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  • BMC Looks to Advance ServiceOps Approach to Managing IT

    BMC Looks to Advance ServiceOps Approach to Managing IT

    During an online BMC Exchange event, BMC announced it expanded its portfolio of IT management offerings as part of an ongoing effort to unify traditional IT service management and DevOps processes under an integrated ServiceOps framework.

    The latest additions to the BMC portfolio includes an update to its Control-M workload automation platform that adds observability tools for monitoring application and data workflows along with additional integrations for cloud services such as AWS Glue, Google Cloud Dataflow and Function and Microsoft Azure Data Factory and platforms such the data lake from Databricks.

    BMC is also making available a preview of a Control M Python client that will extend the reach of the workload automation platform to the code data science teams employ to build artificial intelligence (AI) models.

    In addition, BMC is adding a BMC Helix Digital Workplace studio to make it easier for IT teams to customize the software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform it provides for IT service management (ITSM). Finally, BMC is also making available a version of BMC Helix that is optimized for communications service providers.

    BMC CEO Ayman Sayed said overall the current emphasis on digital business transformation is driving a need to converge the management of multiple IT platforms as organizations reinvent how core processes work across their organization. It’s not possible to drive that level of reengineering across multiple IT platforms without centralizing the management of those platforms using a ServiceOps framework that unifies DevOps and existing ITSM platforms, he noted.

    At the same time, Sayed said organizations need to invest more in artificial intelligence to automate IT operations, also known as AIOps, to augment IT staff that is hard-pressed by the need to manage both emerging and legacy IT platforms. The latest investment BMC has made in AIOps came earlier this month with the acquisition of StreamWeaver, a provider of a set of tools that make it easier to collect massive amounts of data that can be used to more easily train AI models.

    It’s too early to say to what degree IT management processes might become unified. In addition to centralized IT teams, most organizations have business units that often drive their own IT initiatives. However, as organizations realize how many platforms a digital process needs to access the need to centralize the management of IT becomes more apparent. The issue each organization will need to determine is the degree to which that centralization needs to occur.

    It’s clear in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that many IT organizations have never been more agile. In some cases, those IT teams are now able to drive a rate of change that is too fast for many businesses to even absorb. In fact, it’s arguable that entire businesses will need to adopt DevOps principles to manage that rate of change.

    In the meantime, IT teams will need to take a harder look at how much time is being spent on manual tasks that could be automated in a way that enables them to be lot more productive than they are today.

  • BMC Acquires StreamWeaver to Advance AIOps Strategy

    BMC Acquires StreamWeaver to Advance AIOps Strategy

    BMC has acquired StreamWeaver, a provider of a platform that makes it simpler to capture streaming data in real-time, as part of an effort to extend the BMC Helix IT operations platform infused with artificial intelligence (AIOps). Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

    Margaret Lee, general manager and senior vice president for digital service and operations management for BMC, said StreamWeaver brings with it a wide range of integrations with multiple data sources that BMC will use to both train AI models and improve overall observability. While connecting to data sources is relatively straightforward, the challenge now is collecting that data in real-time in a way that is easily repeatable for IT operations teams, noted Lee.

    In general, AIOps continues to gain traction as IT environments become increasingly complex. Most IT operations teams are not going to be able to manage highly distributed computing environments without augmenting their IT staff with some AI, said Lee.

    Naturally, many rote tasks that were once performed manually by IT operations professionals will become increasingly automated. However, there will always be a need for IT personnel, noted Lee.

    Arguably, there may come a day when IT professionals will not want to work for organizations that don’t have an AIOps platform in place simply because the tasks assigned to them would otherwise be considered archaic, especially if they involve a series of tedious tasks that not many IT professionals really want to perform.

    At the same time, AIOps should reduce overall risk by making it easier for IT operations teams to proactively identify issues before they disrupt an application service. That’s especially critical as IT environments—increasingly with microservices-based applications constructed using containers—and serverless computing frameworks are being deployed with greater frequency alongside legacy monolithic applications.

    BMC has been making a case for AIOps as far back as 2017. However, since then, a wave of startups and IT operations incumbents have either built an AIOps platform from the ground up or updated an existing platform with AI capabilities. It’s difficult to assess which vendors are now ahead in terms of the AIOps race, but one thing that is certain is that IT organizations now have plenty of options.

