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Survey Identifies Root-Cause Analysis, Dynamic DB2 SQL Monitoring, and Change and Configuration Management as Top Mainframe Pain Points HOUSTON, June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mainframe users are moving rapidly to increase their investment in management software, according to a new survey conducted by BMC Software. More than 600 mainframe users from companies around the world, primarily with revenues of $1 billion or more, were qualified to participate in the survey. Among the key trends reflected in the survey results: * Mainframe's future is solid -- the vast majority of respondents affirmed the ongoing strategic role of mainframe computing in their businesses. * Software investment is increasing -- a significant majority of mainframe shops indicated that they are increasing levels of spending across a range of mainframe software categories, with storage management, replication and data movement, and database archiving leading the way. * Specific, high-priority challenges abound -- major "pain points" include root-cause analysis, monitoring/tuning dynamic DB2 SQL environments, and change and configuration management. * Complexity is growing exponentially -- the growing complexity and variability of enterprise computing underscores the need for more automated discovery and management capabilities in the data center. * The matrix of issues faced by IT staff is formidable -- a wide range of respondents -- including CIOs, VPs, IT staff, and end users -- repeatedly raised compliance, storage management, data security and systems availability as problem areas that are drawing their attention and resources. Other survey findings of note include: * MIPS growth continues -- more than 55 percent of respondents reported MIPS growth, with 41 percent also citing new applications as a component of that growth. Only 20 percent projected a decline in MIPS usage. * Growth begets growth -- customers who reported MIPS growth driven by new development as well as legacy growth also reported significantly higher adoption of z/OS Websphere and MQ-Series. * Security and privacy top many "to do" lists -- survey participants reported that data security and data privacy solutions topped their list of areas for near-term product research and acquisition. "In the last few years, the proliferation of business services and applications that IT is expected to manage and support has raised the stakes of mainframe management and challenged IT to uplevel its game," said Craig Piercey, senior technical analyst and team lead from Aliant, one of the largest regional telecommunications companies in Canada. "Investing in solutions that enable simpler, faster end-to-end diagnostics and improve application performance has taken on a new urgency to both the business and the data center. We are working with BMC Software to make sure that the business services that run on our mainframe are optimized so that we continue to deliver the highest level of service to our customers and improve our return on investment." Bill Miller, vice president and general manager, Mainframe Service Management Business Unit, BMC Software, said: "The BMC Mainframe-User-Priority Survey is our most thorough and extensive collaboration with the mainframe community to date. It builds on BMC's 25-year history teaming with mainframe users to understand and solve their management and performance challenges, an approach that continues to fuel BMC's leadership in mainframe management innovation and advanced solutions development." For example, BMC Software is actively introducing a number of new mainframe management solutions as well as enhancements to current solutions that integrate mainframe events into a company's business service management strategy. In addition the solutions meet the need for increased automation from diminished trained mainframe talent and rising security issues due to increased compliance mandates. These solutions include: * BMC Impact Integration for z/OS -- This new solution reduces root-cause analysis delays by sending mainframe events into the service model -- BMC's Service Impact Manager. This allows operations to quickly relate events from critical mainframe subsystems to their point of impact in the business. This solution is available today. * BMC Backup and Recovery Solution for IMS -- With the addition of new IMS backup and recovery capabilities onto the BMC Web-based console, DBAs can now see both reorganization and recovery events on the same screen, allowing for better informed decisions. Additionally, the new software helps DBAs more easily monitor, identify, prevent and resolve IMS database and system problems before they affect the business. This solution is available today. * BMC Copy Plus for DB2 and BMC Recover Plus for DB2 -- With the addition of new encryption capabilities to these solutions, DBAs can now encrypt and decrypt customer data to offsite locations knowing the data will be secure. This feature will be available July 2006. Later in 2006, BMC will launch a new solution for mainframe topology discovery as well as the integration of BMC's Atrium CMDB with BMC Batch Impact Manager, which monitors, reports and predicts critical business services tied to batch processes. Additionally BMC will announce new enhancements and platform support for BMC MAINVIEW Transaction Analyzer, which pinpoints problems, rapidly increasing system and application availability. Survey Methodology Participants were asked to rate a series of critical mainframe problem areas on a scale of 1-10, with respondents answering subsequent drill-down questions on areas they rated 7 or higher. IT staff and managers accounted for nearly 70 percent of all respondents, with more than half working at organizations with more than $2 billion in annual revenues. More than 60 percent of survey participants worked in the banking/financial services; insurance, government, health care, technology, and retail industries. About BMC Software BMC Software (NYSE:BMC) is a leading global provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to manage their IT infrastructure from a business perspective. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. Founded in 1980, BMC posted fiscal 2006 revenues of more than $1.49 billion. For more information, visit http://www.bmc.com/ . BMC Software, the BMC Software logos, and all other BMC Software product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC Software, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks belong to their respective companies. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20011003/BMCLOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: BMC Software CONTACT: Linda McDowell of BMC Software, , +1-713-918-3518; Carla Del Bove of Porter Novelli for BMC Software, , +1-617-897-8269 Web site: http://www.bmc.com/

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