Control-M vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Control-M
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Control-M from BMC is a platform for integrating, automating, and orchestrating application and data workflows in production across complex hybrid technology ecosystems. It provides deep operational capabilities, delivering speed, scale, security, and governance.N/A
Ansible
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (acquired by Red Hat in 2015) is a foundation for building and operating automation across an organization. The platform includes tools needed to implement enterprise-wide automation, and can automate resource provisioning, and IT environments and configuration of systems and devices. It can be used in a CI/CD process to provision the target environment and to then deploy the application on it.
$5,000
per year
Pricing
Control-MRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Editions & Modules
On-Premise
Contact Sales
SaaS
Contact Sales
Basic Tower
5,000
per year
Enterprise Tower
10,000
per year
Premium Tower
14,000
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Control-MAnsible
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Control-MRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Considered Both Products
Control-M
Chose Control-M
The use of Control-M supports effective scheduling links between various systems and its user interface enables the Workload Automation team to maintain the batch schedule and to effectively monitor the progress of the
Chose Control-M
I was not involved in product selection.
Chose Control-M
We use the Windows Task Scheduler for all those tasks that CTM cannot handle. The problem we are having is when working with foreground software. When something is launched from CTM, it considers it to be in the background and is not able to interact with tools that require a …
Ansible

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Control-MRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Workload Automation
Comparison of Workload Automation features of Product A and Product B
Control-M
8.7
124 Ratings
5% above category average
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
-
Ratings
Multi-platform scheduling9.5120 Ratings00 Ratings
Central monitoring9.2114 Ratings00 Ratings
Logging8.3118 Ratings00 Ratings
Alerts and notifications8.6119 Ratings00 Ratings
Analysis and visualization8.3112 Ratings00 Ratings
Application integration8.4115 Ratings00 Ratings
Configuration Management
Comparison of Configuration Management features of Product A and Product B
Control-M
-
Ratings
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
8.6
44 Ratings
7% above category average
Infrastructure Automation00 Ratings9.244 Ratings
Automated Provisioning00 Ratings8.841 Ratings
Parallel Execution00 Ratings8.840 Ratings
Node Management00 Ratings8.432 Ratings
Reporting & Logging00 Ratings7.841 Ratings
Version Control00 Ratings8.738 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Control-MRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

HashiCorp Terraform
HashiCorp Terraform
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Apache Airflow
Apache Airflow
Score 8.6 out of 10
HashiCorp Terraform
HashiCorp Terraform
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Redwood RunMyJobs
Redwood RunMyJobs
Score 9.3 out of 10
HashiCorp Terraform
HashiCorp Terraform
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Control-MRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(125 ratings)
9.5
(108 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(18 ratings)
8.2
(3 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(81 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.8
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
8.7
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(14 ratings)
7.3
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.3
(9 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Configurability
9.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(5 ratings)
8.6
(5 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Control-MRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
BMC Software Inc.
Scenarios where it's well suited are where you're running jobs across platforms. We have processes on our mainframe that have to complete our daily batch processing and the controlling handles the scheduling of the daily batch processing. Then once that's done, it moves into executing stuff on servers like SQL loads and transferring files to load into SQL and then also running reporting on the SQL servers when the data's been loaded and is available. It makes for a really smooth transition of the overnight processing the bank has to go through. That's our main function that we use it for currently. It handles it very well.
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Red Hat
It has helped save us so much time, as it was designed to automate mundane and repetitive tasks that we were using other tools to perform and that required so much manual intervention. It does not work very well within Windows environments, understandably, but I would love to see more integration. I want it to be sexy and attractive to more than just geeky sysadmins.
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Pros
BMC Software Inc.
  • Workload change manager is one of our favorite features of this product. It enforces standards, which is a huge benefit. Users don't just make crazy changes that cause issues with other jobs. It does great promotions from one environment to another, transforming all the data to match the next environment.
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Red Hat
  • Debugging is easy, as it tells you exactly within your job where the job failed, even when jumping around several playbooks.
  • Ansible seems to integrate with everything, and the community is big enough that if you are unsure how to approach converting a process into a playbook, you can usually find something similar to what you are trying to do.
  • Security in AAP seems to be pretty straightforward. Easy to organize and identify who has what permissions or can only see the content based on the organization they belong to.
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Cons
BMC Software Inc.
  • Certificate on all levels: Each agent uses different keystrokes for different functions, such as AI, web service calls, and MFT.
  • It's really hard to manage these keystrokes.
  • Trust stores, in case control-m, act as servers; it should be simple to implement certificates from a corporate CA.
  • Some functions must be performed in the fat client, while others can only be performed through the web interface. This should be streamlined as soon as possible.
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Red Hat
  • YAML is hard for many to adopt. Moving to a system that is not as white space sensitive would likely increase uptake.
  • AAP and EDA should be more closely aligned. There are differences that can trip users of the integration up. An example would be the way that variables are used.
  • Event-driven Ansible output is not as informative as AAP.
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Likelihood to Renew
BMC Software Inc.
It is one of the best solutions on the market, in terms of innovation, reliability and stability. Control-M provides security when used by the largest companies in Mexico such as banks, department stores and logistics. It has proven to be able to integrate with new technologies on the market and provide almost 100% availability, thanks to its automatic FailOver scheme.
