No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

BMC AMI DevX vs IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 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

BMC AMI DevX
Ranking in Test Data Management
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (2nd), Database Development and Management (11th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (3rd), AI Software Development (30th)
IBM InfoSphere Optim Test D...
Ranking in Test Data Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Test Data Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 12.1%, up from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) is 5.9%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Data Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC AMI DevX12.1%
IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM)5.9%
Other82.0%
Test Data Management
 

Featured Reviews

Wisdom Mbiza - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Engineer at Absa Group
Modern tools have boosted mainframe file extraction speed and simplified everyday workflows
I definitely think BMC AMI DevX could be improved or enhanced in terms of the logging in features. BMC AMI DevX's logging in feature is not so great. Whenever you try to log in, it always prompts you for passwords. Then when you have to switch sessions, because we usually have to switch between production and UAT, there's no quick way of switching between the two. Every time you try to switch, it prompts you to log in. Additionally, there's a pop-up that I always receive. When you click X on it, it doesn't disappear. Eventually, I just end up minimizing it. Furthermore, the startup of BMC AMI DevX takes a long time to start up before it loads. It doesn't just immediately start up and it's ready. It takes a good solid two to three minutes before it's ready so that you can work on it. BMC AMI DevX's logins and the other ones I can understand because security has to be there, but I do feel that once I've logged in, I shouldn't need to log in again. The startup problem is the annoying one because if I want to do something, I need to open it two or three minutes earlier to give it time to load up. The startup problem is the one that definitely needs to be addressed.
Ajai Lal - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Mphasis
Supports both legacy and non-legacy systems
The solution's initial setup is neither complex nor too easy. Around six or seven people, including database administrators, were involved in the solution's deployment. On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup a four to five out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the ability to flow through the source and see what happens to the data as the statements are executed. If there is a fault, it will track the event, and we can then look back to see why it may have caused the fault. You can also reverse engineer your test. You can set it so that you can go backward as well as forward in your test. This is something that I haven't done here at my company. Compuware Xpediter is one of the best debugging tools for mainframe software development. We have currently licensed only the COBOL language for Xpediter, but I know they have other languages, including Assembler, PL/I."
"The debugging is really the most important feature, enabling us to be able to step through."
"One of the features that the developers like is that they can retrieve what they need with the tool. They don't have to go through some process or request something be done by another team. They can get the programs they need, compile them, retrieve the JCL and alter the JCL if they need to, and put these programs wherever they need to go for their testing."
"My guess is this would have taken twice as long, or we would have had many more issues without using Xpediter."
"The product has made our mainframe data management process easier. It has helped us save manhours. The tool's most valuable feature is the ability to edit tape files. Its ability to clone files is beneficial in application development."
"It's a modernized development portal and helps reduce the learning curve for younger people coming in to work on the platform,"
"I like that Compuware File-AID can actually map out control sections within load modules, or, as they're now known, program objects."
"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 product has helped to streamline the Test Data Management (TDM) process."
"The Data Archive or Data Growth feature is one of the very useful solutions that help organizations to manage and support their database archiving strategies."
"The solution can be used on both legacy and non-legacy systems."
"Optim is a great tool for enterprise data movement, data masking, data sub-setting, data comparison, and data aging."
"Customer service is good."
"Data archiving saved much storage and improved production performance."
"The platform's ability to generate metrics is the most valuable feature for data management. It is a user-friendly and easy-to-use tool."
"Data archiving reduces application performance issues and storage."
 

Cons

"The area for improvement is related to the testing tools that are available for unit testing or acceptance testing."
"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 only thing that bothers me about BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline is the screen movement."
"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."
"It would be good if the vendors would work together or at least have some collaboration between them, so they would know what would work and what wouldn't work. Right now, the way things are working, they're relying on the customer to make everything work."
"We plan to replace BMC Compuware File-AID due to its price. Two years back, we paid 11,000 dollars. However, the current price is 27,900 dollars. The price has increased to at least eight times its initial cost. We would need to pay around 60,000 dollars to have all three products together. We also encountered issues during version updates."
"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?"
"BMC AMI DevX is a strong platform, but there are a few areas where it could improve, such as simplifying the initial installation and configuration, especially for first-time users."
"In the IBM Optim tool, the Synthetic Test Data Generation feature is lagging behind."
"The tool does not support new test data generation."
"In the past, we have waited months for IBM to resolve the problem."
"Data masking with InfoSphere Optim products creates intermediary extract files and writing the data to persistent storage, which means that extraction, masking, and insertion happen being separate processes, taking more for the process to run."
"The tool needs to have more test data management features like synthetic data generation and data reservation."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup a four to five out of ten."
"Installation is too cumbersome."
"Licensing could be improved. The PVU licensing mechanism is a limiting factor to expanding the use of the tool."
 

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."
"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."
"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."
"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 price point is great."
"We purchase TDM's yearly license."
"You have to pay yearly for the license, which comes at a reduced cost. The monthly payment option for a shorter project duration is also good."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Test Data Management solutions are best for your needs.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
31%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
14%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with BMC AMI DevX?
I definitely think BMC AMI DevX could be improved or enhanced in terms of the logging in features. BMC AMI DevX's logging in feature is not so great. Whenever you try to log in, it always prompts y...
What is your primary use case for BMC AMI DevX?
I work on mainframe, and some of the developers prefer to code on BMC AMI DevX because it looks more modern. For me, my basic use of it is just to extract information. Most of the time we end up ha...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM)?
The solution does not need much maintenance. The solution is maintained by the infrastructure team. There is a separate team for the software installation. I would recommend the solution to other u...
 

Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline
IBM Optim Test Data Management, Optim Test Data Management, IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NRB, Iberdrola, Consorzio Servizi Bancari 
Dignity Health
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC AMI DevX vs. IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.