One dataset. Every cloud at once. No pipeline to build.
That’s not a hypothetical — it’s what VirtualZ CTO Vince Re walks through on this month’s Skyward Data podcast: a single mainframe dataset routed to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud simultaneously, from one PropelZ™ configuration. The old assumption that you have to choose a cloud quietly disappears.
It’s the kind of shift we’re seeing across our customer base: enterprises that have stopped treating mainframe data as a separate, slower world — and stopped treating the cloud as a single destination they have to commit to.
The common thread is a willingness to question assumptions that have gone unchallenged for decades, whether that’s how fast mainframe data can move, how much it should cost to store, or how many places it can live at once.
This month’s issue is built around that pattern — the customers and partners proving it works, the numbers behind it, and the conversations moving the industry forward.
Inside this issue:
- What others are saying — customers, hyperscalers, and analysts on VirtualZ, in their own words
- Proven at scale — the performance numbers behind the claims
- On the blog — how we point our own mainframe backups at the cloud with FlowZ™
- On the podcast — a fresh multi-cloud strategy from Skyward Data
- On the road — catch us live at two IBM Z Customer Councils this July
Let’s get into it.
What Others Are Saying
When enterprises evaluate mainframe data integration, they ask the same three questions: Does this work at production scale? Who else has done it? What do the hyperscalers and analysts think? This month, we’re letting the answers speak for themselves.
“We can move the data from the mainframe to a Postgres database in one step, removing 3–4 significant steps. We’re seeing a good increase in performance and handling larger volume transactions with a lot better performance.”
— IT Executive, Banking Fintech
“We’re seeing PropelZ™ sustain around 56,000 records per second — in one run it moved 60.9 million records in 18 minutes. That’s roughly twice the throughput of the managed-file-transfer approach, and the data comes through intact, with no impact to production, whether it’s VSAM, non-VSAM, tape, or GDG.”
— Systems Specialist, Fortune 500 Retailer
“Lozen was incredibly easy to install and configure. Even with our complex AWS and mainframe environment, it integrated smoothly, ensuring secure, real-time data access — everything worked as expected on the first try.”
— Gilberto Biondo, Sr. Specialized Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services
Read the AWS Partner Network Blog →
“Together, VirtualZ and Progress are helping customers simplify integration and bring legacy data into modern environments faster — backed by the performance and reliability of our DataDirect connectivity.”
— Dennis Bennett, Principal Sales Engineer, Progress Software
Read the Case Study →
Proven at Scale
Numbers tell the rest of the story. Here’s what customers are experiencing — faster movement, bigger volumes, lower cost.
- 56,000 records per second, sustained across datasets of 100–200 million+ records, mainframe to cloud.
- 460,000 VSAM records loaded to PostgreSQL on Google Cloud in 25 seconds. Read the full results →
- 2 hours down to under 5 minutes on a 400,000-record workload.
- ~9,000 tape files processed 100-wide in parallel in under 18 hours.
- 8–10x throughput improvement with an optimized JDBC driver. Progress DataDirect Case Study →
- 26,000 64 KB records per second sustained at ~3% zIIP utilization — multiple terabytes per hour, without consuming billable MIPS. Progress DataDirect Case Study →
New on the Blog
What’s the Best Way to Do Mainframe Backup and Archive to the Cloud?
We run a mainframe too — so when it came to protecting our own backups, source code, and logs, we practiced what we preach and pointed it all at cloud object storage with FlowZ™.
The numbers surprised even us.
The old answers to mainframe backup — network-attached storage, Blu-ray stacks, tapes headed off-site in a van — were expensive, fragile, and only truly “off-site” if the copy wasn’t sitting ten feet from the machine. FlowZ takes a different path: cloud storage (Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob) shows up as a normal output target, so the mainframe writes to it the same way it writes to tape.
No custom code, no cloud-side software, no new routine for the team to babysit.
The results after a year in production: months of retained backup data costs pennies — a fraction of comparable local capacity. A common 3390-9 volume backs up in under a minute over an ordinary gigabit line; with compression and free-space savings, throughput scales right alongside your bandwidth. And because FlowZ is zIIP-eligible, it all runs with minimal impact to general-purpose MIPS.
The most honest endorsement we can give it: we trust FlowZ to protect our own crown jewels. The cloud path is more approachable — and a lot cheaper — than conventional wisdom suggests.
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.
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.
Two IBM Z Councils. Four No-Code Answers.
We’re taking the full no-code portfolio to the Northeast this July for two back-to-back IBM Z Customer Council events. Move it, store it, access it live, or run it as native storage — come see all four answers to “Where do you want your data?” in person. Both events are free for IBM Z customers and partners in the region.
Portland, ME — July 21
Founder and CEO Jeanne Glass closes out the Portland IBM Z Customer Council with “Where Do You Want Your Data? Four No-Code Answers for IBM Z” at 4:00 PM ET. The session walks through how enterprises move IBM Z data, access it live in place, and extend mainframe storage to the cloud — all out-of-the-box, with no application changes, no custom code, and no production disruption. The afternoon also features sessions from IBM, 21CS, and Pellera.
DiMillo’s On the Water, Portland, ME | Register at ibm.biz/MaineJuly21 →
Boston, MA — July 22
The very next day, we’re exhibiting PropelZ™ at the Northeast IBM Z Council’s first-ever Demo Showcase — an open-plan, walk-at-your-own-pace experience where you can explore live demos and talk shop with IBMers, ISVs, and business partners. Stop by the VirtualZ station to see no-code data movement in action: any input, any output, any direction, proven at 56,000 records per second, mainframe to cloud.
21CS Boston Office, Long Wharf, Boston, MA | Register at ibm.biz/BOSJuly22 →
On the Skyward Data Podcast
One Mainframe Dataset, Every Cloud at Once
What if choosing a cloud provider wasn’t a choice at all? In the latest episode of Skyward Data, VirtualZ CTO Vince Re makes the case for treating multi-cloud as a mainframe data strategy — not a vendor decision.
The idea: route a single z/OS dataset to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud simultaneously, from one PropelZ™ configuration — no separate integration to build and maintain for each provider. That opens the door to using each cloud for what it does best: Google Cloud for analytics, Azure for enterprise integration, AWS for scale, all at the same time.
Vince walks through the real-world payoffs — cross-continent disaster recovery, geographic distribution that meets regional compliance requirements, and cost flexibility from matching workloads to the best pricing across providers. The shift he describes is from choosing a cloud to orchestrating several, without managing a single homegrown pipeline.
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.
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