Advanced Systems Concepts announced the availability of ActiveBatch Version 10, the latest release of its workload automation and job scheduling software.
The platform is focused on improving IT performance in the face of operational and business complexities impacting today’s IT organization. It contains various features designed to increase efficiency and reduce cost.
“Workload automation solutions have been around for several years now, evolving from their predecessor, job schedulers,” Jim Manias, vice president at ASCi, told eWEEK. “What makes a solution like ActiveBatch well suited for increasing agility and reducing the cost of change, however, are the vast improvements v10 has introduced that have resulted in a sophisticated platform that can manage and coordinate virtually every aspect of IT.”
Manias explained IT organizations are facing a number of critical challenges today, with timelines shrinking, projects multiplying, and tasks becoming more complex.
“At the same time, computing resources have shifted from expensive and scarce to highly available and affordable,” he said. “However, while there are more powerful resources than ever before–which also allows business expectations to be that much higher–IT human resources haven’t kept pace.”
He pointed to a shortage of skilled professionals, which has created a staffing gap that doesn’t show signs of easing.
“With production hyper-growth becoming commonplace and time-to-market an essential element of business success, the old rules no longer apply,” he said. “Now more than ever, IT organizations must be increasingly agile and better able to adapt and respond to new situations.”
The new software’s Integrated Jobs Library includes hundreds of production-ready, templated job steps that are self-documenting.
The library enables developers to assemble jobs and workflows with prebuilt logic, while a new Check-Out | Check-In with Collaboration capability lets multiple developers work on the same objects simultaneously.
Upon Check-In, authors can address conflicting changes with ActiveBatch’s built-in conflict resolution tool.
Pairing this with a new Simulation Mode feature, developers and operations staff can simulate workflow logic and execution for testing without incurring delays imposed by actually running the job payload.
“The true value of automation is its ability to see and manage the interrelationships between the hundreds of nodes and processes in IT. As the rise of SDI has indicated, it’s no longer possible for overextended IT staffs to define, create and execute the functions of IT without automation,” Manias said. “The list of tasks, with all their complexities and demands, is simply too long. ActiveBatch v10 provides true IT agility, enabling IT to do more with less. As the pace and cost of change continues to rise, this may be their most valuable function of all.”