Containerization on z/OS: Running Applications with z/OS Container Extensions (zCX)

z/OS Container Extensions, or zCX in short, offer a revolutionary way to run container workloads based on Linux natively on IBM Z within the z/OS environment. This paper takes a deep dive into zCX architecture to understand its components, integration with the workload of z/OS, operational mechanics for deploying containerized applications, and unique advantages compared to standalone implementations of Linux on IBM Z. This paper also looks into some examples of how to build and run a "Hello World" Java application and demonstrate tight integration with z/OS subsystems like CICS and DB2. The paper concludes by evaluating zCX's role in modern application development and its potential to streamline hybrid workloads