BMC AMI DevX vs IBM Rational Synergy [EOL] comparison

BMC and IBM are both solutions in the Software Configuration Management category. Additionally, 92% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution.

BMC AMI DevX

Read 22 BMC AMI DevX reviews

7,355 Views
1,103 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM Rational Synergy [EOL]

Read 1 IBM Rational Synergy [EOL] review

0% willing to recommend

BMC AMI DevX

IBM Rational Synergy [EOL]

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between BMC AMI DevX and IBM Rational Synergy [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about BMC, Microsoft, Broadcom and others in Software Configuration Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Software Configuration Management Report (Updated: July 2026).

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Software Configuration Management

July 2026

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Helped 903,996 peers since 2012

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

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (4th), Database Development and Management (14th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (4th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (4th), AI Software Development (190th)

IBM Rational Synergy [EOL]

Average Rating

3.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Wisdom Mbiza

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.

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Olivier Appere

Software Methodology Engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees

Users must go through a lot of steps to properly manipulate this solution, which can interrupt workflows and cause unnecessary downtime

We are required to use this tool by DO-178 guidance. We have to use a configuration management tool and this is the one we have been using. People see this tool more like a constraint than a benefit. Users really have to know how to use this tool and how to set the baseline functionalities for their case. The user must go through a lot of steps to properly manipulate this solution, which can interrupt workflows and cause unnecessary downtime. Synergy requires user training and development. It's not user-friendly. You have to perform a lot of manipulations; it's a bit archaic. Some people are reluctant to use this tool because they are familiar with and proficient in using Windows Explorer to navigate through directories and use WinZip to archive data. It is not a very good tool for document management. I would rate this solution a three out of ten because it's an old tool. It was a good tool 15 years ago. To get a ten out of ten I would need to see a more integrated user-friendly tool and it should be competitively priced as it is it's too expensive. I don't recommend using it because it's obsolete.

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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

"We can develop in parallel today on ISPF, but it's giving us the advantage of the newer interface into the mainframe programming languages that younger programmers can use and are familiar with, rather than using the ISPF green screen."

"We have seen an improvement in the rate and level of quality at which we deploy changes."

"It does our CICS NEWCOPYs and our Db2 binds for us, whereas before, that was a manual process. It takes a lot of the workload off of the operations folks and off the DBAs."

"It helps our staff work by speeding up their documentation process."

"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."

"As far as the software vendors that I work with go, Compuware has some of the best support, in terms of listening to customer requests and accepting enhancements to the product and the like."

"Compuware Xpediter is one of the best debugging tools for mainframe software development."

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

More BMC AMI DevX pros

"Managing source code, tracking modifications, and being able to analyze evolutions of source code are the most valuable features."

Cons

"One thing I would really like to see some improvement on is the promotion diagnostic messages. It invokes utilities "under the covers" to copy components, and it does not echo back any of the error messages from those utilities."

"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."

"I find it more cumbersome to use Topaz."

"There are some features that are not well documented, so documentation could use a little help, on things like setting up deployment and which structures in the database correspond to which tables."

"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."

"The only thing that bothers me about BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline is the screen movement."

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

"Better discussions to identify inventory prior to the start of any migration would be helpful for potential clients that have applications with code that is not modified often."

More BMC AMI DevX cons

"I don't recommend using it because it's obsolete."

"I'd like to see more integration with respect to requirement management, though this is not possible with this Synergy solution. I know that PTC enables this feature as well as Polarion. We need to have full trustworthiness and accountability in knowing that the tool will track every modification from specification through to the source code, with Synergy this isn't possible. The solution requires additional tools like rectify, desktop system solutions, to enable trustability between requirements, from one specification to another."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The price point is great."

"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."

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

"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."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

33%

Insurance Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

No data available

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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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX

July 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Software Configuration Management

July 2026

Download IBM Rational Synergy [EOL] product report

Also Known As

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

IBM Synergy, Rational Synergy

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

At IBM, work is more than a job - it's a calling: To build. To design. To code. To consult. To think along with clients and sell. To make markets. To invent. To collaborate. Not just to do something better, but to attempt things you've never thought possible. To lead in this new era of technology and solve some of the world's most challenging problems. IBM is a leading cloud platform and cognitive solutions company. Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are the largest technology and consulting employer in the world, with more than 380,000 employees serving clients in 170 countries. With Watson, the AI platform for business, powered by data, we are building industry-based solutions to real-world problems. For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents.

IBM

Sample Customers

NRB, Iberdrola, Consorzio Servizi Bancari

Information Not Available

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Software Configuration Management

July 2026

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