Rocket Launches CM-Kit for Continuous Modernization
December 13, 2023 Alex Woodie
You’ve read about continuous integration and continuous delivery, or CI-CD. Now Rocket Software wants you think about a related topic called continuous modernization, which refers to an uninterrupted re-invention of your applications via Web enablement and APIs. It recently launched a new suite of software, called the Continuous Modernization Kit, to help customers deliver that on their IBM i servers.
Web-enablement of greenscreen 5250 applications has been a thing since at least the late 1990s, when the dot-com boom drove the initial commercialization of the Internet. That was followed closely by mobile enablement, which Apple turbocharged with its 2007 launch of the iPhone.
IBM i shops that took the initiative to Web enable their applications two decades ago hopefully reaped the rewards that were dangled in front of them, by making it easier for customers to interact with their businesses and streamlining the training of employees to use internal systems.
However, Web and mobile tech has come a long way since 2005. Heck, it’s come a long way since 2015. IBM i shops that modernized their apps back then may well need to modernize those same systems again, according to Puneet Kohli, the president of Rocket Software’s application modernization business.
“Look, modernization is not just a journey. It’s a continuous process,” Kohli tells IT Jungle. “You really don’t put an end date on it, and say, ‘Oh, I’ve moved on to the Web. I’m done.’”
Rocket, which acquired Seagull Software and its well-regarded LegaSuite application modernization technology back in 2006, has successfully helped many organizations build Web and mobile interfaces for their IBM i applications over the years. Often, these organizations will only Web-enable a portion of their apps, leaving the rest with a 5250 interface. That creates room for more work down the line, Kohli says.
“There is just so much in that legacy system that you probably weren’t that interested at that time,” he says, “but now you want to go dig into what other nuggets you have that you can bring out into your current application.”
The nature of modernization has also changed dramatically. A compelling Web or mobile interface is still highly valuable, but increasingly, companies desire programmatic interfaces into back office IBM i applications that never light up a screen. API generation via REST standards is in high demand at the moment, Kohli says.
“We are seeing a lot more customers asking us, how do I build my API?” he says. “If you’re using Salesforce as an example for ERP, they already have quite a wealth of front ends, but how do you get data to Salesforce from your legacy applications? So that’s where the API model’s helping. We are seeing the same on the ServiceNow side for many of our customers as well.”
Technologies involved in modernization initiatives have also improved. These days, JavaScript dominates the front-end, but it’s increasingly being used for back-end, server-side components too. Rocket has bolstered its LegaSuite offering with the latest Node.js technology, as well as other modern components, to help customers build Web and mobile apps that deliver experiences that users expect.
“If somebody is starting a modernization project or did a modernization project maybe eight to 10 years ago, the tools and the Web components that we [developed] — we’ve evolved those too,” Kohli says. “Now we can use more of the modern Google components as the product evolves…. special Node.JS. or even more dynamic controls on the Web that have better capabilities. Now you have a drop-down control that can be dynamically built, whereas in the past you might have static lists.”
All of this adds up to a growing need for continuous modernization, Kohli says. Rocket created a bundle of tools for continuous modernization, which it dubs the Continuous Modernization Kit, or CM-Kit.
CM-Kit contains three pre-existing Rocket products, including Rocket Process Insights, Rocket API, and Rocket Modern Experience, the new name for the LegaSuite stuff. The company recently released new versions of those three products, and bundled them into CM-Kit.
Rocket Process Insights, which was introduced more than two years ago, enables companies to map their application behavior by monitoring the 5250 stream. After running for a while in the background, Rocket Process Insights can generate a heatmap of user activity, which tells the business the most trafficked part of their application.
Rocket API, which it launched back in 2017, enables users to develop REST-based Web services in an automated fashion, without the need for highly skilled programmers. With the latest release, Rocket API supports the latest Swagger standards.
The company decided to bundle the three products together in response to customer demand, Kohli says.
“We decided to put up more of a solution packaging spin on it because that’s what we saw our current customers and new customers looking for,” he says. “The journey has been good so far, but I think we what we are seeing is that the customers want to do this continuously, and that’s that our hope, too.”
This was the second modernization bundle launched by Rocket this year. In March, it launched the Rocket Modernization Suite, which included existing Rocket offerings for Web- and mobile-enablement, API, terminal emulation, DevOps, test automation, and HA/DR.
For more information on CM-Kit, check out Rocket’s website at www.rocketsoftware.com.
RELATED STORIES
What Keeps IT Leaders Up At Night? Rocket Seeks Answers
Rocket Rolls Out IBM i Modernization Bundle
Rocket Maps IBM i Apps for Modernization Ventures
