VirtualZ Computing, a company offering out-of-the-box solutions to connect mainframes to hybrid clouds for bi-directional data access, has successfully raised $2.2 million in seed financing, led by Next Frontier Capital. Other participating investors include 2M Companies, Innosphere Ventures, and Next Coast Ventures. With this seed funding, VirtualZ has raised a total of $4.9 million to date.
The Minneapolis-based company addresses the challenge of accessing critical business data stored on IBM Z platforms within large enterprises. Many enterprises rely on mainframes due to their unparalleled reliability, stability, security, and scalability. However, accessing this data has proven difficult, leading to enterprises spending millions on custom code to extract, transform, and replicate data copies from mainframes to hybrid clouds.
VirtualZ aims to streamline and secure this process with its Mainframe Data Access Solution, consisting of three components:
- Lozen™: Enables real-time, read-write access to mainframe data for hybrid cloud, SaaS, distributed, and custom applications without moving the data. It runs on the zIIP engine and installs in minutes.
- Zaac™: Provides mainframe applications with real-time, read-write access to external data, including hybrid cloud, physical storage, and SaaS. It builds on the benefits of Lozen and is set to be available in Q1 2024.
- PropelZ: Allows the creation of a copy of mainframe data for experimentation or analysis in hybrid cloud environments. This utility enables organizations to push one-time copies of mainframe data for a fraction of the cost of legacy ETL solutions.
VirtualZ’s solutions aim to eliminate the challenges posed by moving copies of data, providing real-time access to mainframe data without compromising security. The funding will support the company’s growth, helping build out a sales team and expanding development capabilities to meet the expected demand for its solutions.
Jeanne Glass, CEO and co-founder of VirtualZ, highlighted the significance of addressing the mainframe data access problem, stating that the funding will support the company’s growth and ensure it can rapidly respond to the expected increase in demand for its solutions.
