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CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS vs Foglight for Databases comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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

CA Database Management for ...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Foglight for Databases
Ranking in Database Development and Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Foglight for Databases is 3.5%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Foglight for Databases3.5%
CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS1.5%
Other95.0%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

JG
Technical Project Manager at Interra Information Technologies, Inc.
Report generation offers invaluable insights into database performance
I basically use the solution for database management and to view the performance of a particular database object, any specific program, batch program, or online programs. Using the CSSZ tool, I can effectively monitor performance. In case of an exception, I can inform the application team. At DB2…
Vijay Ram - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Centralized monitoring has simplified multi-database oversight and improved query analysis
Foglight for Databases is very useful; however, the negative side we face is that customer care support is not frequent. If any issues related to Foglight arise, we cannot reach customer care support as soon as possible. It takes much longer compared to other third-party tools, and that is a major issue we are facing with Foglight for Databases. Foglight for Databases is good for monitoring, and we can fetch problematic issues and queries. However, the only main drawback is the customer care support. It is available only during the general shift, so if any issue occurs after 6:00 p.m. or before 9:00 a.m., there is usually no one to handle it. I think there are only two or three people handling customer care for Foglight for Databases.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Improved monitoring and performance management."
"​It is very stable. We have had no issues."
"The solution operates on JetOS platform. It is a very good, perfect solution."
"The ability to do the CA utilities faster than IBM using less resources, and the RC/Migrator product that allows us to make changes quickly and efficiently using either the IBM utilities or the CA utilities."
"The reports generated and the old statistics shown are really helpful."
"​It helps us to reduce hardware costs and to optimize processing times.​"
"If you want your DBA and programming staff to be efficient and effective, I recommend these tools."
"We switched to the IBM tools for a short time and switched back, due to contract pricing."
"The PI module allows [my colleague] to identify which new indexes or modified indexes are going to make the biggest impact."
"My impressions of Foglight for Databases' ability to help me monitor a variety of aspects such as the OS, hybrid clouds, hardware, and databases across different platforms have been great so far."
"Foglight for Databases is the best tool for monitoring all aspects such as database, backup information, storage information, and operating system side."
"We went from basically 30% coverage of our production environment to 100% coverage."
"Foglight's Change Tracking capabilities are another huge feature. It is wonderful to be able to do that. People don't realize the amount of information that Foglight gathers from a given server or instance. It gets down to the version of SQL, the disk array, everything that's there. Any change that's made, any upgrade to SQL, shows up on the dashboard almost immediately. You don't know how much time you save just having a tool in your back pocket that does that for you."
"For me, one of the most useful components has been Performance Investigator, because it completely helps with bottlenecks or performance problems quickly, evaluating whether the root is at the server level, at the development level, or at the database level."
"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."
"I do not find anything I dislike about Foglight for Databases."
 

Cons

"The initial set up of parameters is quite exhaustive and some parameters cross products."
"The initial setup parameters are quite exhaustive and some parameters cross with the products."
"These tools have had their share of bugs."
"They need to provide a way to create and maintain performance repositories. The online tool is not perfect, but it is giving me what I need."
"All the information we need, we could use to have it in a more usable format.​"
"They could work on the installation process main job that runs, maybe break it up into several jobs instead of one."
"Only one issue was not resolved but this was because the customer did not agree to send data which the vendor asked for as it was user-sensitive data but without this, a full investigation was not possible."
"I look forward to the application of these tools to all platforms in use, such as z/OS, Unix, and Windows."
"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."
"Foglight for Databases could benefit from fewer generic alerts and more rules based on impact, priority, and action path, which would make it more useful for daily operations, on-call shifts, and incident follow-up."
"Overall, I am happy with the product, but there are a few areas where it could be improved."
"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."
"I get a lot of alerts that, while important, are not critical. Then I have to dig in and figure out how to turn alerts off, but not the logging. I want to be able to go back, once we get the other big issues out of the way, and start fine-tuning some of those other areas, but I don't necessarily want to receive an email for all of them."
"Over this past weekend I had 400 emails from Foglight. That's a lot. And at least 395 of them were white noise."
"Better communication and alerts regarding the transaction logs getting full would also be beneficial. What I have noticed is that if the log files on the SQL server are full, we cannot log in and have to do some cleanup on the Foglight DB. It would be good if they could monitor that and alert us when it is getting too full."
"I would like the rule development code to be made available so we don't always have to be referred to professional services for custom solutions. For example, if we want to exclude certain databases from a particular rule, we shouldn't have to go to support and to professional services for that solution. If the code and syntax were available, we have resources that could quickly turn something like that around."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price is worth it, if you have the time to go through the information."
"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."
"Compared to the other tools on the market, Foglight is okay in terms of pricing and licensing."
"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."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
18%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Recreational Facilities/Services Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS?
In the case of any particular SQL which is executing for a longer time and causing issues with any particular store or DB2 programs, if it could pinpoint the problems like any other tool should do,...
What is your primary use case for CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS?
I basically use the solution for database management and to view the performance of a particular database object, any specific program, batch program, or online programs. Using the CSSZ tool, I can...
What advice do you have for others considering CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS?
The solution operates on JetOS platform. It is a very good, perfect solution. I would rate it ten out of ten. Currently, I do not have any planning for investment at all.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest Foglight for Databases?
I have had a good experience with the licensing costs of Foglight for Databases, as we have a provider who has given us good prices, and so far we have not had any cost problems. Regarding configur...
What needs improvement with Quest Foglight for Databases?
Primarily, given that Foglight for Databases is so multi-platform with different databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL, the reports are very specific for each engine. An improvement could...
What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?
Foglight for Databases serves multiple purposes in my organization, with the primary use being the multi-database aspect, where I can have the status and availability of all databases in a single v...
 

Also Known As

CA Database Management Solutions for DB2 for z/OS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Hill Data Services
CommitDBA
Find out what your peers are saying about CA Database Management for DB2 for zOS vs. Foglight for Databases and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.