    From a cultural perspective, however, not every organization is entirely comfortable with AIOps. While some IT professionals remain skeptical, others view AI as an existential threat to their existence. Most IT teams are also concerned about the potential impact any flawed AI model might have on IT operations—it’s one thing for a human to make a mistake, but an AI model making a mistake at scale could be catastrophic.

    There are few IT organizations that are embracing AIOps across the board, but most do recognize that AIOps platforms, in one form or another, are inevitably here to stay. After all, machine learning algorithms never forget anything they learn. Nor do they ever take a day off or decide to leave when offered higher pay. The challenge is figuring out exactly where the interface between IT staff and algorithms is going to be—not just today, but also in the near future.

  • BMC Extends DevOps Reach from the Mainframe

    BMC Extends DevOps Reach from the Mainframe

    BMC today announced it has extended its DevOps platform for mainframe environments to provide integrations with GitHub Actions, a framework for managing workflows, and HCL Launch, a continuous delivery platform from HCL Software. BMC gained the DevOps platform with the acquisition of Compuware in June 2020.

    John McKenny, senior vice president and general manager for intelligent Z optimization and transformation at BMC, said those integrations—along with existing support for DevOps platforms such as Jenkins, GitLab and VS Code—make it possible to accelerate the development of applications that include mainframes as part of a larger distributed computing environment. DevOps teams, for example, can now employ an HCL Launch plug-in for the BMC AMI DevOps for Db2 tool to automatically capture and propagate database changes across IBM Db2 databases.

    At the same time, BMC also enhanced a BMC AMI Ops Monitor for Java Environments that automatically discovers all Java virtual machines (JVMs) running on z/OS environments on a mainframe. The BMC AMI Ops Monitor for Java Environments now includes the ability to discover the application programming interfaces (APIs) and services invoked by those JVMs.

    BMC also revealed today that its Workflow WiZard tool has been accepted as part of the open source Zowe initiative launched by the Open Mainframe Project. The Workflow WiZard makes it easier to install, configure and maintain software installed on mainframes running z/OS.

    Finally, BMC revealed it has extended its privileged access management (PAM) tools by enhancing the supervisor call screener and Unix System Service (USS) data enrichment capabilities of BMC AMI Security software. Based on technology BMC gained with the acquisition of RSM Partners, this enhancement increases the level of protection BMC AMI Security software provides to thwart attacks by surfacing suspicious activity, such as from malicious insiders that may have compromised administrator credentials, said McKenny.

    BMC mainframe

    These days, McKenny noted, everything is under attack because the minute cybercriminals discover a way to compromise one platform, they almost immediately try to apply that same technique against other platforms. Mainframe environments, which tend to process an organization’s most valuable data, naturally are a high-value target, added McKenny.

    In general, McKenny said IT organizations that rely on mainframes continue to make steady progress toward embracing DevOps best practices. A recent survey conducted by Forrester on behalf of BMC found 80% of respondents said their mainframe development tools needed significant improvement to provide more value.

    The need to accelerate digital transformation initiatives, which typically require access to data that resides on mainframes, are, in many cases, forcing the DevOps issue within many organizations. Software development teams that build mainframe applications are almost always required to create APIs that make it easier for other applications to consume that data.

    Not every organization, of course, has a mainframe. However, as digital business transformation continues to evolve, the number of applications that need to consume mainframe data will steadily increase. The challenge facing mainframe application management teams is finding a way to provide that access without using traditional waterfall processes to build the required APIs.

  • BMC Enables Organizations to Develop and Deliver Code Faster

    New enhancements make it easier to embrace Enterprise DevOps practices, protect operational resiliency, and secure the mainframe

    HOUSTON – April 1, 2021 – BMC, a global leader in software solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, announced several new offerings and integrations within the BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI) and BMC Compuware portfolios designed to modernize and streamline mainframe application development and delivery, while also increasing uptime and accelerating threat detection.

    This latest release transforms mainframe management across the BMC Compuware ISPW, BMC Compuware Topaz, BMC Compuware File-AID, BMC AMI Ops Insight, BMC AMI SQL Performance, and BMC AMI Security solutions to enable users to:

    • Build, analyze, test, deploy, and manage mainframe applications quickly, efficiently, and with precision through an expanded cross-platform DevOps toolchain;
    • Reduce and potentially eliminate how long it takes to diagnose a problem with intelligent, automated, probable cause analysis; and
    • Detect and respond more quickly to security threats by uniting mainframe security and IT Operations workflows to make threat events visible, assignable, and

    Mainstream Mainframe Development with an Enterprise DevOps Approach

    BMC has completed the integration of Compuware, a BMC company, to create the BMC Compuware suite of tools that build upon the existing BMC AMI DevOps offerings. Now integrated with Visual Studio Code, a popular development tool, the BMC Compuware ISPW solution allows developers to edit source code and compile it on the mainframe with a simple right click. The BMC Compuware Topaz solution comes with a new command line interface and multiple application programming interfaces that give developers flexibility in how they connect to the mainframe, lessen dependence on specialized skillsets, and extend the DevOps toolchain. Finally, developers can also experience dynamically reduced search times when reviewing billions of transactions and log files with the new BMC Compuware File-AID 21 solution’s release.

