Mainstar Launches Clone and Rename for IMS (ICR) and Rapid Database Refresh (RDR) for IMS

Simplifies and automates entire IMS subsystem clones or selected database refreshes

Bellevue, WA – April 2, 2008 – Mainstar (www.mainstar.com), an industry-leading provider of data access solutions in the System Z arena, today announced the availability of a new product, Clone and Rename for IMS (ICR), that makes it easy to refresh IMS® subsystems and selected databases within minutes instead of hours, increasing data access and productivity.

Many applications have critical requirements for quick and accurate cloning of entire IMS subsystems or select databases, due to the need for production or development copies, recovery initiatives, query-only access, reporting, or testing. Using current techniques, data cloning can require the better part of a day and requires a separate LPAR. Because today's data centers are increasingly crunched for time, Mainstar has created a solution to help resource-strapped data centers save significant time and increase productivity.

The new ICR product helps users gain access to critical data incredibly fast, with minimal downtime. If available, fast copy technology is utilized to gain speed, and automation is used to enable cloning on the same LPAR by renaming the volume internals and data sets, and to update the cloned IMS subsystem or DBRC definitions if a database was refreshed.

"For years, organizations have used this same technology to clone DB2 with Mainstar's VCR product," says Doug Bryan, Mainstar's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "Now IMS subsystems or databases can be refreshed with the same speed and reliability. We have listened to our customers and have developed ICR to simplify, automate, and speed up the IMS subsystem and database cloning processes. With this new solution, organizations can support much faster IMS subsystem clones or database refreshes resulting in greater savings and productivity."