SMF Meets OpenTelemetry: The Next Chapter in Mainframe Observability

A practical look at how SMF and OpenTelemetry work together to bring end-to-end observability to z/OS environments.

Quick takeaway: IBM’s new OpenTelemetry record types use SMF infrastructure primarily because it provides a fast, reliable, in-memory transport mechanism on z/OS. The payload is OpenTelemetry span data, not SMF operational data, so these records should be viewed as a transport path for trace information rather than an extension of SMF reporting.

Terminology note: In this article, existing subsystem-specific SMF records are referred to simply as SMF. IBM’s newer record types 1158–1161, which carry OpenTelemetry span data through SMF infrastructure, are referred to as OpenTelemetry record types.

Modern business transactions rarely stay within one system.

A customer request may begin in a web or mobile application, pass through APIs and messaging services, traverse CICS, IMS, MQ, or Db2 on IBM Z, and then return to the user. When performance slows or a transaction fails, operations teams are often forced to piece together information from multiple monitoring tools to understand what happened.

For decades, System Management Facility (SMF) has provided deep operational visibility into IBM z/OS environments. At the same time, OpenTelemetry has emerged as the industry standard for collecting and correlating telemetry across applications, services, and infrastructure.

These technologies solve different but complementary problems.

SMF helps teams understand what is happening inside individual mainframe subsystems. OpenTelemetry helps teams understand how requests move across the broader application landscape.

In this article, we’ll look at what changed, why IBM used this SMF-based transport approach, and how OpenTelemetry span data works alongside SMF operational data.

First, What Does SMF Do So Well?

SMF records capture subsystem-specific operational and performance information.

Some common examples include:

Each SMF record layout is designed specifically for the subsystem generating it.

For example:

• Db2 accounting records contain SQL execution statistics.
• CICS monitoring records contain transaction metrics.
• RMF records describe CPU and memory utilization.

These records remain essential inputs for:

• Performance analysis
• Capacity planning
• Accounting and chargeback
• Operational reporting
• Historical analysis
• Automation

Simply put, SMF continues to be a foundational source of subsystem operational data on z/OS.

Why Modern Applications Make Correlation Harder

Today's business transactions rarely execute within a single subsystem.

A typical customer request may flow through:

A request traverses the web tier, messaging, transaction, and data layers on IBM z/OS

If a transaction experiences high response time, SMF provides excellent visibility into what happened inside each subsystem.

However, it does not automatically show how that business request moved from one subsystem to another. Operations teams often need to manually correlate SMF records, logs, and monitoring data to understand where a request may have slowed down or failed. This helps identify the obstacles encountered along the way, but it does not always reconstruct the complete end-to-end transaction path.

As applications become increasingly distributed, this correlation becomes more complex.

OpenTelemetry Adds the Missing Context

OpenTelemetry introduces a standardized approach to collecting and correlating telemetry across applications, services, and systems.

With appropriate instrumentation and context propagation, telemetry generated by different components can be correlated to provide visibility into the flow of a request across multiple technologies. Individual operations can be represented as spans, and related spans can be connected to form a trace that represents the end-to-end journey of a request.

This provides a broader context for understanding application behavior across subsystem boundaries. Rather than replacing subsystem-level monitoring, OpenTelemetry complements it by making it easier to connect related activity across products and technologies.

A Simple Way to Think About It

With SMF, each warehouse maintains its own operational log.

• Warehouse A records when it receives the parcel.
• Warehouse B records when it processes it.
• Warehouse C records when it ships it.

Each warehouse has accurate information, but none shows the complete journey.

OpenTelemetry works more like the parcel's tracking number.

Every warehouse contributes to the same shipment history, allowing you to see the complete path from sender to recipient.

That is exactly what a distributed trace provides for an application request.

Why Existing SMF Records Were Not Enough for Tracing

OpenTelemetry defines a standardized data model for distributed tracing.

Each span contains information such as:

• Trace ID
• Span ID
• Parent Span ID
• Operation name
• Start and end timestamps
• Attributes
• Events
• Status

SMF record layouts were never designed to carry this type of tracing information.

Rather than changing dozens of existing subsystem-specific SMF layouts, IBM introduced dedicated record types that use SMF infrastructure to move OpenTelemetry span data.

In other words, IBM used SMF because it met the transport requirement: a fast, familiar, in-memory mechanism for moving telemetry on z/OS.