     

    “This move by BMC has sent a clear signal that DevOps has shifted from the broad adoption phase to the massive adoption phase. DevOps has become table stakes for every enterprise; whether they operate in the cloud or on a mainframe, they need to adopt DevOps to remain relevant, let alone be competitive. Yet adopting DevOps for many organizations, especially those with mainframes, has been a challenge,” wrote Christopher Condo, Chris Gardner, and Diego Lo Giudice at Forrester Research.1 “…If DevOps doesn’t scale on mainframes, too, where modernization of the core is an impediment, core will all move to the cloud. The bet of BMC and Compuware is to scale DevOps on the mainframe like any other platform.”

    To support DevOps processes and increase code quality, the BMC AMI SQL Performance for Db2® solution provides the ability to shift left the quality control of Db2 SQL through a Jenkins plugin that helps prevent SQL from violating company standards and impacting production environments. The solution interrogates static and dynamic SQL in its current environment and against target production environments. This ensures SQL coding standards and performance issues are reported and resolved prior to moving to the next step in the route-to-live process.

    Move from Reactive to Real-Time Proactive Problem Resolution

    The BMC AMI Ops Insight solution shifts systems management from reactive to proactive mode with automated intelligent diagnostic capabilities that now provide probable cause. Users receive the earliest possible notification of system degradation, with fewer false positives, as well as the ability to pinpoint the issue. By getting to the possible cause faster, BMC AMI Ops Insight provides more time to remediate with actionable insights.

    Unite Security and Operations Workflows

    The BMC AMI Security offering, which protects against vulnerabilities, malicious actions, and data theft, now integrates with the BMC Helix ITSM solution. If the BMC AMI Security solution detects a threat, this new integration will automatically generate a security incident in BMC Helix ITSM, providing IT Operations teams with greater visibility through a single, real-time data feed and a well-defined process so they can act, track, and respond to threats and events faster.

    In addition to its integration with BMC Helix ITSM, the new BMC AMI Security release continues to integrate with a wide number of enterprise security information and event management solutions and thus provides more ways to assign and rapidly investigate events, shorten mean-time-to-remediation, and make mainframes more secure.

    “Mainframes are an essential part of our customers’ digital transformation strategies. With tools that transform mainframe management, we allow our clients to better embrace DevOps practices and get the most value out of their investments to accelerate innovation,” said John McKenny, SVP and General Manager, Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation at BMC. “We continue to help our customers achieve operational resiliency, while automating and minimizing manual tasks to free them up to become an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.”

    1Forrester Blogs, Mainframe Developers Get Boost From BMC Acquisition Of Compuware, March 2020

    Additional Resources

    • Learn what’s new in BMC mainframe solutions
    • Watch the “10 Steps to True Mainframe Agility” webinar for a proven, phased approach for measurably modernizing mainframe practices
    • Discover what it takes to be an Autonomous Digital Enterprise

    About BMC

    From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC, BMC Software, the BMC logo, and other BMC marks are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc. and are registered or may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or in other countries. ©Copyright 2021 BMC Software, Inc.

    IBM and Db2 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

    BMC—Run and Reinvent

  • BMC Research Finds Global Organizations Operate at Less Than 40 Percent of Their Digital Potential

    New data highlights increases in technology investments to support Adaptive Cybersecurity over the next two years

    HOUSTON, March 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — BMC, a global leader in software solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, today announced the full results of its global survey for enterprise IT, “The Autonomous Digital Enterprise: A Strategic Approach to Measuring and Improving Digital Competitiveness” and availability of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise (ADE) Index interactive tool. The ADE Index tool is designed to help an enterprise measure its digital competitiveness and identify areas of opportunity, with a documented framework for future success.

