Mainframe computer users have been leveraging the economic
slowdown to retool and innovate in advance of the return to growth
that will come with economic recovery, according to the results of
BMC Software’s (NYSE:BMC) Annual Worldwide Survey of Mainframe
Users.
The fact that the mainframe remains popular among enterprises
because of its security, management, reliability and compliance
capabilities is old news. BMC’s annual mainframe survey has
reflected that basic sentiment for the past four years. Even in the
current economic climate, almost half of the respondents continue
to project increases in their software spending, with the bulk of
the remaining respondents projecting flat spending into the next
year.
BMC Survey Uncovers Top
Priorities in IT
This year’s survey found the top priorities for IT in the next
year are application modernization (34 percent), disaster recovery
(31 percent) and server virtualization (28 percent); indicators
that mainframe users have high hopes for the platform’s role coming
out of the downturn. In large sites, 47 percent of respondents
indicated MIPS growth reduction as a top priority, followed by 35
percent citing reduction or elimination of unplanned outage events,
pointing to a desire to increase cost efficiencies in the
environment. Meanwhile, BMC is positioned to help customers prepare
themselves now for the growth that is anticipated. With the recent
acquisition of managing middleware specialist MQSoftware, BMC added
to its application portfolio by offering integrated messaging and
monitoring management across mainframe and distributed
environments. BMC Backup and Recovery for IMS and BMC Recovery
Management for DB2 tools are leading options for protecting
mainframe data from disasters. BMC also is a leader in
virtualization management, especially for cross-enterprise IT
environments.
Canadian telecommunications giant TELUS views the mainframe as a
critical part of their IT infrastructure and an important platform
to deliver their business services. “We have to run our business
effectively, and first and foremost that means running IT
efficiently,” said Brad Palmer, director of Western Canada IT
services at TELUS. “BMC mainframe solutions allow us to automate
our operating and reporting capabilities that support our z/OS and
z/Linux systems, which helps us reduce labor costs and better
deliver services to our end users. Additionally, we are continually
looking for ways to manage our MIPS growth, and BMC is playing a
leading role in this effort.”
With this year’s survey, BMC asked specific questions about the
effect the economic downturn was having on mainframe users. In
addition to finding that users remain committed to the platform and
are retooling in preparation for growth, the survey also found that
more respondents believe corporate management is more open to the
mainframe due to pressures imposed by the poor economy. That’s a
key finding because respondents also reported continued pressure on
IT organizations to improve productivity and cut costs. For
example, large committed users are very focused on MIPS growth
reduction. The cost of a general purpose processor and its software
could be as high as $7,200 per MIPS, which makes offloading work to
a specialty processor that costs only $200 per MIPS the right
choice in the current economy.
BMC MAINVIEW products like BMC CMF MONITOR can automatically
shift MIPS usage onto zIIP specialty processors, reducing overhead
and freeing up additional workload. Additionally, one of the
fastest-growing ways to reduce peak MIPS usage is to tune the SQL
used for DB2 applications. By using BMC SQL Performance for DB2
software, customers can reduce CPU usage in some DB2 applications
by more than 50 percent and delay costly processor upgrades.
Users in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia were also positive
in their outlook for the future of the mainframe, despite slightly
lower expectations for increased mainframe spending in those
geographies.
Other key findings of the survey:
- Expectations for MIPS growth,
while less than what was reported in prior years, remains high with
more than 56 percent of respondents expecting to grow and more than
75 percent of large shops expecting to grow
- Two-thirds (67 percent) of
respondents have completed or are in the process of aligning their
mainframe and distributed environments
- After a slight decrease last
year, concern about staff skills in applications, operations and
systems management again increased (4-5 percent)
- 65 percent of surveyed companies
reported that their IT-related energy consumption is under greater
scrutiny than the previous year
BMC Answers Survey with New
Cost-Cutting Solution
Customers also depend on BMC for the latest in mainframe
innovations. With today’s announcement, BMC is announcing BMC
Capacity Trending Advisor, a solution that accurately forecasts
capacity trends to eliminate costs associated with
over-provisioning.
BMC’s Capacity Trending Advisor solution is the only one to
provide customers with an interactive and automated workflow
process and ensures that mainframe, distributed and virtual
resources are leveraged to their optimal potential. This solution
will help companies plan for the economic recovery by enabling them
to efficiently provision their IT environments, thus freeing up
resources which can tie up millions of dollars in capital.
“Hearing directly from our customers and other mainframe users
gives us great insight into their thoughts and priorities so we can
give them the best tools to run their businesses efficiently,” said
Bill Miller, president of Mainframe Service Management at BMC.
“These results clearly indicate that the mainframe remains a key
tool for users and that it will play a big role for the growth
they’re anticipating when the economy turns around. To help our
customers, BMC will continue to introduce more cost-cutting
solutions like Capacity Trending Advisor as we are committed to
lowering our customers’ mainframe costs and delivering on their
business services.”
Mainframe Survey
Background
More than 1,500 global mainframe users participated in the BMC
survey, now in its fourth consecutive year. More than one-half of
companies surveyed have revenues in excess of $1 billion.
The survey pool was comprehensive and definitive, that included
pre-qualified respondents from across the mainframe industry.
Participants provided insight into questions focused on the current
and future state of the mainframe. Responses were then analyzed
using standard statistical practices. For a link to a summary
report of the findings go to BMC Mainframe Survey 2009.
For additional information please visit:
BMC Backup and Recovery for IMS
BMC Recovery Management for DB2
BMC Virtualization Management
BMC Capacity Trending Advisor
BMC SQL Performance for DB2
BMC CMF MONITOR
BMC Middleware Management
You can also follow news and announcements from BMC on Twitter:
@bmcsoftware
Business runs on IT. IT runs on BMC Software.
The most demanding IT organizations in the world rely on BMC
Software across both distributed and mainframe environments.
Recognized as the leader in Business Service Management, BMC’s
comprehensive approach and unified platform help IT organizations
cut costs, reduce risk and drive business profit. For the four
fiscal quarters ended June 30, 2009, BMC revenue was approximately
$1.88 billion. Visit www.bmc.com for more information.
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trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright
2009 BMC Software, Inc.
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