We use Datacom as the database for our CA 7 and CA 11. It is a very stable product. I really don't have to do much with it. I don't have to worry about the product going down. It just works most of the time. That is what I like about it. 

The most valuable features, being a systems programmer, are the ease of use and stability.

It processes very efficiently. I think that's it's most important feature. I also love the support that I get when I call their support team.

Scalability is definitely one thing. The size of the database can grow without any issues. We've got one database table that's got over a billion rows in it; quite a bit of data, and it handles access like a champ.

Nowadays, CA is doing a lot of improving as far as online maintainability of definitions, which is a huge improvement over the past. I'm able to do a lot of changes without any outage.

The stability and capacity of the database engine are the most valuable aspects for us. We have rather high CIC transaction rates with a couple thousand concurrent users at times, and DATACOM handles the data flow and availability, along with significant updating, in a very timely fashion. The VSAM-Transparency option has allowed us to convert files into tables, so that unchanged and maintained VSAM coding, as well as use as a DATACOM table, are both available to our developers.

Over the years, with the different releases, and for sure the upgrades, the installation process has gotten a lot easier because they use Cora Software Manager now to to install it. And the upgrade process, they use the new active upgrade process. Those features make everything a lot easier, a whole lot simpler than it used to be in the past.

It’s a database manager which has good performance for batch workloads and transactions.