    BMC commissioned 451 Research, an S&P Global company, to assess the market perception and state of preparedness needed to navigate an era of intelligence, automation, and autonomy to ultimately become an ADE. Conducted in late 2020, the survey sourced insights from 1,200 business and IT decision-makers across more than 20 industries and 11 countries, and in organizations that had at least 500 employees with annual revenue over $100 million.

    High-level insights include:

    • Global enterprises currently practice about two-fifths of what is needed to function as an ADE. Although all operating models and technology tenets of an ADE are currently practiced by the surveyed organizations, the top three enterprise focus areas draw the majority of the investment and include becoming a Data-Driven Business, Optimized Technology Buying, and Digital Business Domains.
    • The Global ADE Index is projected to increase from 39.3% to 46.1% over the next two years indicating a recognition from companies around the world to invest more heavily in enterprise technology solutions that increase digital competitiveness.
    • Looking forward two years, the top enterprise focus areas continue to include Data-Driven Business with an added focus on Adaptive Cybersecurity and a Transcendent Customer Experience. Tech-Savvy Corporate Functions was a close fourth demonstrating that human and digital skills need to align rapidly.
    • Latin America (LATAM) respondents reported a projected ADE Index score increase to 52% in two years – the biggest jump across all regions – signifying a strong willingness to make investments in technology and process to become an ADE.

    Assessing digital maturity to run and reinvent
    An ADE is the future state of business, one that comprises intelligent, interconnected, technology-enabled, value-creating systems that minimizes manual effort to capitalize on human creativity, skills, and intellect across the enterprise. The ADE Index tool gives organizations a way of measuring their own digital maturity and sophistication against the original cohort of respondents and opens the dialogue on how to improve digital competitiveness across the ADE operating model and technology tenets.

    “The ADE Index developed from this research comes at a pivotal moment for the global enterprise landscape, as attaining operational excellence through automated technologies is an immediate necessity,” said Carl Lehmann, Senior Research Analyst at 451 Research. “This research shows that areas like security are an investment priority and the ability to measure oneself against peers can be advantageous to an enterprise’s deliberate integration of what’s needed to adapt and compete.”

    “2020 forced nearly every enterprise worldwide to accelerate their digital transformation efforts, and as they hit the reset button on priorities, budgets, and timelines organization-wide, we all know that being digitally competitive is now mandatory,” said Ram Chakravarti, Chief Technology Officer at BMC. “This research illustrates that companies are just scratching the surface of their potential as an ADE. Coupled with our ADE Index tool, we’re excited to share a practical way for an enterprise to assess where they are in their ADE journey, and to ultimately help them create a clear path forward to thrive and compete well into the future.”

    Resources:

    • For a quick overview of high-level insights, visit here
    • For full survey findings, download the full report here
    • To utilize the interactive ADE Index tool, visit here
    • Discover what it takes to be an Autonomous Digital Enterprise www.bmc.com/ade

    About BMC
    From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC, BMC Software, the BMC logo, and other BMC marks are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc. and are registered or may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or in other countries. ©Copyright 2021 BMC Software, Inc.

     

  • BMC Strengthens Mainframe Intelligence, Security, and DevOps with New and Enhanced Offerings

    BMC AMI and Compuware solutions help enterprises accelerate innovation with expanded AI, new integrations, and increased automation for the mainframe

    HOUSTON, Jan. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — BMC, a global leader celebrating 40 years of delivering software solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, today announced several new capabilities and enhancements for the BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI) and Compuware portfolios that enable BMC mainframe customers to protect uptime and availability, defend the mainframe against cybersecurity threats, and advance enterprise DevOps.

    BMC Strengthens Mainframe Intelligence, Security, and DevOps with New and Enhanced Offerings
    BMC Strengthens Mainframe Intelligence, Security, and DevOps with New and Enhanced Offerings

    “Businesses today are under increasing pressure to ensure 24/7 availability, while optimizing their systems for speed, agility, and ease of use,” said Tim Grieser, Research Vice President for Enterprise System Management Software, IDC. “The ability to adapt is critical for business survival, let alone a successful evolution to a digital enterprise. Resilient, intelligent modern mainframe platforms leverage tools including AIOps to allow customers to reinvent their business for the digital age.”

    Introducing BMC AMI Ops
    The new BMC AMI Ops solution takes the best of MainView, the BMC solution for optimizing mainframe systems management, and enhances it with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) through an upgraded and intuitive user interface designed for both new and experienced mainframe users. The solution’s new AIOps features allow organizations to identify and respond to problems before they can affect service levels and secure communications between enterprise systems with a RESTful API to support automation.

