It’s a very good product, but the usage of any product really depends on your design, performance, and support requirements. There are other products that are built for high performance, scalability, and request-driven behavior, such as IBM DataPower Gateway, which provides a much faster and simpler solution to the framework that was developed within CA Process Automation (because it relies exclusively on XSL), and has built-in request sequencing (if you include IBM WebSphere MQ in the mix); however, there is a need for more technical acumen when working with IBM DataPower than with CA Process Automation.

For our use it really does very well. It provides us exactly what we need, and it runs with low-resource utilization and moves quickly. As the product matures it will only get better.

Consider troubleshooting needs for workflows – how do you want those to be handled? The types of integrations you need – VMware, RedHat, and Windows, to be specific. Consider also your security needs, especially any LDAP or authentication integration requirements.

It is important is for the automation that you set up a central library for your automated processes to ensure the synergy potential. Also, you are able to communicate which process are already automated, so you do not have to reinvent the wheel and that your colleagues can connect to the central library and can use already developed processes.

Make sure you have a good background in scripting because it'll allow you to expand the scope of how you use PAM.

I would also suggest you to set the advanced availability configuration which gives you full tolerance and load balancing. It definitely pays off, especially if your PAM environment needs to be up 24/7.

When compared with other orchestration tools, CA PAM is a strong option, as it has all of the common features of this kind of application. However, it's important to keep in mind that its learning curve can be a problem. I strongly recommend official training for whomever will become an administrator and/or designer.

Support, usability, functionality are good. There’s always room for improvement. Make sure you know what it is that you want and don’t back down from those points as you do a POC or an evaluation.

I really just started using it a few months ago, so it's hard for me to provide any advice. I will say that the automation is nice and that it allows you the simplicity of just dragging things in and connecting them.

Somehow the product group within CA left the product dry from some regular expression functionality.

It’s working, but it’s complex. For example, when you provision something, you have take a number of actions in a lot of places to make it work, so it’s hard to have a holistic picture of provisioning. It’s not so nice buying socks, but you need socks.

It’s a long process to make it work – first you have to go through your whole IT organization to identify users and accounts and groups. So you have to consider the impact of changes in the process for the IT group.

If you’re planning or looking for an application able to create process automation, stop looking. This is your application, as it is completely fit for the purpose.

It’s a great product, extremely versatile but takes a certain skillset to use and implementation of automation can be time consuming when done properly.