The New OpenTelemetry Record Types on z/OS

IBM introduced dedicated record types for OpenTelemetry spans generated by key z/OS products.

Unlike SMF operational records, these OpenTelemetry records are not intended for subsystem accounting, capacity planning, or historical performance reporting.

Their purpose is to carry standardized OpenTelemetry span information.

How the Span Data Flows

One question experienced system programmers often ask is:

"Are these records handled the same way as SMF records?"

The answer is: not exactly.

SMF records are commonly written to SMF datasets or log streams for retention and subsequent processing by reporting, accounting, performance analysis, and automation tools.

The OpenTelemetry span records serve a different purpose. They are not intended for SMF datasets retention.

When IBM MQ, CICS, IMS, or Db2 generates an OpenTelemetry span, that span is written into preconfigured SMF in-memory resources using record types 1158–1161.

The IBM z/OS OpenTelemetry Emitter reads the span data from those in-memory resources, converts it into the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP), and forwards it to an OpenTelemetry Collector.

The collector can then export the telemetry to enterprise observability platforms such as Grafana, Splunk, Dynatrace, Elastic, and others.

This approach allows IBM to use the familiar SMF infrastructure as a transport layer while enabling near real-time distributed tracing across enterprise environments.

SMF Operational Data vs. OpenTelemetry Span Data

Why SMF and OpenTelemetry Are Better Together

It is important to emphasize that OpenTelemetry does not replace SMF.

SMF remains the foundational source for subsystem performance analysis, accounting, auditing, capacity planning, and operational reporting.

OpenTelemetry introduces a new dimension by providing end-to-end visibility across multiple systems and technologies.

Together they provide both depth and context.

• SMF explains what happened within each subsystem.     
• OpenTelemetry traces explain how a request moved across the entire application landscape.

Organizations benefit from both capabilities.

IBM's Approach and BMC's Approach Are Complementary

The OpenTelemetry flow described above represents IBM's approach to making OpenTelemetry span data available from supported z/OS subsystems. BMC AMI products take a different approach to supporting customers on their OpenTelemetry journey.

BMC's current OpenTelemetry capabilities focus on making mainframe operational metrics and data available in OpenTelemetry-compliant formats and integrating them with enterprise observability platforms. BMC AMI products leverage existing operational data sources, including SMF, and use BMC AMI Datastream for Ops or BMC AMI Datastream for z/OS products to make this data available through the OpenTelemetry ecosystem.

Therefore, while IBM and BMC are both contributing to the adoption of OpenTelemetry in mainframe environments, they address different aspects of the observability landscape. IBM's implementation described above focuses on the collection and export of OpenTelemetry span data from supported z/OS subsystems. BMC focuses on bringing rich mainframe operational data and metrics into the broader enterprise observability ecosystem, while enhancing AMI Ops capabilities to help operators correlate and investigate issues across their environments.

Both approaches can play complementary roles in an enterprise observability strategy.

What This Means for BMC AMI Customers

For BMC AMI customers, OpenTelemetry creates an important opportunity: traces can show where a request slowed down, while BMC AMI helps teams understand why it happened inside the mainframe environment. That difference matters. End-to-end trace visibility is valuable, but resolving complex performance issues still requires trusted subsystem data, SMF insights, metrics, logs, and operational context from Db2, IMS, CICS, MQ, z/OS, and related environments.

BMC AMI products help bridge modern observability standards with deep mainframe operational intelligence. By connecting OpenTelemetry trace context with the data and views that mainframe teams already rely on, BMC helps customers move beyond detecting symptoms to diagnosing root causes with greater speed and confidence.

For customers, this means practical outcomes such as:

• Bring mainframe metrics into enterprise observability platforms – BMC AMI products can publish operational metrics in OpenTelemetry-compliant formats, helping customers view mainframe signals alongside telemetry from distributed, cloud-native, and hybrid applications.
• Correlate traces with trusted mainframe operational data – BMC helps operators connect OpenTelemetry trace context with SMF data, logs, metrics, and AMI Ops views so teams can move from identifying where latency occurred to understanding the underlying subsystem behavior.
• Accelerate diagnosis across hybrid environments – By bringing together traces, metrics, logs, SMF data, and BMC AMI operational context, customers can reduce manual correlation and shorten the path from alert to root cause.
• Preserve mainframe depth while adopting OpenTelemetry standards – Customers can participate in modern observability practices without losing the subsystem-level detail that mainframe experts depend on for performance analysis, capacity planning, and operational decision-making.

