RVS Systems

News

15. October 2026

rvs-Systems Featured in CIO Times

The international IT magazine CIO Times features rvs-Systems as the cover story of its latest issue. Under the headline “Turning Structural Discipline into a Business Advantage”, the magazine profiles our Distinguished Software Engineer Martin Brauer and our approach to the mainframe.

At its core is an idea that has always guided us: legacy is not a burden but a valuable inheritance. The business processes our clients have built over decades are what set them apart. Our goal is not to replace them, but to extend them with modern technologies.

The article covers, among other topics:

  • Why the mainframe has a future: Its I/O performance, availability and security make it the ideal partner for real-time streaming with Kafka.
  • The zKafka Connector (RzK): It gives any mainframe application direct, bi-directional access to Kafka. It integrates natively with CICS, IMS and DB2, and can even be used directly from JCL without a single program change.
  • Responsible use of AI: Where AI supports our work, and why protecting our clients’ source code comes first.
  • Architecture over “code-and-fix”: Martin’s path from monolithic Assembler to modular, testable software, shaped by Niklaus Wirth. In his words: “Complexity is the enemy of stability.”

Our thanks go to CIO Times for the feature and to our team, who live this approach every day.

RVS Systems Cover Cio Times
Read the full article

27 June 2025

rvs-Systems launches new version 1.3.1 of the zKafka Connector (RzK),
the API and connector for any of your z-System programs to any Kafka cluster

We are proud to announce the release of version 1.3.1 of our product rvs-Systems zKafka Connector (RzK).

RzK Warp Speed Messaging

Designed to integrate seamlessly into any IBM z application or program using only 4 commands to produce data to or consume data from any Kafka cluster.

Version 1.3.1 introduces key features that enhance quality (transaction processing and idempotent producer support), performance/speed (message batching) and support for Kafka v4.0.

RzK Function Overview Sales

New in RzK v1.3.1 – Kafka v4.0 support

RzK API Overview

Added in RzK v1.3.0

  • CICS Transaction support
    Enhanced CICS support, including new example transaction programs and jobs.
  • IMS Transaction support
    New example transaction programs and jobs available.
  • Kafka Transaction support
  • Kafka Idempotent Producer support
    Assures that no duplicate messages will be processed.
  • Increased Performance: Kafka Message Batching support
  • Kafka Compressed Topic support
  • Kafka Cluster Control – z/OS program-controlled remote administration of Kafka topics and groups. A limited but most useful set of functions for listing, retrieving information, adding & deleting topics and consumer groups.
  • New RzK API options allow for a finer, more granular control of the RzK API, fine-tuning performance, or setting compression options.
  • 64-bit support (a RzK API Dynamic Link Library (DLL) for 64-bit (RZK64X))

For more information about the zKafka Connector and to discover how this solution can support your integration of z applications and the open world Kafka cluster, please visit zKafka Connector (RzK).

An evaluation package at no cost is available on our home page: RzK Evaluation Package.

About the zKafka Connector (RzK)

RzK is a single stand-alone solution which is fully integrated into z/OS:

  • Written and optimized for z/OS
  • Very small CPU & storage footprint
  • No additional components, products or middleware required
  • Status of transmissions known at any time
  • Dedicated error feedback, i.e. simplified analysis in case of errors
  • Simple installation
  • Lots of ready-to-run examples to start immediately
RzK Cobol

rvs-Systems GmbH Software house (ISV) is specializing in IBM z Software.