Skyward Data

How do you get mainframe files into Amazon S3, Azure Blob or Google Cloud Storage without staging, FTP scripts or a gateway server? In this episode, VirtualZ Computing founder and CEO Jeanne Glass talks with co founder and CTO Vince Re about FlowZ, VirtualZ's patented, no-code software that lets existing z/OS jobs read and write cloud object storage directly, with a small change to their JCL. Vinc...

Most enterprise data sharing tools were designed in the 1980s and 1990s, before TCP/IP was common and before the public cloud existed. In this episode of Skyward Data, Jeanne Glass, founder and CEO of VirtualZ Computing, explains why those tools can't keep up with today's demands, and why customers, outsourcers, systems integrators, and software providers are turning to PropelZ as the new standard...

Every plan to use mainframe data in the cloud starts the same way: "first, make a copy." In this Skyward Data episode, VirtualZ Computing Founder & CEO Jeanne Glass and Co-Founder & CTO Vince Re — the original author of CA Top Secret — explain how to give cloud, distributed, and AI applications live, real-time read and write access to mainframe VSAM data without moving or copying it, using Virtual...

Why does "just send us the file" take six to eight weeks per extract when an enterprise shares data with its ISV, and what changes when PropelZ from VirtualZ Computing runs on both sides of the feed, whether the data lives on IBM Z, IBM i, Linux, Windows or in a SaaS tenant? Every ISV runs on data its customers have to send it. Every enterprise sends its data to a long list of ISVs and service pro...

How do you move a million mainframe data sets from IBM z/OS to the cloud without a multi-year project? VirtualZ Computing Executive Chairman Marc Sokol and CTO Vince Re walk through the PropelZ Multiplexer — the component that turns a list of 100,000 or 1,000,000 files into a single, self-managing job. Moving mainframe data isn't the hard part. PropelZ does that at 56,000 records per second, mainf...

VirtualZ Computing Executive Chairman Marc Sokol and CTO Vince Re break down how a Fortune 500 retailer moved a 60-million-record VSAM file from z/OS to PostgreSQL in the cloud at a sustained 56,000 records per second — with no staging database, no change data capture, and zero lines of custom code. The same file on their previous solution ran for two days. VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method) is...

How does customer-driven development shape an enterprise mainframe data integration product? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how the most important features of PropelZ — VirtualZ's no-code tool for moving and replicating IBM Z mainframe data to the cloud — came directly from real enterprise customer problems rather than internal feature speculation. Vince Re walks through specific origin...

Why do most enterprises still archive mainframe SMF records in daily batches when the records are created continuously? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how real-time SMF archiving with PropelZ — VirtualZ's 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 (...

How cheap and how fast can mainframe-to-cloud backup actually be? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re shows how VirtualZ backs up its own IBM Z mainframe — system backups, source code, and operational logs — by streaming them straight to cloud object storage with FlowZ, VirtualZ's no-code tool for using Amazon S3, Azure Blob, and Google Cloud as mainframe backup and archive storage, for pennies a mont...

Can you route the same mainframe dataset to AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and IBM Cloud at once? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how PropelZ — VirtualZ's no-code tool for moving and replicating IBM Z mainframe data to the cloud — sends a single dataset to multiple cloud platforms simultaneously from one configuration, so enterprises use each provider's strengths instead of locking into one. V...

How do you get IBM Z mainframe security data into Splunk without custom development? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how the PropelZ Splunk connector — part of VirtualZ's no-code tool for moving mainframe data to the cloud — streams SMF records, RACF logs, and console messages directly into an existing Splunk SOC, so the system processing your most sensitive data is no longer a blind spot...

What is the mainframe skills gap, and how can enterprises close it without hiring more COBOL programmers? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re tackles one of the most pressing problems in enterprise IT: the COBOL, JCL, and REXX experts who keep IBM Z mainframes running are retiring faster than they can be replaced, and few new engineers are trained on those technologies. The mainframes still process co...

