ActiveBatch from Advanced Systems Concepts in New Jersey is IT workload automation software.
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JAMS
Score 8.3 out of 10
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JAMS is a centralized workload automation and job scheduling solution that runs, monitors, and manages jobs and workflows. Reliably orchestrate the critical IT processes that run your business from a single pane of glass.
During initial selection, we compared ActiveBatch with simple schedulers like Task Manager and cron, as well as VisualCron and JAMS. ActiveBatch had the widest range of triggers and the best scheduler/calendar system, and the most comprehensive list of easily-available actions.
Any large business or organisation that wants to manage their workload effectively and with the least amount of room for error might choose the ActiveBatch Automation tool. Being a consultant I feel that It aids in task automation and has the flexibility to change in response to varying company requirements. It helps to save huge time by doing all the repetitive tasks on daily basis. During the patching activity the schedulers can be stopped. It also help by alerting us if any system/job is down so that SLA can be saved. Overall ActiveBatch Automation stands as a dependable cornerstone for ensuring the seamless operation of our tasks.
The best environment is where you have lots of jobs from lots servers and need a history of detailed failures. Our web server, SQL server and App server all have applications that need scheduling. It wouldn't be necessary if you have a just a handful of jobs for which you can use task manager.
Businesses can use ActiveBatch to plan tasks based on parameters like frequency, dependencies, and the time of day. By automating typical actions like backups and data transfers, businesses can make sure that crucial operations go off without a hitch.
Multiple systems and apps can be used in complicated workflows that ActiveBatch can automate. For instance, it can automate a workflow for processing orders from beginning to end, from the customer order through inventory control and delivery through the processing of invoices and payments.
Files can be sent between many platforms and systems safely with ActiveBatch. Transfers to cloud-based storage systems like Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure are also included in this. SFTP and FTP transfers are also included.
It would be very helpful if the application had the ability to display help text based on where the cursor is hovering on the screen. There are many times when a brief explanation of an on-screen prompt would be very handy. For example, when you attempt to Cancel a job from the Monitor, you are presented with the checkbox that says "Reprocess completion?" It would be very nice if you could hover over the prompt and see a pop-up help screen that explains what happens if you check this checkbox. The same applies to all the checkbox options presented when you attempt to "Release" a job from the Monitor.
JAMS is an essential application within our organization. There is no chance that at any point in the foreseeable future we would migrate off of the platform or stop our maintenance contract. HelpSystems (now rebranded Forta) releases frequent updates which always add value to the product. The system's reliability and extensibility has earned our trust that it will scale with our organization.
We can easily add new plans/jobs in our batch schedules. Also, coordination with reporting and QA jobs is simple to do. Building schedules, restarting jobs, triggering dependencies is easy to understand. The system is very stable and allows us to easily see overall processing times.
9/10 as there are so many features I have not tried as of yet. It is easy to get started but as jobs become more complex you tend to employ more and more features - Some of which can be complicated at first. This all comes down to experience using the system. Out first setup and current setup are vastly different as we learn how to use the full power.
We didnt really encounter any downtime, no issues encountered during 2 years of use of JAMs also our client barely raise an issue with JAMS, mostly the issues is on the batch jobs that jams executes. So I would gave it a perfect 10, very reliable hardly encounters any error and bug
JAMS performance is very great, there are no issues raised with the performance, it just like nothing happens on the job after integration it gives you this monitoring capability, no reports and bugs raised on the performance, we didnt do integration with other software only database and with use of JAMS agent to different servers
We do not need to use JAMS support very often. The server and clients have been very stable and reliable. Upgrades are not required very often and can be easily pushed out from the server, and we have never had a problem with them. But the couple of times I have opened a ticket to learn how to make something new work, they have been responsive and friendly.
I Was not part of the original Implementation, and the persons did that are no longer with the Organization. But I was part of the recent Upgrade process a year ago and I am the JAMS admin and was very pleased
The workload automation solution is based on the specific needs of an organization, as well as the features, capabilities, and costs of various solutions. A thorough evaluation process and consideration of these factors can help ensure the selection of a solution that aligns with overall business objectives and meets the specific needs of the organization.
I had evaluated 2 others in 2010/2011, but I do not remember their names. This was the easier one to work with and had a better looking, sometimes more professional looking UI than what I was evaluating. JAMS was more scaleable and had the ability to make custom interfaces to more systems through Execution Methods that could be tailored.
Deploying JAMS is a testament to our commitment to excellence in modernisation our software system and our ability to adapt to changing circumstances. It’s crucial to recognise the hard work of every team member who has contributed to the success of implementing a new job batch processor
I have not run numbers to determine hard impact, but a quick estimate is that at least one job is running for a average of about 6 hours per day - that 6 hours, if done by hand, would equate to about 30 - 40 hours per day (and in some cases, could not be duplicated manually, as the job repeats faster than a person could accomplish one cycle.)
Using JAMS when working from home (initially COVID, and now permanent) gives me tremendous visibility into the running operations of our business without any loss in productivity for not being in the office.
With JAMS I can more tightly schedule evening batch jobs by running one job after the successful completion of predecessor, as opposed to the CRON like guessing at safe start times.
Central control on a monitored server in a datacenter for all job scheduling tasks has given us 99.9% uptime reliability, instead of herding cats on multiple machines.
