Why There’s No Time to Wait
For cybersecurity professionals tasked with securing hybrid IT environments, 2025 is a defining year. The need for real-time visibility, seamless integration, and robust data governance has never been more critical. Yet, many organizations still struggle with siloed security tools, limited mainframe observability, and manual processes that delay threat detection and compliance efforts. These gaps create security blind spots, increase risk, and hinder the ability to respond to evolving threats.
The clock is ticking. If your organization is still relying on outdated security practices or struggling to integrate data into modern security frameworks, you’re already falling behind. VirtualZ is here to help you catch up — and get ahead — with proven, no-code solutions that deliver instant visibility, automated compliance, and seamless integration across hybrid environments — without disruption or costly overhauls.
The future of cybersecurity is here. Are you ready?
Key Objectives for Cybersecurity Professionals in 2025
1. Achieve Real-Time Visibility Across Hybrid Environments
Challenge: Security blind spots persist due to siloed data and limited integration between mainframe, cloud, and distributed systems.
Solution: Leverage tools like VirtualZ’s PropelZ ™ to stream mainframe security logs (SMF, SYSLOG, RACF) in real-time to SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Exabeam, and Elastic.
Goal: Enable instant threat detection and response by correlating mainframe security events with enterprise-wide threat intelligence.
Industry Insight:
“PropelZ is a very straightforward install — you create the ZFS, upload it, untar it, and it’s ready to go. It doesn’t take much time at all, just a couple of hours to get the product laid down and installed in a testing environment.”
— Jerry Edgington, Senior Solutions and Innovation Consultant, Mainline Information Systems
2. Seamlessly Integrate Mainframe Security with Modern SIEM and Observability Tools
Challenge: Traditional batch-based processes delay threat detection and limit real-time insights.
Solution: Adopt no-code SIEM integration solutions like PropelZ to automate log formatting and eliminate the need for custom middleware or ETL processes.
Goal: Streamline security log management and improve SOC (Security Operations Center) visibility without disrupting operations.
Key Benefits:
- Instant SIEM integration for mainframe security logs.
- Faster threat response with real-time insights.
- Simplified compliance monitoring for regulations like GDPR, NIST, and PCI DSS.
3. Unify Mainframe Observability with Cloud-Native Monitoring
Challenge: Mainframe observability is often siloed, relying on legacy tools that lack real-time insights.
Solution: Use PropelZ to convert IBM Z system logs, performance data, and security events into OpenTelemetry-compliant traces, logs, and metrics.
Goal: Gain end-to-end visibility across hybrid environments — mainframe, cloud, Kubernetes, and distributed applications.
4. Strengthen Data Governance and Access Controls
Challenge: Ensuring secure, role-based access to sensitive mainframe data while maintaining compliance.
Solution: Implement solutions like Lozen™ to provide direct, secure access to mainframe data without replication, enforcing encryption and role-based access controls (RBAC).
Goal: Automate compliance audits and improve security governance with real-time monitoring of all access requests.
Key Benefits:
- Reduce risk exposure by accessing mainframe data securely.
- Ensure compliance with GDPR, NIST, SOC 2, and FFIEC.
- Monitor and audit all access requests for improved governance.
Industry Insight:
“Lozen was incredibly easy to install and configure. The step-by-step documentation made the process seamless, and with responsive support, everything worked as expected on the first try. Even with our complex AWS and mainframe environment, Lozen integrated smoothly, ensuring secure, real-time data access.”
— Gilberto Biondo, Sr. Specialized Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
5. Embrace OpenTelemetry for Hybrid Cloud Observability
Challenge: IBM Z lacks native OpenTelemetry support, creating a blind spot in security monitoring and threat detection.
Solution: Use PropelZ to connect IBM Z logs to modern monitoring tools like Datadog, Prometheus, AWS CloudWatch, and Splunk.
Goal: Enhance forensic investigations with structured, real-time logs and achieve full hybrid cloud observability.
Key Benefits:
- Bring IBM Z security data into OpenTelemetry-powered SIEM tools.
- Gain end-to-end security observability across hybrid environments.
- Enhance forensic investigations with real-time, structured logs.
Why VirtualZ for Cybersecurity Professionals
By 2025, cybersecurity professionals will need to bridge the gap between legacy systems and modern security tools. VirtualZ offers a no-code, automated approach to:
- Eliminate SIEM and OpenTelemetry integration challenges.
- Ensure real-time security monitoring across hybrid IT environments.
- Automate compliance and governance without disrupting mainframe operations.
- Bridge the observability gap between IBM Z, cloud, and SIEM platforms.
Don’t Wait — Take the Next Step in Cybersecurity Modernization Today
The future won’t wait, and neither should you. VirtualZ is here to help you meet your 2025 goals — faster, smarter, and more efficiently than ever before. Take the next step to see how VirtualZ enables SIEM and OpenTelemetry integration.
- Watch demos of Lozen, PropelZ, and Zaac.
- Try Lozen, PropelZ, and Zaac.
- Read our Modern Observability for Hybrid Cloud Environments white paper.
- Visit our online resources: Solutions, Thought Leadership papers, Solution Briefs, YouTube channel, podcasts, and blog.
With the right tools and strategies, cybersecurity professionals can secure the future of hybrid IT — without complexity, risk, or disruption.