BMC Software Annual Mainframe Survey Reveals Strong Need for Cross-Enterprise Governance Across Mainframe and Distributed Systems.

* Mainframe growth and retention reaches highest rate in three years

* Shared tools and applications that span mainframe and distributed platforms are extremely important to customers, with an emphasis on ITIL-based disciplines, such as Change and Service Desk

* More than 70 percent of respondents focus on meeting increased operational demands, including cost reduction and improved productivity pressures

HOUSTON -- Customer optimism about the future of the mainframe computing environment jumped 13 percent during the past year, according to the results of BMC Software's (NYSE:BMC) Annual Worldwide Survey of mainframe customers. Respondents clearly indicated that they believe the platform will continue to grow and attract new workloads.

The survey revealed new insights about a platform often operated in isolation from the rest of IT. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of the surveyed customers currently operating separate mainframe and distributed systems said that having shared tools and applications spanning across both platforms is very important and something they plan to implement, particularly in the case of broad-based Business Service Management (BSM) disciplines such as Service Desk, Change Management and IT Service Management. A surprising 29 percent of companies reported having mainframe and distributed operations organized together - with shared operational management - to create common governance across platforms. Another 38 percent reported that while the mainframes are organized separately from their distributed peers, they are subject to a level of common standards and operational guidelines.

"There is a very active market eager to leverage the unique capabilities of the mainframe for business success," said Rich Ptak, co-founder and managing partner at Ptak, Noel & Associates. "BMC's survey confirms an increasing interest in cross-platform governance management solutions indicating a growing comfort with platform transparency. Additionally, as the proportion of spending is weighted more towards software versus labor and hardware, this shows that mainframe users can focus on getting maximum benefit from platform applications rather than routine support and maintenance tasks."

Strong support for service optimization and efficiency improvements across the mainframe emerged as an important take-away from the survey's results. As customers continue to invest in the mainframe, they reported that continued cost reductions and productivity improvement will remain at the top of their operational agenda as they work to automate IT across the business to minimize human error, improve compliance and deliver services faster.

"The applications that run on the mainframe are critical to our business," said Charles Kirton, unit manager, Mainframe Technical Services, Wilmington Trust, which provides wealth advisory, corporate clients and regional banking services. "Wilmington Trust has 2,500 employees that support our clients on a global basis. We operate in all fifty states of the United States, as well as 81 other countries around the world. The mainframe is central - absolutely key - to what we do. While we have distributed systems based applications, most of the applications interact with the mainframe so it remains the cornerstone of our IT infrastructure and critical in how we deliver business services."

The survey also saw a sharp decrease in the number of respondents predicting legacy or declining trends. Notably, respondents in Europe, Middle East and Africa predicted the highest growth and spending increases on the platform, and reported the largest installations in terms of capacity.

Respondents cited labor costs as much lower for the mainframe than general IT averages, pointing to a more operationally efficient environment. Participants touted the value of the mainframe platform, specifically calling out transaction performance, superior data serving, availability and security attributes.

This year the survey focused on operational management and process improvements. While 43 percent of respondents said that their overall mainframe environment is mature and operationally stable, a surprising 49 percent indicated that their operations are experiencing new challenges, in the face of continued growth, increased availability requirements and ongoing pressure from regulatory compliance and controls.

Other key points of the survey:

* Respondents continued to expect capacity and spending growth for their platforms, driven by legacy and a significant level of new workload growth.

* Participants reported software as the dominant cost, consuming 40 percent of their mainframe operations budget. This reflects a relatively high degree of automation in the management of many mainframe environments and contrasts sharply with general IT operations, where labor is the dominant expense.

* Mainframe software and hardware continued to show the highest rate of anticipated increases in spending, with growth expected from 53 and 50 percent of respondents, respectively.

* While staff skill concerns remain high, an overall decrease in concern was noted, with less than one-third of all respondents indicating concern in this area.

* Rising energy costs were highlighted as an emerging issue by 87 percent of the large companies surveyed. This concern was particularly strong in Asia Pacific.

* A significant number of customers classified themselves as reactive when it comes to environmental monitoring and tend to deal with problems as they occur.

"Direct feedback from customers gives us the knowledge to provide the best possible tools so they can efficiently run their business," said Bill Miller, senior vice president and general manager of BMC's Mainframe Service Management business unit. "This survey further confirms that the mainframe plays a critical role in delivering key business services and that cross-enterprise integration is the crux of a successful business service management initiative. Customers continue to see us as a leader of technology innovation and we're honored to be a valuable partner in their business."

More than 1,100 mainframe users participated in the BMC survey. The survey pool was comprehensive and definitive, including 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. This is the third consecutive year that BMC has conducted the survey. For a summary of the findings go to the BMC Software Mainframe Survey 2008 results.

About BMC Software

BMC Software is a leading global provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to automate their IT and prove its business value. Delivering Business Service Management and Service Automation, BMC solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. For the four fiscal quarters ended June 30, 2008, BMC revenue was approximately $1.78 billion. For more information, visit www.bmc.com.

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