The value for BMC AMI customers is not simply seeing an end-to-end trace. The real value comes from connecting that trace to the operational depth that mainframe teams already trust. BMC helps bridge enterprise OpenTelemetry adoption with proven mainframe expertise, enabling teams to correlate signals across hybrid environments while continuing to use the rich subsystem visibility BMC AMI products have delivered for decades.

Final Thoughts

IBM's introduction of these OpenTelemetry record types represents an important evolution in how trace data is transported and consumed on z/OS.

Rather than turning SMF into a tracing format, IBM used SMF infrastructure because it provides an efficient in-memory path for moving OpenTelemetry span data.

The future of mainframe observability is not about choosing between SMF and OpenTelemetry. It is about using each where it delivers the greatest value.

SMF continues to provide the detailed subsystem insights that have served enterprises for decades, while OpenTelemetry adds the end-to-end context needed for today's increasingly interconnected application environments.

Together, they enable the mainframe to participate as a first-class citizen in enterprise observability while preserving the operational insights that organizations already trust.

Have Questions or Want to Learn More?

Have questions about BMC AMI and OpenTelemetry? Contact your BMC account team or connect with us through the BMC Community to learn how these capabilities can support your mainframe observability strategy.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Richard Nikula , Nick Mears for their valuable input and review comments on this article. Their expertise helped improve the technical accuracy, clarity, and positioning of this blog.

Related Resources

Continue exploring OpenTelemetry and mainframe observability:

OpenTelemetry on Mainframe Special Interest Group

Mainframe Metrics Go Enterprise: The OpenTelemetry Transformation

Extending Mainframe Visibility with OpenTelemetry

New Features Improve Mainframe Observability, Understanding, Resilience

Extend Mainframe Observability with OpenTelemetry to Splunk and Other Enterprise Platforms

July 10, 2026

Dear Customer:

BMC is writing to you today as a customer of BMC Compuware Topaz Connect.

Effective today and according to terms set out on BMC’s Customer Support site (https://www.bmc.com/support/resources/bmc-product-support-policy.html) BMC is announcing the End of Life for the BMC Compuware Topaz Connect product as listed in the accompanying product table:

BMC will continue to provide Full Support for the generally available product versions through March 31, 2027. From April 1, 2027 BMC will continue to provide Limited Support for the current generally available versions of these products as defined at the Product End of Life section of BMC’s Product Support Policy until the end of Limited Support date of March 31, 2028. As per this policy, BMC will continue to develop hot fixes for problems of high technical impact; however, this solution is considered functionally stabilized, and therefore, will not receive further enhancements during this period.

Effective today until the end of support date listed above, BMC will continue to provide customers with active support contracts access to BMC Customer Support as described in this letter. You can continue to interact with BMC Customer Support just like you do today to receive such support.

If you have any questions regarding this transition, please contact your BMC Account Manager at 1-855-834-7487 and press Option 1 for Sales, or BMC Customer Support at 1-800-537-1813.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kevin Corbett

Senior Product Manager

BMC Software

BMC HelixGPT 25.x: Fundamentals Administering for Service Management (ASP)

Launching self-paced video course in multiple languages for administrators!

Available Languages: English, French, French (CA), Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Portuguese (BR), Spanish (MX)

Course Abstract

Course Registration

BMC HelixGPT Learning Track

Learn how to configure, build, manage, and customize AI Agents using BMC HelixGPT Agent Studio with hands-on labs and real-time use cases. This self-paced, hands-on course guides learners about the fundamental concepts of Agentic AI and the customization use cases. We focus on the Employee Navigator and Service Collaborator, citing these as examples to explain the basic concepts and use cases for all AI agents. Learners are presented with real-world tasks and the information and necessary tools to complete each task, which will develop basic BMC HelixGPT skills. Materials are provided that can be referenced during and after the class. 

For any additional details, post a comment, or contact us at [email protected]. We will be happy to help you!

At BMC Helix , great customer experiences don’t happen by accident, they’re built by people who combine deep technical expertise with genuine care for customer success. One such person is Akshata Rathod, a long-standing BMC Software team member whose work behind the scenes plays a critical role in helping customers confidently start their Helix journey.

Every successful customer journey begins with a strong start—and that’s exactly where Akshata Rathod makes her mark.

A valued member of the BMC Software family since 2016, Akshata is currently part of the BMC Helix Platform Onboarding Team, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping the first experiences of customers on the platform.

