The IBM z/OS® Container Platform enables users to realize the benefits of a cloud native development strategy on z/OS as part of their digital transformation strategy.

Users can build, deploy, run and manage containerized z/OS UNIX® applications by leveraging an open-source container runtime and Kubernetes orchestration.  Running containers natively on IBM z/OS allows users to gain the benefits of industry-standard open-source container technologies while also taking advantage of the security, reliability and performance benefits of IBM Z.

Features

• **Uses industry-standard technologies: **Implements a container runtime based on open source technologies that follow the OCI runtime specification.
• **Supports cloud native development: **Provides industry-standard container management tools and enables integration into existing DevOps pipelines.
• **Image catalog: **Growing image catalog of containerized z/OS UNIX applications built to run on z/OS Container Platform are available on the IBM Container Registry (ICR).
• **Leverages industry standard orchestration technology: **Implements Kubernetes open-source container scheduling and orchestration technology for managing containerized applications across a cluster.
• **Supports high availability Kubernetes clusters: **Optimizes workload distribution and manages the availability and scalability demands across a Kubernetes cluster by leveraging IBM Z networking and Sysplex Distributor technologies.

Benefits

• **Streamlined dev and test with enhanced security: **Improves development efficiency, security and consistency by offering a self-service, isolated environment for dev and test, along with access to an image repository for easy customization of IBM-provided container images.
• **Consistent automation and monitoring capabilities: **Supports integration with system automation and monitoring tools to provide the same capabilities for containerized z/OS UNIX applications as noncontainerized applications.
• **Manages availability and scalability demands: **Supports automatic deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications across a high-availability Kubernetes cluster.
• **Provides network isolation: **Isolates containerized z/OS UNIX applications from other applications running on z/OS and from z/OS containers running in other pods.
• **Enables configuration as code: **Supports integration with GitOps processes through standard Kubernetes API and deployment configuration managed in version control.