BMC AMI DevX vs CA Datacom comparison

BMC and Broadcom are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. BMC is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.7, while Broadcom is ranked #27. BMC holds a 1.3% mindshare in DDM, compared to Broadcom’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

BMC AMI DevX

Read 19 BMC AMI DevX reviews

4,088 Views
164 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

CA Datacom

Read 7 CA Datacom reviews

256 Views
225 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

BMC AMI DevX

CA Datacom

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2025

CA Datacom and BMC AMI DevX are database management products competing in data solutions. BMC AMI DevX appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced features, providing better value despite a higher cost.

Features: CA Datacom offers robust data management capabilities, ensuring reliable data access and protection, security features maintaining data integrity, and scalable data solutions allowing seamless data growth. BMC AMI DevX delivers automated workflows supporting enhanced development processes, modernization tools for efficient software development, and advanced debugging capabilities aiding in precise code assessment.

Room for Improvement: CA Datacom could enhance its user interface for ease of use, improve online maintainability of database definitions, and expand its cloud-based solutions for greater flexibility. BMC AMI DevX can work on simplifying the initial setup process, ensuring smoother integration with existing systems, and enhancing the consistency of updates across platforms.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CA Datacom facilitates an easy deployment with accessible customer support, focusing on straightforward integration. On the other hand, BMC AMI DevX has a more intricate setup process but offers comprehensive customer service, providing detailed guidance and support.

Pricing and ROI: CA Datacom's lower initial setup cost presents a favorable ROI for budget-focused organizations. In contrast, BMC AMI DevX requires a higher investment but promises significant returns through its feature-rich offerings, targeting organizations where long-term strategic enhancement outweighs initial costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Database Development and Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

BMC AMI DevX

Ranking in Database Development and Management

20th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (8th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (7th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (8th)

CA Datacom

Ranking in Database Development and Management

27th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 1.3%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CA Datacom is 1.3%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
BMC AMI DevX	1.3%
CA Datacom	1.3%
Other	97.4%

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

Brian Westerman

Director of R&D at Syzygy Inc.

Helps to make mainframe data management process easier and saves manhours

We plan to replace BMC Compuware File-AID due to its price. Two years back, we paid 11,000 dollars. However, the current price is 27,900 dollars. The price has increased to at least eight times its initial cost. We would need to pay around 60,000 dollars to have all three products together. We also encountered issues during version updates.

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it_user489183

IT Admin at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees

Scalability and the online maintainability of definitions are definite advantages for us

We've had it for so long, so it's status quo. But we've added all sorts of functionality to our applications and there are no issues with databases. Anything developers request, we're able to accomplish. Also, we deal a lot with government regulation - and not to talk about what the company does - but anything that they require of us, because we transmit data back and forth with them, we're able to do that with no problems. And there have been a lot of changes over the past five years that our government dictated regarding what we actually end up doing. So, we're able to be extremely flexible with that.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We had parallel development before, but the way ISPW implements it is better. It has more control and oversight of the process, whereas before, it was like the Wild West. Everybody could have their own package with their own version of the component in it... ISPW is constantly aware of it. It notifies when someone else is using or has a different version of that component."

"Once we got the configurations and deployment rolled out, it was very stable. I haven't had any major issues with Eclipse or the Topaz Workbench plugins."

"The most valuable feature of Topaz is Xpediter. It's more flexible than Xpediter through MVS."

"It does our CICS NEWCOPYs and our Db2 binds for us, whereas before, that was a manual process. It takes a lot of the workload off of the operations folks and off the DBAs."

"We can develop in parallel today on ISPF, but it's giving us the advantage of the newer interface into the mainframe programming languages that younger programmers can use and are familiar with, rather than using the ISPF green screen."

"I like the ability to flow through the source and see what happens to the data as the statements are executed. If there is a fault, it will track the event, and we can then look back to see why it may have caused the fault. You can also reverse engineer your test. You can set it so that you can go backward as well as forward in your test. This is something that I haven't done here at my company. Compuware Xpediter is one of the best debugging tools for mainframe software development. We have currently licensed only the COBOL language for Xpediter, but I know they have other languages, including Assembler, PL/I."

"One of the features that the developers like is that they can retrieve what they need with the tool. They don't have to go through some process or request something be done by another team. They can get the programs they need, compile them, retrieve the JCL and alter the JCL if they need to, and put these programs wherever they need to go for their testing."

"Test data management capabilities are good."

More BMC AMI DevX pros

"Scalability is definitely one thing. The size of the database can grow without any issues. We've got one database table that's got over a billion rows in it; quite a bit of data, and it handles access like a champ."

"It is a solid product."

"It definitely cuts down on our support costs. I do not get woken up in the middle of the night very often for a problem with Datacom."

"Nowadays, CA is doing a lot of improving as far as online maintainability of definitions, which is a huge improvement over the past. I'm able to do a lot of changes without any outage."

