BMC Software expands enterprise management strategy: Management capabilities of PATROL now include data management; Solutions provide "Management by Objective" capabilities

Business Wire, Sept 30, 1996

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 1996--BMC Software Inc. (NASDAQ:BMCS) Monday announced the expansion of its enterprise management story by extending the PATROL Management Suite to include an entire family of data management product solutions.

Through a standard interface across heterogeneous platforms and databases, these products provide "management by objective" capabilities for the administration, movement and protection of data and databases across a distributed enterprise.

The family offers full function and entry-level solutions to provide users flexibility and scalability in selecting the degree of functionality required for data management in small, medium and large computing environments. The specific product areas within BMC Software's data management family are database administration, high performance utilities, database backup and recovery management and data replication.

"BMC Software's legacy is in developing solutions that address critical application and data management issues," said Leland Putterman, vice president of worldwide marketing for BMC Software. "With this announcement, we can now provide our customers with the ability to integrate data and event management within a single software solution."

Complex, Heterogeneous Computing Environments

Large computing enterprises commonly have more than eight heterogeneous databases, as well as numerous applications and users distributed across multiple sites. Management of this complex environment is traditionally addressed through a combination of non-integrated point solutions with limited functionality and systems support.

With the addition of the data management family, the PATROL management suite now provides a solution to this problem through an integrated toolset of functionally-rich, integrated products that simplify and automate data management tasks.

The data management family complements the "management by exception" capabilities of PATROL (monitoring and managing an environment based on predefined exception conditions) by enabling users to initiate objective-specific actions (executing task-oriented functions as they relate to a database, such as change management and utility functions).

"Customers with substantial investments in client/server technology are quickly recognizing the need for an application and data management solution that supports multiple databases," said Paul Mason, program director for International Data Corp. "Such a solution must provide a consistent interface and have the necessary functionality to ensure the availability of important business applications.

"The PATROL DB products put BMC in the position of a pioneer in this area. Customers will now benefit from a single product family that addresses these critical management functions."

Four Key Areas of Data Management

BMC Software's PATROL management suite automates and centralizes the control of all the critical elements in distributed application management. By adding management capabilities through the data management product lines, PATROL customers now have the benefit of integrated, functionally-rich solution sets. The four product areas within the data management line include:

-- Database Administration

Allows customers to administer multiple heterogeneous and homogeneous databases and database instances through a standard interface and common look and feel. It automates many of the routine tasks associated with database administration and management and does so while ensuring high-integrity and availability of data. (See related announcement issued today for more information about these products).

-- High Performance Utilities

Provides users with a proactive approach to ensuring optimal database performance. The products reduce system downtime by dramatically reducing the time required to perform time-critical operations, such as database loads and unloads. The products will further allow users to prevent many performance problems from occurring by quickly identifying and resolving situations that impact data availability and application response times.

-- Database Backup and Recovery Management

Automates many of the complex, manual, time-consuming processes involved in database backup and recovery. The tools in this family also allow the administrator to manage and perform these functions across the enterprise, regardless of database type.

-- Data Replication

Allows customers to move their data between multiple relational and non-relational DBMS platforms. BMC Software will provide MVS-based solutions for managing the transfer of legacy systems data and changed data from source DBMSs to target DBMSs in support of either Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) or data warehousing applications.

Integration with the PATROL Management Suite

The data management products for database administration, along with the entire family of data management products, will be integrated with the PATROL product suite to enable customers to use a common control point for handling both management by exception and management by objective functions.