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AI-Powered Mainframe: Rocket Software's New Tools for Developer Efficiency & IT Resilience
Rocket Software's latest updates infuse AI and automation into mainframe tools, aiming to ease developer shortages and boost IT resilience. But will it be transformative?
Key Highlights
- Rocket Software has launched new features for its Skills and Efficiency solutions, emphasizing AI, automation, and developer experience.
- The updates aim to accelerate developer onboarding, improve mainframe system performance through AI monitoring, and reduce IT intervention with self service automation.
- Specific product enhancements include AI powered analytics for TMON, natural language processing for EDX, and developer assistants for MultiValue and Uniface.
- These innovations are positioned to help organizations modernize their IT infrastructure without wholesale disruption, focusing on resilience and operational efficiency.
The News
On May 13, 2025, Rocket Software announced significant updates to its portfolio, concentrating on improving IT operations and developer productivity. The enhancements infuse AI and automation capabilities across several key products. These are designed to tackle the persistent IT skills gap and streamline workflows for enterprises relying on mainframe systems. The company states these innovations will help businesses scale IT, fortify systems, and improve agility without introducing undue complexity. Find out more here.
Analyst Take
Rocket Software's recent announcement of new capabilities within its Skills and Efficiency solutions is another signal of the industry wide push to apply AI and automation to long standing IT challenges, particularly within the mainframe ecosystem. I see this as a pragmatic move, addressing real world pain points like the persistent skills shortage and the need for greater operational resilience. Businesses are indeed struggling with complex hybrid environments and the relentless pressure to do more with less, so any help here is generally welcomed.
What Was Announced:
Rocket has detailed several specific product enhancements designed to deliver on these goals.
Rocket TMON is now architected to use AI powered analytics and machine learning. It aims to proactively identify mainframe performance issues and anomalies before they impact operations by measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Automation: For automation, Rocket Zena is designed to empower users who are not IT specialists to automate processes themselves. The goal here is to reduce the reliance on central IT teams for routine tasks.
Document Management: Document management sees an update with Rocket EDX, which is designed to make document search and retrieval faster using natural language input, either through voice or text commands.
In terms of system resilience, Rocket Rapid Data Recovery aims to minimize downtime through advanced single point in time data recovery capabilities.
DevOps: For developers, two AI powered assistants were announced. The Rocket MultiValue Developer Assistant is designed to streamline the generation, autocompletion, and explanation of MV BASIC code. The intent is to significantly speed up the time it takes for new developers to become productive.
Similarly, the Rocket Uniface Developer Assistant is designed to help users navigate Uniface documentation more effectively, learn the platform faster, and generate and explain ProcScript code. It also aims to enhance code clarity with automated commenting and plain language explanations.
My analysis of these updates suggests Rocket Software is focusing on making existing mainframe environments more manageable and accessible, rather than pushing for wholesale replacement. The introduction of AI driven monitoring in TMON, for instance, is a logical step. Mainframes generate vast amounts of operational data, and AI is well suited to sift through this for patterns that might indicate impending problems. If TMON can genuinely get ahead of issues before they cause outages, that’s a clear win.
The emphasis on developer productivity through AI assistants for MultiValue and Uniface is also noteworthy. The "IT skills gap" is a well worn phrase, but it’s a persistent reality, especially in the niche world of mainframe languages. Anything that can genuinely shorten the ramp up time for new developers from months to weeks, as claimed, will be attractive. However, the true test will be how sophisticated these assistants are. Generating boilerplate code is one thing; assisting with complex debugging or understanding decades old business logic is another.
Rocket Zena’s aim to enable non-technical users to automate processes is part of a broader trend towards democratizing IT capabilities. The claim of reducing ticket volume by up to 16% is specific and, if achieved, would be a significant efficiency gain. The key, as always with such tools, will be governance and ensuring that this user driven automation doesn't inadvertently create new risks or compliance headaches, though Rocket states it maintains compliance and security.
The natural language processing in Rocket EDX for document management is a welcome usability improvement. Searching through vast archives of documents can be a significant time sink, and more intuitive search methods are always appreciated.
Put simply, Rocket Software’s strategy appears to be one of evolution, not revolution. They are leveraging contemporary technologies like AI and automation to enhance the value and longevity of core systems. This approach resonates with many large enterprises that have significant investments in mainframe infrastructure and are wary of the risks and costs associated with large scale rip and replace modernization projects. Being a portfolio company of Bain Capital Private Equity also suggests a focus on sustainable growth and operational efficiency, which these product enhancements align with. The challenge for Rocket will be to ensure these new features deliver tangible, measurable improvements that go beyond incremental gains and truly help their customers navigate the complexities of modern IT.
Looking Ahead
Based on my conversations with Rocket’s ELT and product management teams, Rocket Software is making a concerted effort to address the operational realities of its customer base, which heavily relies on mainframe technology. The infusion of AI and automation is not unique to Rocket; it is a broad industry trend as organizations seek to manage complexity and enhance efficiency.
The key trend that I am going to be looking out for is the actual adoption and impact of these AI driven developer assistants. While the promise of rapidly onboarding new developers onto legacy systems like MultiValue and Uniface is compelling, the depth and capability of these AI tools will be critical. Will they truly enable a new generation to manage and innovate on these platforms, or will they be more of a helpful adjunct for experienced developers? The answer will significantly influence the long term viability of skills retention in these specialized areas.
Based on my analysis of the market, my perspective is that Rocket’s approach is sensible.
Rocket are not trying to reinvent the wheel but rather to equip their existing customer base with more modern tools to manage established, mission critical systems. The challenge, however, is that the broader IT landscape continues to evolve rapidly towards cloud native architectures and more agile development paradigms. While Rocket's solutions aim to bring some of that agility and intelligence to the mainframe, the gravitational pull of these newer paradigms is strong.
Going forward, I am going to be closely monitoring how Rocket Software’s enhanced offerings compete against solutions from other established players like IBM, Broadcom, and BMC, who are also heavily investing in AI and automation for mainframe environments. Furthermore, the ability of these tools to genuinely reduce the IT workload and decrease ticket volumes, as suggested with Zena, will be a key performance indicator.
When you look at the market as a whole, the announcement reinforces the ongoing relevance of the mainframe but also highlights the urgent need to modernize the experience of managing and developing for it. HyperFRAME will be tracking how Rocket Software’s customers respond to these new capabilities and whether they translate into measurable improvements in efficiency, resilience, and developer satisfaction in future quarters. The success of these innovations will ultimately be judged by their ability to help enterprises not just maintain, but also evolve their critical IT infrastructure in an increasingly demanding digital world.
Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.