it_user277023 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Technical Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Remote journaling allows us to put the load on the target system as opposed to the source, but it lacks prosing support for multiple journals per data group.

What is most valuable?

The remote journaling and audit functions.

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

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

For how long have I used the solution?

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

Buyer's Guide
MIMIX [EOL]
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about MIMIX [EOL]. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issue encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issue encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issue encountered.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

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

Technical Support:

They know their products well.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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

How was the initial setup?

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

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Negotiate hard.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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

What other advice do I have?

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user738699 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Director at a tech services company
Consultant
Provides replication stability and its audit feature is valuable

What is most valuable?

Stability of replication and its audit feature. If systems and communications remain at a good level without problems, no problems will occur in MIMIX.

How has it helped my organization?

About 10 years ago, a large Portuguese bank successfully merged banking systems that were used in other countries because of the MIMIX replication solution.

What needs improvement?

Switch procedures are not as easy and straightforward as it may seem at first glance. The product needs a virtual switch and better programs to improve simplicity in the switch procedures.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been certified in MIMIX since 2000, with V4.1, so I use it for internal testing, self education, support and the development of associated tools.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

With older versions there were some issues, but with this version (8.1) even with complex sensitive software applications such as SQL collections, stability is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, from the simplest to the most complex environments, and with millions of transactions, MIMIX can adapt to any environment. Normally the adjustment is related to systems hardware and software.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is at a very high level, and reachable 24 hours a day.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I work with customers who had Vision Solutions OMS/ODS and switched to MIMIX because it has more advanced features such as easy monitoring and administration. They had more confidence in it.

How was the initial setup?

Basic initial setup is very simple and, almost always, any problems are related to systems problems and/or communications.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It depends on which version of MIMIX is most suitable for your production systems, and according to the needs and expectations of the business.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

While working with MIMIX for many years, I know the evolution of this product and have checked others and they are steps behind.

What other advice do I have?

If you want to deploy this product, do not use only simple replication. Take advantage of all the features that this product offers. Test the Role Swap (Virtual and Real) regularly, to ensure that the alternate system can take place from the production system at any time.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
MIMIX [EOL]
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about MIMIX [EOL]. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user270894 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Systems Administrator at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We can perform nightly backups of our production system without taking our production system offline, but be sure to compare prices with other solutions before choosing.

What is most valuable?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What needs improvement?

None that I have encountered.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Good. No concerns/issues.

Technical Support:

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.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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.

How was the initial setup?

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

What about the implementation team?

Vision Solutions did most of the implementation for us.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user92232 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Administrator at a museum or institution with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Good and expensive. Requires daily checks to ensure the replication does not have issues.

I have used MIMIX for some years now. The product is good and expensive. It requires daily checks to ensure the replication does not have issues. The software is upgraded fairly regularly, and patches for discovered bugs issued quickly.

The problem is the switchover to the target system. All current operations must be quiesced and there must be no left transaction to replicate before the switch can start. In our environment, this takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes. The switch to the target system takes about 10 minutes, and the subsystems restart on the target another 15 minutes. We test this scenario 3 times a year (we wrote our own CL programs for the switchover and switchback based on Lakeview's templates).

I suggest looking at this thread for more info.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user270909 - PeerSpot reviewer
iSeries System Administrator at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Consultant
We were able to replicate from the live box to the backup machine in minutes without the need to use tapes, however the dashboard information is difficult to dissect to untrained users.

What is most valuable?

Replication speed - while CPU intensive with the right settings, even during peak I/O times, specifically End of Day processing, the replication was very quick, and only a matter of minutes in most cases.

How has it helped my organization?

For data replication purposes, we would migrate users from the live box to the backup machine in a matter of minutes. This was much quicker for the end user and required no restore from tapes.

What needs improvement?

The product dashboard that comes with the product could use some work. While functional, it required intimate knowledge to be able to dissect the information.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for just over two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No major problems were encountered during deployment, however it did take several tweaks to get it working the way we wanted.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No, none, the product worked as designed, it was a matter of customizing it to our workflow.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I was pleased with the response time and technical advice, especially in the initial roll-out.

Technical Support:

8-9/10 - as good as any tech support that I have worked with.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No real product, just tapes, lots of tapes.

How was the initial setup?

It was fairly straightforward, however there are some complex settings you could find if you dug deep enough, again we did a lot of custom work to get it to work the way we wanted.

What about the implementation team?

Both, as we worked with a vendor team but did the install on our own. I would say that the service technician that we worked with was well prepared and knew what he was doing, and I would give them a solid 7/10.

What was our ROI?

There is no value that can be assigned when working on a core system and potential downtimes that come with system failures.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not to my knowledge.

What other advice do I have?

Plan. Plan. Plan, especially with the network folks. There is a lot of data that goes back and forth for the synch to work. We had to work with our internet provider on several instances. I would also advise you to look closely at what really needs to be archived in semi real-time, and plan accordingly. We still used tapes for a good number of files/libraries, and only used Mimix for files that were updated constantly.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user269040 - PeerSpot reviewer
iSeries Power 7 Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
I'm comfortable using it in High Availability (HA) setups, but system overheads need improvement.

What is most valuable?

The ease of switching is valuable.

How has it helped my organization?

Provides high degree of comfort regarding High Availability (HA).

What needs improvement?

The systems overheads need improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for 12 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

9/10.

Technical Support:

10/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I didn't use anything prior to MIMIX.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

  • iTerra
  • OMS

What other advice do I have?

It's a good, stable product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Consultant at Ministry of Justice, Kuwait
Consultant
A solution that offers excellent replication and easy implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is straightforward. It's very easy to implement the solution. Deployment took about one hour. You only need one person for deployment and maintenance, so long as that person has a good background of administration and operation."
  • "The solution could use better dashboards for new users. They can look complicated until you get used to using the solution."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for backup replication.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is data replication.

Everything about the solution is very simple, which makes it easy to use.

What needs improvement?

The solution could use better dashboards for new users. They can look complicated until you get used to using the solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for 18 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support has been good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not previously use another solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It's very easy to implement. Deployment took about one hour. You only need one person for deployment and maintenance, so long as that person has a good administrative and operational background.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I would recommend this product. The replication portion of the solution is perfect.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user285984 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. System Mngt Engineer - System Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
OS version compatibility needs work, but with its ability to switch system availability, we were able to perform major system maintenance on our production system.

What is most valuable?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

OS version compatibility needs work.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

We're satisfied with it.

Technical Support:

We're satisfied with it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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.

What was our ROI?

I believe ROI is above par.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user