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Red Hat
Even is if it's a great tool, we are looking to renew our licence for our production servers only. The product is very expensive to use, so we might look for a cheaper solution for our non-production servers. One of the solution we are looking, is AWX, free, and similar to AAP. This is be perfect for our non-production servers.
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Usability
BMC Software Inc.
It has an excellent graphical user interface and robust functionalities, which any scheduling tool currently has in the current market. Strengthening security measures, such as role-based access control and encryption, is essential to protect sensitive data. Providing tools to optimize resource utilization and reduce costs would be valuable. Limited options for customizing the user interface can hinder productivity. Allowing users to tailor the interface to their needs would enhance the experience.
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Red Hat
the yaml is easy to write and most people can be taught to write basic playbooks in a few weeks
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Reliability and Availability
BMC Software Inc.
We've had issues with a server crashing. The latest issue has the option for high availability which should help with that.
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Performance
BMC Software Inc.
very good performance and robust.Control-M has received positive reviews for its performance, with some users calling it a reliable and versatile platform: TrustRadiusControl-M has an overall score of 8.1 out of 10 from 89 reviews, with high marks for multi-platform scheduling and central monitoring. Gartner Peer InsightsBMC Helix Control-M received an overall experience rating of 4.8, with 80% of ratings being 5 stars. IT Central StationIn June 2018, Control-M was ranked the #1 tool by average user ratings. EMA Radar for Workload AutomationControl-M received the highest overall score in EMA's 2019 EMA Radar Report for Workload Automation. Control-M is a high-end solution that can help with:Reducing workflow deployment timeReducing manual tasksReducing administration costsImproving SLAsAccelerating application deliveryAutomated agent and client deploymentReal-time analysis
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Red Hat
Great in almost every way compared to any other configuration management software. The only thing I wish for is python3 support. Other than that, YAML is much improved compared to the Ruby of Chef. The agentless nature is incredibly convenient for managing systems quickly, and if a member of your term has no terminal experience whatsoever they can still use the UI.
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Support Rating
BMC Software Inc.
He contactado varias veces con el soporte de BMC y ha sido bastante bueno, siempre han sabido darme una solución a lo que he pedido. Esta vez quiero hacer alguna nueva pregunta, pero no se si se me podrá contestar, ya que es algo que tal vez fuera de otro rango y no pertenezca a ellos.
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Red Hat
There is a lot of good documentation that Ansible and Red Hat provide which should help get someone started with making Ansible useful. But once you get to more complicated scenarios, you will benefit from learning from others. I have not used Red Hat support for work with Ansible, but many of the online resources are helpful.
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Online Training
BMC Software Inc.
awesome training.they have explained about best practices, the trainer is awesome.awesome training.they have explained about best practices, the trainer is awesome.awesome training.they have explained about best practices, the trainer is awesome.awesome training.they have explained about best practices, the trainer is awesome.awesome training.they have explained about best practices, the trainer is awesome.
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BMC Software Inc.
As HA we have depend on the external DB, why don't we have HA feasibility with embedded DB. As with external DB, there are performance issues and fine tuning the DB. As if its embedded DB, Control-M it self take care of the functionality.
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Red Hat
I spoke on this topic today!
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Alternatives Considered
BMC Software Inc.
Redwood RunMyJobs seemed impressive as well since it was also cross-platform, flexible, and versatile. However, we went with Control-M because it was less expensive and we were already using it on our mainframe environment. The distributed version of Control-M was much more user-friendly due to the GUI instead of the command-line interface used on the mainframe.
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Red Hat
I haven't thought of any right now other than just doing our own home-brewed shell scripts. Command line scripts. And how does this compare? It's light years ahead, especially with the ability to share credentials without giving the person the actual credentials. You can delegate that within, I guess what used to be called Ansible Tower, which is now the Ansible Automation platform. It lets you share, I can give you the keys without you being able to see the keys. It's great
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BMC Software Inc.
from my experince i would suggest to customers Control-M first
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Scalability
BMC Software Inc.
awesome product.Control-M delivers advanced operational capabilities easily consumed by Dev, Ops, data teams, and lines of business.Control-M Workflow InsightsApplication and data workflow observability: Increased confidence that SLAs are being met for Control-M users and IT leadersComprehensive control and management capabilities: Enhanced dashboards and reporting with constant telemetry and intelligent analysis on executing workflowsSelf-service visibility: In-depth reporting to help teams work autonomously
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
BMC Software Inc.
i am using it for past 9 years and i really like this tool very much
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BMC Software Inc.
  • Control-M has improved service delivery times, reliability and quality of batch processing.
  • It has simplified the management of the operation and the use of the alert system has made it possible to act in a coordinated and efficient manner to solve problems.
  • The implementation of policies has made it possible to make greater use of Control-M and thus reduce development costs that are generated unnecessarily when the potential of the system is not considered.
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Red Hat
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers automation and ML tools that allow me to automate complex IT tasks.
  • Through automation analytics, it is seamless to gain full visibility into automation performance allowing me to make informed decisions.
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform allows me to move rapidly from insights to action.
  • Creating and sharing automation content in one place unify a team in one place hence enhancing real-time collaboration.
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ScreenShots