    Expanding Mainframe Security 
    The BMC AMI Security solution’s new security controls, out-of-the-box security checks, and additional indicators of compromise allow customers to increase threat detection and response capabilities. Integrated with the Compuware Application Audit capability, customers can now capture relevant data about user access and behavior so they can quickly detect breaches and mitigate financial and brand reputation damages. These new offerings, along with the BMC Security Assessment and Penetration Testing services which identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in configurations, software, and security controls (conducted either onsite or remotely), further harden and defend the mainframe against malicious actions and data threats.

    Adding Functionality to Compuware zAdviser and Topaz for Total Test
    DevOps teams can now see which Compuware DevOps toolchain products and capabilities are underutilized with the new Compuware zAdviser dashboards. In addition, they can deliver applications and services faster with the Compuware Topaz for Total Test product’s enhanced automated testing capabilities, which simplify automated test case creation, expand test coverage with negative testing, and reduce rework.

    Optimizing Workflows with Control-M and Compuware ThruPut Manager
    A new integration between the Control-M and Compuware ThruPut Manager solutions ensure jobs run at or before their expected times, resulting in shorter, more efficient, and cost-optimized batch processing. Users can now use ThruPut Manager to customize the prioritization of mainframe jobs based on data from Control-M, BMC’s industry-leading application workflow orchestration platform.

    Optimizing Data Management with BMC AMI Data for IMS
    The new and improved BMC AMI Data for IMS is the evolution of BMC solutions for IMS™. It delivers optimized mainframe IMS transaction and data management so enterprises can improve availability of critical business services, meet and exceed SLAs, and better support agile application development with fewer resources.

    “Our customers tell us they want to innovate and modernize faster in their mainframe environments while also improving business resiliency and platform security,” said John McKenny, SVP and General Manager of ZSolutions at BMC. “The comprehensive set of BMC AMI and Compuware capabilities delivered today enables enterprises to make significant progress on all fronts with AI and ML-powered insights that drive intelligent operations, adaptive cybersecurity, and deeper insights into mainframe development. Combined with expanded automated testing capabilities that improve Agile development and delivery, enterprises can innovate faster and meet the growing demands of digital business growth.”

    Additional Resources

    • Get up to speed on what’s new in BMC mainframe solutions here
    • Learn more about the BMC AMI portfolio at www.bmc.com/ami
    • Discover what it takes to be an Autonomous Digital Enterprise at www.bmc.com/ade

    About BMC
    From core to cloud to edge, BMC continues to build on a 40-year heritage of shaping digital transformation for organizations around the world. We deliver the software and services innovations that help over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC, BMC Software, the BMC logo, and other BMC marks are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc. and are registered or may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or in other countries. ©Copyright 2021 BMC Software, Inc.

    IMS is the trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

  • 2020 BMC Mainframe Survey Results

    Adapt, Automate, and Secure are Key Strategies to Empower Digital Success

    HOUSTON – October 1, 2020 – BMC, a global leader celebrating 40 years of delivering IT solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, today announced results of its 15th Annual Mainframe Survey. The results show overwhelming support for mainstreaming the mainframe, new strategic priorities, and a resurgence of next generation mainframe talent.

    The largest survey of its kind, this bellwether study queried over 1000 executives and practitioners on their priorities, challenges, and growth opportunities for the platform. High-level insights include:

    • 90% of respondents see the mainframe as a platform for growth and long-term applications.
    • 68% expect MIPS, the mainframe’s measure of computing performance, to grow.
    • 63% of respondents say security and compliance were their top mainframe priorities.
    • More than half of survey respondents increased mainframe platform data and transaction volume by 25% or more, signaling its ongoing importance in the digital business environment.

    “The Mainframe Survey validates that businesses see the mainframe as a critical component of the modern digital enterprise and an emerging hub for innovation,” says Stephen Elliot, Program Vice President, Management Software and DevOps, IDC. “They’re putting it to work more and more to support digital business demands as they strive to achieve greater agility and success across the enterprise.”

    Top Mainframe Priorities
    With mainframe enterprises competing to bring new, digital experiences to market to delight customers, the survey’s themes are resoundingly strong: Adapt, Automate, and Secure.

    Adapt
    Responses indicated that enterprises’ need to adapt spanned several areas:

    • New processes to keep up with digital demand.
    • Technology demands such as application development/DevOps across the mainframe; 78% of respondents want to be able to update mainframe applications more frequently than currently possible.
    • Changing workforce, as the number of next generation mainframe talent increases along with the number of women working on the platform.

