VirtualZ’s Solutions for Data Stores
Data stores are a critical component in today’s IT landscape. VirtualZ offers a unique set of solutions — Lozen™, PropelZ, and Zaac™ — that can play a critical role in empowering your data stores in new ways.
In this blog, we discuss what a data store is, some common use cases, and how VirtualZ’s suite of products can power your hybrid cloud applications, improve agility, and support smarter business decisions with complete, consistent, efficiently sourced, and up-to-date data.
What is a Data Store?
A data store is a secure, centralized repository for large volumes of data. It is used to store and retrieve information and typically allows for a wide variety of data types, from structured data like database tables and spreadsheets to unstructured data like emails and videos.
Most organizations use data stores to share and manage information across business units. They are often used for business analytics and reporting, machine learning, big data processing, and SQL queries, to name a few.
Data Store Use Cases
From retail to insurance to healthcare, organizations of all kinds are using data stores to make better decisions, improve efficiency, and generate better outcomes.
- A retail company might use a data store to gain a more complete view of customer interactions and behaviors, which can help improve sales, optimize marketing, and enhance products and services.
- An insurance company might use their data store for insights to expedite claims processing and offer improved pricing.
- A healthcare company might look to a data store to streamline their operations, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs in healthcare delivery.
- And companies of all kinds are investing in AI, including using data stores for model training.
VirtualZ’s Approach
VirtualZ offers a suite of products that empower enterprises with real-time, read-write data access — from any platform, anytime, anywhere:
- Lozen: Lozen is the real-time, no-code alternative for connecting mainframe data to modern apps. Lozen streamlines access to the data you need, making mainframe data available to use across hybrid cloud environments. It provides real-time, read-write access without compromising security or efficiency, allowing you to leverage that data in ways you’ve never been able to before.
- PropelZ: Designed for businesses who need a quick snapshot of their mainframe data for use in their hybrid cloud environments, PropelZ lets you push a copy of mainframe data to your favorite database or data store, allowing you to move quickly, improve agility, and support up-to-date intelligence — delivering results at a fraction of the cost of legacy ETL solutions.
- Zaac: Zaac allows mainframe applications to read and write data from other platforms in real-time, the same way a client would. Now, applications running on IBM Z have real-time, read-write access to data on other storage platforms and to data created by applications running in the cloud and on distributed platforms.
These products — individually and collectively — can play a critical role in empowering your data stores in new ways.
A Use Case Example
Consider a large banking organization with years’ worth of critical data stored on their mainframe.
They want to combine this data with information from other sources from a variety of platforms in a data store. The data will be used in Tableau for improved business analytics across their business units. The bank is also building a mobile app for their customers that interacts with the same data via the data store.
Whenever the data is changed — in Tableau, on the mobile app, or on the mainframe — it needs to be re-synchronized. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including costly, complicated, and highly customized ETL approaches that can take months.
With VirtualZ in the picture, however, it can take much less time, at a fraction of the cost.
Lozen for Data Stores: Real-Time Access to Mainframe Data by Your Data Store
Many of today’s data stores have a static, one-way connection to their data. The information is a snapshot in time, typically delivered via an ETL process.
Lozen offers a different approach.
- It does not simply populate data into the data store — it extends your data store to be able to access the data in a real-time, bi-directional way.
- Lozen is an out-of-the-box, no-code, zIIP-eligible solution that is secure, performant, fault tolerant, and more.
- If you’re using software inside your data store that can use NFS connections, you can easily establish a real-time feed from Lozen.
With Lozen, you can leave day-old data where it belongs — in the past. No more relying on stale data to make important decisions. Eliminate the frustration of inaccurate information, costly manual processes, and waiting a day or longer for data to refresh.
Lozen is the real-time alternative for connecting mainframe data to your data stores and in turn your modern apps. Deliver better apps and drive better outcomes, all without compromising security or efficiency.
PropelZ for Data Stores: A Simpler, More Efficient Way to Populate Your Data Store
If you only need “near real-time” connection to mainframe data in your data store and are looking for a simple and easy way to include it, PropelZ offers an efficient solution.
Designed for businesses who need a quick snapshot of their mainframe data for use in their hybrid cloud environments, PropelZ offers incremental, scheduled update functionality — eliminating the classic ETL expense and inefficiency of continuously replicating full data sets by pushing changes only on the frequency you set.
Use PropelZ to improve agility, support up-to-date intelligence, and deliver results at a fraction of the cost of legacy ETL solutions. Watch our demo or webinar to see PropelZ in action.
Zaac for Data Stores: A Modern Solution for Mainframe Applications to Consume Data from Your Data Store
The first two products we’ve described can play a key role in getting mainframe data into your data stores or databases.
In other scenarios, you might have mainframe applications that need to consume non-mainframe data from your data store.
Zaac offers an elegant solution for this. It gives IBM Z applications real-time, read-write access to data on other storage platforms and to data created by applications running in the cloud and on distributed platforms — including your data stores.
Zaac maintains existing mainframe-level security, letting you control user access to cloud data and securely manage multiple data source connections simultaneously. It’s based on open standards and protocols, simplifying data source integration — and Zaac’s streamlined process makes it very easy to deploy.
Summary
The combination of Lozen, PropelZ, and Zaac can play a critical role in empowering your data stores in new ways. From real-time mainframe data feeds, to simple, efficient, and incremental copies, to delivering data in new ways to your IBM Z applications, VirtualZ offers a unique set of solutions that improve your agility and support smarter business decisions with complete, consistent, and up-to-date data.
