New Backup and Recovery Product From BMC Software Reduces the Size of DB2 Archive Logs Up to 95 Percent: PACLOG Enables Customers to Save on Storage Costs, Recover Data More Quickly and Improve Disaster Recovery Planning

Business Wire, August 28, 1995

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 1995--Continuing its development of high-speed utilities that improve the backup and recovery of corporate data, BMC Software, Inc. today announced PACLOG. The new product combines BMC Software's exclusive Extended Compression Architecture (XCA) technology and a patent pending log filtering process to reduce the size of DB2 archive logs by up to 95 percent. This enables customers to save on costly storage media, recover DB2 data more quickly and easily, as well as improve disaster recovery planning.

Darrel Schumm, lead DB2 systems programmer for Total System Services, Inc., a leading provider of credit card transaction processing services to large banks and credit card institutions, was excited to hear of PACLOG at a recent industry conference. According to Schumm, "We were thrilled to find a product like PACLOG because we have two geographically separate data centers and a limited number of operators to maintain our south center. This creates a problem when active logs need to be archived or if a DBA is trying to do a recovery from an archive tape. Once PACLOG is installed, this won't be a problem because the product can reduce the size of our archive logs enough to be stored on DASD. PACLOG will give us the control over the logs we've been looking for."

PACLOG Benefits

By reducing the size of DB2 logs, customers realize substantial savings by not having to purchase additional backup storage media and equipment. In addition, by reducing the archive log size, PACLOG enables users to choose to reduce the size of active DB2 logs so that less DASD is allocated to active logs. In most situations, PACLOG will provide the ability to keep both the active and the archive logs on less DASD than was previously required for the active logs alone.

PACLOG improves the performance of the data recovery process, ensuring that data is available to users as quickly as possible. Because archive logs created by PACLOG can be up to 95 percent smaller, they can either be stored directly on DASD, where data is quickly accessible, or on a fewer number of tapes, reducing the time necessary to physically load tapes to recover data. This more efficient recovery also helps IS departments meet internal service-level agreements for ensuring data availability.

PACLOG can create up to four copies of the archive log, two more than DB2 allows. This feature, in combination with the smaller size of the archive logs, aids customers in the disaster recovery planning process. Having two local copies and two remote site copies means that there is no single point of failure at the recovery site or at the local site. The reduced size of the archive log allows customers to electronically transmit the log to the disaster recovery site which for some recovery plans is a better method than physical transport.

PACLOG ships with a modeling tool that analyzes customers' current DB2 logging environment so that they can evaluate alternative logging choices. For example, customers can evaluate the best means of access to archive log data by determining how many hours they want to be recoverable from DASD based on log data. The modeling tool can also calculate the optimum size and number of active logs.

"PACLOG continues our tradition of providing unique products that give our customers bottom-line savings while making their day-to-day jobs easier," said Leslie Butterfield, product marketing manager for BMC Software. "The product also represents another step in BMC Software's strategy to provide customers with complete support for data backup and recovery across the enterprise."

PACLOG: Part of Enterprise-Wide Backup and Recovery Strategy

PACLOG represents an important part of BMC Software's overall strategy to provide support for enterprise-wide data backup and recovery by reducing recovery time and adding unique capabilities to improve backup and recovery processes of business critical data.

BMC Software is implementing this strategy in a multi- phased approach. BMC Software continues to expand its delivery of high-speed alternatives to native DBMS backup and recovery utilities and provide products that add new functionality not available through the DBMS, such as PACLOG. BMC Software also continues to provide recovery managers for each major DBMS environment, giving database managers common backup and recovery functionality and automation across multiple platforms. Finally, BMC Software simplifies backup and recovery tasks across multiple databases and file formats through a common Graphical User Interface (GUI) console.

Pricing and Availability

PACLOG is priced starting at $8,600 (U.S. list). PACLOG is scheduled to be generally available from BMC Software and its agents and distributors worldwide on September 15, 1995. For more information, visit BMC Software on the World Wide Web at http://www.bmc.com/.>About BMC Software

BMC Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: BMCS) is a leading developer and vendor of Cooperative Enterprise Management Solutions that automate application and data management across heterogeneous legacy and open systems environments. BMC Software is cooperating with leading vendors throughout the computer industry to provide its customers with integrated enterprise-wide data, system, application and network management solutions. BMC Software has a 15-year history of industry-leading product development for large-scale computing environments. It is now leveraging this knowledge and strength in the management and movement of data to introduce new solutions for enterprise-wide computing. BMC Software is headquartered in Houston, Texas and currently offers more than 80 products. -0- Note to Editors: BMC Software, the BMC Software logo and all other products or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC Software, Inc. in the USA and other select countries. The r and x symbols indicate USA registration or USA trademarks. DB2 is a registered trademark of IBM Corp. Other logos and products/trade names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. BMC Software is an Equal Opportunity Employer.