{"id":3752,"date":"2025-12-02T11:44:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.softwareag.com\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:18:11","slug":"mainframe-data-kafka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.softwareag.com\/en\/blog\/data-integration\/mainframe-data-kafka\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlock the full power of Kafka with mainframe data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Apache Kafka has become the nervous system of modern business. It powers event-driven applications, operational dashboards, and the instant digital experiences your customers now expect. Across industries, organizations are streaming billions of events daily\u2014from mobile transactions to IoT signals to clickstream data\u2014and using those insights to act in the moment. Yet even the most advanced Kafka architectures often miss a critical source of truth: the mainframe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 80% of Fortune 100 companies<\/a> rely on Kafka as their backbone for \u201cdata in motion.\u201d But many of those same organizations still run their core business processes\u2014payments, inventory, customer records\u2014on mainframes that don\u2019t natively connect to Kafka. The result is a modern data pipeline missing its most valuable context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To unlock the full potential of Kafka, you need to bring mainframe data into the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why mainframe data belongs in the stream<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mainframes quietly power the transactions and records that define how large enterprises run. They contain the most accurate, trusted data in the organization\u2014data that represents decades of business operations, customer history, and financial performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrating this data into Kafka doesn\u2019t just expand your data footprint; it enriches it. When mainframe data flows alongside cloud, mobile, and web events, you can see not only what\u2019s happening now but also what it means in context. You can understand patterns, relationships, and anomalies that aren\u2019t visible from application data alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That combination of depth and immediacy is what gives modern data platforms their power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why connecting mainframes to Kafka isn\u2019t easy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mainframes weren\u2019t designed to plug into modern event-streaming platforms. Traditional approaches of establishing this connection\u2014batch jobs, ETL pipelines, or custom APIs\u2014are expensive, fragile, and often introduce more risk than value. They also drain resources, as every data request requires specialized knowledge and time from the DBAs who maintain those systems. Additionally, home-grown connectors and manual extracts often fail to provide the stability and control enterprises need to confidently integrate mainframes into modern data architectures. For many organizations, this is where modernization stalls. The business wants the data, but IT can\u2019t afford the disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protect what matters while enabling progress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Inside every enterprise are the experts who know the mainframe best\u2014the DBAs who keep it secure and stable. They understand how critical those systems are, and they have good reason to be cautious about anything that could compromise them. That\u2019s why the right approach is to empower these mainframe custodians with the tools and confidence to share data safely, without giving up control. When integration is non-invasive, fully governed, and access can be limited to read-only, DBAs can maintain the integrity of the system of record while opening new possibilities for the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A safer way to connect Kafka and the mainframe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s exactly what CONNX for Kafka<\/a> was built to do. It bridges \u201cdata at rest\u201d on the mainframe with \u201cdata in motion\u201d in Kafka, and it does so securely, continuously, and without rewriting a single line of code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONNX for Kafka lets DBAs define and deploy connections in minutes, not weeks. Streams run in one direction, ensuring that mainframe performance and security stay intact. And because it speaks the native language of IBM Z data sources, integration happens without risk or disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n