IBM z/OS Cloud Broker
IBM z/OS Cloud Broker
What is the z/OS Cloud Broker?
The IBM z/OS Cloud Broker brings z/OS-based services and resources into your private cloud platform, creating a modern, cloud-native experience. It's the first software to make z/OS services available within private cloud platforms like Red Hat OpenShift, making these services accessible to the broader development community.
With this tool, you can protect and leverage your IBM Z® investments by integrating them into your hybrid cloud environments and strategies. This allows your developers to quickly create, modernize, deploy, and manage applications securely within your firewall.
The business challenge
Business critical applications running on z/OS are isolated, and installation of any Cloud platform will not integrate my z/OS subsystem within the same control planes.
Personas
Zach the Senior z/OS Systems Programmer
Zach is a seasoned Subject Matter Expert in z/OS, deeply valuing its security, reliability, availability, and scalability. With 25 years of experience, Zach leads a team of experienced System Programmers and Early tenure System Programmers.
Committed and reliable, Zach works in the office daily and ensures smooth operations by coming in for the maintenance window once a month on weekends. He has learned everything on the job and has a comprehensive understanding of the big picture.
As he plans to retire in the next 3-5 years, Zach is concerned about the fast-paced changes in the technical landscape and the relevance of his role. Despite this, his dedication to z/OS and his team remains unwavering.
Chris the early tenure z/OS System Programmer
Chris has 2 years of experience and performs a subset of z/OS planning, ordering, installing, configuring, deploying, maintenance, and troubleshooting tasks.
Chris spends most of her time growing her knowledge of z/OS, since she feels like she is bothering her work colleagues when she has questions because they prefer to work independently.·Chris feels like she is not contributing to her team, due to lack of knowledge.
However, she is driven by a strong desire to learn and grow. Chris pays close attention to detail and strives for excellence in every task. She also utilizes available resources effectively to solve problems and improve her workflow.
Todd the Cloud Operations Administrator
Todd is responsible for provisioning and monitoring the shared resources.
He takes care of setting up and keeping an eye on all the shared resources. This means he makes sure everything is running smoothly and catches any problems before they become big issues.
Todd's work is vital for keeping the whole system stable and efficient, so the organization can function without a hitch.
Painpoints
Zach’s pain points - Zach's workload becomes overwhelming when he receives numerous requests for z/OS resources. He is burdened with manually tracking z/OS common services and resources used by development teams. As the go-to person for answers, Zach finds it challenging to take time for training new team members or exploring new initiatives, leaving him feeling overextended and unable to innovate.
Chris’s pain points - Chris feels frustrated and unproductive, struggling with a sense of inadequacy due to their lack of knowledge, which prevents them from contributing more effectively to the team.
Todd’s pain points - ·Todd needs to consistently provide infrastructure and application development tools to development teams.·He also needs to maintain data governance and control for development environments.
Hill
Zach, Chris, and Todd will easily manage, access, and deploy z/OS resources within their cloud-native environments, allowing them to improve system efficiency and reduce operational burdens, all through a modern, intuitive interface that integrates effortlessly with their existing workflows.
The improved experience
z/OS Cloud Broker overview video.
User interface improvements
Biggest challenge
Before diving into the user interface improvements, I want to acknowledge one of the biggest challenges we faced: the inability to enhance the designs of the Red Hat portion of the experience. Red Hat has its own designers and design methodologies, which we had to respect and work within.
As a user experience designer at IBM, it was essential for me to facilitate seamless context switching across the entire experience. This involved balancing the specific feedback provided by our clients while ensuring a cohesive and user-friendly interface. Despite these constraints, our focus remained on delivering a well-integrated and intuitive user experience.
Click on image to expand
Adding a landing page
With that said, one of the simpler design tasks was creating a landing page. Previously, the z/OS Broker lacked a dedicated landing page, and clients were immediately directed to the operator importer upon navigating to the z/OS Cloud Broker.
A landing page is crucial because it serves as the first point of interaction for users, setting the tone for their entire experience. It provides a centralized hub where clients can access key information, navigate to various features, and get an overview of the system’s capabilities.
This initial touchpoint helps in orienting new users, offering them a clear and organized entry into the platform. For our clients, a well-designed landing page enhances usability, reduces confusion, and streamlines the navigation process, ultimately contributing to a more intuitive and satisfying user experience.
Improving the operator importer
The original operator importer was efficient in its basic functionality, but it lacked robust capabilities, resulting in a minimal experience for our clients. While it served its fundamental purpose, it did not offer the comprehensive tools and features that could enhance the user experience and streamline operations.
In the improved experience, I reimagined and re-designed the operator importer to become an Operator Collection. This transformation was not just a cosmetic upgrade but a complete overhaul aimed at significantly enhancing usability and functionality.
The new Operator Collection includes advanced features that allow users to manage, organize, configure, and deploy operators with greater ease and efficiency. It provides a more intuitive interface and a more seamless workflow.
By expanding the capabilities of the operator importer, the Operator Collection now offers a richer, more engaging experience.
Clients can benefit from improved navigation, enhanced visibility into operator statuses, and more powerful tools for configuration and management. This redesign addresses previous limitations and elevates the overall user experience, ensuring that clients can fully leverage the potential of the z/OS Cloud Broker in their operations.
Past version—operator collection
Click on image to expand
New version—Operator Collection
Click on image to expand
Improving the operator collection details and custom resources
The new operator collection details/custom resource page, offers a significantly more robust experience compared to its previous version.
The previous version was functional but limited in its capabilities, often leaving clients wanting more in terms of features and ease of use.
The previous design was also described as “confusing” by several clients, mainly because some tiles appeared to be clickable but were not. This inconsistency was a significant issue, exacerbated by the fact that the previous UX designer had established a clickable tile pattern throughout the user interfaces but inexplicably failed to follow this pattern in this instance. Such oversight not only undermined the user experience but also created unnecessary frustration and confusion for our clients. Addressing this glaring inconsistency was crucial in my redesign, ensuring a more intuitive and cohesive interface.
This redesign was driven by our commitment to addressing user needs and enhancing functionality.
Past version—Operator Collection details/Custom resources
Click on image to expand
New version—Operator Collection details, as its own separate tab from the custom resources tab
Click on image to expand
New version—Custom resources, as its own separate tab from the Operator Collection details tab
Click on image to expand
Outcomes
Redesigned core workflows to simplify and clarify the developer experience across hybrid cloud integrations.
Created a scalable component system in Figma, improving design consistency and speeding up delivery across teams.
Centralized design assets and UX documentation, reducing misalignment and handoff friction between designers and developers.
Improved first-time use experience by reworking UI flows and content structure, helping users move from setup to success faster.
Accelerated team velocity by building modular, reusable patterns that minimized rework and supported future feature rollouts.
Elevated the overall visual polish and accessibility of the product, ensuring the experience met IBM design standards while staying dev-focused.
Facilitated async design reviews with developers, leading to smoother implementation and fewer iteration cycles during QA.
Earned IBM's Client & Partner Success Award (2022) for this work, a recognition of direct impact on cross-functional outcomes and client success.
Contributed to Cloud Broker’s expansion into public-facing demos and helped set the tone for design in IBM hybrid cloud tooling.
Visit IBM z/OS Cloud Broker, to learn more.