Enterprise software firm BMC has acquired mainframe cloud services company Model9 for an undisclosed sum.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023, and will enhance BMC’s own mainframe services offering.
Reliable cloud storage and data management mitigate the challenges associated with storing and managing large quantities of mainframe data, by helping to eliminate expensive secondary storage hardware and associated software licenses, while offloading data to cloud object storage.
The acquisition will provide BMC customers with the capability to store and share mainframe data across the hybrid IT landscape, including public and private clouds.
John McKenny, senior vice president and general manager, Intelligent Z optimisation and transformation at BMC, said: "With mainframe cloud data management, organisations get all of the benefits of the cloud, including flexibility, scalability, and price, while delivering the advantages of on-premise mainframe computing for large-scale, business-critical applications.”
IT Europa visited Model9 on the IT Press Tour of Israel in April 2022. The software that Model9 offers is proprietary and the margins on it are high, according to a typical project use case presented to the Tour.
An advantage for customers is that it is a "low code" solution, meaning organisations can "democratise" a data cloud amidst a mainframe skills shortage, said Model9. It is a co-sell partner with mainframe leader IBM.
Model9 maintains that mainframes still hold 80% of the world's mission critical business data, whether it's from banks, telcos or utility companies, for instance.
It says that while the number of mainframes is going down, the amount of data stored on them is actually going up. Its technology allows that data to be managed and backed up in the cloud, eliminating tape and backup hardware, using a hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Cloud data management vendor Cohesity is a partner of Model9, with SIs like Accenture, DXC and Infosys also on board. And this January, storage vendor Hitachi Vantara and Model9 signed a worldwide co-sell agreement.
This is BMC’s sixth acquisition in three years.
