DevOps tools are designed to create an intelligent infrastructure to manage agile applications, and this requires a lot of thought. Most DevOps vendors provide this intelligence with scripts that perform repetitive, time intensive tasks that had previously been done manually. Even so, they tend to be focused on strictly deployment functions and largely ignore some operational challenges that new agile applications often provide. For the most part, DevOps operations staff lack the programming skills to modify these DevOps scripts to accommodate these changes. Moreover, the definition of what an application is has changed: applications are no longer self-contained and can have numerous dependencies including gateways, mainframe database, web servers, and other applications. This distributed architecture makes it difficult for an organization to ascertain the cause of problems. The genesis of the Houston-based firm, eCube Systems is predicated on their continuing efforts to resolve this conundrum for Continuous Delivery. eCube Systems provides Application Performance Management (APM) software that captures the developer’s knowledge, records all the application dependencies, and proactively resolves issues before the end user sees it.

The benefits of an APM greatly increases productivity for the DevOps engineers: using dependency mapping minimizes scripting solutions, and a GUI with one-click administrative controls empowers the DevOps engineer to respond to issues and control the overall health of the application. NXTmonitor simplifies DevOps by abstracting the complex infrastructure with simple-to-use GUI buttons and screens, allowing the DevOps engineers to resolve the cause of a problem quickly without having to modify scripts. NXTmonitor provides a feature known as application orchestration, which enables components to start up orderly with a number of operator controls designed for this purpose. This feature provides automation in application start up, shutdown, and problem resolution.

Complementing NXTmonitor is eCube Systems’ ALM solution is NXTware Remote. This turnkey offering creates a distributed and integrated agile environment for mainframe developers, allowing them to replace the mainframe green screen with a modern desktop IDE with distributed services to the mainframe. In leveraging the Eclipse platform for 3GL development for Fortran, COBOL, BASIC, C and Pascal, eCube uses plugin technology for intelligent editors, remote file browsing, source repository access, and remote compilation. NXTware Remote provides the ability to work remotely from a desktop seamlessly without any of the mainframe infrastructure knowledge.

The advantage of using eCube tools is that it not only supports linux and Windows, but mainframes such as OpenVMS, IBM, and NonStop as well. eCube’s tools are designed for large enterprises that need reliable, adaptable, customizable, and scalable applications. eCube’s clients include many Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Proctor and Gamble, IKEA, Shell, UHC, Hertz, Pepsi, Ford and many others. For instance, a credit card company–one of eCube Systems’ clients–that used OpenVMS struggled to attract new COBOL developers for its mainframe applications. With the adoption of NXTware Remote and a modern interface, a new development environment was implemented and customized as per the credit card company’s requirement, thus allowing them to on-board new developers and extend the life of their COBOL applications.

By solving client problems, eCube Systems endeavors to add more capabilities to its existing portfolio of solutions. To that end, the firm is currently invested in creating a web services version of NXTmonitor, thereby making it more cloud-friendly. All in all, eCube Systems offers unique APM solutions that allow enterprise applications to thrive in any environment.

Location: Houston, TX

Website: ecubesystems.com

Management: Kevin Barnes, President

Description: eCube Systems helps companies maximize return on technology investment by providing development tools, legacy evolution products and consulting services that extend enterprise systems

Quote: “To simplify the complexity of application management, we offer GUI-based solutions that allow DevOps engineers to modify administrative modules within the DevOps tool without editing scripts,”