BMC AMI DevX vs CA IDMS comparison

BMC and Broadcom are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. BMC is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.7, while Broadcom is ranked #28. BMC holds a 1.8% mindshare in DDM, compared to Broadcom’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

BMC AMI DevX

Read 21 BMC AMI DevX reviews

6,965 Views
975 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

CA IDMS

Read 5 CA IDMS reviews

1,046 Views
690 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

BMC AMI DevX

CA IDMS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

CA IDMS and BMC AMI DevX are competing in the enterprise software market for mainframe environments. BMC AMI DevX is generally seen as having an upper hand due to its extensive feature set offering better value for its price.

Features: CA IDMS offers strong data storage capabilities, efficient transaction processing, and a cohesive database management environment. BMC AMI DevX features include application lifecycle management, modern development interfaces, and continuous integration tools, focusing on flexibility and development methodologies.

Room for Improvement: CA IDMS could enhance its modern development support, improve integration with cloud-based services, and expand its analytics capabilities. BMC AMI DevX might benefit from simplifying its initial setup, improving legacy application support, and offering more cost-effective pricing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CA IDMS provides a straightforward setup with reliable customer service for smooth operation. BMC AMI DevX focuses on agile implementation with dedicated support and advanced automation options to streamline deployment.

Pricing and ROI: CA IDMS is known for its competitive setup cost and stable ROI due to data management efficiency. BMC AMI DevX may have higher initial costs but offers strong ROI through advanced features that enhance productivity.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC AMI DevX vs. CA IDMS Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX vs. CA IDMS

June 2026

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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

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (4th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (5th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (4th), AI Software Development (202nd)

CA IDMS

Ranking in Database Development and Management

28th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 1.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CA IDMS is 1.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
BMC AMI DevX	1.8%
CA IDMS	1.3%
Other	96.9%

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

Abulfazal Irfan

Devops Engineer / Ispw Admin at a insurance company with 201-500 employees

Tight deployment controls have secured production and simplified complex release rollbacks

The best feature of BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline that impresses me is the fallback functionality. The fallback functionality impresses me because when developers deploy large releases involving multiple components, such as COBOL programs, underlying copy books, and CICS modules, backing out changes would typically become a nightmare. With ISPW, developers can back out the entire release or entire package. If they deployed 100 components and want to back out everything, they can do so with one function and back out all components without worrying about backing out each individual component. They can back out the entire deployment set, which handles everything and brings them back to the previous versions. Developers can also selectively back out a subset of the deployed components. They also have the ability to revert to not just the most previous version but can go back several versions if they choose to do so. This gives them a lot of flexibility.

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Alfredo Silva

ALiBS Solutions at ALiBS Solutions

Helps us to manage user profiles very quickly and in an assertive way

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10. I would advise that they should evaluate other possibilities because this is a very quickly changing environment and there are other possible providers that have good solutions. I would do some kind of test. I would test other possible solutions too and compare them.

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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

"The smart editor helps because it will code-complete for me. I can see code working a lot faster and I'm able to get things coded in less time."

"For bank applications, DB2 is the best on the market."

"The debugging is really the most important feature, enabling us to be able to step through."

"The visual ability to see potential downstream impacts to changes being made assists our developers in understanding the impact associated with their change."

"ISPW is an excellent product; it does everything the developers need it to do, we were able to build it and customize it very simply as we became more familiar with how the system works during installation, and it doesn't need a lot of care and feeding once it's up and running."

"The plugin ISPW integrated into Eclipse is a really valuable functionality for developers who already use it."

"Topaz workbench is one of the most integrated into Eclipse that I've seen from the mainframe vendors."

"I like that Compuware File-AID can actually map out control sections within load modules, or, as they're now known, program objects."

More BMC AMI DevX pros

"Technical support is very good. They are very knowledgeable, very quick to respond, and very nice people, too."

"The most useful feature is the governance feature, because it can show us and help us to manage user profiles very quickly and using it in assertive way."

"We've been able to fine tune it over the years to get really good performance out of it, and maintain some database network support."

"The solution is the community - a tightly knit group of experts who have been working on the product set for many years."

"Stability is perfect! It is a really stable platform; it has been around for many years, and we trust it implicitly."

"The most valuable feature is the performance of the database; it's very efficient at what it does, quite reliable, and provides us with a very stable platform that we've been running for many years."

Cons

"The solution could be improved by being better integrated with the open world. In the next release, I would like to have the ability to work in an open environment whilst remaining integrated with the legacy environment."

"The area for improvement is related to the testing tools that are available for unit testing or acceptance testing."

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

"I'm waiting to see what 19.2 for Topaz looks like, but I have a problem with the JES Explorer right now. It limits you to a certain prefix for job names and there are some groups that have multiple prefixes that they'd like to see all at once in their job names, because of how they work in a group. And they can't see that in the JES Explorer."

"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."

