Over the last five years, BMC has transformed into a growing, industry-leading, enterprise software provider.

We have introduced over twenty new products and capability offerings that have contributed to 18 consecutive quarters of annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth, and industry best retention rates as we reimagined how we go-to-market to best serve our customers.

Because of our success to date, we have reached critical mass in size as we continue to grow – and we are ready for the next phase of our evolution.

Today we announced very exciting news: We are creating two stand-alone companies – BMC and BMC Helix to increase our focus on customer success as we accelerate growth for long-term success.

Some may ask why we are making this decision. Simply put, we have determined that the two companies will better serve their markets individually. Each of these businesses has its own profile and characteristics in growth opportunities, margins and profitability, and competitive landscape. We are confident that the underlying economics of both businesses sets each company up to continue driving innovation and growth for long-term success.

Our customers and partners look to us in their transformation journeys to enable business faster than humanly possible. As a strategic partner for ongoing innovation in their mainframe, distributed, cloud, and edge technology needs, the creation of two companies puts them at the core of each company’s mission with deeper specialization and vertical industry focus.

BMC will be the name of the company that includes the mainframe software and automation / orchestration business units. And will build on our history of innovation in connecting and amplifying hybrid IT with the most innovative portfolio of AI-driven infrastructure software, partners, and expertise to grow faster than market.

BMC Helix will be the name of the company for the digital service and operations management business unit. It will be focused on accelerating growth, innovation, and the application of AI to gain greater market share.

The creation of two companies will be done in phases and our goal is to officially start the transition to operate as two organizations in early 2025. Our guiding principle through the process is to ensure business continuity and proceed with the best interests of our customers, partners, and employees. 2 To our employees, thank you for your hard work to chart this path forward. Your commitment is inspiring every day. To our customers and our partners, thank you for your confidence in us. I look forward to continuing our work together, and to a vibrant and innovative future.

To our employees, thank you for your hard work to chart this path forward. Your commitment is inspiring every day. To our customers and our partners, thank you for your confidence in us. I look forward to continuing our work together, and to a vibrant and innovative future. Ayman Sayed President and CEO

To our customers and our partners, thank you for your confidence in us. I look forward to continuing our work together, and to a vibrant and innovative future.

Ayman Sayed

President and CEO

BMC

PS: We have attached the FAQ document for your reference for any possible questions you may have.

                                                                        October 25, 2024    

Dear Customer,

BMC is writing to you today as a customer of BMC Helix Integration Service to announce end of life statement.

Effective October 25, 2024, and according to terms set out on BMC’s Customer Support site (https://www.bmc.com/support/resources/bmc-product-support-policy.html) BMC Software, Inc is announcing the End of Life for the BMC Helix Integration Service products as listed in the accompanying product table:

From October 25, 2024, 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 October 25, 2025. As per this policy, BMC will continue to develop hotfixes 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.

Prior to the end of support date, customers with an active support contract have the option to migrate their BMC Helix Integration Service to Helix iPaaS MarketZone Direct.

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,

Rajesh Rane

Principle Product Manager, BMC Software

Hello Community,

I am back with our "Meet the Member" series where we spotlight our community members for their incredible contributions.

In every thriving community, there are individuals whose dedication and passion stand out. Today, we are excited to spotlight one such remarkable member, Ariel, whose contributions have significantly enriched our community.

Join me in spotlighting Ariel Manka who is an incredible contributor to BMC Community.

Ariel Manka joined our BMC community 15 years ago, bringing a wealth of knowledge and an eagerness to help others. From the very beginning, he has been an active participant, always ready to lend a hand and share her expertise.

With a strong background in the ITSM industry, Ariel Manka brings a unique perspective to the table. His experience with BMC Helix, Helix ITSM, and Remedy ITSM makes him a trusted advisor for many community members.

His incredible contribution of 113 posts, 349 comments, and 115 likes showcases his thoughtful contribution to the BMC Community. [Expert's Name] encourages open discussions and knowledge sharing among community members. His posts on BMC Community have sparked meaningful conversations and fostered collaboration.

When I asked about sharing his experience with the community here is the wisdom he shared,

1. Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?

I was born in Poland but spent most of my work career with BMC products working in various places in the MIddle East, Africa and recently in Canada.

2. What advice would you give to new members joining the community?

Community is full of people with big brains who are willing to help. Don't be shy to ask your questions.

3. Are there any specific topics or areas within the community that you're particularly passionate about?

My main focus is on the containerization technology, this is where I'm most active these days.

4. How do you think the community could better engage with members who are less active?

I don't know if I have good answer to this. recognition is certainly uplifting and gives people sense of being meaningful.

5. What motivated you to contribute to the community?

If it's not for looking for answers to technical problems then I like sharing findings and solutions to less obvious challenges.

6. What message would you like to share with the rest of the community?

From my experience learning new things never ends in this industry and in the process you may find answers to your problems in the areas you wouldn't expect to have them. Knowing more than one IT discipline give you certain advantage in problem solving.