    Automate
    Mainframe modernization continues to play a key role in priorities among respondents with the need to implement AI and machine learning strategies jumping by 8% year over year.

    Secure
    While the mainframe has a reputation of being a naturally secure platform, respondents are seeing the growing need to fortify its “walls.”  Security trumped cost optimization as the leading mainframe priority among respondents for the first time in the 15-year history of the survey.

    “Early results were shared with leading industry analysts and key customers from our Mainframe Executive Council in order to validate findings with market sentiment,” states John McKenny, SVP of Mainframe Innovation and Strategy at BMC. “These conversations further solidified the study’s findings that the platform’s positive outlook and growth is largely due to the need to create intuitive, customer-centric digital experiences. The mainframe continues to shine as innovative, agile, and secure and is a vital component to digital success.”

    Workforce Demographic Shifts
    The survey revealed the demographic shifts in mainframe operations, as younger, less experienced staff replaces departing senior staff, and a higher proportion of women respondents than last year.

    “The IBM Z ecosystem continues to evolve to support a modern, hybrid cloud. But it’s more than that, because the practitioners who run IBM Z are shifting as well to represent the modern workforce – with 40% representation from women and over one-third representation from those with less than 5 years experience on the Z platform,” says Ross Mauri, General Manager, IBM Z and LinuxONE.

    Resources

    • Learn more detail about mainframe priorities, challenges, and growth strategies by registering for the October 6th webinar detailing results from BMC’s 15th Annual Mainframe Survey here
    • Learn more about the BMC AMI portfolio at www.bmc.com/ami

    About BMC
    From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC, BMC Software, the BMC logo, and other BMC marks are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc. or its affiliates and are registered or may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©Copyright 2020 BMC Software, Inc.

  • BMC Enhances Mainframe Resiliency and Advances Enterprise DevOps

    Modern data management portfolio for Db2® and intelligent automated testing empowers business resiliency for digital transformation

    HOUSTON – October 1, 2020 – BMC, a global leader celebrating 40 years of delivering IT solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, today announced enhancements to the Db2® management solutions as part of the BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI) portfolio. The BMC AMI Data Management, Compuware Topaz for Total Test, and ISPW solutions include capabilities that help enterprises protect uptime and availability while intelligently managing their mainframe data and streamlining application development as part of their enterprise DevOps strategies.

    Increased Availability, Operational Resilience, and Agility
    Intelligent Data Management for Db2
    The BMC AMI Data Management for Db2 solutions powered by intelligent automation provide world-class data management that enable 24/7 availability, foster greater resiliency, and drive the agility needed to provide a transcendent customer experience. BMC’s data shows that BMC AMI Data Management for Db2 solutions help customers to:

    • Manage Db2 databases easily in BMC AMI Command Center, with an intuitive, persona-based experience, which brings developers and database administrators together to enable DevOps processes.
    • Improve time to recover data by up to 80% with BMC AMI Recovery for Db2, which also has integrations with BMC AMI Command Center for Db2 to ensure business resiliency and compliance.
    • Continually improve the response time of applications with BMC AMI Performance for Db2 SQL, providing a lightweight, real-time tuning tool that offers actionable information.
    • Boost the speed of test data refresh by up to 85% with BMC AMI Load for Db2 and BMC AMI Unload for Db2, increasing development velocity.
    • Increase agility and velocity of the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines through automating database changes via integrations with Jenkins and soon with IBM® UrbanCode®.

    “Organizations that rely on Db2 for z/OS® require highly available, resilient systems, and the tools to keep them that way. Automation that BMC delivers with its BMC AMI solutions can help to assure that enterprises have optimal access to their vital mainframe data,” said Craig S. Mullins, President, Mullins Consulting, Inc.

    Intelligent Automated Testing to Accelerate Agile Development
    A new integration between Compuware Topaz for Total Test and Compuware ISPW empowers development organizations to quickly build sophisticated CI/CD pipelines that automate the build, deployment, and testing of mainframe applications. Through the new integration, pipelines automatically execute the right tests based on changed source code only. Organizations are empowered to:

    • Improve code quality and speed software delivery by taking the guesswork out of determining which tests should run.
    • Reduce the skills necessary to create advanced CI/CD pipelines.
    • Optimize the development process and break down silos between teams by leveraging a modern, open development environment. Source code can be stored on the mainframe, or Git can be used as the application source code and test case repository by extending the existing ISPW/Git integration.

