IMS Fast Path Data Entry Database
Solutions
- Data Sheet
IMS Fast Path Data Entry Database
Solutions
Key benefits
- Maximize application availability
- Reorganize only the parts of the database that need reorganization
- Minimize downtime for offline maintenance through a single-step execution of multiple processes
- Enable you to extend the size of DEDBs without an unload/reload
- Save resources through concurrent online and offline reorganization, analysis, and image copying
Business challenge
The growth of e-business has placed greater demands on application availability and has mandated that business-critical applications stay online around the clock. The bottom-line success of the enterprise now depends on the absolute availability of these business applications. The need to maintain continuous availability has become a necessity.
IMS Fast Path data entry databases (DEDBs) provide superior transaction throughput, manageability, large data volume capacity, and speed. DEDBs are a preferred access method for high-performance, high-availability environments. DEDBs process large volumes of data with a transaction rate higher than any other type of mainframe database. Intrinsically, DEDBs bring maintenance challenges. For example, DEDBs require frequent reorganization due to fragmentation caused by high transaction activity.
Many IMS Fast Path installations perform database maintenance during the traditional batch window. Because the maintenance window continues to shrink, time savings for database maintenance has become a key requirement even for batch processes.
You need a comprehensive tool set that delivers all the analysis, reorganization, structure change, and reporting tools that are critical for management of business-critical Fast Path databases. You need solutions with synergy and common functionality to simplify Fast Path database management. You need online utilities to maximize Fast Path database availability, to plan for space and reorganization needs, and to take online image copies of Fast Path databases to prepare for recoveries. You also need offline maintenance capabilities to perform batch maintenance when appropriate.
BMC Software solution
BMC Software offers three solutions to manage Fast Path DEDBs.
Fast Path Offline Suite
The Fast Path Offline Suite improves the performance and availability of IMS Fast Path databases for installations accustomed to handling DEDB maintenance during a time-constrained batch maintenance window. Synergy with other BMC Software products helps with database recoveries, compression, and image copying of Fast Path databases.
The Fast Path Offline Suite
- Increases the availability of Fast Path DEDBs to applications
- Reorganizes, analyzes, and takes image copies of DEDBs with one I/O
- Offers the Intelligent Reorg™ feature to reorganize only the parts of the database that need reorganization
- Minimizes downtime for offline maintenance through a single-step execution of multiple processes
- Provides analysis and reports to manage DEDB performance, space usage, and physical attributes
- Enables you to extend the size of DEDBs without an unload/reload
Fast Path Online Suite
The Fast Path Online Suite delivers maximum data availability, improved database performance, and processing versatility. You can simultaneously analyze, reorganize, and take image copies of Fast Path databases online. Synergy with other BMC Software products facilitates database recoveries and compression.
The Fast Path Online Suite includes all of the functionality of the Fast Path Offline Suite. In addition, it
- Maximizes the availability of Fast Path DEDBs to applications
- Reorganizes, analyzes, and takes image copies of DEDBs with one I/O, while the DEDB remains online
- Provides the ability to extend DEDBs without taking them offline
- Dramatically reduces logging overhead for online reorganizations
- Provides complete online and offline capabilities for DEDB maintenance
- Saves resources through concurrent online and offline reorganization, analysis, and image copying
Fast Path Enhanced Online Suite
The Fast Path Enhanced Online Suite is the ultimate product suite for managing DEDBs. It maximizes data availability, improves database performance, enables application enhancement through indexing, and speeds recoveries. The Fast Path Enhanced Online Suite delivers ease of use and enhanced functionality to enable you to effectively plan and execute maintenance, analysis, indexing, and recovery. You can exploit the speed, flexibility, and high capacity advantages of IMS Fast Path database structures while meeting maintenance challenges.
The Fast Path Enhanced Online Suite includes all of the functionality available in the Fast Path Offline and Online suites. It also
- Enables creation of secondary indexes providing an alternate processing sequence for the application
- Ensures data integrity after an emergency restart failure
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Industry
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Business operation
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Industry cost range per hour ($)
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Average cost per hour ($)
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Financial
|
Brokerage operations
|
5.6 - 7.3 million
|
6.5 million
|
Financial
|
Credit card/sales authorization
|
2.2 - 3.1 million
|
2.6 million
|
Media
|
Pay-per-view television
|
67,000 - 233,000
|
150,000
|
Retail
|
Home shopping (TV)
|
87,000 - 140,000
|
113,000
|
Retail
|
Home catalog sales
|
60,000 - 120,000
|
90,000
|
Transport
|
Airline reservations
|
67,000 - 112,000
|
99,500
|
Media
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Teleticket sales
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56,000 - 82,000
|
69,000
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Transport
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Package shipping
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24,000 - 32,000
|
28,000
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Finance
|
Automatic teller machine fees
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12,000 - 17,000
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14,500
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The cost of downtime is sometimes difficult to quantify, but this table from Gartner summarizes the cost of an outage. Fast Path solutions from BMC Software minimize outages while simplifying the maintenance of DEDBs.