WORKLOAD AUTOMATION IS FOUNDATION FOR REAL-TIME ENTERPRISE
By Ryan McGinnis

At one time, job scheduling tools could only deliver overnight, time-driven batch execution of processing tasks. But new business processes have driven IT organizations to look for event-driven automation solutions that help them fulfill the increasingly complex requirements of on-demand and real-time businesses. In response, vendors now deliver workload automation (WA) solutions that enable automation and integration of end-to-end IT processes. These solutions leverage expanded functionality - including real-time event triggers, dozens of new job types, and integration with databases, message-oriented middleware, and Web services-enabled applications - to create a new paradigm for IT process control. WA has become a foundational technology for supporting the real-time enterprise.

The evolution of workload automation solutions is also driving adoption outside its traditional home in IT operations. IT departments, from application development and applications integration to data management, performance management and disaster recovery, can now leverage WA tools.

As professionals across the different IT disciplines are exposed to WA technology, these solutions are beginning to foster greater internal collaboration. This collaboration is still limited, since job scheduling has historically been the province of IT operations. But forward-thinking IT departments are taking advantage of the new opportunities. Some, for example, are now using WA technology to automate processes at the database level, instead of relying on scripts written and managed by DBAs and developers. Today’s leading WA solutions can trigger processes based upon changes in data tables and rows, initiate SQL scripts, and even invoke stored procedures.

Leverage at the Database Level

The early adopters of the new WA tools are both defining the components of the product category and developing a model for bridging the organizational divisions that can slow adoption. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the processing services team has leveraged WA tools from CA to upgrade job scheduling and automate processes across several departments. Leveraging these capabilities at the database level has been one of its key priorities, but the university is looking to automate wherever it can. More than just technology gains, its success was due to a collaborative model that has involved a project team drawn from operations and the engagement of representatives of other IT departments. There is a commitment to cross-departmental collaboration. This commitment has led UNC-Chapel Hill’s information technology services group to build a team of automation specialists to work closely with the university’s other IT departments. The team’s mission is to extend WA as a common infrastructure utility as far as possible across the IT and IS departments. According to Ray DeCristofaro, director for operations for processing services at UNC-Chapel Hill, “Workload Automation technology will only succeed if an organization builds bridges between departments. Cross-departmental collaboration is essential to building a workload automation model that serves the organization as a whole - not just IT operations. As other departments see that workload automation allows them to do their jobs more efficiently and frees them to be more produc tive, then the silos will fall.” This approach will be critical for realizing the potential of workload automation technology.

Unique Value

Bridging the gap between departments to standardize on technology is not a problem that is unique to workload automation. Other enterprise-wide initiatives have faced similar challenges. What makes workload automation unique is that a tremendous amount of value can be realized in these other departments at minimal incremental software costs using a common toolset.

In the future, IT operations will remain responsible for the acquisition of workload automation solutions. For now, it can also play a unique role as evangelists of automation. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the process efficiency gains driven by Workload automation solutions will result in headcount reductions. In fact, it can create opportunities. UNC-Chapel Hill’s strategy is to leverage the competencies of its IT production and operations staff in other ways.

As a result, UNC-Chapel Hill ITS has actually upgraded the skill set of three positions to support its workload automation initiative. As workload automation is changing the business model, current staff skill sets are being upgraded.

Workload automation solutions are essential to the emergence of the real-time enterprise, because they uniquely enable event-driven auto-mation. Somewhat surprisingly, we are seeing that they can also help build better relationships between IT departments, because of the unique way that they can extend beyond IT operations to improve overall IT process efficiency.

Workload automation therefore offers value to any organization since it offers both the intrinsic benefits of automation and the more subtle, but no less important, benefit of improved inter-departmental relationships.

Ryan McGinnis is product marketing manager for workload automation at CA, one of the world’s largest information technology management software companies.

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