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Is it Time to Ditch Tape for Mainframe Data?
BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets aims to eliminate tape storage with a new approach.
BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets offers direct access to object storage.
The solution enables a true tape replacement with no JCL changes.
Cloud Data Sets boasts reduced CPU consumption and faster data transfers.
The offering aims to deliver cost savings and efficiency gains.
Nedbank reports significant performance improvements with BMC AMI Cloud Data.
The News:
BMC announced the launch of Cloud Data Sets, a new feature in BMC AMI Cloud Data that provides direct access to cloud object storage. This aims to enable enterprises to fully replace traditional tape storage with cloud-based solutions. The solution boasts reduced CPU consumption, faster data transfers, and cost savings. Nedbank, an early adopter, reports significant performance improvements. Find out more in Priya Doty’s blog and a blog by John McKenny late last year.
Analyst Take:
BMC continues to innovate on a regular cadence, with this quarterly release being the 41st since the precedent was set by Compuware that BMC acquired in 2020. The mainframe remains a vital component of enterprise IT infrastructure. However, traditional data management practices, particularly those related to secondary storage, are often seen as cumbersome leveraging legacy approaches such as VTL and are expensive as a result. BMC, a leading provider of mainframe solutions, is addressing these challenges with its latest offering to go GA, BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets. This new feature is designed to modernize mainframe data management by enabling direct access to cloud object storage, effectively eliminating the need for tape storage.
What was Announced:
BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets is a feature of BMC AMI Cloud Data that provides direct access to cloud object storage without requiring modifications to existing JCL or applications. This allows ITOps teams to fully replace traditional tape storage with cloud-based solutions, simplifying operations and minimizing disruption.
Key features and benefits of BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets include:
True Tape Replacement: Supports all major backup utilities, enabling enterprises to redirect their tape backups to the cloud without operational changes.
Performance Improvements: Optimized to use less CPU and provide faster data transfers, shortening backup windows and accelerating recovery.
Cost Savings: Cloud storage is significantly more affordable than traditional VTL solutions, eliminating the need for costly tape hardware.
Efficiency Gains: Reduced CPU usage and faster data transfer speeds lead to faster backups, shorter recovery times, and improved productivity.
Scalability: ITOps teams can scale their data resources without the limitations of physical tape or VTL.
Potential to better leverage cloud based AI: With the data in a public cloud, there is the opportunity to leverage AI services offered by the public cloud vendor.
Support for on premises storage: while the obvious focus is cloud based object storage the solution also supports on premises deployments
The Need for Modernized Mainframe Data Management:
The launch of BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets comes at a time when organizations are increasingly looking to modernize their mainframe environments. Traditional tape storage is often seen as a bottleneck, with its associated costs, complexities, and limitations. Cloud object storage offers a compelling alternative, providing scalability, cost-efficiency, and improved performance.
BMC's strategic partnerships with leading organizations, including Hitachi, Mainline, Dell, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), further strengthen its position in the market. These partnerships bring together BMC's software expertise with the data infrastructure of its partners, creating comprehensive solutions that meet the complex needs of today's enterprises.
Early Adopter Success:
When I spoke with BMC ahead of the announcement they were keen to share the customer adoption of the AMI Cloud and shared with me the number of clients that had adopted the solution, while I can’t share the numbers as they were shared under NDA, I can say that I was positively surprised by the number. The team did share that more on Nedbank, a leading financial institution, has successfully used BMC AMI Cloud Data to transform its data management approach. By adopting this cloud-native feature, Nedbank has reduced its reliance on costly, traditional tape-based systems, gaining both flexibility and cost efficiency. This shift has allowed Nedbank to streamline its disaster recovery and backup processes, reducing complexity while enhancing security and data availability.
Based on my observations, BMC AMI Cloud Data Sets represents a significant step forward in modernizing mainframe data management. By enabling direct access to cloud object storage, BMC is providing organizations with a compelling alternative to traditional tape storage. The solution's focus on performance, cost savings, and scalability addresses key challenges faced by organizations looking to optimize their mainframe environments.
Looking Ahead:
The key trend that I am going to be looking out for is the adoption of cloud-based object storage for mainframe data. Other players are in this market and are getting traction such as Broadcom with CA One Flexible Storage and given that DORA is starting to get more traction I only expect the adoption trend to continue.
BMC's prediction that secondary tape storage and traditional tape software will be phased out at most organizations within the next five years is a bold statement. However, based on my analysis of the market, I believe that this is a realistic assessment. Object storage is pervasive in the cloud and is hugely adopted, why not for the mainframe?
The advantages of cloud object storage are simply too compelling to ignore. Going forward, I am going to be closely monitoring how BMC and its competitors continue to innovate in this space. When you look at the market as a whole, the announcement today by BMC is a clear indication that the future of mainframe data storage is in the cloud. HyperFRAME will be tracking how the company does in future quarters.
Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.