In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, BMC is continuously pushing the boundaries of hybrid cloud solutions for mainframe, offering enterprises cloud-native capabilities that address modern data needs. Since acquiring Model9 in 2023, we’ve seen growing momentum and strong interest in the BMC AMI Cloud suite across major industries including finance, healthcare, and insurance. This growth reflects the market’s embrace of our three core solutions, each designed to drive more efficient, scalable, and secure data management:
- BMC AMI Cloud Data: Full data protection and tape and virtual tape replacement
- BMC AMI Cloud Vault: Cloud-based cyber resiliency and recovery
- BMC AMI Cloud Analytics: Mainframe data shared and integrated with cloud-based analytics platforms
Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the Cloud Data Sets feature, a significant innovation that will improve the BMC AMI Cloud portfolio and support the needs of IT operations (ITOps) leaders and professionals. This new feature is a game-changer for scalable, efficient mainframe management in the cloud, and as I’ll share in a moment, making a real impact on how our clients handle mainframe data.
This innovation is strengthened by our strategic partnerships with leading organizations including Hitachi, Mainline, Dell and Amazon Web Services (AWS). These partners provide reach and expertise, which combined with BMC software innovation, work together to help our clients transform mainframe operations for a public cloud or on-premises, private cloud future. With this foundation, customers can continue to expect that BMC will be at the forefront of delivering disruptive technology that manages mainframe data with enhanced cost-efficiency, security, and insight-driven capabilities, supporting the journey to a robust hybrid cloud environment.
Key benefits of Cloud Data Sets
The new Cloud Data Sets feature in BMC AMI Cloud Data transforms mainframe data management by providing direct access to cloud object storage without the need to modify existing JCLs or applications. This enhancement empowers ITOps teams to fully replace traditional tape storage with cloud-based solutions, simplifying operations and minimizing disruption.
With this new release, BMC AMI Cloud Data supports all major backup utilities, including EXCP, enabling enterprises to redirect their tape backups to the cloud without any operational changes. This previously unavailable flexibility removes a major barrier to cloud adoption in mainframe environments.
Additionally, BMC AMI Cloud Data now delivers substantial performance improvements:
- Reduced CPU consumption—The new version has been optimized to use even less CPU than its predecessor.
- Faster data transfers—Backup and restore times are significantly shorter, further shortening backup windows and accelerating recovery.
By enabling a true tape replacement, Cloud Data Sets helps lower operational costs and optimize resource usage:
- Cost savings—Cloud storage is up to 12 times more affordable than traditional virtual tape library (VTL solutions), eliminating the need for costly tape hardware and VTL systems.
- Efficiency gains—With reduced CPU usage and faster data transfer, customers can achieve faster backups, shorten recovery times, and improve overall productivity.
- Scalability—ITOps teams can scale their data resources without the limitations of physical tape or VTL, supporting long-term growth in a more cost-effective way.
Real-world client impact: Nedbank’s perspective
The impact of BMC AMI Cloud is best illustrated by real-world customer examples. 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 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.
In fact, Nedbank reports that BMC AMI Cloud Data has drastically improved its backup performance. As Ashwin Naidu, IT Manager for Enterprise Storage and Backup at Nedbank, noted, “We have seen a huge increase in the performance of our backups, one example is that the backup that used to run for an entire weekend for 48 hours, when we went to a cloud-based solution, it was reduced to 36 minutes.”
Nedbank’s experience highlights the real-world value of BMC AMI Cloud Data. As BMC continues to innovate and expand its cloud-native mainframe solutions, our goal remains clear: to empower our customers with scalable, efficient, and secure tools that fully support their journey toward hybrid cloud integration.
Strategic partnerships speed time to market
The journey toward enabling hybrid cloud integration is amplified by partnerships with industry leaders. These collaborations bring together BMC’s software expertise with the data infrastructure of partners including Hitachi, Mainline, Dell, and AWS, creating powerful solutions that meet the complex needs of today’s enterprises.
For instance, our alliance with Hitachi combines its advanced data infrastructure with our automation and security features, providing customers with enhanced data protection, reduced operational costs, and seamless workflows. Through immutable backups and data encryption, we’re strengthening security, meeting the demands of hybrid cloud environments, and simplifying data-driven decision-making. These partnerships optimize resource utilization and unlock data’s potential for deeper insights, enabling enterprises to view their mainframe data as a strategic asset. Together, BMC and our partners are leading the way in modernizing mainframe environments, minimizing costs, and creating a future-ready hybrid cloud. In short, they have never mainframed like this before.
Looking ahead
As we look to the future roadmaps, BMC is driving the transformation of mainframe data storage with a clear perspective: within the next five years, secondary tape storage and traditional tape software will be phased out at most organizations. The future of secondary storage for the mainframe lies in cloud-based object storage, whether private or public. Our BMC AMI Cloud roadmap sets a new standard for scalable, resilient data solutions that empower our customers to fully realize their hybrid cloud ambitions, delivering optimized costs, powerful security, enhanced performance, and deeper insights.
By embracing cloud capabilities now, enterprises can remain adaptive in an evolving digital landscape that demands more from the mainframe. Through strategic partnerships, we ensure our customers receive comprehensive solutions that meet their needs today and tomorrow. Now is the time for you to leverage cloud innovation to modernize effectively—the advantages are significant, and with barriers removed, there’s nothing holding you back.
With the beta launch of Cloud Data Sets and our expanding partnerships, BMC offers a powerful path forward for customers who are ready to modernize their mainframe environments. We invite you to register for our upcoming webinar at 9 am CT on November 20th, “From Tapes to Cloud: Ensuring Compliance and Resilience in Hybrid Environments,” to explore how BMC AMI Cloud Data can support your mainframe modernization journey. Let’s unlock the full potential of your data in the cloud, creating a future-ready, resilient mainframe environment that drives your business forward.
