BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS vs Quest Foglight for Databases comparison

BMC and Quest Software are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. BMC is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.0, while Quest Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2. BMC holds a 0.5% mindshare in DDM, compared to Quest Software’s 8.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

BMC Data Management for IMS...

Read 2 BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS reviews

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47 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Quest Foglight for Databases

Read 14 Quest Foglight for Databases reviews

1,947 Views
722 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

BMC Data Management for IMS...

Quest Foglight for Databases

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS and Quest Foglight for Databases are solutions designed for database management and performance monitoring. BMC is advantageous in pricing and support, while Quest Foglight is distinguished by its feature richness.

Features: BMC Data Management enhances performance tuning and resource optimization essential for businesses utilizing IMS and DB2 databases. It also provides seamless integration with zOS environments. Quest Foglight offers comprehensive monitoring across multiple database environments, better customization options, and real-time analytics. Its versatility in handling various database platforms is a notable feature.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BMC ensures straightforward deployment, particularly in zOS environments, paired with comprehensive support for smooth system transitions. Quest Foglight features efficient deployment with cross-platform flexibility, supported by proactive customer service. BMC is specifically designed for zOS, whereas Quest performs well in environments with diverse database systems.

Pricing and ROI: BMC Data Management is known for competitive pricing, offering significant ROI for companies integrated with IMS and DB2. Quest Foglight, despite potentially higher setup costs, provides extensive features and adaptability across databases that offer meaningful long-term ROI. BMC stands out for cost-effectiveness on zOS, while Quest provides value through functionality in varied database settings.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS vs. Quest Foglight for Databases Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS vs. Quest Foglight for Databases

June 2025

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Helped 857,028 peers since 2012

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 Data Management for IMS...

Ranking in Database Development and Management

20th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Quest Foglight for Databases

Ranking in Database Development and Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest Foglight for Databases is 8.0%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

RobertSamson

Technical Consultant at Services Robert Samson SCRS

Improves disaster recovery processes and offers an efficient CPU cycle optimization

Using BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on z/OS has greatly improved our database administration tasks. Although we don't test the database before production, we have experienced benefits in disaster recovery situations and capacity management. For instance, when facing capacity issues during peak transaction times, I've been able to quickly allocate additional resources to ensure smooth operations. This has been crucial, especially during times when the demand surges, such as peak flight hours.

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Stuart Dairiki

Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Empowers efficient database monitoring and performance troubleshooting with powerful workload analysis

I find it extremely helpful to use Foglight to triage any database issues, specifically performance issues using what Foglight calls PI investigator. It is a very powerful workload analysis tool that helps me understand where bottlenecks are. It allows me to see performance issues as end users report them. It can save time and effort when doing root cause analysis. It enables me to obtain information quicker and easier compared to manually compiling it. Foglight provides us with a near-real-time activity database. It's not 100% real-time. It has less than a minute latency. It allows us to see performance issues as end-users report them. We started seeing benefits pretty much immediately. We use Foglight to display intensive databases. However, it's not something we monitor regularly. It's only something we kind of dig into as we troubleshoot and triage issues. It does help us determine potential IT help issues. When we use Foglight, we find it helps drill down holistically into potential bottlenecks. It helps us to see what is going on in the database. Foglight allows us to monitor multiple database platforms. We use, for example, Oracle, SQL Server, Postgres, Amazon Redshift, and SAP HANA. It gives us insight into our entire landscape of production workloads in near real-time. The solution saves costs when performing root cause analysis. It can save time and effort when doing root cause analysis. It allows us to obtain information quicker and easier than by manually compiling information.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have worked with DB2's great features in the last five years. The IDAA feature transformed the vision of warehousing, business analytics, and big data at my bank. Besides the mainframe, I saw that this solution was evolutionary. It gives real-time information."

"BMC Data Management improved our data recovery process by simplifying it."

"We can visualize all the different types of DB servers that we are monitoring in a single pane of glass. It uses a 360-degree overview of the database, for each of those databases that we are monitoring. That includes what kind of resource utilization is happening and what kind of DB parameters are getting monitored, as well as the different types of DB parameters that are being offered for each database type."

"The most valuable feature is the in-depth capability SQL Performance Investigator provides. It allows you to drill down to the smallest detail that occurs on our platform. It does a highly detailed and atomic follow-up of what one wants to look for in relation to time and our different instances."

"One of the hardest things to do in database management is to evaluate performance deviation across time. The adaptive baseline that Quest is using is by far the most helpful. That doesn't necessarily mean I use it on a daily basis, but it is something that I have not been able to find in any other tool, at the same level."

"Its reporting capabilities are immense."

"Foglight is also able to help the DBAs proactively fix problems before they become an issue. It provides them with real-time activity screens that help in this regard. The DBAs are able to go to these screens and look at what's happening in real time, and that buys them time. It helps them see problems ahead of time and find solutions to them."

"What I really like is the SQL PI feature, which allows us to drill down into queries and identify what is causing contention in the database. Using the SQL PI feature, I am able to drill down into the queries, see what is blocking, and try to improve it."

"The alarms alert proactively if there are any potential or ongoing issues with the databases that we support. That means we can take preventive or corrective action before the issue becomes a big issue. And the SQL PI features enable us to drill down into performance issues in our databases so that we can improve performance, which is important."

