Unlock the Power of IBM z/OS Connect for Seamless API Integration
Quickly connect and modernize IBM Z systems with RESTful APIs.
Overview of the Product
IBM z/OS® Connect is a cutting-edge software solution designed to create and manage OpenAPI 3.0-conformant APIs, allowing seamless interaction between IBM Z mainframe applications and external systems. With z/OS Connect, organizations can enhance their hybrid cloud strategy by making IBM Z data and applications accessible through RESTful APIs, empowering both legacy and cloud-native environments.
Why Choose IBM z/OS Connect?
Create OpenAPI 3.0 APIs in minutes, enabling quick integration across hybrid cloud environments.
Connect external apps to IBM Z mainframe systems with ease.
Secure APIs that handle high volumes of requests with robust security protocols.
Scale API flows independently to meet demand without impacting configuration.
Leverage zIIP-offload capabilities to reduce processing costs.
Deploy APIs in both containerized and native environments for better flexibility.
What the Numbers say?
Features
Quickly create standardized, RESTful APIs that integrate seamlessly with external applications.
Choose between z/OS native deployment or containerized deployment using Red Hat OpenShift.
Secure and monitor APIs with built-in management features, ensuring consistent governance.
APIs can be scaled independently based on real-time demand.
Easily integrate z/OS Connect into existing Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment pipelines.
Customize API responses with detailed control over function mapping.
Key Facts
Over 99% of z/OS Connect’s workload can be offloaded to zIIP processors for better efficiency.
Seamlessly bridges on-premises systems with public and private cloud environments.
Stay future-proof with support for the latest API standards and best practices.
Case Studies
Modernizing Core Banking through IBM Mainframe Integration
A leading cooperative banking group partnered with IBM to integrate external services with its core banking infrastructure, achieving a 47% reduction in integration effort and improving operational efficiency across multiple business lines. By leveraging IBM z/OS Connect and IBM Application Modernization Consulting Services, the bank unified data access, optimized performance, and reduced recurring costs — unlocking new opportunities for innovation and service scalability.
Business challenge
With thousands of branches and millions of clients, the banking group managed numerous mainframe-based applications critical to core financial operations. However, integrating modern external services into the legacy mainframe environment proved complex and time-consuming.
The organization needed to:
- Reduce the time and cost of integrating new digital services.
- Improve flexibility and agility without disrupting critical core systems.
- Streamline operations across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments.
- Enhance customer experience by enabling real-time data access across platforms.
Solution
The banking group partnered with IBM to implement IBM z/OS Connect, IBM Application Modernization Consulting Services, and IBM WebSphere® Liberty.
These technologies simplified service orchestration between the bank’s core systems and modern digital applications, creating a bridge that connected legacy COBOL transactions with APIs and external applications.
By deploying IBM Operational Test and Data Analytics and optimizing its integration framework, the organization reduced technical complexity, improved reliability, and ensured consistency across all banking channels.
Solution components
- IBM z/OS Connect
- IBM Application Modernization Consulting and Services
- IBM Operational Test and Data Analytics
- IBM WebSphere® Liberty
- IBM z/OS Platform
API-Enabled Integration
Legacy systems were transformed into modern, API-accessible platforms, allowing seamless integration with mobile banking, CRM, and third-party services.
Streamlined Development and Testing
Automation tools reduced manual coding and testing effort, improving reliability and accelerating deployment cycles.
Unified Data Access Layer
Core banking data was made securely available across multiple digital touchpoints, enhancing both speed and transparency.
Result
- 47% reduction in integration effort using IBM z/OS Connect.
- 29 man-days saved during integration deployments.
- 0.4 FTE effort saved per integration process, freeing up resources for innovation.
- Reduced recurring operational costs and faster project turnaround.
- Improved scalability, flexibility, and compliance for future growth.
By utilizing IBM’s integration technology, we achieved significant savings across the board — not just in integration effort, but also in ongoing operational costs. IBM’s support throughout design and execution was instrumental in our success.
