The Time Is Now for Considering Workload Automation

Transcription

1 I D C V E N D O R S P O T L I G H T The Time Is Now for Considering Workload Automation August 2008 Adapted from IT Organizations Are Maturing from Job Scheduling to Workload Automation by Stephen Elliot, IDC # Sponsored by UC4 IT organizations have historically purchased job scheduling solutions with limited real-time visibility or application awareness that reduces the business alignment of this important technology asset. It is only during the past few years that IT executives have realized that batch processing of critical business applications requires a new paradigm a paradigm that centers around automation and event-based scheduling that understands and integrates with the underlying business application. The need to move to a more dynamic automation-enabled IT strategy has never been more necessary; globalization, compliance assurance pressure, real-time consumer and enterprise expectations, and the need to align technology investments with business outcomes are key requirements for business success. Executives are faced with endless pressure to lower infrastructure costs and limit headcount increases while improving quality of service (QoS) capabilities. It will be increasingly difficult to achieve these goals without automating and integrating into business processes investments such as workload automation. Workload automation offers a more dynamic, flexible, and agile infrastructure that can respond to business events that drive revenue as well as datacenter activities. This paper examines the evolution of IT organizations as they move from static batch processing to dynamic workload automation capabilities that integrate with and understand business processes and trigger revenue-generating actions based on real-time requests. The paper also looks at the role of vendor UC4 in this strategically important market. The Business Need for Workload Automation Many IT organizations have initiated discussions on migrating from traditional time and date based job schedulers to automated solutions offering event-driven batch processing and job scheduling. The pressing need to improve integration with, and visibility of, critical business processes that impact revenue and profit in real time is fast becoming a requirement for success for IT teams maturing from reactive to proactive, profit-based organizations. This need transcends the distributed and mainframe environments for workload automation and forces new product requirements such as interface consolidation, automated process workflows, application integrations, heterogeneous infrastructure support, and extensive reporting. Business demands such as compliance, revenue growth, and profitability are driving the need for more automated operations across the IT organization; job scheduling is no exception. The notion that static environments and politically intensive IT silos can drive business innovation is fast becoming a myth. Efficient operations demand the automation of tasks and business process integration, which, until a few years ago, did not exist within job schedulers. There is a market need for faster batch processing that drives alignment with business value through a direct revenue link. IT organizations can no longer ignore this pressure, as business revenue and reputation increasingly depend on real-time customer interactions that rely on supporting heterogeneous infrastructure such as workload automation solutions. IDC 685

2 Automation Must Span the Business Process In simple terms, a business process is an interdependent collection of information spanning multiple people, application(s), and infrastructure (e.g., server, storage) that drive a business outcome. It is clear that workload automation must span all these areas and offer value to the various constituencies that use the solutions. From the staffing perspective, examples include the following:! Operations departments require a product that is easy to learn and manage on a day-to-day basis and that provides operations-specific views that deliver knowledge on critical job success.! Production control/development teams require flexible tools to build complex job automations across business transaction flows in short time periods based on business cycles.! Executive management requires tools that measure performance and mitigate compliance risk and needs access to quickly see the current status of all active automated tasks on both a realtime basis and a historical basis.! Project managers/end users require the automation of unnecessary manual tasks and need to see that the process is working as expected, and they require notifications and the ability to fix an issue, perhaps restarting a process. From an infrastructure and application perspective, workload automation must manage across increasingly complex and heterogeneous infrastructures. As next-generation datacenter architectures continue to emerge and become more complex, the need to support multivendor hardware and application suites is paramount. Integration between the various hardware and software components is a requirement for workload automation, as visibility across the process drives improved management and control over the success of the transactions. Without this integration, existing staff are blind to the business process impact and the greater business value that automation offers. The collection and automatic exchange of critical information across infrastructure and application components drive faster time to market and problem identification and resolution. On the process standardization front, IDC continues to see an acceleration of process standardization adoption across the globe in IT organizations. In fact, close to one out of every two Global 2000 organizations has adopted at least one ITIL-based process. The most common ITIL v2 processes adopted include problem, change, incident, and configuration management. In other areas of IT, processes based on CMMi or CoBIT are accelerating. To support this acceleration, workload automation enables a common architecture to bring together disparate teams to drive automated workflows across the business process. It also enables a common language to more quickly track change and risk across the process. Additional business drivers for automation include the following:! SOA/component-based and packaged applications. Next-generation application architectures are utilizing.net, J2EE, and open source and collecting data from Web services based architectures that drive real-time business processes.! Regulatory requirements. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) portends to simplify healthcare transactions and protect patients' health information. The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act was enacted to ensure integrity and accuracy of accounting practices and places responsibility on CEOs and CFOs.! Lower TCO and IT/MIS operations costs. IT organizations continue to be asked to deliver more with less and to deliver business innovation with cost avoidance strategies that place severe time constraints on existing IT staff IDC

