The mature software change management processes that manage these massive mainframe applications set a high standard for the distributed systems that surround them.

New application development, however, increasingly leverages newer technologies such as Linux for z, Java, XML and Web services. This presents a software change management (SCM) challenge as the software change management environment more closely resembles a distributed platform than the traditional mainframe application platform. Some SCM tools have risen to this challenge by providing a single point of control for applications that are a composite of the classic COBOL, VSAM code loosely-coupled to C/C++ or Java-based Web services.

The components of Web service-enabled mainframe applications can be exclusively mainframe or can include components distributed across multiple platforms.