What if enterprise integration software were priced like a smartphone app store — pick the specific capabilities you need and skip the ones you don't? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how VirtualZ applies that model to mainframe integration, letting enterprises choose individual connectors and capabilities instead of buying a large suite and using a fraction of it. Vince Re contrasts the t...

How do you monitor IBM Z mainframe and cloud infrastructure in one place instead of two separate systems? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how PropelZ's console logging connector streams mainframe console messages directly into modern monitoring tools, so operations teams see mainframe, Kubernetes, and cloud alerts in a single unified view rather than treating the mainframe as an isolated...

Why does moving DB2 mainframe data to platforms like Snowflake still require weeks of manual COBOL copybook creation — and how can you skip that step entirely? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how PropelZ's automatic metadata discovery removes copybook work from database integration, so a DB2-to-Snowflake migration that used to take months can run in minutes. Vince Re breaks down why copyb...

How do you migrate 200,000+ mainframe datasets to the cloud when transferring them one at a time would take months? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re explains how the PropelZ multiplexer turns massive mainframe data migrations from an operational nightmare into an automated, parallel process — moving hundreds of datasets at once instead of queuing them individually. Vince Re walks through inventory-...

What's new in PropelZ 2.0, and what does the release change for enterprise mainframe data integration? VirtualZ Computing CTO Vince Re walks through the major 2.0 release of PropelZ — VirtualZ's no-code tool for moving and replicating IBM Z mainframe data to the cloud — covering dozens of customer-requested features, including a 60% throughput improvement and native binary data handling. Vince Re...

What happens when mainframe-grade data movement runs anywhere, not just on z/OS? VirtualZ Computing Co-Founder and CTO Vince Re joins Co-Founder Dustin Froyum to introduce PropelZ for Linux — the multi-platform extension of VirtualZ's no-code data movement engine — which takes the same engine proven on IBM Z and runs it anywhere Java runs. Vince Re walks through the architecture: why the core engi...

What really slows down IBM Z modernization? It's not the application code — it's the data. In this episode of Skyward Data, VirtualZ Co-Founder Dusty Froyum and Marc Sokol (Executive Chairman, former SVP at CA Technologies) break down what actually happens inside enterprise VSAM-to-PostgreSQL migrations, and why the data layer is the hardest part to get right. Drawing on decades in the mainframe w...

Why does data access — not application code — stall so many enterprise modernization initiatives? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, VirtualZ joins Progress Software to explore how organizations modernize data access across hybrid environments without disrupting the systems that run their business. Dennis Bennett, Principal Sales Engineer at Progress Software, jo...

Why do enterprises struggle to use their own data for AI — even when the data already exists? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, VirtualZ CEO Jeanne Glass lays out a 2026 framework for activating enterprise data across mainframe and cloud, instantly and safely, so AI initiatives aren't starved of the data they need. Jeanne Glass argues that modernization is no lo...

How can mainframe teams meet PCI DSS 4.0's tougher continuous-monitoring and audit requirements without custom scripting? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, co-founders Vince Re and Dustin Froyum explain how real-time, no-code data access from IBM Z to Splunk simplifies PCI DSS 4.0 compliance. PCI DSS 4.0 raises the bar for continuous evidence collection, monitor...

What separates CIO visionaries from CIO operators in 2026, and how do you build an AI-ready enterprise without risky migrations? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, VirtualZ CEO Jeanne Glass shares a CIO vision for modernizing the enterprise without operational disruption — arguing that the real bottleneck for AI and modern analytics isn't infrastructure, it's acc...

What does the future of ETL look like as enterprises move from batch processing to real-time, AI-ready data integration? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, Founder and CEO Jeanne Glass explains how traditional batch-based ETL is giving way to real-time, cloud-ready, AI-enabled data integration — and why operational data locked inside IBM Z systems is both the big...

Why is digital transformation in 2026 no longer cloud-first, but data-first — and what does that mean for systems integrators and outsourcers? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, Founder and CEO Jeanne Glass explains why AI readiness is fundamentally a data access challenge, and how integrators delivering AI, analytics, hybrid cloud modernization, and storage tran...