3 Selecting a Workload Automation Solution As business managers become more involved in driving budget allocation and project selection for IT organizations, the requirements to manage back-end processing are expanding from IT-centric job scheduling to business application workload automation as enterprises demand both improved functionality and increased IT and application alignment in support of their respective business outcomes (see Figure 1). Figure 1 Aligning Workload Automation with Business Outcomes Critical Architecture Capabilities Business process automation/discovery Run-book automation Heterogeneous support Virtualization aware Cross-process integrated (ITIL, CoBIT) Compliance dashboards Process modeling/edit/controls Custom/packaged apps integration Web service enabled (SOAP, UDDI, etc.) Business Impact Lower operations costs Real-time business process improvement Reduced support costs IT and business unit accountability Chargeback End-to-end service visibility Reduced human error rates Business risk reduction Flexibility for future business demands Source: IDC, 2008 According to IDC research, cost reduction pressures and business process integration and visibility are driving the migration toward workload automation solutions in IT organizations. The maturity of IT organizational processes, solution selection criteria, vendor partnerships, and staffing expertise and training continue to impact adoption. As this trend continues to accelerate, IDC advises users to consider the following product functions as critical to a workload automation solution:! Event-based scheduling to drive real-time processing and business impact assessment! Packaged and custom application integrations to publish and execute automated workflows! Heterogeneous systems support and a single console dashboard view that supports mainframe and distributed platforms! Technology support and visibility into business processes that traverse service-oriented architecture (SOA) and virtualization deployments! Options for agent/agentless data collection! Web services support, with SOAP-based APIs and integrations into JMS! CMDB integration to drive alignment between change control as it relates to batch processing! Run-book automation capabilities that drive integrated and automated workflows to reduce human error and increase time to market and that support process standards such as ITIL 2008 IDC 3

4 ! An architecture that empowers users to build repeatable, reusable process templates that significantly reduce the rollout of new application solutions and remove end-user involvement in order! Single point of control and reporting for multiple application-specific job schedulers and business applications! Automated management of workflow processes that span a virtualized server platform The preceding features are enabling workload automation and the ability of IT organizations to become more agile and business driven and are increasing IT's ability to respond to business events that deliver revenue. IDC believes the workload automation market and product innovations will drive tighter clarity in the value proposition and make it easier for IT organizations to make the business case. IDC also believes that IT organizations that do not move forward with workload automation solutions run the risk of inhibiting the gains in agility and time to market that SOA, virtualization, and next-generation datacenter buildouts offer. Virtualization introduces a layer of abstraction between IT processing and the underlying server platforms. Automation that offers the agility to support this abstraction combined with the awareness to provision scheduling resource is increasingly a necessity for the enterprise wanting to maximize the performance from its virtualized infrastructure. As more IT organizations adopt virtualization across server, storage, and application workloads, IT is being asked to consider how automation can realize greater flexibility and lower operations costs over the long term. In a virtual landscape, an automation tool can deliver extra value by being able to be virtualized by itself and therefore able to scale dynamically in line with workload demands. Workload automation supports and extends virtualization's value proposition as mission-critical application workloads become virtualized over the next five years. Workload automation that is virtualization aware provides business process visibility across physical and virtual infrastructures to drive business results. Key Considerations for a Workload Automation Strategy To adopt workload automation, IT organizations require an extension in how they view and execute event-based scheduling today to deliver more efficient operations that impact the business. Additional perspectives in the following areas can increase the business case for workload automation:! Business process knowledge: IT needs to define and understand what business processes are supported by workload automation.! Customer impact: IT must assess which customers (internal and/or external) will be impacted by workload automation and how they will benefit in business terms.! Solution integration. Integrations across the workload automation platform drive more automation and seamless processes; as such, IT must consider the level of "out of the box" integrations that exist in the workload automation solution.! Mainframe and distributed expertise. Vendor management for workload automation becomes more important as business process impact rises; vendor expertise can help drive automation across the mainframe and distributed environments, as well as support business case savings and business alignment.! Product road map. Workload automation is a journey, and vendors must have clear product road maps to deliver value over the long term.! Datacenter, application, and process automation focus and knowledge. Workload automation requires expertise across these key areas as they each play an increasing role in efficient workload automation solutions that deliver business process impact IDC

