BMC Software Announces Basics/DB - A New Line of Economical IMS Database Utilities; Multi-Tiered Product Approach Allows Customers to Choose Products that Fit their Computing Requirements and Budget.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 1995--BMC Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:BMCS) Wednesday announced Basics/DB, a new line of utilities for customers who require economical, yet powerful tools to manage their IMS Full Function databases.

BMC Software will continue to offer its existing line of IMS database utilities for customers who require a greater level of functionality and performance. This new line is designed to attract new customers and creates a multi-tiered IMS product approach that allows customers to choose the product that best meets their computing requirements, budget and support needs. The Basics/DB line will consist of three new tools that help make IMS reorganizations fast, easy, efficient and reliable. All three utilities are packaged as a single set within the Basics/DB family.

According to a recent report by the Gartner Group, IMS applications will continue to exist well into the 21st century(1). "This finding is in line with the results we have seen from recent extensive polling of our customer base," explained Frank Careccia, IMS product line manager for BMC Software.

"Our IMS customers are indeed continuing to expand their use of IMS applications. They have also indicated a need for product offerings that meet different budget and product feature requirements. With a multi-tiered approach, we are enabling customers to select the products that meet their computing requirements and budget."

Basics/DB Family

The Basics/DB line is comprised of three utilities, UNLOAD/DB, LOAD/DB and SECONDARY INDEX MAINTENANCE/DB (SIM/DB). These products work together to reduce potential errors in the reorganization process and minimize the amount of data passed from the unload to reload step, resulting in less processing time. The products also allow customers to perform concurrent secondary index processing during the reorganization process, reducing total reorganization time and increasing data availability.

When used together, the utilities in the Basics/DB family allow customers to unload and load data and build secondary and primary indexes significantly faster than with native IMS. This enhanced performance allows database administrators to improve user productivity by increasing IMS availability, improving overall performance, meeting service level agreements and saving CPU resources.

Utilities in the Basics/DB Family

UNLOAD/DB -- enables customers to complete the longest part of an IMS reorganization, the unload, up to 65 percent faster than native IMS. UNLOAD/DB makes the unload process simple, fast and reliable by reducing CPU and Input/Output (I/O) resources.

LOAD/DB -- performs reorganization reloads of IMS databases up to 53 percent faster than native IMS. By increasing the speed and reliability of database reloads, LOAD/DB allows customers to complete reorganizations of critical databases in much less time. This increases the availability of IMS data to users and brings significant savings in CPU usage. LOAD/DB accomplishes this by reducing CPU consumption and EXCPS during a reload, while reducing the number of I/Os. LOAD/DB optionally allows processing to continue after sequence errors are determined so that errors can be fixed at a more convenient time.

SIM/DB -- allows customers to create and maintain IMS primary and secondary indexes up to 83 percent faster than native IMS. With SIM/DB, the complex six-step IMS procedure is reduced to a simple one-step process for creating a new secondary index or rebuilding an existing one. SIM/DB rebuilds a lost or damaged secondary or primary index without reorganizing the source database.

SIM/DB also eliminates the overhead and expense of image copying indexes for recovery by rebuilding lost or damaged indexes from the primary database. In addition, the product reduces the IS staff time required to create and test Job Control Language (JCL) and avoids intermediate file I/Os by optionally doing more work in a single step.

BMC Software's Existing IMS Database Utilities

To provide customers with a greater level of flexibility in meeting individual organizational needs, BMC Software will continue to offer its existing IMS database utilities in addition to the new Basics/DB line.

BMC Software's existing IMS utilities include: -- LOAD PLUS (R) -- UNLOAD PLUS (R) -- SECONDARY INDEX UTILITY -- FAST REORG FACILITY -- IMAGE COPY PLUS -- RECOVERY PLUS -- POINTER CHECKER PLUS -- PREFIX RESOLUTION PLUS -- DATABASE INTEGRITY PLUS -- CHANGE ACCUMULATION PLUS

Pricing and Availability

The Basics/DB family has been generally available from BMC Software and its agents and distributors worldwide since June 28, 1995. Pricing starts at $65,000 for the complete package that includes UNLOAD/DB, LOAD/DB and SIM/DB. Pricing includes 7x10 technical support with maintenance fees set at 15 percent of the package price.

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 also partners 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.

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(1) Copyright (C) 1995, Gartner Group, Inc.

CONTACT: BMC Software Inc.

Lisa Cradit, 713/918-8800

or

Eastwick Communications

Michael Adams, 503/928-3581