"The initial setup is fairly straightforward for a mainframe product."

Cons

"Technical support has gotten better over the years, though there's always room for improvement."

"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."

"One thing I would really like to see some improvement on is the promotion diagnostic messages. It invokes utilities "under the covers" to copy components, and it does not echo back any of the error messages from those utilities."

"I'm always looking for improvement in things like the documentation, to make things a little bit easier and simpler to understand, a place where people can go to troubleshoot issues."

"The ability to edit source code that has special characters is limited. The ability to incorporate or convert REXX into macros that are usable under the Topaz software is not there. And the REXX macros that I have developed over 40 years of work are useless, so I have a toolbox I can't use or deploy using the Topaz technology, while I can use it under MVS."

"It's a very complicated tool."

"It would be good if the vendors would work together or at least have some collaboration between them, so they would know what would work and what wouldn't work. Right now, the way things are working, they're relying on the customer to make everything work."

"The area for improvement is related to the testing tools that are available for unit testing or acceptance testing. I know they have some out there that we are not licensed for at this time, but it seems like some of the Eclipse tools that are used for other programming languages, they're all just built-in and they're a little more intuitive to the developers. Making those testing tools as intuitive as possible, and as integrated as possible into the workbench, would be really beneficial."

More BMC AMI DevX cons

"For the "no-outage maintainability" of things, they are making improvements as we speak, but there is definitely still room for more of that."

"The only minor issue that we have had with Datacom is in the installation guide: Some of the sizings for the databases have not really worked out for us, so we had to go in and resize them."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price point is great."

"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."

"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."

"The only thing I would mention related to the licensing and/or the pricing, is that they have some visualization features in there that are licensed by concurrent users. We're starting to trip up on that. We're looking to probably increase the number of concurrent licenses that we have. But those types of licensing strategies, where they license by concurrent users or the number of seats is confusing for some people. They don't understand why it works sometimes and doesn't work other times."

"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."

"In terms of pricing, there isn't an extra charge for the parts of it we use. It comes with the licenses we purchased for other products, so no complaints there. The licensing is built in with the other products that you purchase from Compuware."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

37%

Insurance Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Compuware File-AID?

The product has made our mainframe data management process easier. It has helped us save manhours. The tool's most valuable feature is the ability to edit tape files. Its ability to clone files is ...

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What needs improvement with Compuware File-AID?

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What is your primary use case for Compuware File-AID?

We use the solution clone test files.

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Comparisons

Endevor vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 33% of the time

IBM File Manager vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 16% of the time

IBM Debug for z/OS vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 10% of the time

InterTest vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Developer for z/OS Enterprise Edition (IDzEE) vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 6% of the time

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CA IDMS vs CA Datacom

Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Test Data Management

August 2025

Download BMC AMI DevX product report

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

September 2025

Download CA Datacom product report

Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline

DATACOM

Overview

BMC AMI DevX is a comprehensive solution enhancing code management and testing efficiency. It offers debugging capabilities within financial applications and integrates data management seamlessly, serving major banking sectors with reliable performance.

AMI DevX is tailored for banking industries, optimizing application debugging in COBOL and enhancing data handling in robust financial systems. It simplifies mainframe data management with real-time insights, improving efficiency through editing and cloning functionalities. The tool's integration with Compuware File-AID for IMS and DB2 ensures streamlined development processes. Challenges include a steep DB2 learning curve and initial setup complexities, with technical support inconsistencies and steep pricing impacting affordability. Despite this, its valuable features significantly support large banking operations.

What features make BMC AMI DevX valuable?

Line-by-Line Code Debugging: Allows precise identification and rectification of issues.
Variable Change & Line Skipping: Flexibility in testing without recompiling.
Database-Independent Testing: No need for loading databases during testing.
Real-Time Data Insights: Enhances decision-making with immediate information.
Data Warehousing & Analytics: Facilitates comprehensive data analysis.
Integration & Formatting: Streamlines development by simplifying data processes.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Improved Efficiency: Streamline data management and editing capabilities.
Robust Debugging: Effective in both online and batch COBOL program debugging.
Enhanced Financial Application Support: Superior handling in grants and loans applications.
Comprehensive Testing: Enables creation of clone test files for thorough testing.

In large banking sectors, BMC AMI DevX is integral for grants and loans-related applications. Its robust nature supports financial systems, offering debugging for COBOL, updating data in Compuware File-AID for IMS, and integrating DB2. Users implement this for exceptional data management and application reliability.

BMC

CA Datacom enables the continuous availability of your business applications. Datacom, and its family of rDBMS products, provides you with a reliable database repository with enterprise-wide, high-volume workload and fault-tolerant capabilities.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Helvetia, The IMT Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Royal Bank of Canada, Chunghwa Telecom

Blue Hill Data Services Inc.

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

September 2025

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