Compuware Corporation and BMC Software. are partnering to improve the economics of IBM z Systems ownership. By doing so, the two companies are empowering customers to significantly reduce mainframe opex — even as they more aggressively leverage their high-value mainframe applications, data and processing capacity to meet the challenges of the digital economy.

Mainframe workloads are growing significantly as web, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) applications drive increasing transaction volumes. Capabilities offered on the newly-debuted IBM z13 are also likely to attract new workloads — including high-performance analytics, Java and Linux. This workload growth is precipitously driving up the Monthly License Charge (MLC) for IBM mainframe software, which for sub-capacity environments is generally impacted by the highest rolling four-hour average (R4HA) of mainframe utilization for all applications on each LPAR—measured in MSUs. Therefore IT can most effectively reduce its sizable IBM z Systems software costs by both 1) tuning each application to minimize its individual consumption of mainframe resources and 2) orchestrating application workloads to minimize the LPAR utilization peaks they generate collectively at any given time.

“The partnership between BMC and Compuware launches an integrated opportunity for mainframe customers to manage workload inefficiencies in a manner that has not been achievable to-date,” said Frank DeSalvo, former research director at Gartner. “This innovation helps organizations leverage their IT budgets by enabling them to continuously optimize their mainframe workloads, resulting in cost effective decisions for both current and future spending.”

BMC and Compuware are uniquely enabling customers to achieve these outcomes by integrating three complementary solutions:

- BMC Cost Analyzer for zEnterprise is a financially intelligent workload management solution that enables customers to identify MLC cost drivers and take appropriate measures to reduce those costs—such as moving workloads to non-peak periods, running IBM subsystems on fewer LPARs, and capping LPAR utilization.

- BMC MainView provides real-time identification of application performance issues, enabling customers to quickly eliminate wasteful MSU consumption.

- Compuware Strobe delivers deep, granular and highly actionable insight into the behavior of application code in the IBM z Systems environment, allowing mainframe owners to quickly pinpoint inefficient sub-routines that can cause MSU consumption to be 20x or more greater than necessary.

One integration allows BMC Cost Analyzer to call Compuware Strobe for a detailed analysis of the specific application component for peak MLC periods, enabling customers to proactively tune applications that have the greatest impact on their monthly software licensing costs. A second integration with BMC MainView allows customers to either automatically or manually invoke Strobe performance analysis — empowering mainframe staffs to more quickly, efficiently and consistently perform cost-saving tuning tasks.

“BMC and Compuware have helped drive mainframe technology for decades, and today we are two of the most innovative companies delivering new solutions on the mainframe platform,” said Bill Miller, President, ZSolutions and Select Technologies for BMC. “The integration of our key solutions helps mainframe customers achieve even greater cost efficiencies as they cope with the challenging combination of intensifying business demand and tight resource constraints.”

“Customers are facing the loss of their most skilled and experienced mainframe staff at the same time as the opportunities and challenges of mainframe ownership are on the rise,” said Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley. “BMC and Compuware are responding to this urgent market need by innovating and collaborating in a way that is unprecedented among mainframe ISVs — and that directly addresses the twin issues of improving the mainframe’s performance economics and simplifying mainframe operations for a new generation of IT professionals.”

The integrations are the first of several the two companies plan as part of a broader partnership that also includes use of each other’s technology within their own organizations.