Control-M vs IBM Workload Automation vs Rocket Zena comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Control-M, IBM Workload Automation, and Rocket Zena based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about BMC, Tidal Software by Redwood, Redwood Software and others in Workload Automation.
To learn more, read our detailed Workload Automation Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The reporting is top-notch. I haven't found any other applications on the market that can replicate what Control-M offers. The alerting is very good, and I think their service monitoring is the best in the industry.""It is simple to create, integrate, and automate data pipelines and to ingest data from different platforms. It integrates well between platforms.""We have a better picture of our auditability. When someone comes to us, and asks for sources, "How did the deltas occur?" We can provide answers quickly, or at least quicker than what we used to. We are actually sure of the information that we provide, where before it was like, "Hmm, I think it comes from over there. Let me double check, but it gets really convoluted over here and I think that is where it comes from." Now, if it is within the Control-M environment, it has a straightforward answer that we can provide with confidence.""Cross-platform support: A Linux job can be dependent on a Windows job, which can be dependent on many other flavours of hardware/software. Your batch is therefore managed by a single tool, allowing you to monitor your entire flow.""It is very easy to use. The HA feature is also very good.""There is a batch monitoring tool called Batch Impact Manager, which proactively warns when processing is behind and SLAs are in jeopardy of being missed.""Automation of the batch jobs is the most valuable feature.""The scheduling feature and scheduling tool are the most valuable features. I like the scheduling services that we have in Control-M, which are very beneficial to our organization because they are automating things. There is also less manual work. We can schedule a task without any manual interruptions."

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"Provides a robust, full spectrum enterprise-wide WLA platform.""The whole product is valuable because it is a tool for batch automation.""Technical support from IBM is very good.""This solution has a request feature where users can request the added features they need to have developed. Based on client voting for those features, these are developed and released.""The DWC, when configured correctly, is a great GUI tool to provide Self-Service Scheduling capabilities to the user community.""I have supported this product in literally 100s of different environments and its unmatched in its ability to scale to any size.""Jobs can be triggered in multiple nodes.""The initial setup is easy."

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"We haven't had any problems since we installed it. It runs as expected, we haven't had any critical problems. It helps keeps the business running 24/7.""I like the whole product, but specifically, I like the license part. It's very easy to acquire a license for this product.""I have found the scheduling feature the most valuable. I can map dependencies by using ASG-Zena. It gives a nice, quick visualization as to where things are.""You can click Ctrl-G and bring a diagram view. You're able to view in a diagram format. The view that it provides is easy, and you can move to the left, up, or down. You can double-click on a certain process. It'll drill into that process and all of its underlying components. You can double-click on an arrow or a component, and it'll bring up a screen that'll have all the variables that are assigned to that particular piece, as well as the values at run time. So, the diagram feature of it, at least for me, is pretty valuable.""I have used other tools with similar capabilities; it's the ease of use.""From a Linux configuration point of view, Rocket Zena is straightforward. It's fairly easy to set up the server and agents once you know how to do it.""The most valuable feature is the FTP file transfer.""Its FTP feature is very good, as is scheduling any process or task with the Zena client. I have found it to be very helpful. If a task fails, it gives you a prompt."

More Rocket Zena Pros →

Cons
"Advanced File Transfer (AFT) has limitations that cause us to use a bit more licensing than we feel is appropriate.""The report form and display function are weak; they are not very powerful.""A lot of the areas of improvement revolve around Automation API because that area is constantly evolving. It is constantly changing, and it is constantly being updated. There are some bugs that are introduced from one version to the next. So, the regression testing doesn't seem to capture some of the bugs that have been fixed in prior versions, and those bugs are then reintroduced in later versions.""The initial setup was complex, because I wasn't used to it.""Their technicians should be more involved when we're applying new technology to Control-M, such as cloud. We're working with cloud right now, with AWS, and getting the attention of a technician, sometimes, can take some time. It would be nice if they had somebody assigned to it. Dedicated support.""The unifying features between Control-M for different platforms needs improvement. The scheduling options on the Control-M mainframe jobs are different than they are on our Linux server. There are a few differences here and there.""I would like to see automatic license management. And probably more importantly, some kind of machine learning to help identify the optimum automation path.""The stability of Control-M has Not been great. A big thing we've been trying to work on with BMC is observability. Modern applications should be observable and resilient, but we're finding that sometimes Control-M is not very resilient and many times Control-M is not very observable."

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"Scalability-wise, it can be a little bit challenging.""The schedule refreshes daily and that's a challenge for us.""The performance of the previous versions could be better.""It would be helpful to have a mobile app that could be used to follow the job schedule.""Slow down on the releases a bit. I fully understand that IWA functionality is increasing at an amazing rate, but trying to keep up with the upgrades is rough.""This solution does have bugs and could be improved in this regard. However, these bugs are resolved relatively quickly.""It is missing some features and can improve in areas where the competition is somewhat better like linking job dependencies.""The configuration of IBM Workload Automation has some challenges. We have a difficult time customizing it, but it is similar to other solutions."

More IBM Workload Automation Cons →

"In the web interface, it stacks the tasks across the top, and they accumulate until you close or clean those out. That seems a little cumbersome. You must right-click and close all tabs constantly to keep the console clean and manage your views.""The scheduling mapping is a little disjointed. There is no wizard-type approach. There are a lot of different things that you have to do in completely different areas. They could probably add the functionality for creating all components of a mapping or an OPA schedule. The component creation could be done collectively rather than through individual components.""The UI is not intuitive, and it would be nice if there was a web interface.""One area where it could be improved is communication between the different servers. Sometimes there are processes that have already been completed but we get a status notification that they're still active.""Rocket Zena is a mainframe-based job scheduler. I would like it to be more open so that we can use it on a distributed platform.""In the next release, I would like the user experience to be improved. The user interface should be more appealing to gen-z.""The documentation has room for improvement.""Another one that is probably a little bit bigger for me is that when there is an issue or there's an error, it writes on a different screen. I have to find the actual process name and go to a different screen to view the alert that got generated. On that screen, everyone's processes, not just the processes of the folks in my department, are thrown. It takes me a while to find the actual error so that I could go in there and look at the alert. It could be because of the way it was set up, but at least for me, it isn't too intuitive."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Compare to other tools Pricing and licensing was more. It should be decrease."
  • "BMC does NOT have a great licensing model from my perspective."
  • "we are more looking for a better cost/license/performance model because BMC, while we could say it's the best, is also the most expensive. That is what we are probably most annoyed with. We are paying something like €1,000,000 over three years for having 4,000 jobs running. That's expensive."
  • "We have account based licensing. There are two or three types of licensing. One of them is based on the number of jobs, so we a license close to 4,000 jobs per day. The cost is based on the different modules, which we buy from them. If we a buy a hardware module, which we are presently using and integrating, that is an additional cost, but I'm not sure of the amount. Each module comes with a different cost."
  • "As we increase the number of tasks or jobs on the system, there are concerns about cost."
  • "We have a five-year contract with task-based licensing."
  • "This product saves hours in a day based on my experience working here versus other companies with manually operations."
  • "It works on task-based licensing."
  • More Control-M Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "To my knowledge, IWA is the only WLA product that will provide "parallel tracking" capability to assist in upgrading from one platform to IWA."
  • "It is about one-third of the cost of a controller."
  • "The contract is with the customer with whom we are working, so IBM is not directly involved in this."
  • "We transitioned from a server license to per job license, and that saved us a lot money."
  • "Pricing depends on the number of agents that you install."
  • More IBM Workload Automation Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I don't know the exact cost, but I believe that it is approximately $150 to $180,000.00 Singapore dollars per year. This would be approximately $100 to $120,000 USD per year."
  • "The pricing and the licensing are good. It is affordable and can be used to improve and optimize productivity."
  • More Rocket Zena Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful… more »
    Top Answer:In Helix Control-M, we have the automation API that allows us to customize and do integrations easily in any script… more »
    Top Answer:It is not bad. The company can afford it, and it pays for itself. We have those jobs running automatically.
    Top Answer:Sometimes we have issues with the solution's stability. So, stability can be improved. Reporting and visibility of the… more »
    Top Answer:We are using IBM Workload Automation to run batch operations. The development teams batches, and the team that makes a… more »
    Top Answer:In the latest upgrade, Zena added a web-based client. The more I use it, the more I like it. It's an excellent… more »
    Top Answer:The pricing and the licensing are good. It is affordable and can be used to improve and optimize productivity.
    Top Answer:In the web interface, it stacks the tasks across the top, and they accumulate until you close or clean those out. That… more »
    Ranking
    1st
    out of 49 in Workload Automation
    Views
    29,467
    Comparisons
    10,507
    Reviews
    20
    Average Words per Review
    1,502
    Rating
    9.1
    13th
    out of 49 in Workload Automation
    Views
    5,157
    Comparisons
    3,509
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    353
    Rating
    8.0
    12th
    out of 49 in Workload Automation
    Views
    2,486
    Comparisons
    1,473
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    999
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Control M
    IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler, IBM TWS
    ASG-Zena
    Learn More
    Rocket Software
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    Control-M simplifies application and data workflow orchestration on premises or as a service. It makes it easy to build, define, schedule, manage, and monitor production workflows, ensuring visibility, reliability, and improving SLAs.

    • Accelerate new business applications into production—by embedding workflow orchestration into your CI/CD pipeline
    • Scale Dev and Ops collaboration, with a Jobs-as-Code approach
    • Simplify workflows across hybrid and multi-cloud environments with AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform integrations
    • Deliver data-driven outcomes faster, managing big data workflows in a scalable way
    • Take control of your file transfer operations with integrated, intelligent file movement and visibility
    IBM Workload Automation is a complete solution for batch and real-time workload management, available for distributed mainframe or hosted in the cloud. Use it to drive business and IT workloads on hosted servers, with virtually no cost of ownership for your central server. Increase your productivity with powerful plan- and event-driven scheduling, and run and monitor your workloads wherever you are. This includes interfaces dedicated to application developers and operators, providing them both autonomy and precise governance.

    Zena enables you to optimize business process flows with advanced workload automation that reduces manual intervention, system downtime, and processing errors. You can easily define processes and tasks, making them repeatable so you can focus on other priorities.

    Zena gives you the power to simplify management of complex cross-platform processes while making it easier to manage challenging hybrid IT operations environments. It speeds time-to-market while reducing the ongoing total cost of ownership associated with workload automation and enterprise application processing.

    With Zena, IT leaders have the power to visualize and manage the execution of thousands of workloads across end-to-end Operational processes, while increasing the quality, velocity, and efficiency of their delivery.

    Rocket Zena Features

    Rocket Zena offers the following features:

    • Optimization of process flows: Rocket Zena allows you to optimize complex business process flows across your hybrid IT infrastructure, spanning from mainframe to cloud. It provides full visibility into your operations processes end-to-end.

    • Simplification of operations: The solution simplifies the management of complex cross-platform processes, making it easier to handle challenging hybrid IT operations environments.

    • Advanced workload automation: Rocket Zena offers advanced workload automation capabilities for operations. It reduces manual intervention, system downtime, and processing errors by enabling you to define processes and tasks that are repeatable.

    • Visualization and management of workloads: IT staff can visualize and manage the execution of thousands of workloads across end-to-end operational processes. It enhances the quality, velocity, and efficiency of delivery.

    • Maximize workload automation flexibility: Zena features a graphical process whiteboard for task definition, minimizing redundant definitions and maximizing flexibility in designing workflows.

    • Integration with ease and at scale: The solution seamlessly integrates workload management on multiple platforms and facilitates the integration of critical applications with newer technologies, eliminating manual scripting and reducing overall costs.

    • Centralized scheduling management: It enables centralized scheduling management through a console with dashboard capabilities. Zena provides predefined and customizable views and reports to meet individual user needs.

    • Production statistics and reports: Zena simplifies monitoring and intervention by providing customizable dashboards. It offers drill-down capability to quickly navigate to problem areas and take necessary action.

    • Improved operational excellence: The solution helps optimize business process flows through advanced workload automation, increasing productivity and scalability. It also reduces operational complexity and ensures high process completion by automating complex processes with reliability and repeatability.

    • Integration with applications and platforms: Zena connects with a range of applications and platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Docker, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Micro Focus, SAP, PeopleSoft, and more, allowing seamless integration within your workflows.

    • DevOps and value stream management: Users have access to design-time configuration of DevOps value streams, enables the use of variables for reusable and customized workflows, and provides monitoring and management of run-time execution of value streams.

    • Branching and condition management: Zena allows specifying critical branching for tasks with infinite conditions to ensure automation flows meet business requirements.

    • Mainframe and hybrid cloud support: The solution has the capability to span mainframe to cloud environments, distributing work across the entire IT ecosystem, including hybrid cloud environments and sysplex awareness on mainframes.

    Rocket Zena Benefits

    Some of the benefits of using Rocket Zena are:

    • Optimization of operational business flows

    • Simplification of complex cross-platform processes

    • Reduction of manual intervention, system downtime, and processing errors

    • Speeding up time-to-market

    • Lowering the total cost of ownership associated with workload automation

    • Enhanced visibility and management of workloads across end-to-end operational processes

    • Maximizing workload automation flexibility

    • Seamless integration with multiple platforms and applications

    • Centralized scheduling management with customizable views and reports

    • Improved operational excellence and reliability

    • Reviews from Real Users

      Akash Vishwakarma, a RPA Developer at a consultancy observes: "Its FTP feature is very good, as is scheduling any process or task with the Zena client. I have found it to be very helpful. If a task fails, it gives you a prompt."

      Gus Calero, a Sr. IT Product Manager at a healthcare company shares his view: “You're able to view in a diagram format. The view that it provides is easy, and you can move to the left, up, or down. You can double-click on a certain process. It'll drill into that process and all of its underlying components.”

      Bridgette Friedman, a System administrator at a wholesaler shares her experience: "In the latest upgrade, Zena added a web-based client. The more I use it, the more I like it. It's an excellent interface. They do a good job of steadily improving the solution to make it more useful."


    Sample Customers
    CARFAX, Tampa General Hospital, Navistar, Amadeus, Raymond James, Railinc
    Standard Life Group, Banca Popolare di Milano, A*STAR, ArcelorMittal Gent
    Fraternidad Muprespa
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm34%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Retailer9%
    Healthcare Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Insurance Company7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm26%
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Computer Software Company11%
    University5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm34%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Insurance Company8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm38%
    Government25%
    Healthcare Company13%
    Wholesaler/Distributor13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm27%
    Insurance Company17%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise80%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise76%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business7%
    Midsize Enterprise3%
    Large Enterprise90%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise82%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business30%
    Large Enterprise70%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise5%
    Large Enterprise82%
    Buyer's Guide
    Workload Automation
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about BMC, Tidal Software by Redwood, Redwood Software and others in Workload Automation. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.