MIMIX [EOL] Reviews

I like its flexibility. I have been told that we have one of the most complex installations that Vision has ever had deployed. We replicate our environment outside of the normal parameters.

We use MIMIX in two forms – high availability and data distribution. High availability is used to replicate files from our production environment to our Colo. Data distribution is used to replicate data from one system to another and keeping the data synchronized automatically.

Installation is pretty easy but it can be fairly complicated to setup and configure. This could possibly be improved.

I have used this product for over five years.

Only that when you do the installation yourself (for dev, test, or QA environments), they will not support you. As they want you to have a Business Partner or their Services group do the installations. Once you know the product really well, you really don't want to pay for basic installations, which is what most companies will use.

No, the stability of the product is rock solid. Any issues that they get feedback on from clients is fixed pretty quickly via service packs or fixes.

No, they have a product to fit every level of scalability from single LPAR to clustering.

Customer service is very good, and can either be handled directly or through the Business Partner and also through their customer portal.

Their tech support is very good, as is their knowledge-base. So is their documentation.

They stay on the issue until it gets resolved. They also have a customer portal with a knowledge-base where you can search for issues as well as download documentation, installation software, service packs, licensing, etc.

We previously used Data Mirror, but we switched due to the complexity we needed for our environment, as well as ease of use of MIMIX over Data Mirror.

It was complex due to the nature of our environment's complexity and the scale of work needed.

MIMIX generally is set up that each data group is replicating a whole library. In our case, we have some libraries that have 20,000 files but we do not need to replicate them all, so it was simpler to just put in the entries we needed.

We had a Business Partner expert work with our previous MIMIX Admin to implement our configuration.

Pricing and licensing is complicated because it is based on how big the system is, and how it is configured.

I think it is the best, most robust and flexible product available. Make sure you plan it out before hand – work with the developers to assess their needs as well as the business needs.

This version, 7.1.x, has reached its EOL. Vision is no longer providing service packs.

Version 8.0.x has some very nice enhancements. We plan to upgrade to a stable version, 8.0.10 sometime Q1 2016. We will implement it first on our sandbox, then QA then Test and finally Production, which encompasses Data Distribution and HA.

It can automate back-end data processes.

It has helped us cut down process time and manpower.

The version we're using is not portal ready.

I've used it for about two years.

It was already set up when I joined.

It has many service packs to fix issues.

It seems to be scalable in the newer versions.

It's above average.

It's above average.

We used it in conjunction with help systems and Connect:Direct.

It was implemented in-house.

It has the ability to switch or role swap for system availability.

We were able to perform major system maintenance on our production system after performing a switch or production role swap.

OS version compatibility needs work.

I've used it for three and a half years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

We're satisfied with it.

We're satisfied with it.

I used a different replication solution in my previous company - IBM Global Mirroring - but not with my current company. They didn't have a solution prior to MIMIX and therefore have never switched to another product.

I believe ROI is above par.

If you can consolidate your systems into one, it will save you a lot of money in licensing.

Make sure you have at least two or three in-house engineers for MIMIX as the skills required are hard to find.

Replication Protection and Switching Capabilities. The product allows you to replicate critical data and system objects to a target server to be used for backups and failover.

We can perform system maintenance such as OS upgrades on the production system after switching the business to the target system.

Monitoring tools can be improved but are very useful already.

I've used it for 15 years.

No, as long as you have adequate bandwidth in place between the systems. I recommend you use a certified consultant for the deployment.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Excellent. Their team is very knowledgeable and responsive.

Excellent. Their team is very knowledgeable and responsive.

No previous solution used.

It's complex - you need to have a detailed understanding of the environment, and the AS/400 system in general. Network, security, and applications are all part of the process.

We used a certified consultant who is an IBM partner.

I am not in finance, but we are utilizing the solution to reduced planned, and unplanned downtime, which can cost the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.

Not much room for negotiation, but you can try to get at the least first three years of maintenance included in initial cost.

• IBM iCluster
• Nomax

I recommend you use a certified consultant for the deployment.

The remote journaling and audit functions.

By implementing remote journals, we have put the load on the target system as opposed to the source.

Prosing support for multiple journals per data group would be nice.

I've used it on and off for 18 years.

No issue encountered.

No issue encountered.

No issue encountered.

Customer support is good but they do try to squeeze out those service dollars.

They know their products well.