"We have noticed that Topaz supported Eclipse environments are rather old. It would be nice if Topaz were compatible with the more current Eclipse releases."

"Their technical support could be better. There were times where, when we reported bugs, they would fix one bug but add another one. That's probably because of their support model. A lot of organizations are developing software using Agile rather than the Waterfall method, so things are happening all over the place. You get things quicker, but sometimes one fix will break another one or add other bugs."

"When you're setting up the parameters for how ISPW will work in your shop, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered... BMC Compuware should have more in-depth explanations about what the choices in each question mean. If you pick A, what does that mean has to happen? What does that impact? If you pick B, what does that mean? What does that impact?"

More BMC AMI DevX cons

"We have to use DB2 when we need more relational constructs, expanded inquiry and reporting; so it's not perfect in that regards."

"Right now, it's not easy to start using this solution. You have to take long course and train people. It's not an easy path."

"I'd like to see some of the installation, maintenance, and support functions simplified so that some of our younger, newer members can take advantage of the product and maintain it to the same standard that the older members have in the past."

"We need to make it much easier to support and maintain, because the skills required are quite specialized and we're not going to have people in the future who've got the necessary experience and knowledge."

"I would like to see it made simpler to operate and maintain."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."

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

"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."

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

"The price point is great."

"Do not hold back on asking questions about the maintenance and continued support of the product."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

32%

Insurance Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Marketing Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	18

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?

I don't directly deal with the pricing side of the solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BMC AMI DevX?

To improve BMC AMI DevX, consideration should be given to cloud-style provisioning and development models, as well as integration of more AI capabilities. Enhancements in VS Code extensions to deve...

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What is your primary use case for BMC AMI DevX?

BMC AMI DevX solutions are primarily used for mainframe-based resources and application development, encompassing not only COBOL but also Workbench and VS Code for various purposes. Data management...

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Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

IBM File Manager vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 5% of the time

Broadcom Test Data Manager vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 4% of the time

Perforce Delphix vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 4% of the time

Gen vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

CA Datacom vs CA IDMS

Compared 17% of the time

Spotlight vs CA IDMS

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Coherence vs CA IDMS

Compared 6% of the time

Adabas vs CA IDMS

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX

June 2026

Download BMC AMI DevX product report

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

June 2026

Download CA IDMS product report

Also Known As

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

IDMS

Overview

BMC AMI DevX is a mainframe DevOps platform for IBM Z environments that helps development and platform engineering teams increase release velocity, reduce change risk, and build a sustainable mainframe developer workforce.

Whether the priority is attracting the next generation of mainframe talent, safely evolving decades of business-critical code, accelerating release velocity, or demonstrating development ROI to leadership — BMC AMI DevX is designed to address all on a single platform. Teams can connect existing tools and adopt capabilities incrementally using an open-borders integration approach.

A 2025 Forrester Total Economic Impact study found that customers using BMC AMI DevX onboarded developers 50% faster, completed code changes 33% faster, increased release frequency by 50%, and reduced change failure rate by 33%.

Key capabilities:

Modern IDE integration (VS Code, Eclipse) with a unified development environment that reduces context switching
AI-powered code analysis including dependency mapping, impact analysis, and runtime execution path visualization
Automated unit, functional, integration, and performance testing with code coverage analysis
Git-compatible CI/CD integration with event-driven webhooks and an open plug-in library
DORA metrics and DevOps KPI tracking with AI/ML anomaly detection across the mainframe SDLC

BMC

CA IDMS is a robust database management system known for its reliability in handling high-volume transactions. It serves as a proven enterprise solution providing cost-effective data management for large organizations.

CA IDMS is optimized for environments requiring consistent performance under heavy transaction loads. Its architecture facilitates integration with modern applications, ensuring data availability and integrity. Often chosen by large enterprises, it's particularly beneficial for businesses needing scalable and dependable database solutions. CA IDMS supports extensive data models, allowing organizations to capture complex relationships efficiently.

What are the key features of CA IDMS?

High Performance: Ensures stable operation under demanding workloads.
Reliability: Provides consistent uptime and robust data protection.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing data and transaction volumes.
Security: Strong measures to protect data integrity and privacy.
Integration: Compatible with emerging technologies and applications.

What benefits and ROI should one expect from CA IDMS?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs with low maintenance requirements.
Enhanced Data Management: Simplifies complex data handling processes.
Business Continuity: Minimizes downtime ensuring seamless business operations.
Adaptability: Aligns with evolving technology needs without significant overhauls.

CA IDMS finds implementation in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government where data integrity and high availability are critical. Its role is essential in legacy systems that require modernization while maintaining operational reliability, providing a reliable backbone to IT infrastructures facing modernization challenges.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

NRB, Iberdrola, Consorzio Servizi Bancari

Blue Hill Data Services Inc.

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX vs. CA IDMS

June 2026

Free Report: BMC AMI DevX vs. CA IDMS

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