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Phoenix Software International Announces IBM^® JES3 Licensing Agreement

El Segundo, CA—October 2, 2019: Phoenix Software International, Inc., today announced they have entered into an agreement with IBM^® under which Phoenix Software International has licensed the source code for IBM’s z/OS JES3 spooling subsystem, offering a solution to clients wishing to remain on JES3.

“As a founding member of what eventually became the SHARE JES3 Task Force, Phoenix Software has been working since mid-2017 with customers and IBM to find a simple, no-cost alternative to a JES2 conversion. Today we’re proud to announce an agreement with IBM to provide JES3 customers with exactly that,” said Ed Jaffe, Chief Technology Officer at Phoenix Software International. “Phoenix Software’s offering is based on IBM’s JES3, is fully supported, has a road map for enhancements, and can be implemented by existing IBM JES3 customers through a trivial migration and at no additional cost.”

The Job Entry Subsystem (JES) is a component of IBM’s z/OS operating system responsible for managing batch workloads. Minimum JES functionality includes reading jobs into the system, selecting them for processing, managing/printing their output, and purging them from the system. Uniquely, JES3 provided multisystem coupling, intelligent tape sharing, resource routing, load balancing, dynamic initiators, pre-execution device setup, job networks, deadline scheduling, multisystem consoles, a JESplex-wide merged log, and other capabilities that simplified the operation and management of loosely-coupled systems nearly two decades before the emergence of sysplex support in the base operating system. This functionality made JES3 the favored alternative in many customer installations, especially those with high-volume data processing requirements.

“We are excited about the opportunity to license a component of the z/OS operating system and provide a solution to support customers wishing to remain on JES3. Having worked with this technology for approximately 30 of the 40 years that Phoenix has been in business, we have a long-standing heritage that positions us to take on this initiative,” said Fred Hoschett, Chief Executive Officer at Phoenix Software International.

“We are pleased Phoenix Software chose to license JES3 as IBM exits this space. They have decades of experience as an IBM business partner, and this provides a path to clients who choose to remain on JES3.” said Ross Mauri, General Manager for IBM Z.

For more information on Phoenix Software’s offering go to www.PhoenixSoftware.com/jes3plus.htm