Company

Our Vision

Why did we build PopUp?

For many years, despite their staggering business importance, mainframes have been hugely expensive to upgrade or change with niche skills required to manipulate managed environments. This inspired us to create PopUp Mainframe, harnessing the power of IBM’s zD&T mainframe emulator to enable IT team to spin up as many mainframe environments as needed, cheaply and quickly. Mainframe teams can now deliver change faster and cheaper than ever.

Our Mission

At PopUp, our mission is to empower mainframe businesses to deliver changes faster, cheaper and better with on-demand environments for dev and test.

We see this as a necessary pre-requisite for organisations to move into this final ‘Automation frontier’ (where ALL teams, including mainframe, can embrace automation). It enables businesses to truly achieve their agility aspirations at all levels.

Our vision is a world where businesses live and breathe modern ways of working and can deliver frictionless mainframe change at the speed of the business.

PopUp Mainframe revolutionises mainframe delivery by

  • Removing test environment blockers to accelerate delivery
  • Cutting costs with commoditised x86 hardware
  • Using standard DevOps toolchains and pipelines to manage z/OS test environments
  • Spinning up z/OS test environments on-prem or in the cloud
  • Ensuring your PopUp in Dev and Test looks EXACTLY the same as your z/OS in production. (You can install any z/OS subsystem or bespoke application on PopUp.)

 

Find out more about how PopUp works.

FAQs

Which software runs on PopUp?

PopUp supports z/OS 2.4 and 2.5, TSO/ISPF, DB2, CICS, IMS, MQ and ANY 3rd party z/OS software.

It is a fully provisioned z/OS and runs real z/OS code.

How quickly can you setup a PopUp?

PopUp can be up and running in under 10 minutes. PopUp can be installed and run instantly like an app on desktop, server (in VMs and containers) and the Cloud. See our videos spinning up a PopUp on-prem and in the cloud.

Can I connect PopUp to a physical mainframe?
YES. You can copy application data, executables and source libraries onto the PopUp using an IBM utility, FTP or Connect Direct. If you use a desktop IDE (e.g. Topaz) to connect to your mainframe, you can also use it to connect to your a PopUp.
What can I do on PopUp?

Anything that you might already do on a z/OS – testing and development, R&D, third party software evaluation, training for testers and developers.

What can I NOT do on PopUp?

Volume testing or live production work is not allowed, as the zD&T license forbids it. Performance testing is not allowed, and the disk is different between a physical z/OS and the PopUp so would give different results.

Certain kinds of encryption are not available in PopUp.

What is the difference between PopUp and ZD&T?
Our explainer video describes the differences between PopUp and ZD&T.
How many PopUps can I have?
As many as you need. You can have one or multiple Linux servers running PopUp and you can save PopUp’s config, system and application data at any point in the PopUp’s life and restore it at will.
How do I maintain my PopUp?

To keep maintenance to an absolute minimum, it is recommended to restore your PopUp back to the beginning of its life for each new use. For ad hoc problems that may crop up, you can use your own z/OS system admin to resolve them. Our PopUp Lifecycle diagram has more details.

Do I need to have z/OS or green screen skills in order to use a PopUp?
No! In fact PopUp enables developers with absolutely no z/OS experience to connect with, configure and develop z/OS systems with zero risk to the physical z/OS. Modern mainframe tools on PopUp give your teams super powers!

Note

PopUp Mainframe should be used only for development, testing, employee education, or demonstration of Licensee’s applications that run on z/OS. It cannot be used for production workloads of any kind, including without limitation, production module builds, pre-production testing, stress testing, or performance testing. Additionally, PopUp Mainframe is not authorized to be used for code refactoring or re-engineering with the intention to re-platform existing z/OS based applications, for processing production workloads, simulating production workloads or testing scalability of any code, application, or system. For additional information, please refer to IBM ZD&T License Information.