Workload Automation That Meets Your Requirements: Why Make the Switch from AutoSys to JAMS
Enterprise workload automation (WLA) is constantly evolving as the needs of organizations continue to shift. Many companies have realized the limitations of their current job scheduler—and are looking for a way to break free from the complexity of their solution. Using a centralized, streamlined workload automation solution can empower the business and take IT automation to the next level.
However, with the considerable investment of time and resources in solutions like AutoSys, it can seem like an impossible task to switch to another job scheduler. Even so, enterprise workload automation should meet the changing needs of your organization, should be easy to use and administer, and most importantly, should support your automation journey.
Below, we will compare two key solutions within the workload automation space—AutoSys and JAMS. We will explore how they stack up in terms of meeting requirements, look at how they compare in relation to meeting requirements, ease of setup and administration, and examine quality of support based on customer insights and reported experiences. Then, we will provide some practical takeaways to consider when it comes to migrating solutions.
Solution Overviews: Exploring AutoSys Versus JAMS
Fortra’s JAMS and AutoSys from Broadcom are both key players in the enterprise workload automation space. Let’s quickly look at some defining characteristics of each solution.
AutoSys Overview
AutoSys Workload Automation is in the CA Technologies portfolio of solutions and has been on the market for over 25 years. In November 2018, Broadcom completed acquisition of CA Technologies. Despite changing hands, AutoSys is currently ranked very high for its product direction based on user reviews.
AutoSys Workload Automation provides a single pane of glass for enterprise workloads. While the capabilities can be expanded through other Broadcom products like Automic Automation, users find it doesn’t fully meet their requirements outside of its use as a mainframe scheduler.
JAMS Overview
JAMS was originally developed by MVP Systems Software in 1985, and in 2018, became part of the Fortra family of solutions. JAMS is recognized as a market leader in IT Automation based on user reviews, offering centralized workload automation and job scheduling to run, monitor, and manage jobs and workflows that support critical business processes.
JAMS offers a centralized console to automate across all platforms, APIs, and scripting languages. JAMS offers a future-proofed solution, showing a more detailed evolution of how jobs are built with the full detail of its history down to the code level. Widely considered easy-to-use and set up, JAMS makes it simple to define a stream of jobs that can be managed as a single entity and takes care of sequencing and scheduling individual jobs.
JAMS is well-known in the industry for aggressively updated solutions backed by a top-rated, responsive support and services team. From verifying connection prerequisites, supporting the initial set up of a development environment, or helping explain the client, JAMS ensures customers are supported with the expertise to back it up.
Why JAMS is a Leading Alternative to AutoSys: Three Key Differences
When comparing JAMS to AutoSys, there are several critical distinctions between the solutions. Based on the G2 Grid for Workload Automation, both are Leaders in the WLA category but JAMS outperforms AutoSys Workload Automation across a handful of areas including meeting requirements, ease of setup and administration, and quality of support.
#1: Meeting Requirements
One critical component of workload automation is ensuring that the solution meets overall business needs and requirements.
Specifically, JAMS outranks AutoSys Workload Automation, with an average of 9.1 versus 9.0. Further, users also indicate they prefer doing business with JAMS overall, scoring 9.5 versus 8.8 over AutoSys.
JAMS offers a superior technical product that better meets business requirements because it is the only job scheduling solution engineered on the .NET framework. The JAMS .NET Class Library exposes each capability of JAMS to applications, providing endless opportunities for automation. All JAMS automation capabilities are accessible to custom applications.
JAMS also enables users to work more efficiently with applications running on the Windows platform with robust automation. And the JAMS REST API provides users with programmatic hooks into jobs and the scheduler. This enables users to create, update, and delete objects within the scheduling environment directly from any applications. Programming interfaces allow for virtually unlimited integrations between JAMS and other technologies used within an environment. With JAMS, organizations can quickly scale their deployment across any system, platform, or application.
“JAMS Job Scheduler is one of the most helpful programs that I use. There are so many programs that must be run at specific times, and in specific order and JAMS does it all!” – Mark G., Verified G2 User
#2: Ease of Setup and Administration
Although the complexity of enterprise IT automation has increased, that does not mean that a WLA solution should be hard to implement and maintain. Ease of setup and administration are key characteristics that have tangible impact for users. JAMS is ranked by users as a solution that is easier to setup and easier to administer than AutoSys. According to G2 rankings:
- JAMS outperforms AutoSys with a score of 8.7 to 8.5 for ease of setup
- JAMS outperforms AutoSys with a score of 8.7 to 8.3 for ease of administration
This is because JAMS makes it simple to define a stream of jobs that can be managed as a single entity and takes care of sequencing and scheduling individual jobs.
JAMS also evolves workload automation with code-driven, future-proofed centralization. It stores and secures all job definitions into one repository and can execute jobs on any operating system (OS). JAMS can also combine jobs into powerful sequences and provides fair and flexible licensing to organizations seeking to maximize a return on their investment.
“It is extremely versatile with the workload it can automate. It has built-in native code-less functions as well as the ability to launch code in any runtime environment we’ve needed it.” – G2 Verified User in Financial Services
#3: Quality of Support
AutoSys Workload Automation has mixed reviews for its customer service, averaging a score of 8.5 from users on G2. JAMS outperforms and out-delivers for customers in terms of overall quality and ongoing customer service and interactions. When comparing the two solutions, reviewers on G2 indicated that JAMS had a better quality of ongoing product support and was the preferred support provider, receiving a 9.7 score overall.
One example of outstanding support offered by JAMS is successful implementations. Experienced consultants work closely with customers to ensure each implementation balances flexibility with performance and security. With expert, highly-ranked implementation services, users count on JAMS for extra guidance and confidence.
JAMS also offers 24/7 support. Whether it’s verifying connection prerequisites, supporting the initial set up of a development environment, or helping explain the client, JAMS ensures customers are truly supported with the expertise to back it up.
“The support team for JAMS is outstanding. Honestly one of the best I’ve encountered in my professional career of over 22 years.” – Scott K., G2 Verified User, Product Support Manager
Practical Takeaways as You Consider Migrating from AutoSys to JAMS
With essential business operations at stake, it may seem overwhelming to move from one solution to another. Your experiences with AutoSys Workload Automation probably make you think there is significant time, cost, and services required to move to a new solution. But migrating from AutoSys to JAMS is easier, more common, and more predictable than you might think.
One of our primary goals is to minimize the impact on your business and effectively migrate your solution quickly and effortlessly. Using our conversion technologies, we can easily and accurately convert anywhere from a handful of jobs to thousands of jobs. The JAMS conversion utility makes it easy for organizations to migrate batch processes and workflows out of their existing system and into JAMS. Our conversion utility can pull the core properties—schedule, exceptions, credentials, and job source—directly into the scheduler. This process is completed in days—even when countless batch jobs are involved.
If you are considering converting to JAMS, you can be sure that our automation experts have the know-how and experience to streamline your AutoSys migration. We offer comprehensive solutions and services to assist you—making your migration seamless. Best of all, your organization will have significantly reduced its job scheduling maintenance costs once you have converted to JAMS. We use a proven, repeatable methodology to convert scheduling processes and help you itemize and prioritize the scheduling features you actually use.