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Breaking News - Operating Systems & Middleware:

BMC Manages Mainframe, Dist. Databases From Common Console

Further extending its seven-year lead in the Data Management Facilities market, BMC Software Inc, a leader in enterprise management, announced the first true integration of mainframe databases into the company's SmartDBA console with the introduction of SmartDBA System Performance for DB2. The announcement marks a significant milestone for customers as they can now manage their mainframe and distributed enterprise databases using a common Web-based console. BMC Software is the only vendor that can address IT organizations' challenge of managing increasingly complex environments by providing the ability to manage all major databases (DB2 Universal Database for mainframe and distributed platforms, Oracle, Sybase and SQL Server) from one Web-based console. This integrated enterprise data management strategy provides a closed-loop process for proactively identifying, preventing and resolving database problems before they affect the business. As a result, IT organizations can better manage what matters most, the data that powers their business.

"Data and database management require an integrated, holistic approach actively linked to enterprise competitive operation. Successfully addressing this challenge requires intelligent, automatic management of a complex heterogeneous data environment. BMC continues to deliver products that reflect their clear understanding of the challenge and ability to tackle it," said Rich Ptak, partner at Ptak, Noel & Associates Inc.

"For businesses to effectively align their IT operations and services with business goals, they must start by gaining control of their IT infrastructure, and data is a key component of that," said Bill Miller, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Data Management at BMC Software. "We are aggressively building upon our data management offerings to provide our customers with solutions that empower IT to deliver strategic business value. The end result for our customers is rapid deployment of tools and faster time to value, which will enable them to better manage their data and IT challenges for optimal business performance."

The announcement marks a significant milestone in BMC Software's previously announced blueprint for lowering the cost of managing data across the enterprise. The goal of this initiative is to provide deeper levels of interoperability and integration between management tools for mainframe and distributed database management systems by bridging them with the company's SmartDBA Web-based console and technologies. With the introduction of SmartDBA System Performance for DB2, BMC Software is extending the advanced functionality it delivers for managing DB2 on z/OS to the SmartDBA console. In doing so, BMC Software is reducing the need for companies to have "experts" for each database by leveraging database administrator (DBA) skill sets across multiple databases.

"Today's DBAs want all pertinent information at their finger tips, instantly. The manual process of hitting the enter key and waiting for the next panel to appear is no longer acceptable when drilling down ISPF panels," said Sherri Sterling, DB2 systems programmer at the US Treasury Department. "SmartDBA provides all pertinent information on one screen, instantly. It's easy and more user friendly than other solutions, and the colored alerts and warnings on one screen enable us to immediately identify where the problem is, saving us time and helping us avoid confusion."

Other Announcements

BMC Software also announced several new distributed and mainframe data management products, continuing the company's commitment to providing solutions that enable customers to proactively manage their IT infrastructure. The new products are:

  • Database Administration for DB2 v2.1 featuring worklist parallelism, which significantly increases application availability by reducing the execution time required for batch maintenance processes. The reduction in execution time is accomplished by driving multiple parallel processes within a single subsystem or distributed across multiple systems in a data sharing environment. Workloads can be dynamically distributed across these systems, allowing for workload balancing and allowing customers to take advantage of underutilized systems
  • Database Administration for DB2 v2.2 breaks the 32K size barrier for managing large binary objects (LOBs), making it easier to manage applications containing large objects, such as videos or pictures, that are often impossible to manage because of their data size and type. Available in January 2004, this solution treats LOBs as any other DB2 object, automating change and migration processes that previously required special application programs. For example, users may now migrate application structures containing LOBs, within and across DB2 subsystems automatically, including LOBs larger than 32K in size.
  • Application Performance for DB2 V2.1 delivers a number of new enhancements including significant improvements in performance and usability for the DB2 environment. Performance improvements include improved efficiency in collecting DB2 performance data, which will reduce the impact on the DB2 environment. Usability enhancements include enhancements to the integrated DB2 Explain feature of the Application Performance for DB2 solution, improving the productivity of the DBAs and application developers that use this product.
  • SmartDBA Performance Solution for DB2 UDB, v2.6 is a powerful Web-based solution for DBAs to detect, diagnose and correct database performance issues. Featuring robust Database Administration, Database Monitoring, SQL Tuning and Space Management capabilities, SmartDBA for DB2 UDB provides DBAs with all of the functionality needed to manage DB2 UDB database environments and ensures optimal availability and performance. This latest version now features support for DB2 UDB 64-bit environments, integration with IBM's Online Reorganization utility and improved administration capabilities including extended database search functionality and formatting and color coding of SQL text.
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