VirtualZ Computing’s July 2026 newsletter covers Zafin’s platform-wide adoption of PropelZ, a signed enterprise retail deployment to Google Cloud, analyst coverage of AI-ready mainframe data, real-world performance results, new product resources, and real-time SMF archiving.
July was a month of yeses.
A large U.S. bank asked Zafin to take a look at us — and Zafin ended up building PropelZ™ into the platform it delivers to every bank it serves. A global retailer, its outsourcer, and its hyperscaler each brought their own standard of proof to a single POC, and all three said yes; the multi-year agreement is signed and going live now. Meanwhile, analysts are drawing the same line our customers are: AI runs on data, and that data is on the mainframe.
Inside this issue:
- Zafin — one bank’s question became a platform-wide decision
- Intellyx’s Jason Bloomberg on the mainframe bottleneck sitting between enterprises and AI
- Customer Spotlight — three enterprise giants, one POC, 100–200 million records, one signed agreement
- The Numbers People Ask Us For — throughput at volume, in one place
- New on the blog — write the query, skip the copybook
- Press Play — the VirtualZ YouTube channel is live, plus a 60-million-record VSAM move that went from two days to two minutes
- Skyward Data Podcast — why SMF records shouldn’t wait for the nightly batch
- Customer Briefing Center — explore the portfolio at your own pace
In the News
“We’ve Never Heard of You. Our Biggest Customer Has.”
That was how the call from Zafin opened.
A large U.S. bank had heard there was a better way to move mainframe data, and asked Zafin to take a look at VirtualZ.
So Zafin ran a POC. Four steps came out of the data-sharing process. They came out the other side processing more data, faster than they had before. The plan had been to use PropelZ™ for Linux for that one bank. Once they saw the results, they built PropelZ into their platform — for every bank they serve, and more to come.
“By leveraging PropelZ for Linux within our banking platform strategy, we’ve increased throughput, reduced unnecessary processing layers, and improved operational efficiency — all without introducing additional complexity into our systems.”
— Shahir Daya, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Zafin
VirtualZ is new, but the pedigree isn’t — our CTO Vince Re wrote CA-Top Secret, drove the vision behind most of what became Broadcom’s mainframe portfolio, and was elected to the kernel.org team for his Linux-on-mainframe work.
Analyst Coverage
AI Runs on Data. Yours Is on the Mainframe.
Intellyx’s Jason Bloomberg makes the connection directly in his new Brain Candy update: enterprise AI depends on high-quality, current data, and for a lot of enterprises that data sits on the mainframe. His hot take is that VirtualZ resolves a strategic bottleneck to AI adoption.
The piece covers all four products by VirtualZ — PropelZ, FlowZ, Lozen, and Zaac — along with the detail that makes AI timelines work: what typically takes mainframe shops months to install takes hours here.
Customer Spotlight
Three of the biggest names in enterprise IT, each with their own standard of proof, each with a vote.
All three had to say yes. All three did.
The proof of concept met every criterion they set between them. Datasets in the 100–200 million record range moved end to end. VSAM, non-VSAM, GDG, and tape.
Roughly twice the throughput of the Managed File Transfer path they’d been using.
Both movement patterns validated — PostgreSQL-staged and direct file-to-cloud. No custom code. No impact to production while it ran.
The multi-year agreement is signed. The solution is going live now, with the outsourcer installing, running, and supporting PropelZ™ alongside the retailer’s own team. The data lands in Google Cloud.
The Numbers People Ask Us For
We’ve spent the summer in analyst briefings and customer conversations, and the same question comes up in every one: what does this actually do at volume? Here’s the short answer.
New on the Blog
Write the Query. Skip the Copybook.
Databases already know their own structure. PropelZ’s JDBC input connector simply asks — column names, types, lengths — and builds the pipeline from the answer. A DB2 table into Snowflake becomes three steps: write a SELECT, name the target, run it.
Two modes, depending on how your shop works. PropelZ can generate a copybook if downstream processes still expect one, or skip it entirely and process straight through. Either way, when the source schema changes, the pipeline adapts on its own.
Any JDBC source qualifies — Db2 for z/OS, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Databricks. And the skill requirement shifts: if your team can write SQL, they can build the pipeline.
Press Play
Now Streaming on the VirtualZ YouTube Channel
One channel. Every angle. Start here.
Our curated playlists walk you through AI & Modernization Strategy, Use Cases in Action, Product Deep Dives, Security & Compliance, Strategic Partner Conversations, and more — in the order we recommend watching.
From Two Days to Two Minutes.
In our latest webinar, Executive Chairman Marc Sokol and CTO Vince Re walked through a customer’s move of a 60-million-record VSAM file to PostgreSQL in Google Cloud — sustained at 56,000 records per second, with no staging database, no change data capture, and zero lines of custom code.
The job used to be a Friday-night submit and a Monday-morning check. It now finishes while you’re still at your desk, on the customer’s existing 10 Gb link using a few percent of available bandwidth, running zIIP-eligible so there’s no added mainframe cost.
Vince also covered how PropelZ reads a COBOL copybook to transform data field by field on the way to any JDBC target, and how the multiplexer moves thousands of files in parallel rather than one at a time.
Whether you’re 10 minutes in or ten years deep on mainframe modernization, there’s something here that will change how you think about enterprise data access.
On the Skyward Data Podcast
Why do most enterprises still archive mainframe SMF records in daily batches when the records are created continuously?
VirtualZ’s CTO, Vince Re, explains how real-time SMF archiving with PropelZ — our no-code tool for moving IBM Z mainframe data to the cloud — eliminates the data-loss window that batch processing leaves open, and unlocks capabilities batch simply can’t deliver.
SMF (System Management Facilities) records are the mainframe’s audit, security, and performance log. Batch SMF processing was designed for 1990s constraints — expensive bandwidth and local storage — and Vince Re makes the case that the same approach now creates operational risk: batch transfer failures, delayed audit access, and gaps an attacker or outage can fall into. Streaming SMF data continuously to the cloud closes that gap.
In this episode:
- How real-time SMF streaming removes batch transfer failures, delayed audit access, and recovery complexity
- Capabilities batch can’t match: continuous security monitoring, immediate compliance reporting, multi-cloud redundancy
- Why cloud economics favor continuous streaming over large scheduled batch transfers
- Tamper detection through immediate archiving, cross-platform incident correlation, and faster regulatory response
- The shift from SMF archiving as a compliance checkbox to a real-time operational intelligence source
Skyward Data is THE podcast for professionals who want to gain a competitive edge in the evolving data landscape. Join us on your favorite platform, and subscribe to remain ahead of the competition.
Any Platform. Any Input. Any Output. One Patented Portfolio.
On-Demand Customer Briefings
Today’s enterprise leaders want insight, not a sales pitch. That’s why we created the VirtualZ Customer Briefing Center — a self-paced, no-pressure environment where you can explore our patented, no-code data access software when and how it works for you.
“These briefings are designed to put customers in control. They make it easy to explore how our solutions solve real-world problems — at your own pace, with clarity and no noise.”
— Vince Re, CTO, VirtualZ Computing
Thank you!
Thanks for spending a few minutes with us this month.
Whether you’re modernizing storage, accelerating AI, or powering compliance, VirtualZ is here to help you unlock mainframe data with less friction — with our no-code solutions, you can start delivering results today.
Ready when you are:
- Explore at your own pace in the Customer Briefing Center
- Watch demos and webinars anytime on YouTube
- Reach out directly at hello@virtualzcomputing.com
See you next month with more ways to modernize, integrate, and accelerate.
— The VirtualZ Team