    By driving intrinsic automation throughout a mainframe-inclusive CI/CD pipeline, developers are freed up to focus 100% on delivering critical digital innovations.

    “We are excited that we can deliver on our quarterly release cadence together as one company. BMC has successfully delivered more than 300 mainframe product releases over the last three years, and this marks Compuware’s 24th consecutive quarterly release,” said John McKenny, SVP of Mainframe Innovation and Strategy at BMC. “We are committed to helping our customers automate their application development and operations processes so they can meet the needs of their business. We will continue to deliver innovative and open solutions that leverage advances in AI and machine learning to enable enterprise DevOps and modern, self-managing, and self-healing mainframe systems capable of scaling to meet workload demands.”

    Additionally, BMC introduced BMC AMI Cost Management (formerly BMC Cost Analyzer for zEnterprise®) to deliver new Tailored Fit Pricing (TFP) reporting and analysis – offering enterprises insight and management of their monthly TFP cost drivers.

    The introduction of these new innovations from BMC address a rapidly changing and evolving mainframe market where 68% of executives and technical professionals responding to the 2020 BMC Mainframe Survey expect MIPS to grow, 54% report higher transaction volumes, and 47% report higher data volumes.

    Additional Resources:

    • Learn more about the BMC AMI portfolio and Compuware solutions here
    • Learn more about mainframe priorities, challenges, and growth strategies by registering for the October 6th webinar detailing results from BMC’s 15th Annual Mainframe Survey here
    • Share ideas and connect with BMC executives, customers, and partners at BMC Exchange, October 20-22, by registering at exchange.bmc.com
    • Discover what it takes to be an Autonomous Digital Enterprise at www.bmc.com/ade

    About BMC
    From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC, BMC Software, the BMC logo, and other BMC marks are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc. or its affiliates and are registered or may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©Copyright 2020 BMC Software, Inc.

    IBM, Db2, UrbanCode, z/Enterprise, and z/OS are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

    BMC—Run and Reinvent
    www.bmc.com

     

  • BMC to Acquire Alderstone

    Acquisition streamlines and expedites ITSM modernization 

    HOUSTON – September 8, 2020 – BMC, a global leader in IT solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to purchase Alderstone, a leading provider of ITSM adoption and modernization solutions. The deal is expected to close in the coming months, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

    Expanding upon the companies’ years-long partnership, BMC and Alderstone will be able to offer powerful migration tools and services so customers can quickly and efficiently modernize their service management with the BMC Helix solution.  Customers will be able to take advantage of the latest innovations and features with decreased risk, limited disruption, and reduced cost, time, and effort.  This will give customers new ways to leverage AI with automation and data-driven decision-making in their organizations’ evolution to become an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    Alderstone’s solutions aim to provide a comprehensive, seamless, and error-free way to onboard customers onto BMC Helix – from application discovery, to preconfigured migration packs and data mapping – all tuned to maximize IT performance. Moving from other ITSM solutions or Remedy on-premise, BMC and Alderstone provide expert technology consulting services that leverage industry best practices to help customers decrease risk, reduce costs, and realize their ROI goals.

    “With Alderstone, BMC can help customers more quickly benefit from the intelligence and automation of BMC Helix, and accelerate their transformation to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise,” said Ali Siddiqui, Chief Product Officer, BMC. “By coupling the BMC product portfolio with the consulting and migration expertise of Alderstone, we can deliver a unique and holistic solution for their cloud-based ITSM investments to achieve their individual business goals.”

    “We serve the market with much needed expertise and guidance to leverage technology in meeting the greatest IT challenges,” said Steve Upton, CEO, Alderstone. “Over the past twelve years, we have had the incredible privilege of supporting our clients’ digital transformations, and we look forward to delivering even greater value as a part of BMC.”

    According to IDC, by 2021, over 90% of enterprises worldwide will rely on a mix of on-premises or dedicated private clouds, several private clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructures needs. [1]  As the ITSM market continues to grow, and cloud adoption continues to drive ITSM disruption, customers need a seamless path and tools to enable upgrades and migrations.

    The BMC Helix solution is the first end-to-end, cloud-based, service and operations platform to discover, monitor, service, remediate, and optimize IT landscapes. Powered by 360-degree pervasive intelligence to turn unknowns into knowns, it provides the agility, customer-centricity, and actionable insights needed  for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC continues to accelerate its focus on investing in innovation and disruptive technologies. This will be the company’s fourth acquisition in less than two years.