5 It is important that IT organizations consider the breadth and depth of a workload automation solution; notably in how the architecture will change over the next few years. While it is nearly impossible to predict business events, buying a workload automation architecture that can adjust to new application and platform environments is critical to ensuring long-term return on investment (ROI) and establishing automated workflows across the distributed and mainframe environments. Considering UC4 Founded in 1985, UC4 developed and marketed enterprise job scheduling solutions that serviced the datacenter market; the company has 260 employees; over $70 million in revenue; more than 1,600 customers; and 11 offices worldwide. In late 2005, The Carlyle Group acquired 80% of the shares of UC4, with the rest being principally owned by employees. In 2007, UC4 merged with AppWorx, a company with solutions in the area of application automation and integration. UC4 Workload Automation Suite has a centralized repository and interface for information collected from multiple, specialized application job schedulers automating the control and management of workload across the enterprise. As IT organizations adopt workload automation, UC4 has integrated with SAP and many other packaged applications for efficient batch administration. Other critical features, and the roles they support, are the following:! The Enterprise Scheduling Engine. This technology supports a wide range of operating system platforms and enterprise applications. As a result of the acquisition of AppWorx, UC4 currently offers an interoperable job scheduling platform, and evolution to a unified architecture is on the road map. The engine has driver integration to Unix, Windows, J2EE, zos, iseries, VMS, BS2000, HP-3000, and other server platforms and over 100 packaged applications, ensuring the high availability, scalability, flexibility, and customizable interfaces that are essential in supporting a dynamic and virtualized IT environment.! The Business Integration Layer. UC4 continues to enhance the functionality and structure this functionality in line with key business requirements and the demands from datacenter operations. From managing traditional batch scheduling processing to managing the automation of systems administration and housekeeping tasks, UC4 is delivering capabilities that enterprises are utilizing in addressing IT process automation requirements, which are being driven by virtualization and IT consolidation initiatives. IT departments are gaining a much more holistic, joined-up view of how their business operates and leveraging automated process templates to map, execute, and monitor end-to-end business processes with UC4. As organizations seek to embrace new innovations driven by SOA and software as a service (SaaS), UC4 offers extensive support for Web services allowing legacy systems to be fully utilized with other applications.! The People Integration Layer. UC4 recognizes that for many users, the GUI is the application and that a user-friendly design and intuitive support of major workflows for the different user roles are also important. While it already offers clients many options when creating, managing, and monitoring IT workload, including flow chart and GANTT views, UC4 is committed to providing a new user-centric UI design that is focused on the needs of different user groups. Role-based interfaces will focus on the following: IT operations managers who run and monitor key processes Production control responsible for development and deployment of automation workload Executive management requires a dashboard overview, business analytics, reporting, and simulation Application project managers responsible for setting up critical processes when automating business processes 2008 IDC 5

6 Additionally, UC4 has a plethora of professional services to deliver additional customization and value during all phases of the buying and deployment cycle. Working with over 1,600 clients, UC4 has gained extensive knowledge of the key business applications and IT infrastructure tools found in most organizations. This experience is often leveraged in new engagement opportunities as well as in supporting the extended use of UC4 solutions within its installed base. Challenges UC4 has a growing install base of loyal customers. With the acquisition of AppWorx, the company has many of the pieces that are required to make workload automation a reality for customers. However, in the workload automation market, as in any evolving market, great technology is not the only requirement for success. UC4 should focus on the following points to further accelerate customer adoption of workload automation solutions:! Continue to raise awareness of the UC4 portfolio in new accounts and the associated benefits of moving toward a workload automation solution.! Consider the "productization" of a replacement strategy for customers using competing job scheduling solutions and establish the business case for workload automation.! Continue to build out the business process automation story, and utilize its cross-vertical installed base as vocal customer references for workload automation best practices.! Work with customers to drive innovation through the product road maps, and execute feedback into product functionality and integrations into third-party solutions. Conclusion IDC believes that market adoption of workload automation solutions will continue to grow over the next five years as more business demands force IT professionals and leaders to drive the real-time, business process centric mentality into every facet of IT. The journey for many IT organizations from job scheduling to workload automation requires unwelcome change. However, from process, technology, and business perspectives, the benefits far outweigh the risks. Processes continue to become more standardized, and over the past few years there has been a demarcation of those enterprise IT organizations that have gone from no process standardization to mass adoption of process standardization. IT organizations that have not committed to standardization are finding costs rising, error rates increasing, and IT service availability dropping. The technology capabilities for workload automation are quickly maturing, raising the bar for IT organizations and the benefits they can derive from adoption. The fastest way to reduce costs is to standardize solutions; workload automation offers this value out of the box. Finally, business demands are now forcing IT to adapt to a brave new world where real-time requirements must permeate every product's capabilities. Business process definitions and visibility are now enabling IT organizations to consider their risk and reward for poor management and often help dictate budget allocations and staffing requirements. With globalization and the pressure to drive revenue, IT can no longer operate with static, inflexible solutions because they only set up the organization for failure IDC

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