Workload Automation Archives

Have you heard the great news? Stonebranch has been named a Visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Workload Automation!

Here's an excerpt from our press release:

Workload Automation Specialists Stonebranch today announced it has been named a Visionary in analyst firm Gartner Inc.'s Magic Quadrant for Workload Automation, 2012. This culminates a year of growing momentum for the company in the global workload automation market.

Vendors in the Visionary quadrant are innovators that excel with highly differentiated solutions, introducing a radical new approach to the market.

Stonebranch CEO Wolfgang Bothe said: "We are honored to be recognized by Gartner with a placement in the Visionary Quadrant. We consider this a validation of our hard work, particularly over the last year, to deliver an easy to use and quickly implemented workload automation solution to our customers."

Stonebranch gained a significant number of premier customers in the financial services sector as well as next-generation data centers over the past year. Since its acquisition of Opswise Software in early 2011, it has fully integrated its core products into a single, unified set of solutions.

Stonebranch differentiates itself in the industry with a highly portable, web-based solution with unmatched ease of use. Customers praise it's quick deployment capabilities, diversity of integration possibilities, and its ability to enable easy management of mission-critical IT workload for IT Operations, as well as application development staff and business users.

You can access this Garner Magic Quadrant for Workload Automation here.

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We're pleased to be able to offer you Gartner's 2012 Magic Quadrant for Workload Automation. Simply click here to get it now.

We're honoured at being named the only Visionary in the workload automation market by Gartner. This position validates our efforts with regards to Opswise Automation Center 5.1 and we couldn't be happier.

The Magic Quadrant, of course, aims to provide a qualitative analysis into a market and its direction, maturity and participants.

But don't take our word for it. Visit http://www.stonebranch.com/gartner/ and read the 2012 Magic Quadrant for Workload Automation in its entirety.

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Many have invested in Opswise Universal Agents (formerly known as Indesca) and the reasons are aplenty.

• Counter price increases
• Limited deployment due to cost
• Require platform not supported
• Current agents not getting the job done
• Minimum order requirements
• Standardize on a single agent
• Multiple function agent
• Leverage "bench strength"
• Consolidate schedulers

Why invest in Opswise Managed File Transfer (formerly known as Infitran)? Here are several reasons:

• Counter price increases
• FTP not getting the job done
• Single agent with multiple functions
• Standardize scripting
• Integration to workload automation
• Guaranteed delivery
• Encryption and compression

The Opswise Automation Center is indeed intelligent workload automation for the modern data center. Here's why:

• Reduced cost
• Web based solution
• Visibility and Reporting
• Ease of use
• Portability

If you're wondering why you should invest in Opswise, the answers are above, but don't take our word for it. Check out the several case studies from very happy Opswise Automation Center customers.

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About a year ago now, we announced that Opswise Automation Center is, in fact, the first Workload Automation broker to be fully enabled for cloud deployment.

Today, Automation Center can be centrally deployed in the cloud and control resources in the cloud and also back in your data center. Alternatively, you can keep Automation Center deployed on-premise, and connect to resources in the cloud.

We also took it one step further - dynamic registry of newly provisioned servers into Automation Center - and newly registered agents are automatically assigned to work queues for immediate allocation of workload.

It's a significant step forward from what is considered possible. Why was it so easy for us to achieve?

• As a solution designed and architected within the past 12 months, we follow the web and architecuture standards of today
• 100% Web-based. No thick client, no socket to reconfigure, no ODBC driver to fiddle with. Just pop up your browser, and presto, instant access
• Our agents were designed to auto-register to begin with. Extending smart agents is much easier than dumb ones
• Adherence to modern security standards - fully support for SSL end-to-end ensured our message security played nice on the web, and now, in the cloud!
• A desire to innovate & consistent communication with our clients, many of which, are cutting edge, rapidly growing 21st century data centers

The result? Opswise in the cloud. While the cloud may not be for everyone today, we are seeing more and more examples of how enterprises can leverage workload in the cloud. And we're there - today.

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A primary objective of Business Service Management is to give business stakeholders a window into how closely an enterprises application infrastructure and underlying data processing is mapped to the contracted service levels for a business service.

Much of what goes on in the enterprise these days is automated, and a high percentage of that information will be found within your Workload Automation environment. A modern workload automation broker is able to effectively manage real-time/near real-time workload as well as batch.