Driving Seamless Onboarding Experiences

Akshata specializes in end-to-end technical onboarding, ensuring that customers transition smoothly from initial setup to a successful go-live. She brings a unique blend of technical expertise and customer empathy, making complex processes feel structured and achievable.

Her day-to-day impact includes:

• Solving complex technical challenges with precision
• Managing critical customer escalations with confidence
• Deep-diving into logs, integrations, and system behavior
• Partnering closely with engineering teams to resolve product issues
• Contributing to knowledge articles and documentation that empower the wider community
• Continuously enhancing support processes to elevate customer experience

For Akshata, onboarding isn’t just a phase. It’s about building trust, setting the foundation for success, and ensuring customers feel supported every step of the way.

🌈 Life Beyond Logs and Launches

Beyond her professional role, Akshata brings the same energy and creativity into her personal life.

• 🏡 She has a passion for home organization, creating spaces that are both functional and calming
• 💃 A true dance enthusiast, she enjoys exploring different styles as a form of fitness and self-expression
• 🍰 An avid baker, she loves experimenting with recipes and sharing her creations
• 👶 And most importantly, she is embracing the beautiful journey of new motherhood, cherishing every moment of bonding and growth

From the lens of an onboarding expert, here’s Akshata’s perspective on her day-to-day journey—shared through the questions she answered for this blog.

1. In technical support, resolving issues quickly is important—but so is customer trust. How do you balance both during critical incidents? 

Providing regular and authentic updates on the issue while actively working toward a quick resolution helps maintain transparency. This approach reassures customers that their concern is being handled with priority and helps build and sustain their trust during critical incidents.  

2. What is one challenging case or ticket that taught you something valuable about troubleshooting or customer support?  

Being a part of the Onboarding Helix Team, every case is a challenge and they have taught me the importance of discussing the issue thoroughly with the customer before making assumptions. By understanding their environment, recent changes, and exact symptoms, we can focus on the right problem from the beginning. This approach avoids unnecessary troubleshooting steps and leads to faster and more accurate resolutions while improving customer experience. 

3.What does a typical day look like in your role supporting enterprise customers? 

 A typical day involves monitoring and responding to support tickets from enterprise customers, especially critical or escalated issues. I start by reviewing open cases and prioritizing high-impact incidents, then work on troubleshooting, coordinating with internal teams if needed, and providing regular updates to customers. I also focus on root cause analysis, documenting solutions, and knowledge sharing to help improve future support and resolution times. 

4. How do you keep your technical knowledge updated in such a rapidly evolving environment?  

 I keep my technical knowledge updated by regularly attending trainings, completing certifications, and exploring new product features and documentation. I also learn a lot through real customer cases, collaboration with colleagues, and knowledge sharing within the team, which helps me stay current in a rapidly evolving environment  

5.Are there any challenges women may face in tech roles, and how can they overcome them?  

 Women in tech may sometimes face challenges such as underrepresentation or the need to constantly prove their technical capabilities. The best way to overcome this is by staying confident, continuously improving technical skills, speaking up, and supporting one another. With persistence, learning, and strong collaboration, women can build successful and impactful careers in technology.  

6. Many women juggle multiple responsibilities outside work. What practices help you stay organized and manage both professional and personal commitments?  

 It is always challenging to balance both. I make sure to give my 100% focus during work hours, staying organized and prioritizing tasks effectively. Once work time is done, I shift my focus to home and personal responsibilities, which helps me maintain a healthy balance between professional and personal commitments.   

Lightning Round ⚡

1) Root cause found quickly or long debugging journey?  Root cause found quickly.

2) Incident bridge calls or deep-dive debugging sessions?  Incident bridge calls or

3) Slack/Teams messages or email threads? Slack/Teams messages

4) War room collaboration or solo investigation? War room collabration

Akshata’s story reflects the spirit of the BMC Helix Community—technical excellence, customer-first thinking, and people who bring their whole selves to what they do. Her work may often happen behind the scenes, but its impact is felt by customers every time they achieve a successful go-live.

We’re proud to spotlight Akshata and grateful for the energy, empathy, and expertise she brings to BMC every day.

✨ Here’s to Akshata and the incredible impact she continues to make—both within the BMC Helix community and beyond.

In our March AMA Series, we’re excited to feature George Lau, a seasoned Control-M professional whose career spans decades of hands-on experience across platforms, industries, and evolving automation landscapes. George has also been an active member of the BMC Community since 2016, consistently engaging, sharing insights, and contributing his expertise to fellow members. 

