Item: JAMS
Rating: 10
Author: Aaron Johnsen

Overall Satisfaction with JAMS

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use JAMS to automate a variety of different processes- SSIS packages, SQL stored procedures, PowerShell scripts, FTP processes and more. These all facilitate our non production and production environments. We work with different state governments and JAMS helps us automation the jobs we use daily to provide the solutions we offer.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Easy to use- on a basic level JAMS is very easy for users. Running, scheduling and viewing jobs is easy to do and access.
JAMS provides powerful PowerShell snap-ins that allow developers more flexibility. I commonly use Submit-JAMS entry to run jobs within scripts when needed. For those not comfortable with scripting, JAMS offers Workflows which have powerful drag and drop logic blocks that can achieve the same results.
JAMS has plenty of additional features for job automation. Resources are extremely useful- they can be used to limit if a job can run based on the available pool. Schedules can incorporate calendars to stop jobs from running on holidays.
The JAMS database can easily be queried to extract information. I can run these queries in JAMS and send them as a report to my team. An example would be getting a list of jobs that failed over the weekend.

Cons

Being able to use parameters/variables in job paths when adding jobs in Sequences would be amazing.
The built-in reporting tool is very difficult to use.
I wish there was an easier way to do certain batch operations. Exporting jobs has to be done one at a time for example. Also, if I want to rename a job in seven different environments, I have to manually go to each job and rename them one by one.
There are a few odd bugs, like the references feature not working for jobs ran in workflows.

Return on Investment

Increased reliability on operations
Provides a central platform for all users to find, run, and review jobs
Automation through JAMS has allowed us to focus resources on other responsibilities

Scalability

I can only speak in in regards to scalability in the volume of jobs we have created. Many of our jobs exist in multiple environments, with each environment having its own unique folder names, connection strings, etc. We incorporate parameters on the folder level that contain the unique environment information. The jobs reference these values from the folder they are contained in, so we can easily copy a job from DEV to TEST and the source is the same but the values passed from the parameters are not. This makes it very easy to create many new jobs and copy them across multiple environments and have them work.

Support Rating

JAMS has excellent customer support! I have used them for years when I'm stumped and they reach out very quickly. The support team is incredibly knowledgeable on the product.

Alternatives Considered

Redwood Finance Automation

While Redwood offers a modern UI, JAMS is much easier to use. For basic operations, it's simple to create a job and schedule it. For those with more experience, JAMS offers much more robust features to take advantage of.

Key Insights

Do you think JAMS delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with JAMS's feature set?

Yes

Did JAMS live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of JAMS go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy JAMS again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server Integration Services

Likelihood to Recommend

JAMS is excellent for automating the execution of MS SQL stack - T-SQL, SSIS, SSRS, etc, PowerShell and local executables. It also has a built-in FTP which is great. JAMS offers more execution methods but I have not used them so cannot speak regarding those. Since MS SQL Server has it's own built-in automation tools, for very small operations I think JAMS may be unnecessary.

JAMS Feature Ratings

Comments

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An Excellent Tool For Automation!