"The platform is very stable."

More Quest Foglight for Databases pros

Cons

"One area for improvement with this product could be in providing clearer guidance and tools for disaster recovery planning and execution."

"DB2 is a hard tool to grasp. It's hard for users to learn how to use it. It's not easy to see how it works."

"It would be amazing if they could enable the "Performance Investigator" functionality across all database platforms."

"The monitoring capabilities for Postgres should be at par with SQL Server. This is the area where we push back on our Quest representative."

"The version that I'm using is not the latest version, so there might have been some improvement, but the OS monitoring is a bit lacking, and the high-availability option is a bit complicated to set up and it doesn't work all the time."

"It would be amazing if they could enable the 'Performance Investigator' functionality across all database platforms."

"One thing that I would like, and it's probably something that I could set up internally, is something other than a dashboard which I have to look at to know that a server is down. I'd like bells and whistles to go off... If I look at the dashboard I know there's a server down. But if I'm not looking at it, if I'm looking at some other problem, I want to know about it. You can do that, you can use SMSs and alerts to your phone, and I could set it up to handle that, but it would be nice if, out-of-the-box, Foglight did that."

"The monitoring capabilities for Postgres should be at par with SQL Server. This is the area where we push back on our Quest representative. We want more insights into Postgres."

"The data model needs improvement when it comes to creating custom reports. That is an area where it needs a bit of improvement. Foglight gathers a lot of information around our databases as part of its monitoring. While I know all this information is in there, trying to pull the metric we want out for custom reports is sometimes hard to find. One nice thing about Foglight is that you can create custom dashboards, which you can easily convert to reports. We would be doing a lot more of that if it weren't for the challenging data model."

"Foglight does have a component that allows you to look at things in real time, but it's not as friendly or as efficient in terms of responsiveness as Quest Spotlight is. Foglight might be lacking in this department."

More Quest Foglight for Databases cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The price is worth it, if you have the time to go through the information."

"Pricing is very reasonable. We were able to construct a pretty easy contract with Quest, who were very easy to work with and very amenable to what we are trying to do. It worked out well for us."

"This is like the "Cadillac" of performance monitoring software. It's not cheap... I am currently with a company that I was able to convince that the product is worth the cost."

"The price of Foglight could be a little more competitive in Chile, and it should be lowered for long-time customers— at least by 20 percent. Sometimes the price is a limitation. We have seven instances and nearly 5 million users. If Quest Foglight could reduce its prices for the clients that have been with it for a long time, we would be able to have more instances."

"It is cost-effective. With our EA, it is really based on the scale of our database environment. We found the Quest team to be reasonable and flexible when it comes to pricing and scaling of licenses."

"Compared to the other tools on the market, Foglight is okay in terms of pricing and licensing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

36%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance Company

Logistics Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS?

BMC Data Management improved our data recovery process by simplifying it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS?

One area for improvement with this product could be in providing clearer guidance and tools for disaster recovery planning and execution. As someone involved in managing infrastructure, understandi...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS?

From my perspective as an infrastructure guy, the most valuable aspect of BMC's data management solutions was their ability to optimize CPU cycles, improving IMS performance without directly impact...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest Foglight for Databases?

The pricing is palatable. We've already done one renewal and we are in our second contract. We're happy thus far.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Quest Foglight for Databases?

It would be amazing if they could enable the "Performance Investigator" functionality across all database platforms. I've been talking to their product development team about enhancements that I wo...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?

I primarily use the solution for database monitoring, specifically for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Postgres, SAP HANA, and AWS Redshift.

See all answers

Comparisons

No data available

Quest Spotlight vs Quest Foglight for Databases

Compared 36% of the time

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer vs Quest Foglight for Databases

Compared 28% of the time

Oracle Enterprise Manager vs Quest Foglight for Databases

Compared 8% of the time

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs Quest Foglight for Databases

Compared 7% of the time

SQL Sentry vs Quest Foglight for Databases

Compared 7% of the time

More Quest Foglight for Databases Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

May 2025

BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS report

Download BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Quest Foglight for Databases

May 2025

Download Quest Foglight for Databases product report

Also Known As

BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on z/OS, Data Management for IMS and DB2 on z/OS

No data available

Overview

Transform the management of your DB2 databases to meet the scale and complexity of digital business

Run DB2 utilities with BMC Next Generation Technology to optimize your data and improve application performance
Eliminate downtime and increase availability of business services
Ensure the integrity of structured and unstructured data
Take control with intelligent automation and policy-driven rules
Bridge the gap from green-screen to modern, secure, self-service user interfaces
Move to DB2 12 and beyond with confidence

BMC

Foglight identifies and resolves performance issues across your applications, databases and virtual environments. The Foglight family of products easily integrates with your existing tools, so you can monitor and analyze data from almost any source across your infrastructure and view it through a single interface with our customizable, unified monitoring platform

Quest Software

Sample Customers

Airline Tariff Publishing Co (ATPCO), AtTask, MetaScale

CommitDBA

Buyer's Guide

BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS vs. Quest Foglight for Databases

June 2025

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