How PropelZ™’s modular architecture enables “any data source to any target platform” — and why this design principle is transforming enterprise integration.
When enterprises evaluate integration tools, they typically think in terms of specific use cases: “We need to move mainframe files to Snowflake” or “We want to modernize our DB2 databases for cloud analytics.” Each requirement feels like it needs a separate solution.
But what if one architecture could handle all of these scenarios — and combinations you haven’t even thought of yet?
PropelZ handles VSAM files, JDBC databases as input sources, real-time console message streams, SMF record archiving, structured data feeds to Splunk, and parallel processing across hundreds of thousands of files.
More importantly, any of these inputs can route to any of the supported outputs through the same transformation pipeline.
This versatility isn’t the result of building dozens of point-to-point connections. It comes from a fundamental architectural decision: separate inputs from outputs, and make every input work with every output.
The Traditional Approach: Point-to-Point Integration
Most enterprise integration tools are built around specific use cases. Want to migrate VSAM files to cloud analytics platforms? There’s a connector for that. Need to move sequential files to modern databases? Different connector. Planning to archive historical data to cloud storage? Yet another connector.
This approach works fine — until your needs evolve.
What happens when you want to take that mainframe data and route it to multiple targets? Or when you need to modernize database systems and stream them to your analytics platform? Suddenly you’re buying multiple connectors, managing multiple integration points, and hoping they all work together properly.
The PropelZ Architecture: Universal Compatibility
We designed PropelZ differently. Instead of purpose-built point-to-point connectors, we created a modular architecture where any input can connect to any output through a common transformation pipeline.
Here’s how it works:
- Input Layer: Connectors that understand how to read from specific data sources — VSAM files, databases, system logs, cloud storage, whatever the source might be.
- Transformation Engine: The core PropelZ pipeline that normalizes, transforms, and routes data according to your business rules.
- Output Layer: Connectors that know how to write to specific targets — databases, cloud storage, monitoring tools, analytics platforms, anywhere you need the data to go.
The magic happens because every input connector speaks the same “language” to the transformation engine, and every output connector receives data in a format it knows how to handle.
Real-World Examples of Any-to-Any Integration
This architecture unlocks combinations that would be expensive or impossible with traditional point-to-point tools:
- Healthcare Database Modernization: A major healthcare organization needed to migrate DB2 tables containing patient data to PostgreSQL in the cloud, while simultaneously archiving historical records to cost-effective cloud storage. One pipeline, two outputs, complete data lifecycle management.
- Retail Legacy System Integration: A large retailer needed to modernize their inventory management system while maintaining their existing mainframe applications. The requirement: stream VSAM inventory data to modern cloud databases for real-time analytics while keeping core transaction processing on the mainframe.
- Financial Services Multi-Cloud Strategy: A financial institution required accessing mainframe data for modern banking applications running in the cloud, enabling real-time product configuration and pricing calculations while maintaining data consistency between legacy and cloud-native systems.
- Mainframe Modernization Programs: Working with hyperscalers and application modernization partners, enterprises require phased modernization approaches. Legacy applications continue running on mainframes while new cloud-native services need access to the same data through any-to-any pipelines.
- Financial Services Data Integration: A major bank needed to integrate mainframe customer and transaction data with modern cloud-based applications for enhanced customer experiences and real-time decision making, while ensuring data consistency across legacy and new digital banking platforms.
The Technical Foundation: Metadata Abstraction
The key to making any-to-any work is metadata abstraction. Every data source has its own way of describing what the data looks like — column names, data types, relationships, constraints. PropelZ normalizes all of these into a common metadata model.
Our JDBC input connector illustrates this perfectly. When you connect to any database, the database itself tells PropelZ the structure of the data it’s going to provide. PropelZ translates that into its internal metadata format, which any output connector can understand.
Result? You don’t need separate COBOL copybooks for different database sources. You don’t need custom mapping logic for each input-output combination. The architecture handles the translation automatically.
Operational Benefits: Simplicity at Scale
This architectural approach delivers practical benefits that matter for enterprise operations:
- Reduced Integration Complexity: Instead of managing dozens of point-to-point connections, you manage inputs, outputs, and the transformation logic between them. Much simpler operational model.
- Future-Proof Flexibility: Need to add a new data source? Add an input connector. New target platform? Add an output connector. Your existing pipelines don’t need to change.
- Cost Efficiency: Pay for the connectors you actually need, not a massive suite that includes everything. Start with one input and one output, add more as your requirements grow.
- Easier Testing and Validation: Want to test a new target platform before committing to it? Route a subset of your data to both the old and new targets. Compare results. Make the switch when you’re confident.
- Disaster Recovery Options: Your data pipeline can simultaneously write to your primary target and a backup location. If something goes wrong with your primary system, you’ve got real-time backup data ready to go.
The Linux Advantage: Cloud-Native Any-to-Any
While our z/OS product handles mainframe-specific sources beautifully, our Linux version unlocks even more possibilities. A Linux virtual machine in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud can act as a universal data transformation hub.
Read from a PostgreSQL database in one cloud, transform the data according to your business rules, and write it to Snowflake in another cloud. Or pull data from multiple SaaS applications and route it to your data lake. The Linux deployment gives you any-to-any capabilities without using mainframe MIPS for non-mainframe workloads.
Looking Forward: Unlimited Expansion
The any-to-any architecture means PropelZ can grow in directions we haven’t even imagined yet.
Customer needs a connector for a specialized database we’ve never heard of? As long as there’s a JDBC driver for it, we can probably support it. New cloud platform emerges with innovative storage options? If it has REST APIs, we can likely build an output connector. Specialized monitoring tool becomes popular in your industry? We can route data to it.
The architecture doesn’t limit us to predefined use cases. It adapts to whatever combination of sources and targets makes sense for your specific environment.
The Bottom Line: Architecture That Scales with You
Enterprise needs evolve faster than software release cycles. The systems you’re integrating today probably weren’t on your radar three years ago. The platforms you’ll need five years from now might not even exist yet.
PropelZ’s any-to-any architecture is designed for that reality. Instead of locking you into specific integration patterns, it gives you the building blocks to adapt to whatever your business requires.
One input connector plus one output connector gives you a complete integration solution. Add more inputs and outputs as your needs grow, without rearchitecting anything you’ve already built.
That’s the power of separating inputs from outputs and making everything work together. It’s not just good software architecture — it’s a business strategy that keeps your integration infrastructure flexible as your enterprise evolves.
Next Steps
- Learn more about PropelZ 2.0.
- Schedule a PropelZ briefing.
- Watch a demo of PropelZ.
- Try PropelZ.
Learn More
- Visit our Customer Briefing Center.
- Review all VirtualZ Use Cases, Thought Leadership papers, and Solution Briefs.
- Explore our YouTube channel, podcasts, and blog.
- Still have questions? Contact us.
