10. A non-transitory computer readable medium forming a computer storage product, comprising executable instructions to: receive a first data record schema and a second data record schema, wherein the first data record schema differs from the second data record schema in at least one of endianness, character encoding and localization; convert the first data record schema into a first representation and the second data record schema into a second representation, wherein the first representation and the second representation have a common encoding or syntax that is independent of the at least one of endianness, character encoding and localization; create a standardized data record schema based on the first representation and the second representation; receive a parameterized location of a data record corresponding to a Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) copybook and information about the data record format; and process the data record based on the standardized data record schema; wherein the standardized data record schema is created by (i) generating a hierarchical structure of field definitions for the standardized data record schema corresponding to the COBOL copybook, and (ii) attaching information extracted from a COBOL data definition contained in the COBOL copybook to a corresponding field definition contained in the standardized data record schema.
10. A non-transitory computer readable medium forming a computer storage product, comprising executable instructions to: receive a first data record schema and a second data record schema, wherein the first data record schema differs from the second data record schema in at least one of endianness, character encoding and localization; convert the first data record schema into a first representation and the second data record schema into a second representation, wherein the first representation and the second representation have a common encoding or syntax that is independent of the at least one of endianness, character encoding and localization; create a standardized data record schema based on the first representation and the second representation; receive a parameterized location of a data record corresponding to a Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) copybook and information about the data record format; and process the data record based on the standardized data record schema; wherein the standardized data record schema is created by (i) generating a hierarchical structure of field definitions for the standardized data record schema corresponding to the COBOL copybook, and (ii) attaching information extracted from a COBOL data definition contained in the COBOL copybook to a corresponding field definition contained in the standardized data record schema. 17. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising executable instructions to receive a description of a data file containing the data record.