Everyone’s racing on AI and analytics. Almost no one is feeding those engines with the best fuel they own—mainframe truth. That’s your opening. With DataEdge replication and synchronization (RDRS under the hood), you stream the good stuff from core to cloud without breaking prod, pin the lag graph near zero, and turn downstream teams into raving fans.
Why you should care
- Mainframe data isn’t “legacy”; it’s ground truth. When it lands in your lakehouse, warehouse, or Kafka streams, models get sharper and dashboards stop guessing.
- Execs don’t want slides; they want secure, explainable feeds that don’t spike MIPS or trigger audits. DataEdge is built for that job.
- You own the how. DataEdge is you kit to move it, serve it, and prove it — safely
What to build (and ship) with RDRS
- Log‑based Change Data Capture (CDC) pipelines: Capture mainframe Db2 changes and deliver to Kafka, cloud/object storage, lakehouse, or warehouses. Be surgical—tables, columns, and row filters only.
- Dev/test refresh on autopilot: Initial load + CDC to keep non‑prod close to real time. Make replicas read‑only with target RBAC.
- Locked‑down movement: Transport layer security (TLS) on the wire, approved sources/targets so jobs can talk only to specific, appropriate targets, and detailed movement logs to your security monitoring system. Clean evidence for audits.
- Offload and recover faster: Push read‑heavy work off the mainframe, use online cutovers, and rely on auto‑restart/catch‑up after blips.
Fast patterns that pay
- Fraud/risk: mainframe transactions → Kafka → features with timestamps and keys for traceability.
- Regulatory reporting: replicate critical data elements to a governed target; retain movement evidence for auditors.
- Customer 360: change streams to lakehouse tables consumed by BI and training pipelines.
- Ops analytics: offload recurring reports to replicas—MIPS down, SLAs up.
Your 90-day plan
- Pick 2–3 use cases and 5–10 high‑impact tables. Don’t boil the ocean—boil the kettle.
- Stand up CDC to a landing zone with selective replication. Start minimal; expand when the use case demands it.
- Turn on TLS, bind pipelines to approved sources/targets, export movement logs, and alert on lag/backlog/throughput.
- Run an online initial load + CDC. Pause it, resume it, verify catch‑up. Rehearse your cutover.
- Deliver a daily or continuous non‑prod refresh; enforce read‑only on targets.
- Publish a tiny “Replication Health” view: freshness (lag), coverage of gold datasets, incidents, SLA status.
Numbers your execs will actually quote
- Time to stand up a new feed and time to refresh non‑prod to near‑zero lag.
- Lag/backlog reduction and SLA hit rate for priority datasets.
- Redundant jobs retired and compute/MIPS avoided by offloading reads.
- Audit items closed using movement evidence and scoped access.
- Downstream wins: fewer data‑caused defects, faster model/data product releases.
Traps to dodge
- Replicating everything “just in case.” Don’t. Just. Don’t. Start surgical.
- Open‑ended endpoints. Use approved sources/targets and least‑privilege on targets.
- Ignoring schema changes. Let DataEdge auto‑apply compatible changes and alert on the rest; re‑sync after filter changes.
- Flying blind. Wire replication delay/queue/throughput into monitoring on day one; test catch‑up monthly.
What’s in the box (RDRS capabilities you’ll use)
- Log‑based CDC with online/zero‑downtime cutovers.
- Selective replication by table/column/row filter; throttling and apply windows.
- TLS in transit, approved sources/targets the job can connect to, and detailed movement/health logs to your security monitoring system.
- Metrics and alerts for replication delay/queue/throughput; auto‑restart and catch‑up; schema changes awareness.
Why is this worth your weekend coffee?
- You make AI and analytics actually current.
- You cut toil and tickets in dev/test.
- You give Security clean evidence instead of excuses.
- You lower mainframe impact while keeping the crown jewels safe.
Your move
- Post one replication pattern you shipped (source → target, average lag, one gotcha).
- Share a redacted Replication Health screenshot or the alert rule that saved you.
- Ask for help on your next cutover, filter strategy, or schema changes plan—we’ll trade playbooks.
Less PowerPoint, more pipelines: Let’s turn mainframe truth into your superhero turn—with RDRS.
*The hands-on practitioner remix of our CDO white paper. Leaders set the vision; you ship the wins…
Cape optional.