From OpenVMS to UNIX/Linux, from scripting in Perl to working with Automation API and Python - George’s journey reflects deep technical expertise, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous learning. 

We recently sat down with George to discuss his career journey, industry insights, community experiences, and lessons learned along the way in his own words. 

1. Could you share a little about your career journey - how you started, and how you became part of the Control-M family and what drew you into workload automation? 

I was educated as an engineer but ended up some years later as a system admin on OpenVMS and Windows NT. (Both names pre-date many readers here 😊) As the robust OpenVMS gave way to the more flexible UNIX/Linux, I was offered an opportunity to take on a project replacing DECscheduler on OpenVMS with Control-M on UNIX. It was Control-M 6.0 at that time when EM was still ECS. Over the next few years, I went through a few versions of Control-M. Then I moved on to a consulting firm servicing Control-M customers across US and Canada, and eventually on my own until now. 

2. When you think about your work with Control-M, what excites you the most, and is there a moment or experience that made you feel the difference? 

Control-M is the platform that connects tasks across various OSes with various applications for various business units to complete an entire process step by step. We need to be accommodating to support many unique requirements at each step into the framework of Control-M. Every time visualizing an entire process implemented in Control-M completing from its starting point to its finishing point is very satisfying. A big picture also gets people think beyond individual tasks and beyond boundaries of business units. You know you win them when the design of a new task has the consideration of how it will be launched in Control-M. 

3. Automation is always evolving - are there any trends or upcoming changes in the industry that you’re particularly excited about? How do you see them shaping the way teams work in the near future. 

Automation is evolving as the world of IT is evolving. In the early days of scheduling and automation, it was the rich graphical interface and its ability to bring tasks operating in silos together that brought Control-M to the forefront. We are now moving into automating the automation and we continue to see Control-M bringing Automation API to fill in the gap. It was an exciting moment seeing the introduction of Automation API for Control-M. As it has been slowly developed to the current state over the past few years, AAPI is comprehensive to be an important and indispensable tool working with Control-M. 

4. What’s a challenge in workload automation that’s stood out to you, and is there a story or example of how it was addressed that stayed with you? 

Control-M works across multiple platforms interacting with many distinct applications and systems. While it is impossible to know all the technologies in use for Control-M jobs, it is critical to keep a solid understanding of Control-M features and functionalities, and the underlying infrastructure supporting Control-M architecture. Stand on what you know and engage admins of their specialty areas to identify solutions. 

5. Has there been a moment in the Control-M community that really stuck with you - something that made you go, "this is why I love being part of this community”? 

Control-M offers a platform to manage process flow. I was helping a customer using Control-M to replace an existing scheduler that had very basic functionalities. After converting all the jobs into Control-M for them to form workflows, additional parameters were added to jobs to provide tighter execution control such as QR, CR, On-Do conditions as many seasoned Control-M admin would do. When Control-M was in full production use and before I left the site, an unscheduled outage of a database occurred on which many jobs depended. The additional parameters in Control-M jobs demonstrated in a real-life situation how job submissions could be contained thereby eliminating unnecessary job failures. Upon database back online, just a handful of failed jobs were handled to get the remaining flow back to normal execution. A previously chaotic situation had been turned into a controlled operation under Control-M. As a Control-M admin exercising your expertise, you may be a hero one day. 

6. How do you personally engage with the community, and what would you suggest for someone wanting to really get value out of it? 

I see the community an extension of my work in Control-M. Reading the messages let me think through each situation and it proposed suggestions. We see members in the community helping one another, from newcomers not able to navigate through the product, to seasoned professionals providing suggestions on one-of-a-kind situations. I often reconstruct situations and validate solutions. When a similar situation hits you at work, you may already have an idea how to tackle it. We gain experience by going through situations. There is an old saying that someone letting you know his/her experience is putting money in your pocket. 

7. Looking back, what’s a milestone or accomplishment in your career that you’re particularly proud of, and why did it stand out for you? 

Every step along my way in Control-M has been significant. My sys admin experience gave me the foundation to handle Control-M across multiple platforms. With my foot in Control-M, I realized getting to know more on SQL would be essential. Then AFT jobs got me into the nitty gritty of various types of file transfer servers. Control-M management scripts had been heavily on Perl so time to brush up the skill with this language. Before you know it, there came a task to convert a competitive product into Control-M. While BMC has general conversion utility to do the initial heavy lifting, job definitions still need to be massaged to meet specific customer requirements. It was handy and necessary using Perl scripts to handle XML definitions for thousands of jobs for the conversion. Of course, the focus now has turned into Python script, AAPI and JSON data structure. All small steps added up to where I am at. The takeaway: escalate yourself from those small tasks coming through every day, to ready yourself for something big appearing one day. 

