eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
BMC Software Inc. is bringing batch processing into business service impact management with a tool designed to help IT manage batch processes according to their importance.
At first blush, batch processing may seem like old technology. But according to Gartner Inc., of Stamford, Conn., most Web-based transactions run at least 10 batch processes in the background, and through next year, more than 50 percent of enterprise interapplication interfaces will use a batch data exchange design.
Based on personal experience, one user working with BMCs Batch Impact Manager said she believes those statistics.
“We created one data center out of several small ones with the intention of consolidating [batch] applications. It never happened,” said Laurie Kenley, production control coordinator at workers compensation insurance processor Cambridge Integrated Services Group Inc., in Columbus, Ohio.
Batch Impact Manager works with BMCs cross-platform job scheduler, Control-M. While Control-M allows users to manage 20,000 batch jobs running across multiple platforms from a single focal point, Batch Impact Manager lets users monitor 50 business services supported by those 20,000 jobs.
Batch Impact Manager discovers the interdependencies among different batch jobs, understands the business relevance and impact of those jobs on business services, and allows users to dynamically track whether business services are running within specified parameters. If there is a failure, it can predict whether the impact on the business will be high or low.
Cambridge Integrated Services Group is using Batch Impact Manager to deal more effectively with batch jobs that dont necessarily fail but take longer than they should, Kenley said. “We have a different workload every day, depending on the number of claims and bills processed. If something runs long, we need to know … before we miss our deadline,” she said.
Batch Impact Manager starts at $4,500 and is available now from Houston-based BMC.