CA Extends its Leadership in Leveraging the Power of IBM zIIP Processors with Newest Release of CA Datacom Relational Database

Optimized Use of Mainframe Specialty Processors Enables Customers to Scale Capacity and Performance While Controlling IT Costs

ISLANDIA, N.Y.– CA (NASDAQ: CA) today announced CA Datacom® r12, a new version of its high-performance/high-availability relational database management system that helps customers cost-effectively scale capacity and performance by exploiting IBM’s System z® Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) specialty processor.

The new version, which also takes advantage of CA’s Mainframe 2.0 technology, brings to 14 the number of CA mainframe solutions that make optimum use of the zIIP specialty processor to support greater workloads without consuming additional general-purpose processing capacity.

These solutions include CA IDMS™, CA Vtape Virtual Tape System, CA Tape Encryption, and CA NetMaster® Network Management. CA also helps customers more effectively utilize their zIIP processors by providing visibility into zIIP operations through management solutions such as CA SYSVIEW® Performance Management, CA MICS® Resource Management, and CA Insight Performance Monitor for DB2 for z/OS.

CA is leading the industry by empowering customers to take advantage of the low-cost capacity provided by zIIP processors for core business workloads.

“As a result of ongoing investments by CA and IBM, the mainframe has regained its position as the most compelling platform for the delivery of reliable, secure, high-performance IT services,” said Mark Combs, senior vice president of CA’s Mainframe Business Unit. “With its cost-saving use of zIIP capacity and its incorporation of Mainframe 2.0’s ownership-easing functionality, CA Datacom r12 provides one more example of how CA is leading the mainframe software market and enhancing the overall value proposition of the IBM z/OS® platform.”

Both CA Datacom r12 and CA IDMS r17 allow customers to shift all types of production database workloads—including those generated by online transaction systems, batch processing jobs and distributed platform requests—to zIIP specialty processors. CA’s approach is in marked contrast to DBMS solutions from other vendors that either limit the types of workloads that can be offloaded from general purpose processors—or that fail to utilize zIIP altogether.

“CA Datacom’s zIIP capability will enable us to reap greater returns on our existing mainframe infrastructure by giving us more capacity without more cost,” said Phil Frankford, database administrator at SC Data Center, Inc. “The ability to add workloads to our existing mainframe infrastructure is especially attractive to us because of the centralized management and security the mainframe provides for business-critical applications.”

CA Datacom r12 also includes many other performance and productivity features, including a Multi-Dataset Index for advanced index processing and new AutoScope Performance Metric Tools for improved performance monitoring and tuning.

Mainframe 2.0 support

CA Datacom r12 leverages key components of CA’s Mainframe 2.0 initiative including CA Mainframe Software Manager, which automates CA Datacom product acquisition and installation and shields IT staff from underlying SMP/E complexities, and a Best Practices Guide that shortens the learning curve for IT staff by providing comprehensive information about CA Datacom installation, configuration, and deployment.

Mainframe 2.0 is being rapidly rolled out across CA’s entire mainframe solutions portfolio, so that customers can take full advantage of the mainframe’s unique scalability, reliability, security, performance, and cost-efficiency—and so that a new generation of IT professionals can successfully manage enterprise mainframe environments as the industry loses a growing number of more experienced mainframe managers to retirement.