN) and Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS).
Philippe Magne, ARCAD CEO, describes the new offering: “Our focus at ARCAD is on delivering a complete, multi-platform DevOps solution for IBM i. Our flagship offering, the ARCAD Pack for DevOps, automates key processes on IBM i such as Application Build (dependency compile), Test, Deploy and Rollback. Source code management is only a part of the full DevOps cycle. We are SCM-agnostic and committed to supporting our customer’s preferred tools in this area. Depending on our customer’s mix of technology and tools, we can recommend either ARCAD-Skipper, IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC), Git, Subversion or TFS”.
Magne goes on to explain the company’s position in regards to open source. “Integration with open source solutions has become a priority. Today IBM i is a truly open platform, and the majority of our customers now develop applications across multiple platforms. This has created a need for a lightweight and portable solution for source code management. IBM i development is no longer a silo, and developers are sharing skills. The new generation of programmers coming to IBM i are bringing open source technology with them and using it successfully. We see Git as the leading tool in this area, thanks to its distributed version control. IBM now supplies Git as an installable product on IBM i, giving Git users a high level of security for managing Git repositories directly on IBM i. It’s important to adopt the best-of-breed technology for the task at hand. For this reason we also integrate with Jenkins for continuous integration.”
Magne explains why TFS support is also key to ARCAD’s integration strategy. “Microsoft TFS is a commonly used collaborative tool today, both in the cloud and on premise. Now with the Eclipse plugins, some use TFS to manage native IBM i sources as well. Of course it’s every IT manager’s “holy grail” to use a single, common SCM for all platforms: one repository, one branching system, one way to manage versions. It’s our role to facilitate this for our customers, whatever their choice of SCM tool”.
“We predicted a major shift in the market away from proprietary version control. This shift is a natural outcome of IBM i modernization and today’s multi-tier application architecture. Environments today are so diverse that as a global company we needed to offer our customers a choice. Even the newer TFS installations use Git by default for source code management.”
ARCAD Software is also open in terms of deployment automation. The company supplies a home-grown solution, DROPS, for Application Release Automation (ARA) across multiple platforms, including IBM i, Windows, UNIX, Linux, AIX, and mainframe z/OS. DROPS is distributed worldwide through a wholly owned ARCAD subsidiary, DROPS Software. ARCAD also supplies ARCAD Pack for UrbanCode, packaging ARCAD’s proven IBM i deployment automation plugins for IBM UrbanCode Deploy. This solution is distributed by IBM worldwide.
Magne reiterates a whole new focus within the ARCAD Software group. “With modernization and multi-platform development comes a whole new requirement for customers. We have restructured our company over the last few years to be the first to deliver a multi-platform DevOps solution perfectly tailored for IBM i applications into the future”.
About ARCAD Software
The ARCAD Software group is leading international vendor in DevOps and Modernization solutions for IBM i, with subsidiaries in Europe, USA and Asia, supporting 1000+ installations worldwide. Since 1992, ARCAD has built on its specialist IBM i expertise to develop an integrated solution range for Application Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Modernization, Release Management and DevOps, distributed by IBM worldwide. ARCAD subsidiaries DROPS and DOT Software specialize in multi-platform application deployment and test automation solutions, across IBM i, Linux, UNIX, Windows, z/OS. ARCAD technology integrates with Rational Team Concert (RTC) and Rational Developer for i (RDi), and also open source tools Git, SVN, JIRA and Jenkins.
For more information about ARCAD Software and services, please contact: info@arcadsoftware.com.
Contact: Olenka Van Schendel, VP Business Development, ovanschendel@arcadsoftware.com