Introducing Zaac™: A New Universe of Data Access for Mainframe Applications

Coming Soon

Business-critical data is stored in a variety of locations — in the cloud, on SAN devices, or in SaaS applications, just to name a few. Until now, the mainframe has not been empowered with equivalent data access capabilities as these other platforms.​

That’s where Zaac comes in. Zaac operates under the concept of
“IBM zSystems as a Client” — allowing mainframe applications to read and write data from other platforms in real time the way a client would. The name “Zaac” is also inspired by the name “Isaac” to honor the Nordic and Hebrew heritage on the team at VirtualZ.​

zWaaS before VirtualZ

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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 zSystems 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. ​

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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​

​Concurrent Access to Multiple Data Sources

Bi-Directional Data Transformation

Real-Time, Read-Write Access to Cloud and Distributed Application Data

Quotation mark – thin-min

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.

Quotation mark – thin-min

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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Quotation mark – thin-min

I want my mainframe applications to read and write data in my on-premises Dell, IBM, Hitachi, and other connected storage devices.​

Quotation mark – thin-min

I want my mainframe to leverage low-cost storage for test data, backups, and more — both on- and off-premises.

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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

Quotation mark – thin-min

I want to simultaneously write to multiple cloud providers in parallel, such as Microsoft Azure and Google, for fault-tolerance.

Quotation mark – thin-min

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.

Quotation mark – thin-min

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.

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Bi-Directional Data Transformation ​

zWaaS before VirtualZ
Quotation mark – thin-min

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.​

Quotation mark – thin-min

I require data transformation to be driven by copybooks and other existing definitions for my mainframe applications.​

Quotation mark – thin-min

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.​
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Schedule a Briefing​

zWaaS before VirtualZ

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Please complete this form to schedule a Zaac briefing: