ActiveBatch vs. BMC Control-M

Comparing Control-M and ActiveBatch Workload Automation

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Overview

ActiveBatch Workload Automation by Redwood and Control-M by BMC Software are both enterprise-grade orchestration and workload automation solutions. These tools provide drag-and-drop job development and orchestration, cross-platform batch job execution (Windows, Linux, UNIX, IBM iSeries Mainframes, and more), and unified monitoring of critical processes. Both products also offer intuitive user interfaces, including on-premises thick clients, web interfaces, mobile apps, and self-service portals for help desks and business users.

The robust feature set is the key differentiator between ActiveBatch and Control-M. For example, ActiveBatch offers intelligent, innovative capabilities that use historical and predictive analytics to optimize for dynamic scalability.

 

Functional Areas and Software Categories

ActiveBatch

Alternatives

Job Scheduling

Job Scheduling refers to the scheduling, triggering, and running of tasks. This approach to process automation is a proactive solution to traditional batch processes, streamlining your pipelines, reducing notifications fatigue, and decreasing scheduling jams. Modern job schedulers have advanced date/time, fiscal calendar, and interval-based options for ultimate flexibility.

Included with ActiveBatch

Included
with Control-M*




*Some configurations charge
per Job template created.


Workflow Mapping and Low-Code Orchestration

Workflow mapping allows IT teams to quickly and effectively route end-to-end workflows from one point to another based on conditional logic, business rules, or other constraints. Workflow mapping tools can feature graphical displays that allow users to visualize dependencies between workflow components and improve their approach to IT automation.

Orchestration tools allow diverse systems and applications to communicate with one another and be collectively managed from a single console.

Universal Orchestration
Included with ActiveBatch


Included
with Control-M*




*Orchestrate IT Processes Using Separately Licensed Product: BMC TrueSight Orchestration


Event-Driven IT Automation

Real-time job scheduling methods trigger workflows based on a particular event, such as a database modification, file creation, or email delivery. This method of process automation reduces delays and bottlenecks by kicking off jobs as soon as, but not before, they are able to successfully run.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Partially Included
with Control-M*




*Database Triggers, File Triggers, and Auto-Remediation Triggers may require add-ins or plug-ins.


Runtime Monitoring, Conditional Alerting, and Auto-Remediation

Runtime Monitoring and Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management involves monitoring and tracking KPIs related to IT and business process service level performance. Conditional alerting is a required element of this monitoring, as operations teams need to know relevant, contextual information as soon as possible in the event of a potential breach. Some tools provide automated remediation capabilities such as freeing disk space or provisioning additional resources to processes at risk of failure.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Not Included
with Control-M




Requires Control-M
Batch Impact Manager Add-In


Managed File Transfer (MFT) Automation

Secure and reliable managed file transfers are essential processes within every enterprise. Managed File Transfer (MFT) Automation takes simple file transfers to the next level with parallel transfer capabilities, validation checks, templated transfer logic, centralized credential and connection info management, and more.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Not Included
with Control-M




Requires Control-M
Managed File Transfer Add-In


IT DevOps

DevOps is an agile framework and strategy focused on collaboration between development and operational teams. IT DevOps tools assist IT developers with low-code development functions and provide operations with up-to-date information, documentation, and remediation functions. Plus, DevOps tools offer channels to collaborate across functional teams, securely promote objects between environments, move and communicate big data, and more.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Partially Included
with Control-M*


*e.g. Job logic cannot be easily expanded to add additional steps or actions; additional add-ins required for some features.


Change Management

A facility that tracks all object revisions, multi-user audit trails, and approval processes for promoting objects between production and non-production environments. Many Change Management or source control tools also offer the ability to perform transformations to objects when migrating from one environment to another, plus simple and reliable methods for rolling back to prior versions of an object or all-inclusive changeset.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Not Included
with Control-M




Requires Control-M
Workload Change Manager Add-In


All-in-One Operations Monitoring

Operational teams need to know what’s happening at a moment’s notice. Real-time, all-in-one multi-cloud operations monitoring provides a single pane of glass to monitor workflows, activities, and machine loads. This end-to-end visibility allows operators to troubleshoot problems faster by making it easy to drill into the individual components that caused a setback or scheduling jam.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Included
with Control-M



Intelligent Resource Optimization and Machine Load Management

Intelligent resource optimization is the process of using machine learning, predictive analytics, and dynamic scaling to automatically distribute workloads among disparate machine resources. Machine load management not only visualizes which machines have the highest loads, but is also used by the system to dynamically balance machine loads.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Not Available
for Control-M



Database Automation

Automated management of popular RDBMSs such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle Databases. Easily add, modify, or remove data within and between databases. Plus, perform low-code ETL processes between providers, monitor database contents for changes, and automatically trigger workloads based contextually on events.

Included
with ActiveBatch


Not Included
with Control-M




Requires Control-M
for Databases Plug-In

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Other Control-M alternatives: IBM Tivoli, CA Autosys alternatives, Tidal Workload Automation (formerly Cisco Tidal), JAMS Scheduler alternatives, Stonebranch UAC.

Coordinate and Consolidate Automation Tools

Gartner states that most organizations have 3-8 scheduling and automation tools in place. ActiveBatch includes a comprehensive feature set for all areas of the business as well as a clear licensing model.

ActiveBatch's low-code API accessibility and pre-built connectors make orchestration simple: As your IT team adopts new tools and technologies, ActiveBatch makes it easy to integrate and orchestrate all their processes.

Learn more about our flexible and scalable model here.

 

Thinking About Control-M? Get More from ActiveBatch for Less.

Frequently Asked Questions

ActiveBatch Workload Automation provides universal workflow actions for common IT tasks and operations right out-of-the-box, so IT can develop cross-platform processes without paying extra. Plus, with low-code API accessibility, dozens of event triggers, alerting and monitoring, and more, IT can automate and orchestrate dependable end-to-end processes. Explore what you can accomplish with ActiveBatch.

ActiveBatch's use cases are endless. ActiveBatch enables users to build, monitor, and manage automated processes that span the data center, IT operations and infrastructure, business processes, and so much more. As a result, organizations are able to seamlessly coordinate data, dependencies, and resources between IT and business systems. See what you can accomplish with ActiveBatch.

Workload automation enables the automation and management of complex business and IT processes, reducing the need for manual intervention. Market-leading workload automation solutions provide no-code workflow development, real-time monitoring, alerting, auto-remediation, script lifecycle management tools, and much more. Learn more about workload automation capabilities.

ctiveBatch’s back-end database supports Windows SQL Server, Azure SQL Server, and Oracle databases for storing all system and user-created objects and instances. ActiveBatch can integrate with and automate virtually any database via direct integrations, scripts, or low-code API accessibility. ActiveBatch provides integrations with IBM, Informatica, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and the Hadoop Ecosystem and its many subsets. Explore ActiveBatch’s integrations and capabilities.

Yes. ActiveBatch customers can easily export Control-M objects and SMART folders for import into ActiveBatch with help from in-house support and migrations teams. Automated migrations for Control-M reduce risk, time, and expense, and customers can access ActiveBatch’s online academy with hundreds of training modules. Learn more about automated migrations.

Be ready to automate anything.

Build and automate workflows in half the time without the need for custom scripting. Gain operational peace of mind with real-time insights, customizable alerting, and more.


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