ASCI Ramps Up Migration Effort for Job Scheduler

February 18, 2014 Alex Woodie

When it comes to IBM i job schedulers, there are a few well-known entities that consistently make the shortlist during product bake-offs. The ActiveBatch offering from Advanced Systems Concepts Inc. (ASCI) is not a regular on that list. But the company says it’s having success moving users from IBM job schedulers to its own. And with the newly launched migration service, it hopes to have more.

ActiveBatch is an enterprise job scheduler that helps organizations manage workloads running across IBM i, Windows, Linux, Unix, mainframe, OpenVMS, and Mac OS environments. The software supports time-based and trigger-based scheduling, and features an array of templates designed to simplify the integration of databases, scripts, and processes (such as managed file transfers, Web services, .NET assemblies, and Java) into an end-to-end workflow. The company (which is not to be confused with the Advanced Systems Concepts division of HelpSystems) added support for i5/OS V5R4 and IBM i 6.1 back in 2009.

As part of the new migration service unveiled last month, the company is looking to help customers move off other job schedulers through a combination of consulting, methodologies, and migration tools. In particular, the company is targeting the job schedulers sold by BMC Software, CA Technologies, and IBM Tivoli. The company also has migration tools for Microsoft Windows utilities, such as the Windows Task Scheduler and SQL Server Agent, as well as the Unix cron utility.

Organizations should consider the benefits of moving away from script-driven job schedulers and platforms-specific scheduling tools, says ASCI VP of sales and marketing Jim Manias. “It’s critical for IT automation solutions to be able to adapt quickly to a fluid landscape where internal, virtual, and cloud resources are assembled in real time, where consumer demands are increasing, and where regulatory and SLA objectives are constantly changing,” he says.

ASCI supports IBM i through an extension to its core ActiveBatch product, which runs on Windows. The company offers a variety of other extensions, for automating the flow of jobs for everything from ERP applications to business intelligence solutions. For more information see www.advsyscon.com.