I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

This is a good tool and I recommend it. I rate it seven out of 10. 

IBM provides methods where you can test the product before purchasing it, either in the cloud or on site. They're willing to come out and set up a demo for you. This is a good way to be able to test something before you make a decision.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

The advice I would give to others considering using Workload Automation depends on the necessity and the reality of their requirements. It depends on the complexity of the jobs. Depending on that it may be interesting to use Tivoli because it is a good tool. It is a good application to use to run workload tracking.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product between and eight and ten depending on who is using it and for what reason. I think it is quite good so I think it deserves a nine.  

Additional features I would like to see included in the next release to improve and make it a ten would just be the two things I mentioned that Control-M does somewhat better for now. The interface for the operator should be improved, and the way to create relationships and dependency between the jobs can be better.  

All workload automation solutions deliver on the basic idea of automating your batch processing. The right choice depends on your unique business requirements, such as the size of operations, mix and complexity of workloads, etc.

There are approximately 50-plus users making use of the solution in our organization. 

My advice is that the implementation be handled by someone with the requisite knowledge. This will be difficult for someone who is not properly acquainted with IBM products. It should be done by someone who knows the IBM environment, who would find the process much easier to handle. 

I rate IBM Workload Automation as an eight out of ten. 

Having used all of the major WLA platforms, I believe:

1. IWA is the most user-friendly and feature-packed product on the market today. 
2. Control-M is a close second (even though there are rumors that BMC is shopping it around). 
3. As for CA, at this point it's hard to tell what CA's Strategic Vision is going forward. They have ESP, Dseries, and now Automic, yet they are keeping the old dinosaur CA-7 alive because they can't figure out how to get all of the old legacy clients off it without major heartburn.

Research your needs versus the cost and scalability of the product

Yes, IBM has to review the non-cloud low pricing models and invest in architecture based revolutions.


Additional integration to IBM Watson for analytics would be more helpful.

Just contact IBM sales and make the first implementation of the product at your site a joint effort between IBM Tivoli L2 personnel from Rome and your WLA administrators.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Go ahead and use the TWS solution. It is really a very good product.

I would definitely recommend this product. It's an interesting option in terms of schedulers. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Look into ALL options. Verify that you can run your application servers with UAC turned to "do not prompt when using an admin account".

This product is a great product overall, but can behave strangely if any environmental issues occur (hardware/network). A lot of the issues we face, however, are supposed to be resolved with the later version. I’ve seen some demos of the latest release and it seems like large improvements have been made in terms of functionality and user experience.

I would rate IBM Workload Automation a seven out of ten.

I would recommend other users to definitely consider TWS, as it has proven to be a powerful tool in our environment so far.

It's a very good scheduling product if you have a combination of mainframe and distributed environments that have batch operations and repetitive tasks running on them. The SAP plugin is outstanding and SAP process chains run a like a dream when scheduled using Tivoli.

If you have an environment like the one I've just mentioned, this would unarguably be your best bet. The initial costs are steep but it pays off in the longer run as the product itself is very stable if configured correctly.

Before purchasing Tivoli Workflow Scheduler, check out Automic One Scheduler. It’s much more expensive, but it does a lot more than just scheduling. If you are using TWS, make sure you provide training to your batch developers. Design a model for promoting jobs and schedules between environments. Utilize “composer” extracts and check your jobs and schedule definitions into a version control repository.

Spend time to define a robust architecture, and day-to-day operations with a specialist.

There are multiple factors that would influence my preference to this product. In purely ease of use, functionality etc, I would rate it 8/10. I am not considering the cost of license etc.

TWS is very much stable on the Linux platform but this doesn’t mean that it can’t go well with Windows. Looking at the OS maintenance and other patching activities, it is better to go with Linux.

Scalability is not an issue with TWS. Make sure you have all the pre-requisites met before implementing it. It will work all fine.

If cost is not an issue, I definitely recommend it.

I would advise others to push their marketing representatives to give a simplified licensing solution, or if you outsource, to an IT vendor, have them deal with the complexities of the process.

I rate IBM Workload Automation an eight out of ten.

Talk to other customers using this product, who are similar in size and configuration, so as to get feedback, ideas and what to watch out for.

I would have to recommend installing the TWS Master/Backup Masters on a Linux platform, not Windows.

As with any new application/utility, make sure you have good training; if possible, request a trial version to become familiar with product; and ensure it meets your needs.

It is very good scheduling software.