Item: ActiveBatch Workload Automation
Rating: 10
Author: Khoa Nguyen

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Active Batch handles all of our nightly batch jobs including but not limited to file transfers between SFTP sites, SSRS report generation, file encryption/decryption and much more. We have several use cases for using Active Batch but one of the main drivers was having a solution to house all of our Windows Task Scheduler jobs, while task scheduler is great, it was a pain to manage and support. With Active Batch, we now have a single solution where we can see which jobs are running, how long they are running for, if they failed, and when they would run next, etc. We currently have about 1000 jobs in different Active Batch environments.

Pros and Cons

Alerts on job conditions such as failed, long running, or aborted.
Allows easy organization by associating jobs with objects and containing them within folders and/or plans.
Treats all items as an object which allows for continuous reuse of common items such as schedules and account credentials.

Sometimes execution agents can crash under heavy job load.
Execution agents do not auto update on their own.
Event based triggers are not 100% reliable.

Most Important Features

Object reuse design.
Alerts and notifications.
Job variety - you can run processes, scripts, or use the native jobs library builder.

Return on Investment

We used to have manual processes that took hours each month, now it runs in Active Batch, allowing our teams to focus on higher-priority items.
The annual cost of Active Batch as a solution is fairly high.

Alternatives Considered

I have used other products but I do not have the level of experience with them as I do Active Batch.

Key Insights

Do you think ActiveBatch Workload Automation delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with ActiveBatch Workload Automation's feature set?

Yes

Did ActiveBatch Workload Automation live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ActiveBatch Workload Automation go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy ActiveBatch Workload Automation again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Active Batch can provide end to end automation where other tools cannot. For example, you can subscribe to a SSRS report to have it deliver the report via email or even save it somewhere but if you have Active Batch generate the report, you can do the same things but also upload it to a SFTP server or encrypt the files using PGP encryption.

Automating manual, repetitive tasks have never been easier!

Overall Satisfaction with ActiveBatch Workload Automation