    Additional Resources:

    [1]IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2020 Predictions, Doc # US44640719, October 2019

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    About BMC

    From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

    BMC, the BMC logo, and BMC’s other product names are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc. or its affiliates, are registered or pending registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©Copyright 2020 BMC Software, Inc. 

    About Alderstone

    Founded in 2008, Alderstone is a consultancy focused on BMC Remedy ITSM and related tools.  The company is one of BMC’s Technology Alliance Partners and specializes in ITSM rollout, upgrades, and data migration.

  • BMC Unveils AIOps for the Modern Mainframe

    Actionable Insights allow organizations to detect problems impacting mainframe system health and performance before they happen

    HOUSTON – June 4, 2020 – BMC, a global leader in IT solutions for the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, unveiled BMC AMI Operational Insight, an AI-driven, forward-looking solution that uses machine learning to detect anomalies and maximize lead time for remediation to mitigate mainframe issues before they become business problems.

    Today’s rapidly changing marketplace, with shifting dynamics and competitor challenges, requires companies to optimize for increased performance and 24/7 availability to stay ahead of the competition. As a business-critical platform, it is imperative that mainframe issues are identified and addressed before any system downtime or degradation can impact operations. The BMC AMI Operational Insight solution provides the intelligence for mainframe experts and newer employees alike to support every organization’s journey to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise with the modern mainframe.

    “Managing the mainframe has never been more critical to serving customers and ensuring uptime. It is imperative that companies have the capabilities to proactively manage the platform and anticipate problems before they happen,” said John McKenny, Senior Vice President of ZSolutions Strategy and Innovation at BMC. “By applying AIOps to the mainframe for better availability and performance with BMC AMI Operational Insight, our customers can reclaim their valuable time and shift resources to focus on the strategic priorities that will allow them to become Autonomous Digital Enterprises.”

    The BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI) AIOps suite envisions a three-part workflow – detect, find, and fix – designed to greatly reduce mean time to repair (MTTR) so operations teams spend less time reacting to issues and more time advancing high-level business initiatives. With BMC AMI Operational Insight, users gain a solution that utilizes machine learning to learn what is normal, detect anomalies, and maximize lead time for remediation, avoiding downtime or system degradation. As an example of how companies can avoid downtime, a global financial services provider has seen the potential benefits of using BMC AMI Operational Insight and the predictive insights it could provide. Through a demo, the company noticed it was able to detect problems two days earlier to avoid a system issue.

    Key benefits of BMC AMI AIOps include:

    • Faster detection: Notifications alert users of anomalies, allowing them to proactively solve problems impacting systems before they cause any downtime.
    • More accurate predictions: Multivariate analysis looks across all KPIs simultaneously instead of in silos, to ensure no KPI anomalies are missed, resulting in fewer false positives.
    • Data science and domain expertise built-in: Knowledge of which metrics to watch quickly fills the gaps left by a retiring workforce and expedites the learning curve for new staff. In addition, getting rid of the guesswork of collecting and evaluating extraneous metrics eliminates the waste of costly MIPS.
    • Out-of-the-box predictive problem detection: Minimal configuration required means users can install, add data, and realize value immediately.
    • Improved and adaptive intelligence for systems: Continuous consumption of deep and broad data sources helps add intelligence to complex systems, while continuous learning ensures teams can keep up with rapid pace of change.

    “MTTR has been increasing for I&O leaders, indicating difficulty with finding and fixing issues that arise. Monitors have been a staple, but have reached their limits,” said Stephen Elliot, Program Vice President, Management Software and DevOps, IDC. “Products with early detection and actionable insight that can help prevent damaging outages before your monitor alerts you are decreasing MTTR, leading to time and cost savings.”

    As part of the new BMC AMI AIOps suite, the BMC AMI Operational Insight solution ensures mainframe uptime that allows organizations to meet the growing demands of digital business growth. BMC continues to invest and innovate for the mainframe with new product introductions, as well as the recent acquisition of Compuware. BMC now offers a full suite of mainframe software development, delivery, and performance solutions that empower organizations to scale Agile and DevOps with a fully integrated toolchain.

    Additional Resources:

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    About BMC

    From core to cloud to edge, BMC delivers the software and services that enable over 10,000 global customers, including 84% of the Forbes Global 100, to thrive in their ongoing evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.