Nowadays, the Workload Automation Broker can do a lot more than just launch scheduled batch jobs. While often dismissed as simply another IT management tool, Workload Automation Brokers in fact drive over 70% of all business processes today, which are performed in batch.** It can identify and monitor the interdependencies of data and processes between the systems, applications, and business processes that comprise a business service - giving you an unprecedented view into your enterprise.

While there is certainly a goldmine of information that your scheduler can provide you about your environment, significant advancements in workload automation are being introduced by new and existing vendors that may soon make you question how your existing solution is a barrier to or an enabler of you achieving compliance of business service levels.

Technology Background

Since the 1970's, Enterprise Job Schedulers have automated and managed increasingly complex data centers. Starting out on mainframes, they evolved into distributed systems and are now moving into the cloud.

In the past decade, these tools have evolved far beyond batch with added integrations to SOA, ERP systems, and other packaged applications to become workflow-centric, event-driven tools with significant SLA management capabilities The Job Schedulers became Workload Automation Brokers.

The emergence of virtual systems and cloud computing has created an explosion in the number of computing resources requiring management and has created another level of complexity in the enterprise. The role of automation in enabling business services to meet service levels has never been greater.

Today's Workload Automation Brokers continues to expand it's already significant role in the management of online workload as they are increasingly utilized to manage processes relying on technologies such as parallel processing, ETL, and GRID computing; and they are creating complex workflows that span operating systems, data sources, applications, and even physical data centers. This enables IT Operations Managers to present to the business a means of mapping IT resources to business processes.

Workload Automation's future as a protector of Service Levels

How can Workload Automation solutions be advanced to improve the overall performance of business services? What should you be looking for from your workload automation vendor?

In terms of BSM, here is a list of five things to expect out of Workload Automation today and in the near-term to enable you to achieve your automation and BSM goals. If this isn't offered by, or on your provider's near-term roadmap, it should raise some eyebrows.

1. Predictive Analytics

Solutions need to move beyond simple SLA Management or single workflow critical path analysis and into true Deadline Scheduling. Predictive analysis enables enterprises to visualize all interdependent tasks and analyze real-time results on the fly against historical records.

By doing so, the enterprise can identify key business processes and create a backward chain of events to identify processing bottlenecks.

2. Proactive Resource Optimization

Working in conjunction with Predictive Analytics, solutions need to automatically release bottlenecks using information about resources, business priorities, dependencies, and deadlines that prevent the completion of key business processes and create policies for reallocating enterprise resources to meet the necessary time windows to remain with service level.

The more portable and transparent workload is, the more it is able to fully leverage the different kinds of resource optimization opportunities that may be present in your enterprise.

Resource optimization may take many shapes:

-Prioritizing workload on a server, including delaying or cancelling less critical workload
-Allocating more physical resources such as CPU, Memory, or DB connections
-Provisioning new virtual servers from a pool of VM machines or in public and private clouds
-Re-engineering applications, especially data intensive applications, to take advantage of load balancing and GRID technologies.

3. Reviewing and Refining Job Definitions
The old adage, "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" is a smart policy in most situation. In Workload Automation, it could end up costing you a bundle. Your old job definitions probably reflect hardware and software limitations that have long since been lifted. If you take a look, you'll likely discover that many processes that once had to run sequentially can now run in parallel.

It is important to challenge the assumptions as to why your workload is configured and defined the way it is, and to eliminate processing bottlenecks caused by obsolete limitations.

4. Visualization

As important as it is to have a corporate-wide BSM dashboard, and valuable that the workload automation solution to provide meaningful data for that system, it is also important that within the Workload Automation solution that there is a business-centric view mapping to the status of each business service as a stand-alone entity as well as in relation to one another.

5. Reporting & Auditing

More critical than reporting on failures in the workload that could jeopardize meeting performance targets is getting to the heart of why workload fails to meet their service levels.

It's critical that from a central management point that you can identify failures and trends. You also need a comprehensive audit trail that can identify problems caused by human error and improper changes.

Conclusion

Your legacy job scheduling and modern workload automation solutions can provide you a rich set of relevant data as to the status of your mission-critical workload and how it maps to the business.

Leveraging this capability is a combination of understanding how your business services are mapped within your workload automation solution, leveraging a modern workload solution that will enable you to more effectively manage your service levels, and an intelligent review and challenge of the assumptions relating to how your workload has been historically scheduled and configured.

**Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling, 2009 by Gartner Group

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As the new Transformers movie hit the theatres this past summer, we were reminded about the "transformation" we have seen take place over the last twenty-plus years with regards to job scheduling and data center automation. Job scheduling has truly transformed itself from a mediocre looking auto"mobile", into a powerful, conquering, efficient, workload automation machine.

What began as a simple task-oriented system to "batch" workload processes together and initiate them at a date/time when the online systems were down and the processing could take place, has now become a tool that must allow for processing at any time, based on random business transactions done over an internet-enabled device from anywhere in the world.

It's really funny to see the various stages of workload transformation that companies are in today. The Next Generation Data Center are all about processing customer data immediately and eliminating the restrictions and limitations still in place in some long-term IT shops. Some of these restrictions are necessary and a result of not being able to take the business risk replacing the outdated systems. But, some of them are simply still in place, because "that's the way we've always done it". When talking to a data center manager a few months back, I asked him if they ever thought of processing a randomly arriving transaction as soon as they received it. He was taken aback, "Oh No, we would never process any unexpected file that arrived", he told me. As our discussion about "business-initiated" workload automation continued, and I shared with him the advances in the technology that were enabled largely from the product architecture, he looked at me and said, "You know what, I bet our customers would love it if we could process their transactions immediately!" Sometimes all you need is a little insight, an open mind, and transformation can occur.

Then other times, you might need a technology change as well! Many of the more widely installed workload automation solutions are based on the initial method of "batch processing", and some have only recently added the ability for ftp file and dataset monitoring at creation time. Still others have found themselves "retro-fitting" more immediate triggering mechanisms to their batch scheduling products, and charging you for the additional components they create. But, few have really been able to tap into the reality of "business-events" initiating workload processing at very granular trigger conditions. Even then, conditions must be set and in many cases VSAM files must be scanned to determine if any activity is ready to be processed. The overhead of this activity on a system that was not designed for this could be cost-prohibitive from a simple resource perspective. You have to think about the cost of those resources being consumed. So, what is a data center to do for their new business, which is really driving their company growth and profits, while still supporting the "legacy" workload processing which is more batch-driven? Does it really have to be a total 'rip and replace' of one system for another, in a 'big bang' conversion? Not necessarily. It definitely reduces the risk by doing a big bang conversion, but without 'reengineering' the workload to take advantage of the newer automation benefits, you are not gaining the most value from the new technology. In short, you are not getting what you paid for. Yeah, I know, some companies want to minimize the risk and opt to push the "reengineering" phase off to a later date (that NEVER happens, by the way). I would advise companies to think of the process as "reenergizing" versus re-engineering, and it actually serves to provide dual benefits of a better processing method for the business data, but it also better educates and helps your production control or automation personnel to embrace the newer methods, rather than them trying to get the newer product to allow them to work the same way as the product you are replacing!! I have seen this scenario play out many times, and while the "big bang" converted customers get over to the new product quickly, in the specified timeframe, they are often left feeling remorse because they never get to optimize the workload implementation to take advantage of the products capabilities. As new releases with even newer functionality are delivered, they just find themselves getting further and further behind.

Transformation is a process, and doesn't happen overnight, or as quickly as shown in the movies either. But we often heard that "anything that is worthwhile doing, is worth taking the time to do right"! Updating your mission-critical workload processing to business-initiated methods could be vital to remaining competitive in your market, providing better service to your customers, and increasing shareholder value for your company. Start with the workload that needs the transformation the most, and work your way thru the process, you will end up with a much better solution,and a more knowledgeable and more automation-focused staff, once the journey is complete. Having taken both paths, converting big bang, and transforming by re-energizing and taking advantage of the tools capabilities, I would choose the latter, every time. You simply leave too many of the benefits of converting in the first place, lying on the table.

Transformers, now that is a movie I would see again!

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Did you know the Opswise Automation Center has full support for cloud computing infrastructures?

Opswise Automation Center enables enterprises to fully deploy this workload automation broker in cloud-based infrastructures and integrate with existing operating systems and applications residing in their traditional data center or in the cloud.

Additionally, this workload automation broker is able to exploit virtualization by dynamically identifying newly provisioned servers and automatically assigning workload as these resources become available in the cloud.

"The nature of workload continues to evolve," comments Gwyn Clay, VP of Product Management and Marketing. "Traditional Workload Automation and Enterprise Job Scheduling solutions have not adapted to the dynamic and portable nature of emerging applications. Opswise Automation Center has provided a solution to enable enterprises to automate and integrate with this new world while continuing to manage their existing workload."

A workload automation broker for cloud computing. It's the future of workload automation, here today.

