PLATINUM enhances its database recovery solution; New products create up-to-date image copies while users continue updating data without interruption.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 1995-- PLATINUM technology, inc., today announced two additions to its database recovery product line: PLATINUM Merge/Modify, a new DB2 utility that creates up-to-date backup copies without taking end-users off-line; and PLATINUM Fast Recover 1.2, a significant upgrade that increases DB2 data recovery performance.

PLATINUM Merge/Modify creates up-to-date backup copies (``image copies'') without restricting users' access during the backup process. Image copies can be made while users continue updating data and performing other normal DB2 operations. The second product, PLATINUM Fast Recover 1.2, adds another 15-20 percent improvement in performance over earlier versions of PLATINUM Fast Recover, which provided 80-85 percent performance improvements to DB2 recoveries.

``These products solve the potential conflicts between the database administrators who want frequent image copies for better data recovery, and the user community who can't afford the downtime caused by lengthy recoveries,'' said Paul Humenansky, PLATINUM technology executive vice president and COO. ``Now, organizations can the best of both worlds. They can make frequent backups to ensure full and speedy recoverability and they don't need to interrupt users to do so.''

PLATINUM Merge/Modify 1.0 Features and Benefits

PLATINUM Merge/Modify creates consistent image copies of tablespaces while allowing the tablespace to remain fully available. Users can still access and update the tablespace data even while the image copy is being created. This feature, called Log Accumulation, is a significant advance in recovery technology since it overcomes the traditional conflict between making frequent backups (which improves recoverability but which also makes data unavailable to users for updating) vs. meeting the increasing demands of users (who are requiring constant data availability). With Merge/Modify, this conflict of needs is eliminated.

In addition, Merge/Modify provides the following features and benefits:

o Significant Performance Improvements when Merging Image Copies

-- the ``Merge'' portion of Merge/Modify yields performance

improvements of 50% in elapsed time and 70% in CPU time 

compared to IBM's MERGECOPY utility.

o Expanded Choices for Points of Recovery -- the ``Modify''

portion of Merge/Modify goes beyond the options provided

by IBM's MODIFY RECOVERY utility, the tool used to clean out

unwanted and outdated recovery information in the DB2 Catalog

and DB2 Directory. Merge/Modify gives database administrators

(DBAs) more flexibility as to which recovery data to retain

and which to delete. As a result, DBAs can save specific

information and recover to a variety of points (including

recovery based on image copy dataset name) instead of

being limited to a few date-specific points of recovery.

PLATINUM Fast Recover 1.2 Features and Benefits

PLATINUM Fast Recover restores tablespaces and indexspaces to a current or a previous state. It is used when data has been corrupted in some way, or when a database has been damaged by a system failure, fire, or other disaster. In addition to significant performance improvements, Version 1.2 expands upon previous recovery functionality by adding several new features, including:

o Recover Database Command -- reduces recovery time by

automatically searching and identifying which database

objects will need to be recovered. Manual analysis and

intervention is eliminated.

o Object Identification (OBID) Translation -- provides several

benefits which include: allowing deleted (``dropped'') objects

to be recovered and restored (this function is not

available with DB2 alone); allowing the movement (``migration'')

of data while keeping it available to users for updates;

and allowing data to be recovered offsite, perhaps

for disaster recovery.

o Inline Image Copy -- reduces total recovery time by creating

image copies during the recovery of tablespaces versus

waiting until the tablespace is fully recovered before image

copies can be made.

User Testimonial

At the University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals, one of its services is providing physicians and laboratory researchers with on-line medical records. The key to their competitiveness for this service is the ability to make the records available 24 hours-per-day, 7 days-per-week. ``We need to keep data available constantly, and Fast Recover helps us do that,'' said Mike Dempsey, database administration manager at UNC Hospitals. ``Fast Recover has reduced the time required for recoveries by 40-50 percent for some of our largest tables, thus helping us meet our goals and remain competitive.''

Pricing and Availability

PLATINUM Fast Recover 1.2 and PLATINUM Merge/Modify 1.0 are immediately available for DB2 for MVS V2.3 and above. Pricing for Fast Recover begins at $18,936 and varies by CPU size, and pricing for Merge/Modify begins at $10,038 and varies by CPU size.

Both products expand the database recovery portion of PLATINUM's product portfolio, a portfolio that not only includes database management tools, but a growing suite of system management tools for the entire open enterprise environment (OEE). By leveraging its expertise in relational technology, PLATINUM offers open enterprise systems management (OESM) products and integrated solutions that help IS organizations manage the prevailing complex, multiplatform, multi-operating system, multivendor computing environment.

CONTACT: PLATINUM technology, inc.

Michelle Edelman, 708/620-5116, ext. 1730

Copithorne & Bellows

David Kitchen/Wendy Defeudis, 617/252-0606