— Chief IT Transformation Architect, Leading Cooperative Banking Group
Accelerating Mainframe Application Development with IBM z/OS and DevOps Modernization
A leading global financial institution transformed its mainframe development ecosystem using IBM z/OS®, IBM DevOps tools, and IBM Wazi Developer for Red Hat® CodeReady Workspaces. This modernization initiative enhanced developer productivity, reduced release cycles, and streamlined collaboration across distributed and mainframe teams — ultimately driving faster innovation and business agility.
Business challenge
The financial institution managed a vast mainframe environment critical to global banking operations. However, its traditional development workflows limited agility, causing long release cycles, inconsistent tooling, and difficulty in onboarding new developers.
The organization aimed to:
- Modernize mainframe application development using agile principles.
- Improve collaboration between distributed and z/OS teams.
- Reduce time-to-market for new banking products and services.
- Maintain the resilience and performance of its core banking systems.
Solution
Partnering with IBM, the institution adopted an end-to-end DevOps modernization framework built on:
- IBM Wazi Developer for Red Hat® CodeReady Workspaces for modern IDE integration.
- IBM z/OS Connect to expose mainframe assets as APIs for digital applications.
- IBM UrbanCode Deploy to automate release management and continuous delivery.
- IBM Developer for z/OS (IDz) for improved debugging, testing, and code analysis.
This transformation unified development across mainframe and cloud environments, reduced manual intervention, and created a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline aligned with enterprise DevOps practices.
Solution components
- IBM z/OS®
- IBM Developer for z/OS (IDz)
- IBM Wazi Developer for Red Hat® CodeReady Workspaces
- IBM z/OS Connect
- IBM UrbanCode Deploy
Integrated DevOps Environment
Developers across distributed and mainframe teams collaborated through a unified platform, improving code quality and deployment consistency.
API-Driven Modernization
Legacy COBOL services were converted into APIs using IBM z/OS Connect, enabling seamless integration with mobile and digital banking systems.
Automated Release Management
Automated pipelines accelerated testing and deployment, reducing errors and improving release reliability.
Result
- Improved development efficiency and speed-to-market for new applications.
- Enhanced collaboration between distributed and mainframe teams.
- Simplified onboarding with modern IDEs and DevOps tooling.
- Achieved continuous delivery with minimal disruption to production systems.
- Strengthened agility while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability.
As we continue to modernize our development environment for IBM z/OS, the benefits in terms of control, autonomy, speed, and quality have been transformative. IBM’s platform enables our teams to deliver business value faster than ever.
— Head of IT Infrastructure Modernization, Leading Global Financial Institution
What The Users Say
IBM z/OS Connect has been successfully adopted by over 400 leading enterprises, including global banks, telecommunications, and healthcare organizations. These customers rely on z/OS Connect for secure, scalable, and efficient integration between IBM Z systems and cloud-native applications.
FAQ's
IBM z/OS Connect enables RESTful API access to mainframe applications and data. It acts as a bridge between modern applications and IBM Z systems like CICS, IMS, and Db2, facilitating agile digital integration.
It allows organizations to expose COBOL and PL/I programs as APIs or consume external REST APIs from within z/OS applications. This supports API-first strategies and accelerates mainframe modernization.
Yes. z/OS Connect is built on Liberty and can run in containerized environments. It integrates with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration and other cloud-native tools, supporting hybrid deployments.
It supports TLS encryption, client authentication, role-based authorization (RBAC), and audit logging. It can also integrate with SAF-compliant security managers like RACF.
No. It exposes mainframe applications as APIs without modifying existing code. It uses copybooks and metadata to define service interfaces.
Yes. It provides built-in REST monitoring endpoints, integration with OpenTelemetry, and compatibility with observability tools like IBM Instana and Splunk.
z/OS Connect offers standardized error responses, and administrators can configure custom messages. Integration with SMF records and logs enables audit and troubleshooting.
Nexright provides consulting, API gateway design, service discovery, security policies, and API governance frameworks tailored for enterprise mainframe modernization using z/OS Connect.
