Control M review
Updated July 06, 2016
Control M review
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Control-M
Control-M is used in my company as the primary job scheduler for all departments. We use it with various versions of Unix/Linux and Windows Operating Systems. Using Control-M allows us to standardize our job scheduling environment and enables us to complete all batch processing for our company with maximum insight into any issues that may occur.
- Control-M is very stable. It is rare to have any issues with the application.
- Dealing with dependencies is handled very well. Dependencies are easy to set up whether they are on the same server or across platforms.
- Alerting is also a strength in Control-M. It has a built in tie in to the Remedy system which allows ticket creation to be handled easily.
- I would like to see some improvement in handling conditions from previous days.
- I would like to see some improvement in being able to send out alert notifications on jobs that have not started past the new day.
- I would expect this product to give a positive return on investment. Running jobs in cron for example would require a lot more scripting effort to ensure that the proper notifications are done on failures. With the built in functionality in Control-M the effort would be greatly reduced
I have been using this product for so long and it works so well we have not had the need to evaluate other job schedulers. I have occasionally looked to see what was out there but I have seen anything so far that would require me to go so far as to evaluate the products.
Control-M Feature Ratings
Using Control-M
100 - Everybody from administrators to developers who just want to see the status of their jobs
21 - We have two administrators who create/update jobs and manage Control-M. We also have a NOC administrator who deals with the day to day monitoring. Administrators would require more Control-M knowledge for upgrades and general administration. A NOC administrator would require basic knowledge of standard tasks done in Control-M.
- We do a nightly EFT transfer to the banks which requires Control-M to be available for the bank transfers.
- Daily application startup/shutdown is an important part of our business. We require our applications to be available or the company can be penalized monetarily.
- Daily database maintenance jobs are very important because if they don't run it can cause issues with the database and could cause an application outage.
- We do not really have any unexpected ways we use Control-M
- BMC is always coming out with additional plugins that we may use in the future
Evaluating Control-M and Competitors
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
I was not involved in selection process but I would find out which schedulers are best right now and evaluate each one.
Control-M Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
Control-M Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
I had a situation where I was testing a new version of Control-M and the initial support person had not seen the problem before and was unsure of how to deal with it. Within a day he had setup a WebEx with 2 of his colleagues and they connected to my environment and figured out what the problem was within an hour. It was all handled very quickly and proficiently. I have had issues with other companies where it was like pulling teeth to get them to escalate the support case.
Using Control-M
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Viewing the status of the jobs is very easy
- Putting jobs on hold or deleting jobs for the day is very easy
- Viewing job history is very easy and handy to deal with issues
- Regular users are unable to view some of the details such as alerting from jobs in the monitoring section
- Loading in jobs can be a little cumbersome
Yes, but I don't use it