A small Minneapolis mainframe computer software startup is poised to change the way enterprises use and share data across the cloud.

VirtualZ Computing Inc. claims to be the first and only woman-founded and women-led mainframe systems integrator in history. That is a bold position, but perhaps more important is its pair of revolutionary software applications called Lozen and Zaac that connect native mainframe data with various third-party distributed, cloud-based applications.

Mainframes are still used by many enterprises as vast data storage repositories. Although personal computers and cloud-based distributed systems have taken some market share away from mainframes, this data for the most part remains difficult and expensive to access and manipulate.

As a result, an entire industry of extract, transfer and load or so-called ETL tools have grown up – offered by companies such as Snowflake Inc. and Fivetran Inc. – to move data back and forth between the mainframe and the cloud. Another path is to convert all that mainframe COBOL code into Java, something that The Travelers Cos. Inc. mentioned in interviews with SiliconANGLE last month. 

VirtualZ has a better idea. Its software — which runs on IBM Corp.’s z Series equipment —  is still being tested, with a fall release date planned.

ETL is a poor substitute for directly accessing mainframe data for two reasons. First, it requires a static moment in time where data is copied and moved around. Second, the transformation process is complex and requires skilled programmers to make it work without errors, although its latest iterations have made this process easier to manage. The same is true for massive code conversions.

Virtual Z CEO Jeanne Glass

That’s where VirtualZ comes into play. The company’s apps connect to common data formats, including MuleSoft LLC and COBOL data sets, with a series of pre-built connectors.  “We allow the customers business applications – regardless of where they are running – to read and write mainframe data directly,” VirtualZ Chief Executive Jeanne Glass told SiliconANGLE in an exclusive interview. “Because the data stays securely and safely on the mainframe, it is a single source of truth for the customer and still leverages existing mainframe security protocols.”

She explained the need for two software products because Lozen allows access to mainframe data, while Zaac enables access to distributed data. The diagram below shows how Zaac operates.

“The ability to transparently move enterprise applications to the cloud without having to move all the dependent data off the IBM platform will revolutionize the process, the speed and the risk mitigation involved in these complex efforts,” said Barry Wordell, Microsoft Corp.’s worldwide mainframe migration strategist.

VirtualZ takes advantage of several factors. First, today’s IBM z series mainframes bear little resemblance to the System/360 behemoths of yesteryear: They are easily connected to the standard TCP/IP network that every other data communications equipment has used for decades.

Gone is the Systems Network Architecture and 3270 terminals and protocols that once filled the offices and data centers around the world. That makes them easier to share other internet-based applications, servers, routers and the like.

Back in that 3270 era, IBM attempted to make the mainframe part of a collection of its computing equipment with a series of operating systems (remember OS/2?) and a set of peer-to-peer protocols called Logical Unit 6.2 Advanced Program-to-Program Communications. That mouthful was a complete bust when modern IP networks and web applications took hold. As a result, today’s IBM mainframes are also more internet-friendly since they run Linux in addition to their native z/OS operating system.

Second, VirtualZ speaks the IBM’s native data languages, so there is no need to change those ancient COBOL programs that have inhabited those raised floor warrens. And though there are just a couple of prebuilt connectors, VirtualZ has embraced  the OpenAPI consortium, which has support from various software vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce Inc. and others. Microsoft’s Azure Logic Apps, for example, is one instance of these APIs that support low-code and containerized applications running in its Azure cloud.

“Our software could be a major turning point for cloud computing, putting the mainframe as another node in a cloud data cluster,” says Glass.

Featured image: IBM