BMC Software has outlined a blueprint for delivering within 18
months an integrated set of database management tools designed to
let IT managers monitor mainframe and distributed databases from a
single console.
As part of the plan, called Project Golden Gate, BMC plans to
release five new or upgraded development tools. These range from a
batch processing tool for mainframe databases to backup and
recovery software for Oracle databases and for SAP and Siebel
applications.
BMC's long-term plan "is interesting from the standpoint of having
a product that's able to link many areas, both open systems and
mainframes," said Frank Schmitt, team leader for storage management
at OneBeacon Insurance Group in Boston, USA. That would let IT
workers with mainframe skills manage both kinds of databases,
Schmitt added.
Dan Sullivan, vice-president of information systems at Mellon
Financial in Pittsburgh, USA, said he also likes the concept
because he oversees administrators of both mainframe and
distributed databases and wants to have a single view into both
worlds.
Sullivan has worked for six years with BMC's Mainview software, a
mainframe systems monitoring tool that Mellon uses to detect
slowdowns in massive data processing jobs, to plan future capacity
needs.
BMC officials described Golden Gate as specifically focused on data
management products that are aimed at bringing together mainframe
and distributed databases. But a BMC spokeswoman said that the
single console concept will be expanded to include the Mainview
systems monitoring tools "sometime in 2003".