| Shape | For | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Training seats | cohorts and self-paced learners; snapshot/reset per exercise; lab telemetry | Available |
| Development environments | developer seats with the Studio workbench: editor, debugger, unit tests with coverage, SQL views | Available |
| Project test environments | integration and UAT sandboxes per project, loaded with masked or synthetic data, resettable per test cycle | Available |
| Dedicated instance ("your own LPAR") | a single-tenant environment for your team — hosted, BYOC on your cloud account, or installed on-premises; release/upgrade path included | Available |
| Demo / POC estates | pre-built synthetic estates (banking, cards, insurance, payroll, utilities, payment switch…) for demos, tenders and proofs of concept | Available |
| Modernization rehearsal | a mirror of your estate's shape where the migration team rehearses changes and replays cycles before touching real iron | Available |
| Shop-standard image | a golden environment built to your enterprise standards — dataset naming, PROCs and job cards, security model, scheduler calendars, coding-standard graders — snapshotted and cloned per seat or per project; versioned with your standards updates | Available |
| Conformance bench | the ISO 20022 rehearsal rig: synthetic core generating authentic traffic against your mapping | Available |
| CI runners | compile + run + unit-test COBOL/RPG on every pull request from GitHub/GitLab | Deferred |
| Archive estates | a wound-down application kept queryable and re-runnable instead of paying licence rent | Future |
Any shape can be built as a shop-standard image: give us your standards manual and artifact pack and the environment follows your conventions — see how that works for cohorts, or ask for the same for project teams.
//SPEC DD DSN=TECH.FACT.SHEET
Technical fact sheet
Written for the engineer doing the evaluation. Ask us for anything not listed; if we don't support it, we'll say so in writing.
| Batch | JCL with JOB/EXEC/DD, DISP semantics, COND and IF/THEN/ELSE, in-stream and cataloged PROCs with symbolics/overrides, referbacks, GDGs with model DSCBs, JES2-style spool with classes and held output. Utilities: IEFBR14, IEBGENER, IEBCOPY, IDCAMS, SORT/ICETOOL (INCLUDE/OMIT/SUM/OUTREC and friends). |
| Languages | COBOL (full compile/link/run pipeline, copybooks, subprograms, intrinsic functions), HLASM-class assembler, PL/I, REXX and CLIST with ISPF dialogs and edit macros, Natural-class 4GL (maps, DDMs, Adabas direct calls), ADS-class dialogs (IDMS side), Easytrieve-class reporting (field definitions, overlays, REPORT), SAS-language engine (data steps + the core PROCs). IBM i side: RPG IV free-form and fixed-form, CL, DDS. |
| Data | EBCDIC (CP037) datasets — PS/PDS/VSAM (KSDS/ESDS/RRDS/LDS with AIX/PATH), byte-true COMP-3/zoned storage; DB2-class SQL engine with SPUFI, embedded SQL, cursors, BIND-style prep; IMS DL/I-class database with PSB/DBD semantics and Boolean SSAs; Adabas-class database behind the Natural engine (direct calls, DDMs); IDMS-class CODASYL database (navigational DML, schema/subschema, sets); live SQL views over datasets, reachable from standard Postgres-protocol clients. |
| Online | CICS-class transaction monitor: BMS mapsets (DFHMSD/MDI/MDF), pseudo-conversational COMMAREA patterns, channels/containers, TS/TD queues, supplied-transaction equivalents (CEMT/CECI/CEDF-style), JSON service exposure. IMS TM-class message processing. MQ-class queue manager with triggering into CICS. |
| IBM i side | A full midrange companion environment — libraries/objects/members, RPG IV, CL, DDS, 5250, SQL, journaling, spool. Detailed in its own table below. |
| Security & ops | RACF-class users/groups/resources with audit trail, scheduler with CA-7-style and Control-M-style definition import and cycle runner, syslog, operator console, FTP server, TN3270E. |
| Developer surface | Browser 3270 + the Studio workbench: editor with syntax awareness, source-level debugger with breakpoints and storage inspection, unit-test runner with statement coverage, golden-run capture/compare, BMS screen gallery, SQL grid. |
| Automation | REST admin API (~100 operations, generated OpenAPI spec, scoped tokens), instance lifecycle API, snapshot/restore, audit log, metrics endpoint. Everything the UI does, the API does. For existing clients, the same surface is available to AI agents as governed MCP tools — see the MCP page. |
| Deployment | Hosted by us; BYOC agent on your AWS/Azure account; or on-premises install on hardware we set up. Single-tenant per instance. Release/upgrade path with rollback. |
//IBMI DD DSN=AS400.FACT.SHEET
The IBM i side, in full
The midrange half is a first-class environment, not a footnote — every row below is backed by shipped, test-suited engine code. Try it live: SteelFrame X ↗.
| Languages | RPG IV free-form and fixed-form, including subprocedures, nested programs and embedded SQL (SQLRPGLE-style); CL programs with parameters, MONMSG, OVRDBF and '+' continuation handling; REXX via STRREXPRC; DDS as the definition language for physical, logical, display and printer files. |
| Database | Physical and logical files with keys and record formats; self-describing layouts via DSPFFD; SQL with interactive STRSQL and RUNSQLSTM DDL scripts; journaling (CRTJRN, STRJRNPF); a DRDA server speaking the DB2 wire protocol plus the classic database host server — standard DB2 clients connect. |
| 5250 & screens | The 5250 workstation protocol with browser sign-on and TN5250 for real emulators; DDS display files with the full subfile pattern — load-all and page-at-a-time, SFLPAG/SFLSIZ, position-to, function keys; system panels incl. WRKMBRPDM-style member management. |
| Output & spool | DDS printer files rendered faithfully — EDTCDE edit codes, O-specs, overflow indicators; output queues with WRKOUTQ, CPYSPLF and spool download. |
| APIs & queues | QCMDEXC command execution from programs; data queues (QSNDDTAQ/QRCVDTAQ); message APIs (QMHSNDPM) — the integration idioms real RPG shops use. |
| Operations | Jobs and subsystems (WRKACTJOB), batch via SBMJOB, the job scheduler (WRKJOBSCDE), user profiles and object authority, save/restore (SAVLIB/RSTLIB). |
| Connectivity | Browser 5250, TN5250, FTP, host servers (signon, database, server mapper), DRDA. Same admin API, snapshot and instance machinery as the z/OS side. |
Pricing
Pricing depends on cores, environments and seats — every quote is sized to your estate and team.
Every environment is licensed, not sold: a licence fee plus annual support & maintenance, with fixes and upgrades included while support is active. What the licence covers, the support response targets and how fees are structured are set out on licensing & support.