IBM announced <A HREF="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/19620.wss">new software and initiatives</A> that will help companies handle the explosion of business processes and applications that are turning the IBM System z mainframe into a global hub of Internet-based computing. IBM is announcing new, easy-to-use software tools that will help meet the demand for more programmers writing mainframe applications for an SOA environment. IBM Rational COBOL Generation tools are based on new technology created at IBM's Software Development Lab in Raleigh, North Carolina. To help independent software vendors (ISVs) develop and market new mainframe software applications, IBM is announcing Systems z for ISVs, a new worldwide initiative that provides software vendors with technical, sales and marketing resources to build applications that run on IBM middleware and System z.