Introducing Zaac™
Connect Your Mainframe to Any Data, Anywhere
With the rise of hybrid cloud, data is being generated and stored all over the place. The mainframe, the cloud, SAN devices, SaaS applications – they all hold a piece of your data story, but connecting that story has been a growing problem.
While many new options have been introduced for low-cost, high-performance storage to help companies innovate, save costs, and increase flexibility, mainframe applications haven’t been able to access and manipulate data from these non-mainframe sources as equal citizens. As a result, companies have had to abandon many projects simply because it was too hard or too expensive to get data back to the mainframe applications that needed it. Not anymore.
Current Approaches Are Expensive and Restrictive
Today, most companies create custom code to connect mainframe applications to non-mainframe data. This process is very expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone – not to mention, it creates a significant maintenance burden.
These storage platforms are continually changing, meaning the code used to access them must be updated to prevent applications from breaking. And large organizations are likely to need many instances of this code, causing the problem to expand tremendously.
Other approaches restrict you to specific types of data or require you to buy into a predefined architecture and build apps according to their defined requirements, limiting you to a small set of applications as opposed to a general-purpose solution that can connect your mainframe applications to any data source.
Enter Zaac
Any mainframe application, any type of storage.
- Zaac removes the barrier between the mainframe and other data sources, allowing mainframe applications to process and update non-mainframe data as if it were stored locally, no matter where it is.
- It provides mainframe applications with real-time, read-write access to any data, anywhere. And it does this without requiring mountains of code or a complex architecture to maintain – the no-code approach lets you access the data directly and maintain that access easily.
- Zaac is the only solution that does all this. Any application that can reference local files can reference the cloud or any other non-mainframe data source. That includes apps connecting to low-cost local storage devices sitting right in your own data center.
- Best of all, you don’t even have to lose any of the mainframe’s classic strengths. You still have full security and the ability to set policies on what apps can reference what data.
Why Zaac, Why Now
Connect mainframe applications to non-mainframe data
- Zaac provides mainframe applications with real-time, read-write access to any data, anywhere
- Cloud, distributed applications, and connected storage devices
- Leverage proven, open-source industry standards to connect to other platforms
Take full advantage of low-cost, high-performance storage
- Store data wherever you need it without impacting your mainframe applications’ ability to access and update that data
- Bi-directional, automatic data transformation allows mainframe applications to seamlessly generate data on and/or process data from cloud, storage, and distributed platforms
- Move data around without worrying about access issues or dependencies as your needs change
Maintain the security benefits of the mainframe
- Secure operation, including integrated authentication, authorization checking, and data privacy enforcement
- Zaac also supports security protocols of storage platforms and off-mainframe applications
- Compatible with mainframe utilities, including auditing, management and backup tools
Simple, no-code approach lets you use with ease
- Zero code required to set up, removing a costly, time-consuming barrier
- Zero code changes required to maintain access when storage platforms make changes
What can Zaac do for me?
With Zaac, the mainframe is elevated so that it has the same data access capabilities as any other platform. Applications running on IBM Z now 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.
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.
Unlock a new universe of data sources for your IBM zSystems applications and consume data any way you choose, in an efficient and controlled way. Zaac enables your mainframe with:
Real-Time, Read-Write Access to Cloud and Distributed Application Data
Real-Time, Read-Write Access to Connected Storage Devices
Bi-Directional Data Transformation
Real-Time, Read-Write Access to Cloud and Distributed Application Data
I have a mainframe business application running on z/OS that needs to read and write data to cloud object storage, such as Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and more.
I am generating data in a SaaS application, such as Salesforce or Workday, that I need to consume in my mainframe application.
Zaac is a no-code solution, providing a simple and straightforward way to configure mainframe applications with real-time, read-write access to data in cloud and distributed platforms — without intermediaries or manual efforts.
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Real-Time, Read-Write Access to Connected Storage Devices
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I want my mainframe applications to read and write data in my on-premises Dell, IBM, Hitachi, and other connected storage devices.
I want my mainframe to leverage low-cost storage for test data, backups, and more — both on- and off-premises.
I want my mainframe to have the ability to ‘burst’ into the cloud for low-cost storage capacity.
Zaac enables access to file systems on any device through network protocols like iSCSI and others, giving mainframe customers the ability to connect a variety of devices to their mainframe. Zaac also brings the same level of capabilities present in other storage platforms to the mainframe, making this data available to any IBM zSystems application.
Concurrent Access to Multiple Data Sources
I want to simultaneously write to multiple cloud providers in parallel, such as Microsoft Azure and Google, for fault-tolerance.
I want to de-couple application processing and data storage. I have a mainframe application simultaneously reading records from multiple storage platforms, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon S3, and I want to write the output to Dropbox.
I want to put a mainframe-generated document in hundreds or thousands of individual Dropbox accounts.
Zaac enables mainframe applications to access multiple data sources in parallel within a single application, making concurrent access to multiple data sources easily achievable.
Bi-Directional Data Transformation
I want a robust data transformation capability to map data residing in cloud, storage, and distributed platforms to my mainframe applications using VSAM and QSAM.
I require data transformation to be driven by copybooks and other existing definitions for my mainframe applications.
I prefer an open, standards-based approach to defining metadata in a simple XML format to control data transformation/conversion.
Our innovative approach to real-time, read-write data access includes data transformation, which is often required to ensure mainframe applications can process data generated on cloud, storage, and distributed platforms.
If you are an application developer looking for ways to integrate and transform cloud, storage, and distributed data into your mainframe applications, Zaac offers a robust data transformation capability. With Zaac, all applications consume the data they need in a way that is most natural for processing.
Zaac Delivers Cost Savings
Zaac delivers cost savings for your organization, empowering you with:
- A no-code solution that eliminates the cost of developing, de-bugging, and maintaining custom applications for every storage platform you want to connect to.
- Flexibility to have low-cost storage to avoid the expense of adding additional mainframe devices.
- The ability to match the needs of your applications to take advantage of low-cost storage, such as application testing.
- Reduced MIPS and network consumption with real-time, read-write data access.
- The ability to reduce or eliminate software license fees, such as ETL, file transfers, and other legacy data access and transformation software.
Schedule a Briefing
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