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Have you ever visited the Workload Automation page on Wikipedia? Here's what it currently says:

The concept of Workload Automation is an evolution of traditional job schedulers which needed to react to the dynamic demands of IT. Workload automation needs to be able to coordinate-in real-time-a varied set of workload types with complex dependencies across a broad spectrum of operating systems and application platforms.

A scheduling model based only upon calendar events is not sufficient to meet the demands of today's automated data centers. The requirement for batch submission of workloads driven by date/time dependencies still exists, but on-demand IT processing requirements have expanded job submission triggers far beyond the time dimension.

Workload Automation solutions should provide: a service-oriented architecture (SOA); integration capabilities at the application services level for web services and Java EE-based applications; a service-level orientation for managing workloads and finally, a critical path analysis and reporting capabilities.

We're pleased as punch to be the number one source for that Workload Automation entry on Wikipedia. After all, we're thought leaders in the workload automation space.

If you're looking for a workload automation solution, you need to look at Opswise Automation Center.

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It takes a lot of energy to run a data center. Today, there is increased focus on the energy being consumed to physically power today's data center, in terms of electrical power and even carbon emissions. But what many data center managers are overlooking is the amount of "people" energy being required to keep some older technology running. We're not talking about the physical machines; those have been upgraded or replaced with more efficient technology over the years. We're talking about the older 'job scheduling' software that is still used to manage the business data, using the same core principles of batch scheduling that is was built upon 25-30 years ago!

While physical energy reduction is very important on a much grander scale. The human energy consumption must also be addressed. As technology has advanced over the years, there are many new types of workload processes that must be managed across the enterprise. New technologies have emerged to enable consumers to conduct transactions from anywhere at anytime, using smart phones and iPads, even on airplanes. But, many data centers, while trying to keep up with the technical advances, have locked themselves into a situation that is spiraling out of control. They are continuing to rely on aging technology, with expensive maintenance bills from the vendors, steep learning curves, and limited functionality. Yes, many of the older technologies are receiving some improvements, but in some cases, the customer has waited years for new functionality, and some customers are still waiting on new enhancements to their products, even though they pay regular maintenance bills.

While data centers have swapped out physical machines several times over the years, few have realized the need for a more advanced workload automation solution. Many have failed to realize the growing "people energy" required to keep the workload going using the older technology. In many cases, it has taken years for the staff to become knowledgeable of the software terms and quirky usage techniques. Many of the current users were probably submitting the workload manually prior to the automation implementation in the 70's and 80's, so they retained some knowledge of the workload requirements and importance. Some data centers are also wondering about the aging workforce, knowledge in these solutions, reaching retirement, and the ability to quickly replace that knowledge with today's workforce skills.

It's kind of like owning that automobile that you have loved and it has served you well for years. Parts are becoming harder to find, you can't retrofit newer capabilities, there is a greater need for better fuel efficiency and safety is becoming a concern with stricter government mandates. As much as you hate to admit it, it may be time to find another method of transportation.

It used to be said that "all job schedulers do the same thing", but what was often overlooked was HOW they did those things, and more importantly what the benefit was to the consumer, as well as the data center. Today's innovative, advanced workload automation, specifically Opswise Automation Center, can drastically minimize redundant definitions, simplify complex terms and techniques to allow for self-initiated workload processing, and reduce the operating expense for the data center all while improving customer responsiveness.

Today's Workload Automation capabilities are well ahead of the batch scheduling methods that many of today's most widely installed products still use as the foundation for their solution. While 'batch scheduling' is still a common method for 'legacy' processing, it simply cannot conform to the business-initiated needs of today's consumers. There is a fundamental, architectural requirement that must be in place for workload to efficiently be initiated as soon as the customer transaction occurs. Waiting for a date/time, or constantly scanning a VSAM database over and over just waiting for something to happen will not serve today's business needs. There must be sensor technology deep within the core of the automation that enables random, business-initiated tasks to be able to trigger a workload process, at the second the transaction occurs, even if it means initiating an extremely large, enterprise-wide workload process, with a variety of operating systems and platforms involved.

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A request for proposals (RFP) is basically a publication of detailed requirements by a prospective buyer in order to receive vendor offerings.

It can be quite the challenge writing an RFP for Workload Automation requirements, but it's an efficient tool to gather solution capabilities when searching for new software.

Our seasoned professionals can save you a great deal of time if you download the workload automation RFP sample template in Word.

You're welcome.

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