Control-M (z/OS onliy)
Updated March 24, 2022

Control-M (z/OS onliy)

Gadi Ben-Avi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Control-M

All production jobs on z/OS (almost) are run buy Control-M. Control-M saves a lot of time and manpower, by running the production workload, letting people deal with development, maintenance and problem solving.
  • Runs jobs when they should.
  • Notify users when something goes wrong.
  • Provide information on previous runs.
  • The interface (On z/OS) is a bit clunky.
  • Installation and upgrades are a pain.
  • It is difficult to make mass changes.
  • It lets us run more jobs in production.
  • Lets us create complex job streams.
  • TWS and ESP
When we got Control-M when there weren't other options. Converting to another system was evaluated, but not done.

Do you think Control-M delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Control-M's feature set?

Yes

Did Control-M live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Control-M go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Control-M again?

Yes

BeyondTrust Remote Support (formerly Bomgar), IBM CICS, Adabas
The bigger the workload, the more a tool like Control-M is needed.

Control-M Feature Ratings

Multi-platform scheduling
8
Central monitoring
8
Logging
8
Alerts and notifications
8
Analysis and visualization
8
Application integration
8

Using Control-M

10 - Operations
operation design.
2 - On the z/OS side, it's like any other ISV product, with some specialized knowledge and experience with the IOA installation and maintenance system called ICE.
On the open systems side, windows and linux knowledge is needed,
  • Runnin production workloads
  • Keeping track of what ran, did it run OK, and if not, getting the message to the right people.
  • A relatively easy way to make modifications.
  • Nothing that I can think of
  • Nothing that I can think of
The system works, it's great, and it integrates with other IOA products that we use.

Evaluating Control-M and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
Since Control-M started its life as an Israeli product, it is very common is Israel. In the beginning, when we had an issue, we could talk directly with the developers and solve problems faster.
We would make a list of workload automation products, the pros and cons of each one, create a short list, and evaluate each product on the short list.

Control-M Implementation

Do it slowly, start with simple workflows and go from there when you become more comfortable with the product.
Yes - Implementation was done according to department.
Since the workload for each department is independent, it wasn't an issue.
Change management was minimal - None
  • Convincing the operations staff that this was a good idea, and they could relinquish some control.
  • It was a long time ago, I don't remember much

Control-M Training

Formal training is always better, but it's not always available.

Configuring Control-M

There are many many options at various levels.
Most of them are dealt with only when needed.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code

Control-M Support

Support is great, usually, but I have to go through a third party, which makes responce slower.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
No escalation required
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
Not kept informed
No
I don't think the options exists
They always do.
Our problem is that we don't deal with BMC directly.
We first go through their reseller in Israel which try to help, and only if they can't, escalate the problem to BMC.

Using Control-M

It's fairly easy to use, once you know what you're doing. New users might take a while to learn how to use all of the functions.
ProsCons
Like to use
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
Requires technical support
  • Monitoring jobs
  • Making mass changes
  • Installing and upgrading

Control-M Reliability

Control-M doesn't really use that many resources.
We've had issues with a server crashing.
The latest issue has the option for high availability which should help with that.
I've never seen a performance issue with Control-M.

Integrating Control-M

I've see many examples, but never used any of them
  • Other IOA products on z/OS
All IOA products work very well together, and seem like one product.
Check if someone else has done something similar.
it can save lots of time.

Relationship with BMC Software Inc.

They wanted to sell. They gave all of the help they could
Support is usually great

Upgrading Control-M

Yes - The new release required a lot more resources. We had to upgrade the servers for it to work.
  • Using a current release.
  • Not sure. We're are the latest release.