TLDR: IBM Data Replication team improves customers' access to data storage systems and is introducing multiple product updates to reflect modernization journeys. Recent updates include the launch of IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source capture engine, support for targeting CockroachDB and sourcing from Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enabled and managed SQL Server environments, and IBM’s acquisition of StreamSets.

Today, enterprises are dependent on data for a variety of use cases, such as high quality decision making, artificial intelligence (AI), insights and analytics, customer experience, fraud detection, and many more. Without a business model that is data-driven, many organizations risk losing their competitive advantage. And while quality data is the cornerstone of successful business operations, many struggle with data accessibility. Indeed, nearly 50% of data analysts' time is spent working retroactively trying to find or access data. Without proper data access at the right time, enterprises could face impact to their bottom line.

Data accessibility obstacles will only compound as data growth explodes: stored data is set to increase by 250% by 2025, with data rapidly propagating on premises and across clouds, applications, and locations. Considering these trends and the critical nature of access to the right data at the right time, organizations need solutions.

Enter IBM Data Replication, a key component of IBM’s Data Fabric architecture that customers can leverage to unlock data across their heterogeneous environment and deliver that data for downstream use. This tool enables enterprises to deliver high volumes of data between sources and targets for near-real-time data delivery with low-latency, high throughput, and minimal impact to their core transaction processing systems. 

By syncing mission critical data and propagating changes as they occur across a hybrid cloud environment, organizations can:

• React to changes in near real-time: Enhance customer experiences and ensure proactive business decision making based on current events by capturing changed data from major databases with low latency

• Improve business insight: Deliver data into analytics platforms, streaming applications, or ETL to power insights and operational reporting

• Deliver continuous operations: Avoid unplanned downtime and prevent disasters by syncing data to provide high availability of mission-critical data

IBM Data Replication continues to modernize, delivering new updates that improve customer access to accurate, reliable data. First, the team is excited to announce the launch of IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source. This new feature rounds out the trifecta of the IBM Data Replication remote source offerings, which include IBM Data Replication VSAM for z/OS® Remote Source and IBM Data Replication Db2® for z/OS Remote Source. 

IBM Informational Management System (IMS) is a hierarchical database, also known as a transactional system of record, that is robust and scalable, ensuring high availability and reliability for critical business applications. IMS integration with modern technologies and its depth of security features make it an ideal solution for organizations aiming to optimize performance and reduce operational costs. IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source enables customers to continue to leverage these benefits of IBM IMS while also unlocking their transactional data to drive AI and analytical insights. 

IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source is a remote replication engine that replicates IBM IMS source data, with minimal impact on the transactional system of record, to one or many distributed targets. The solution enables clients to remotely capture changes in their IMS source and delivers them to all distributed targets supported by Change Data Capture (CDC) (see full list here). The remote source capture engine reduces resource contention while delivering high efficiency and throughput as data is delivered to many distributed targets. By delivering consumable data to analytics applications, ETL tools or event streaming platforms such as Apache Kafka, this new offering unlocks operational data for analytics and distributed applications. Additionally, the replication engine is lightweight and installed on a virtual machine via a container for ease of deployment.

IBM Z is an essential system of record for transactional data. Use of IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source helps customers access this mission-critical data for downstream use cases, thereby leveraging the strengths of both source and target environments.

For customers interested in analyzing and building AI models from data originating on IBM Z, they can leverage IBM Data Gate for watsonx to synchronize IBM Z data to the lakehouse. With Data Gate for watsonx, users can synchronize select IBM Z data sources including Db2 for z/OS, IMS and VSAM data to the Iceberg open-source table data format in watsonx.data. watsonx.data is built on an open lakehouse architecture, enabling them to capitalize on the high performance and usability of a data warehouse as well as the flexibility and scalability of a data lake. With IBM Data Gate for watsonx, customers can unlock and use the most up-to-date transactional data in machine learning or AI models.

In addition to IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source, IBM Data Replication added support for new modern sources and targets, specifically delivery to CockroachDB and capture from Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enabled and managed SQL Server environments. 

CockroachDB is a cloud-native distributed SQL database, a variant of PostgreSQL, that is designed for high availability, scalability, and consistency, with support for heavy workloads. As inferred by its name, it is augmented to be indestructible as it rebalances and repairs itself automatically, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance without compromising performance. This makes it ideal for cloud-native applications requiring seamless scaling and robust data integrity across multiple regions. With IBM Data Replication, clients can now deliver data to CockroachDB from any CDC supported source, including IBM IMS with the new remote engine, with minimal impact, low-latency, and high throughput. This new support empowers customers to enjoy all the benefits of the database while also unlocking hard to access data for downstream purposes. 

In addition to CockroachDB, customers can now leverage IBM Data Replication to access and synchronize data to their desired target from TDE enabled SQL Server. TDE is a security feature used to protect databases by encrypting the data at rest, helping to prevent unauthorized access to the data and log files. Historically, data from a SaaS TDE enabled source presented users challenges as it was difficult to get access to the logs in a managed environment. With many of the Microsoft SQL environments moving to the cloud, these TDE enabled sources represented an obstacle as customers have increasingly modernized their tech stacks. This new addition to IBM Data Replication enables access to protected data as IBM Data Replication is optimizing accessibility to encrypted databases. This new update represents again how IBM Data Replication is evolving to satisfy new use cases and also handle modern workloads. 

Finally, with our recent acquisition of StreamSets, we have added real-time data streaming for our customers by extending the depth and breadth of IBM’s Data Fabric and Data Integration capabilities. Users can now leverage IBM Data Replication to replicate data to Apache Kafka, for example, where IBM StreamSets can then subscribe to Kafka topics and consume messages, allowing it to process and integrate real-time data streams from Kafka into various downstream systems or further process them within the pipeline. 

These new features demonstrate the IBM Data Replication team’s commitment to meeting the evolving needs of customers. The latest updates, including the launch of IBM Data Replication IMS for z/OS Remote Source, support for CockroachDB and TDE enabled SQL Server, the launch of IBM DataGate for watsonx, and the acquisition of IBM StreamSets, demonstrate IBM’s dedication to ensuring seamless data integration and synchronization across hybrid cloud environments. By providing flexible and scalable data replication capabilities, IBM Data Replication empowers enterprises to unlock the full potential of their data and drive business success in the era of hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments. 

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