Enhanced BMC Database Management Solutions Continue to Drive Down Mainframe Operating Costs and Improve Availability

Organizations today are tasked with delivering additional application availability while facing exploding data growth that places increased stress on already demanding service levels. With most large companies relying on the mainframe and the IBM® DB2 for z/OS® system as the back-end data and application server for these applications, they must improve IT infrastructure efficiencies at a price that the business can support.

To help IT organizations keep costs low and optimize the performance of DB2 database management systems, BMC Software (NASDAQ:BMC) today announced its broadest DB2 release in the company’s history with more than 20 mainframe service management products now supporting DB2 10 for z/OS. With IBM noting an estimated 5 to 10 percent improvement in CPU performance out-of-the box, BMC’s solutions for DB2 10 for z/OS will help IT organizations further maximize cost savings as well as enhance the performance of their applications and databases with the latest version of DB2.

BMC’s Support of DB2 Aligns with Delivery of Business Goals

BMC’s support of DB2 10 for z/OS ties directly to its Business Service Management strategy to reduce costs and increase business availability through IT resources. Understanding that the ability to deliver any business service starts with data availability. BMC’s new solutions provide improvements that:

• Effectively maximize the investment from CPUs and specialty engines, reducing variable workload costs and delaying costly hardware upgrades
• Ensure business application availability and reliable performance to meet business needs
• Minimize costly mainframe downtime and the risk of change and data integrity exposures

“Precisely because DB2 v.10 reinforces that platform’s continued and future relevance to business critical applications and services, it is absolutely essential that the management of DB2 be deeply integrated with cross-IT BSM architectures and processes,” said Will Cappelli, research vice president, Gartner.

BMC’s solutions for DB2 10 for z/OS continue with BMC’s tradition of supporting the latest mainframe and database management systems. BMC solutions reduce IT costs and keep mainframe systems optimized. Companies around the world like BMW rely on BMC data management solutions to help deliver their business services.

“As a leading manufacturer of premium automobiles and motorcycles, BMW prides itself on delivering superior products and customer service,” said Philipp Nowak, DB2 product manager, BMW. “And superior products and service all starts with the quality and availability of our business data. We rely heavily on DB2 for z/OS and view the DB2 10 for z/OS release as a critical component to help us manage our database management environment. BMW has used BMC’s DB2 change management solutions for numerous years and we are excited to utilize BMC’s new support for DB2 10 for z/OS in an effort to increase availability and efficiently manage our data growth.”

Solutions Further Enable zIIP Processing and CPU Savings

In addition, BMC’s solutions for DB2 10 include increased capabilities for customers to take advantage of System z® Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs). The new capabilities help offload BMC’s DB2 product workload to the zIIP environment thereby reducing general purpose processor utilization. These capabilities help reduce the cost of MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second), one of the primary costs associated with the mainframe. With the ability to move specific processing to available zIIP engines, customers will reduce their costs and continue to maximize their mainframe investment. The amount of processing offloaded to zIIP engines varies. With the new release, for example, up to 80 percent of the data collection work for BMC SQL Performance for DB2 can be offloaded.

Performance Enhancements Mitigate Risks and Costs

BMC solutions for DB2 10 for z/OS provide enhancements that help companies tune application and database performance, keeping IT costs low while increasing mainframe efficiency. Innovations include the SQL Performance Workload Compare Advisor and Workload Index Advisor that detect performance issues associated with changes in DB2 environments. Users can see the impact of changes before they are implemented avoiding performance problems. Making sure that data is available and performing optimally is important to many companies and government entities as well, including the Land Registry for England and Wales.

“The purpose of Land Registry is to maintain and develop a stable and effective land registration system that provides state-backed security of title to registered estates and interests in land throughout England and Wales. In providing this service our organization manages and creates an extraordinary amount of data,” said Phil Board, DB2 Data & Storage, technical lead, Land Registry. “Making sure that Land Registry data is secure, well organized, highly available and easily accessible to our customers is a high priority and supports our aim to complete registration applications quickly, accurately and efficiently. We strive to achieve performance targets set by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State and the efficient management of our data is key in enabling us to do just that.”

Customers Realize the Value of BMC’s Solutions for DB2

With 50 percent of respondents to BMC Software’s annual mainframe survey noting that they will switch to DB2 10 for z/OS in the next 18 months to save IT costs and improve mainframe performance, it’s essential that companies have the tools that enable them to exploit the cost savings afforded by DB2 10 for z/OS. This is especially important in industries where data growth is significantly expanding, including financial and telecommunication sectors as well as insurance agencies like Swiss Mobiliar (one of the leading providers of insurance and pensions in Switzerland).

“Swiss Mobiliar customers rely on the performance and availability of our IT infrastructure. With 600 million database transactions daily on average, performance of our insurance and pension applications is mission critical. BMC APPTUNE for DB2 identifies and optimizes costly DB2 transactions and helps Swiss Mobiliar to eliminate performance problems,” said Thomas Baumann, team leader, Data Management, Swiss Mobiliar Insurance. “With the performance enhancements announced by IBM in DB2 10 for z/OS, we at Swiss Mobiliar expect further CPU reductions and cost savings on our mainframe platform. We plan to migrate to this new DB2 release within the next eight to 12 months. It’s good to know that when Swiss Mobiliar is ready to migrate to DB2 10 for z/OS, BMC APPTUNE for DB2 will already be there.”

“BMC’s solutions for DB2 10 for z/OS provide our customers with the cost savings and performance upgrades they need to stay competitive in this data-driven business world,” said Bill Miller, president, Mainframe Service Management, BMC. “Our database management solutions continue to show that BMC is a leader in providing new and enhanced mainframe service functionality that optimizes mainframe costs and performance.”

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Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software.

Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster and stronger. That’s why the most demanding IT organizations in the world rely on BMC Software across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. Recognized as the leader in Business Service Management, BMC offers a comprehensive approach and unified platform that helps IT organizations cut cost, reduce risk and drive business profit. For the four fiscal quarters ended December 31, 2010, BMC revenue was approximately $2 billion.

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