I've used DataMirror but it was sold to IBM and we got a better deal from Vision.

We have a complex environment, so it depends on your particular environment which will be custom based on your business, typically.

We did it in-house.

Negotiate hard.

IASP and hardware based solutions but the business would not go for the spend.

Make sure you have a good understanding of your environment and how replication can affect it.

We use all the features of the product. From our perspective, I think the most valuable are:

• Complete planned/unplanned switch framework
• Full stack of comparison reports (so called audit reports)
• 95% integration with all new IBM i features that appears, including independent ASP

Apart from the fact that we are assured high availability and disaster recovery, we use this product for different purposes as well. This include remote site backups, pre-staging sources for data warehousing (integration with DoubleTake Share from same vendor), and to offload production for some critical reports.

I think that there should be a converged effort with IBM for faster remote journal entry reads when the remote journal is in "fire mode". That means when remote journal is in its catch-up phase with the source system, and a lot of journal entries are bombing the journal receivers.

I've been using it since 2003.

No, we have a tremendous experience with the product.

Not in the last eight to nine years.

Only with remote journal entries.

They have great 24x7 support, with very good and experienced employees.

9/10.

We had an IBM implementation for SAN storage replication (PPRC). The solution had a complex recovery procedure when production system is down. Also, you can have corrupted data while MIMIX works at the application and OS/DB2 level instead.

The first implementation was complex because we had to define, and understand, what we really need to replicate. When someone is asking you what to replicate, most of the clients are saying the "whole system". This is not possible, as you cannot replicate, for example, a system serial number (VPD), and all the other stuff that is system related when you use application-level replication (e.g local IP addressing of physical interfaces etc.).

We implemented it with both vendor consultants and application consultants.

We didn't calculate it, but I can say that we have a positive ROI. We've used it two to three times to recover bank services after a production system shut down (DASD storage unavailable on production). Also, we use the product for reporting, data warehouse pre-staging, remote backups, etc.

This topic is really complicated because now the product is CPU-core licensed. When we bought it, it was system based. So I would say that at first, you should start with a small environment, for example a non-production LPAR (or VM), and see if it is feasible for the expected purpose (data protection). The licensing model is related to production and backup LPAR CPU cores, same for maintenance, it should be under 18% of the initial license fee. But, you should take into consideration implementation services that are around $1700 to $1900 per day.

We evaluated all the products on the market but MIMIX was the only option for us.

I think for monitoring IBM products, it is the best product on the market.

First though, you need to understand their applications and the right point in time for business recovery points. The product has some CPD (continuous data protection), but the product is more or less for real-time data replication and HA. The second time, is the cost and implementation services, I would not advise to try it by themselves without understanding where to start from.

MIMIX provides local and remote data replication for us, up to the minute. Knowing that our data is in multiple backup locations, provides us with piece of mind as far as a disaster recovery situation is concerned.

Because we have our production data replicated to a local LPAR, we can perform nightly backups of our production system without taking our production system offline to do them. Also, for system upgrades (software or hardware), we can perform role swaps to our backup systems, and run our processes off of the backup system. Doing this can virtually eliminate all down time associated with the upgrades.

None that I have encountered.

I've been using the Professional version for seven years.

I have not had any issues Visions Solutions could not resolve.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Good. No concerns/issues.

Excellent. Of the support personnel that I have dealt with, they are top notch in their field both in knowledge and dedication to getting the problem resolved. I have called support both during business hours and outside them, and have received great support at all times. Their online client portal is very easy and intuitive to use, and they provide many resources to give the user the ability to resolve the problem and learn for themselves.

No packaged software. Lots of work-arounds, and piecing things together to try and replicate the same type of solution, but it felt quite inadequate.

I was not originally involved with the initial deployment of the product, but am involved with any new enhancements.

Vision Solutions did most of the implementation for us.

Look at the price and what it will do for you compared to other products. There might be other products that do a similar thing, but what type of technology are they relying on? Is it efficient and here to stay? Get testimonials from others.

• Provides two servers
• Easy
• Fast
• Robust

It's used in our new architecture, for production, HA/DR and it works with different data groups.

I used it for one year, before I was using ITHERA.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

8/10.

8/10.

Before we were using ITHERA. We switched because we had problems with the stability and had not found the right level of technical support.

From watching the consultant, it looked easy.

It was done by a consultant.

No other options were evaluated.