Rocket and K2view Tackle Mainframe AI Bottleneck with Secure Test Data

WALTHAM, Mass. – January 20, 2026 – Rocket Software, a global leader in mainframe modernization, has announced a strategic partnership with data product platform provider K2view to address one of the most significant hurdles in enterprise digital transformation: accessing compliant, high-quality test data from core legacy systems.

The collaboration aims to deliver an integrated Enterprise Test Data Management (TDM) solution that combines Rocket Software’s real-time mainframe data access with K2view’s advanced data masking and synthetic generation capabilities. The joint offering is designed to empower organizations, particularly in highly regulated sectors like banking and insurance, to accelerate development, analytics, and AI initiatives without compromising data privacy or overburdening critical systems.

The Modernization Mandate Meets a Data Dilemma

Enterprises today are under immense pressure to innovate. The rise of AI and the demand for agile software development have put a spotlight on legacy systems, especially the mainframe, which remains the backbone for mission-critical operations in most large corporations. According to a 2024 Forrester survey, mainframe footprints are not shrinking but growing, with budgets increasing to support them. These systems hold decades of invaluable business data, the very fuel needed for next-generation analytics and AI models.

However, unlocking this data is fraught with challenges. For industries like finance and healthcare, stringent regulatory frameworks like GDPR and HIPAA govern every byte of customer information. A recent PwC Global Compliance Survey found that 71% of companies expect to undertake digital transformation initiatives requiring compliance support in the next three years, with data protection and privacy ranking as top priorities. This creates a fundamental conflict: developers and data scientists need fast, realistic data to build and test new applications, but providing direct access to live production data introduces unacceptable security risks and compliance violations.

Traditional methods for creating test data, such as cloning production environments or using slow, brittle Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) pipelines, are no longer viable. They are costly, time-consuming, create massive data redundancy, and place a heavy load on mainframe processors, driving up MIPS costs. This data dilemma has become a major bottleneck, slowing innovation and preventing enterprises from fully leveraging their most valuable data assets.

A New Blueprint for Test Data

The partnership between Rocket Software and K2view introduces a fundamentally different approach. It pairs Rocket’s DataEdge virtualization technology with K2view’s AI-ready Data Product Platform to create a seamless pipeline for generating secure, on-demand test data.

Rocket DataEdge provides a virtualized, real-time data layer that allows access to mainframe data without physically moving it or impacting core system performance. This eliminates the need for disruptive data extraction processes. K2view’s platform then takes over, applying sophisticated data management techniques. A key differentiator is its patented entity-based architecture, which organizes all data related to a single business entity—such as a customer or a policy—into a dedicated “Micro-Database.”

This entity-based model ensures that when data is masked or synthesized, its internal relationships and referential integrity are perfectly preserved. K2view can apply a variety of techniques, including in-flight data masking that protects sensitive information as it moves, and advanced synthetic data generation that creates statistically representative, AI-generated data that mimics production behavior without containing any real information. This approach allows development and testing teams to provision production-like, compliant datasets in minutes, not weeks, directly into their CI/CD pipelines.

Unlocking Strategic Value from Legacy Systems

By solving the test data bottleneck, the joint solution re-frames the mainframe not as a legacy burden, but as a strategic asset for innovation. The immediate benefits extend across technology and finance departments, promising accelerated software delivery, strengthened compliance, and significant cost reductions.

“All organizations are under pressure to protect sensitive data within their modernization and AI initiatives,” said Michael Curry, President of Data Modernization at Rocket Software, in the official announcement. “This partnership provides our customers a safe, automated way to generate the test data they need, reducing strain on core systems and unlocking more value from core systems without introducing risk.”

The ability to provision data on-demand drastically reduces development cycles and empowers DevOps workflows. Furthermore, by minimizing mainframe workloads and eliminating redundant data copies, organizations can lower operational exposure and MIPS-related costs.

Ronen Schwartz, CEO at K2view, highlighted the comprehensive nature of the solution. “Enterprises need fast, compliant access to the data that runs their business—not only from mainframes but across every connected system,” he stated. “Together with Rocket Software, we’re giving organizations a unified way to use that cross-system data confidently for testing, analytics, and AI. This partnership reduces MIPS costs, strengthens governance, and improves software quality across the entire SDLC.”

Navigating a Competitive and Regulated Landscape

The Test Data Management market includes established players like IBM, Broadcom, and BMC, which have long offered solutions for mainframe environments. However, the Rocket Software and K2view partnership differentiates itself by wedding real-time virtualization with an AI-centric, data-product methodology. This focus on delivering governed, AI-ready datasets is particularly timely, as many organizations find their AI ambitions stalled by a lack of trusted data.

K2view’s technology has already gained significant third-party validation, having been named a “Visionary” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools for three consecutive years. This recognition underscores its innovative approach to organizing and delivering data as reusable, governed products—a concept central to the joint offering.

The partners report strong early traction, including adoption by a leading regional bank, signaling a clear demand in the financial services sector. To further detail the solution and its applications, Rocket Software and K2view are co-hosting a webinar on January 21st to highlight customer use cases, offering a deeper look into how enterprises can bridge the gap between their most critical legacy systems and the future of data-driven innovation.