8. Your role has evolved over time - if someone is navigating similar transitions, what’s one lesson or strategy you would share from your experience? 

Nowadays a faster way to get to an answer on everything is to do Google search or ask AI. Even with an answer, I would still go through Control-M documentation on the provided solution. Documentations let me understand better on the provided solution and may lead to discover/reiterate other features. I always keep the manual handy, whether PDF files or web links, especially older versions that allow me to correspond between new names and old names. I have to admit that I am still entrenched with old names. 

9. After a busy day, how do you usually unwind or recharge? 

Parks and gardens are pockets of serendipity in a bustling city. Whether it is just a few minutes’ walk from home to a neighbourhood garden or couple hours’ drive to a national park, immersing in nature is the best way to get myself away from any stress. Sit down, relax and look over to the sky, to the trees, to the flowers, and to wild animals unexpectedly coming to greet you. 

10. What’s your biggest source of support or inspiration in your work, and if you could give one piece of advice to your younger self or someone starting workload automation, what would it be? 

My boss at one point told me, “Don’t just make it work; make it scalable as well!” This was the days when I was a sys admin handling IT infrastructure, and I found this applicable working with Control-M too. It has become my motto to remind me always consider the issue on hand with scalability and repeatability, looking further and looking beyond. 

We sincerely thank George for taking the time to sit down with us and share his journey, experiences, and wisdom with the BMC Community. 

As part of our March AMA Series, we’re proud to spotlight experts like George who continue to shape the future of workload automation through their knowledge, leadership, and willingness to give back. 

Have a question for George or want to dive deeper into any of the topics discussed? Share your thoughts in the comments below - we’d love to keep the conversation going and will be happy to take your questions forward. 

We are excited to share several enhancements across BMC AMI Ops, focused on improving visibility, diagnostics, and operational efficiency.

This Product Connect post highlights key updates and opens the floor for discussion with our product teams to better understand how these updates can help in day-to-day operations. Let's dive in!

1. IMS Visibility + Faster Root Cause 

Keep IMS running smoothly - find issues earlier and fix them faster. BMC AMI Ops Insight strengthens AI/ML-driven anomaly detection and root-cause identification for IMS workloads. 

Learn more: January 2026 Release – IMS Visibility 

Let us know in the comments - what IMS scenarios are you most interested in improving visibility for? 

2. GenAI Recommendations + Recommended Next Steps 

Solve problems faster with plain-language root cause guidance and action. BMC AMI Ops Insight provides deeper diagnostic findings, enhanced with GenAI explanations and next-step recommendations from BMC AMI Assistant. 

Learn more: Monitoring with GenAI Assistance 

Let us know in the comments - Where would GenAI recommendations save you the most time? 

3. In-Workflow Knowledge Expert Chat 

Less searching, faster resolution - expert answers without leaving the workflow. The new BMC AMI Assistant Knowledge Expert Chat delivers trusted, contextual guidance directly inside the BMC AMI Ops UI. 

Learn more: October 2026 Release – Knowledge Expert Chat 

Let us know in the comments - What questions would you want answered instantly in-chat? 

4. OpenTelemetry + Enterprise Observability 

 Connect mainframe operations into modern observability platforms. BMC AMI Datastream for Ops streams z/OS operational telemetry into tools like Splunk and Elastic using OpenTelemetry. 

 Learn More: October 2025 Release – OpenTelemetry 

Let us know in the comments - Are you integrating mainframe telemetry with enterprise observability tools today? 

5. Modern Ops UI + Interactive Dashboards

 See more, resolve faster with enhanced dashboards and a modern web-based experience. The BMC AMI Ops UI continues to deliver richer dashboards, KPI visibility, and customizable views across different quarterly releases. 

Learn more: 

Jan 2026 

Oct 2025

Let us know in the comments - What dashboards or KPIs matter most for your team? 

Have questions, feedback, or scenarios you’d like to explore further? Drop them in the comments below - we’ll bring the right AMI Ops experts to answer your queries. Your input helps us shape future updates and ensures the Product Connect Series continues to deliver value for you.