Let’s come together to celebrate Ariel Manka and the invaluable contributions he has made to our BMC community. Share your experiences, ask your burning questions to Ariel in the below comments, and let’s continue to grow together in the BMC community!

Introduction

As organizations increasingly adopt cloud-native environments, the need for secure, scalable, and efficient networking solutions becomes more critical. In response to this demand, BMC Helix Innovation Suite is excited to announce support for Cilium starting from version 23.3.03, along with Helix Platform Common Services and ITOM 24.3.00 and above. Cilium is an open-source, cloud-native solution that delivers advanced networking, security, and observability for workloads, powered by the revolutionary Linux kernel technology, eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter).

What is eBPF?

eBPF is a game-changing technology that originated in the Linux kernel. It enables you to attach custom programs to various kernel hooks placed at different points in the networking stack. This can be done without disrupting the kernel’s source code or needing to load additional kernel modules.

As Liz Rice, Chief Open Source Officer at Isovalent, aptly describes:

“eBPF is like JavaScript for the Linux kernel. It lets you program the kernel dynamically, adding logic without the need to modify or recompile the kernel itself.”

This dynamic programmability is what makes eBPF so powerful. By leveraging eBPF, Cilium provides kernel-level visibility and control over network traffic, allowing for real-time security, observability, and efficient traffic routing without the need for traditional, resource-heavy methods.

Key Features of Cilium Built on eBPF

Pod-to-Pod Encryption

Encryption is a requirement for many compliance frameworks, and Kubernetes doesn’t natively offer pod-to-pod encryption. Cilium addresses this by providing two options for encrypting traffic between Cilium-managed endpoints: IPsec and WireGuard.

Both Transparent Encryption implementations are easy to enable, but WireGuard offers some distinct advantages, including automatic key management and rotation. In Isovalent’s benchmark testing, WireGuard demonstrated significantly higher throughput, though IPsec performed better in terms of latency and CPU consumption.

For more details on the benchmarking results, please refer to this documentation.

Packet Processing

Traditional networking in Kubernetes typically relies on iptables to manage packet filtering and routing, which can become inefficient, especially at scale. Iptables is processed in a linear fashion; as the number of rules grows, so does the time required to process each packet, which results in latency and performance degradation. Cilium, by leveraging eBPF, bypasses these issues by allowing the kernel to run custom programs directly in response to network events. 

Load Balancing

Unlike kube-proxy, Cilium leverages eBPF for high-performance load balancing, eliminating the need for traditional proxies. This approach avoids the limitations and complexity associated with large iptables rule sets, offering more efficient traffic management.

In contrast, traditional service meshes like Istio or Linkerd use sidecars—separate containers running alongside each pod—to intercept and manage traffic. While this provides decent functionality, it introduces additional complexity and can create performance bottlenecks due to the overhead of managing traffic through multiple layers of containers.

Network Observability with Hubble

Hubble captures detailed logs of all network interactions, enabling in-depth analysis of network behavior, troubleshooting, and detection of potential security threats. The UI provides a real-time, graphical service map that visualizes the flow of network traffic and the relationships between components such as services, pods, and namespaces within a Kubernetes cluster. Additionally, it visualizes most of the data from the network flow logs. For example, to narrow down traffic from the platform-fts pod, you can simply click on the pod in the UI, and it will display the relationships and traffic flows associated with it as shown below:

Similarly, for the Mid-Tier pod, you can interact with the UI by clicking on the pod, which will highlight the network relationships and traffic flows between this pod and other components within the cluster.

Alternatively, we can use the Hubble command line interface which is essentially the equivalent of clicking on the pod in the Hubble UI. Both approaches allow you to observe the network traffic associated with that specific pod but with the CLI we can apply more specific filters and commands, such as monitoring only ingress or egress traffic, specific ports, or protocols.

For example, to check all traffic for the platform-fts-pod:

Or if you want to stream traffic logs continuously between namespaces:

Requirements for Using Cilium with Helix Innovation Suite

To implement Cilium in your Helix Innovation Suite environment (as of version 1.16), it is essential to ensure that your worker nodes meet the following prerequisites:

Your nodes should be running on either AMD64 or AArch64 architecture.

Linux kernel >= 5.4 or equivalent (e.g., 4.18 on RHEL 8.6)

Most recent Linux distributions support Cilium.

Installation

The two most popular tools to install Cilium in a Kubernetes environment are cilium-cli and Helm.

cilium-cli: This tool provides a quick and easy installation of Cilium with minimal configuration. It is designed to be straightforward, requiring only a few commands to get Cilium up and running.

Helm: While it requires a little more effort, Helm for Cilium provides greater flexibility to fine-tune configurations.

There are also some K8s distributions such as OpenShift or K3s which allow you to deploy Cilium as part of the installation.

