Discover And Protect Sensitive Data In Large z/OS Data Sets With SchemaLink Technology

PK Protect for z/OS empowers organizations to accurately perform discovery and protection against their critical data stored in large VSAM clusters, sequential (extended and GDG), Partitioned (and extended), and Tape data sets on IBM Z mainframes. PK Protect for z/OS results are unmatched in the industry, giving your regulatory, data governance, and security teams the confidence they need to face oncoming audits and security challenges now and well into the future.

An Introduction to PK Protect

Trusted By

fiserv
JP Morgan Chase
Truist
Western Union
Citi
Centene Corporation

Why PK Protect for z/OS?

Unmatched Data Discovery for z/OS

Leverage data definitions and copybooks for precise identification of sensitive data in unstructured mainframe datasets—no guesswork required.

Legacy Data, Modern Protection

Safeguard decades-old data scattered across dev, test, and prod environments—even orphaned datasets—with automated discovery and classification.

Compliance Without the Complexity

Easily meet regulatory and internal policy requirements while avoiding costly penalties and manual validation processes.

Secure the Hybrid Cloud Transition

Protect sensitive mainframe data before migrating to the cloud, minimizing breach risks and reducing exposure to ransomware threats.

Designed To Protect What They Are Already After: The Data

PKWARE’s data-centric approach safeguards your valuable data across endpoints, the cloud, databases, data lakes, and wherever it is stored. This enables you to comply with critical worldwide privacy laws and regulations while securing the very target that hackers are already pursuing – your sensitive data and maintaining your customers’ trust. Our customers use PK Protect as a fundamental component of their corporate data compliance strategy because, when a breach occurs (and it inevitably will), it won’t matter much. Your data is already protected and rendered unusable based on your policies.

Comply with Almost Any Regulation

comply with regulations

Use PK Protect to comply with GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and many other important worldwide mandates.

Building Reliable Data Governance

avoid penalties and fees

Establish confidence that all valuable data has been identified and is continuously protected according to organization policy.

Start Your DSPM Journey

DSPM

Gain insight into your sensitive data, where it is, who has access to that data, and how it has been used.

PK Protect For z/OS With SchemaLink Technology Is The Solution

PK Protect for z/OS with SchemaLink Technology solves the issue of sensitive data duplication, replication, and proliferation. It offers a secure method for managing personally identifiable information (PII), thereby ensuring data privacy and adherence to compliance regulations.

SchemaLink Technology* is an innovative feature within PK Protect for z/OS that provides unparalleled support for files, whether they have copybooks or not. This pioneering technology is one of the first in the industry that delivers enhanced flexibility and convenience allowing you to easily protect and manage your data, regardless of the file structure, making PK Protect for z/OS the ultimate solution for comprehensive data security and accessibility. This means we use YOUR data definitions to read YOUR data sets to provide you with an accurate way to discover and protect sensitive data on z/OS.

Precision Discovery with SchemaLink

Only PK Protect for z/OS uses your copybooks and data definitions to scan VSAM, GDG, sequential, PDS, and tape data sets—uncovering orphaned and hidden PII with unmatched accuracy.

Efficient, Cost-Saving zIIP Processing

Our hybrid Java + assembler architecture intelligently offloads work to the zIIP engine—reducing CPU costs and ensuring mainframe efficiency without sacrificing comprehensive discovery.

Protect Before Hybrid & Minimize Breach Impact

Secure sensitive data in-place on z/OS, eliminating copies in USS and transit—then extend protection persistently as data moves to hybrid cloud or analytics platforms.

Securing PII Data: How One $35B+ Financial Institution Transformed Their Cloud Data Security Strategy with PK Protect

Discover how a leading $35B+ financial institution revolutionized its cloud data security by seamlessly integrating PK Protect into its AWS architecture. Faced with the challenge of identifying and masking sensitive data within compressed parquet files, the bank implemented a fully automated solution that delivers large-scale discovery, precise remediation, and detailed reporting—without disrupting operational flow. Download the full case study to see how PK Protect empowered their team to safeguard PII in real-time and maintain compliance across dynamic data streams.

Commercial Banking

Securing PII Data: $35B+ Financial Institution Transformed Their Cloud Data Security Strategy

What Customers Have to Say About PK Protect

Data privacy is going to continue to be important. And given that we operate at a global scale, we have to stay on top of that. This is why we are making investments in technology and working with partners like PKWARE.

Harveer Singh, Western Union

I have had an excellent overall experience with PKWARE, from the initial implementation and training to the ongoing support. The continued assistance is truly appreciated. PK Protect is a powerful solution backed by exceptional support.

IT Director, PK Protect Customer
With PKWARE’s data security technology, I have confidence that we are meeting our data compliance goals. The encryption enables us to protect all of our data across platforms.
Large Enterprise Banking Company

Frequently Asked Questions

PK Protect Endpoint Manager (PEM) is a solution designed to automatically discover, classify, and protect sensitive data across endpoints such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and servers. It uses automated tools to find data wherever it resides or moves, applies classification and visual tags, and enforces security through encryption and redaction, helping organizations safeguard their data and comply with regulatory requirements.

The platform provides several key features:

  • Automated data discovery on endpoints and cloud applications
  • Data classification based on custom policies
  • Strong encryption for structured and unstructured data
  • Redaction tools to permanently remove sensitive information from files, images, and emails
  • Secure email sharing for sensitive information both internally and externally

PK Protect Endpoint Manager (PEM) is designed to discover, classify, and protect sensitive data specifically on endpoints such as laptops, desktops, servers, and mobile devices, including data in cloud applications like Microsoft 365. It focuses on real-time data protection at the device level, offering features like encryption, redaction, and secure email sharing.

Protect Data Store Manager (DSM) is built to secure sensitive data wherever it resides in large-scale data repositories—such as databases, data lakes, and cloud environments—using techniques like encryption, tokenization, and data masking. DSM is optimized for enterprise-scale, structured data protection and compliance across vast, centralized data stores.

Yes, PK Protect Endpoint Manager allows organizations to create and enforce custom policies for data discovery, classification, and remediation. This includes defining how sensitive data should be handled—such as specifying when to apply encryption or redaction—based on your organization’s unique requirements. The platform supports both basic and complex policy creation, enabling tailored remediation workflows that align with business needs and compliance mandates.

PK Protect Endpoint Manager is designed to minimize disruption to users and device performance. It uses lightweight agents and optimized processes to ensure that discovery, classification, and remediation activities occur with minimal impact on system resources. While any endpoint security solution can have some effect on performance due to real-time scanning and monitoring, modern solutions like PEM leverage efficient algorithms and cloud-based resources to reduce local resource consumption and maintain a responsive user experience.

Additional Resources

PK Protect Supports Some of the Industry’s Top Platforms

Talk to an Expert

Discover how our Enterprise Data Protection Solution can protect your sensitive data wherever it lives—on-prem, cloud, or in motion. Get tailored insights from our experts today.