Conclusion

Cilium has revolutionized networking within Kubernetes by leveraging eBPF to offer a high-performance, efficient, and scalable solution for both security and observability. Unlike traditional networking solutions like kube-proxy, Cilium simplifies traffic management through the dynamic use of eBPF programs, improving performance and reducing complexity. Its ability to support pod-to-pod encryption using WireGuard or IPsec addresses a significant gap in Kubernetes, meeting stringent security and compliance requirements. Furthermore, the integration with Hubble for real-time monitoring and network visibility provides invaluable insights into service communication, making troubleshooting easier and more effective.

Support

For those seeking Cilium support, there are several options and resources available:

For enterprise-grade support, Cilium offers tailored assistance through its Cilium Enterprise Support package. This typically includes access to premium support features, such as expert consultation, troubleshooting, and advanced setup configurations for production environments. You can access Cilium Enterprise support via Cilium’s official website or by contacting Isovalent directly.

The Cilium Slack Community is a valuable resource for quick questions, networking, and community-driven help. It’s open to anyone interested in Cilium, from beginners to experts. Joining the Slack community can help you connect with others, share knowledge, and get peer support. You can join the community here.

Resources

eBPF: To deepen your understanding of eBPF and how it powers Cilium, you can explore eBPF resources here

Hubble: For more about Hubble, click here

System Requirements: Cilium has specific hardware and software requirements to ensure efficient operation in Kubernetes environments. For more details, check out Cilium’s system requirements documentation.

CNI Performance Benchmarking: For insights into Cilium’s performance as a CNI, you can explore benchmarking results and performance insights available on Cilium’s benchmarking page.

Kubernetes without Kube-Proxy: For more on this, refer to Cilium’s documentation on running Kubernetes without kube-proxy.

Welcome to Our Customer Stories Podcast: Real Voices, Real Success

Dive deep into the world of our customers with our engaging podcast series, "Customer Stories." In each episode, we shine a spotlight on the diverse experiences and remarkable achievements of the people and businesses using our products.

What You'll Discover:

• Authentic Narratives: Hear directly from customers across various industries as they share their unfiltered journeys, challenges, and triumphs.
• Practical Insights: Gain valuable tips and strategies that you can apply to your own business or personal projects.
• Innovation Showcase: Learn how our customers are pushing boundaries and finding creative solutions using our products.
• Behind-the-Scenes Look: Get an insider's perspective on how different organizations operate and adapt in today's fast-paced world.
• Inspiration and Motivation: Be inspired by stories of perseverance, growth, and success that demonstrate the real-world impact of our solutions.

Why Listen?

Whether you're a current customer looking for new ideas, a potential user curious about real-world applications, or simply interested in business innovation, our podcast offers something for everyone. Each episode is carefully crafted to be both informative and entertaining, providing you with actionable takeaways and thought-provoking discussions.

Join Our Community: Subscribe now to never miss an episode. By tuning in regularly, you'll become part of a growing community of forward-thinkers and problem-solvers. Share your thoughts, connect with guests, and join the conversation on our social media channels.

Tune in to our podcasts now:

Also follow our Podcast LinkedIn Page

• Soundcloud
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify Podcasts

September Episode 1: In this first episode, our Customer Success leaders delve into the vital role of Customer Success, emphasizing our core mission. Discover how Customer Success drives time-to-value, product adoption, and business impact, showcasing how BMC delivers value through real-life success stories.

October Episode 2: In this second episode, you can listen to Colin Murphy - Chief Customer Officer (CCO), and Martyn Etherington - Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) explore how Customer Success is at the heart of making our Marketing promises come true. They delve into how Customer Success ensures that customers achieve the outcomes promised by Marketing, the upcoming Connect 24 event, the collaboration between Marketing and Customer Success, and much more.

Unlock the benefits of migrating to BMC Helix Operations Management, a cloud-native containerized microservices architecture. Here’s why migrating from TrueSight Operations Management (TSOM) to BMC Helix Operations Management (BHOM) will benefit you:

•      Faster Performance: Get lightning-speed operations.

•      Flexible Scalability: Easily adjust your infrastructure based on your needs with a consumption-based model.

•      Continuous Uptime: Guarantee high availability for your enterprise.

•      Quick Access to Features: Get upgrades and new capabilities swiftly, managed by our SaaS Operations team.

•      Cost Efficiency: Cut down on procurement and maintenance costs.

•      Smooth Data Migration: Transition seamlessly from TSOM with our toolkit and support from the Customer Success team.

 To learn more, enroll in BMC Helix Operations Management Migration: Essential Subscription that offers 19 hours of learning. The subscription introduces you to the TSOM to BHOM migration process through a migration utility toolkit that contains the following tools:

•      TSOM Health Check Tool

•      Event Migration Utility

•      TSOM Policy Migration

•      PATROL Agent Migration Tool

The subscription Learning Path includes two web-based trainings (WBTs), an instructor-led training (ILT), followed by a Certified Associate Online Exam.

For any further details, post a comment or contact us at [email protected]. To get regular updates on BMC Education offerings, please join the BMC Education group on Communities.

@Kristen Sanders​ @Nidhi Gupta ​@Lisa Kraas @Mike West @Robert Mohn @Geoffrey Bergren @Divya Singh