Automic Workload Automation vs Rocket Zena comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 12, 2023
 

Categories and Ranking

Automic Workload Automation
Ranking in Workload Automation
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Rocket Zena
Ranking in Workload Automation
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2024, in the Workload Automation category, the mindshare of Automic Workload Automation is 8.1%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rocket Zena is 3.7%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Workload Automation
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
No other categories found
 

Featured Reviews

Bernd Stroehle. - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 21, 2023
Offers excellent functionality, reduces job and workload failure, and enhances our compliance processes
Due to Automic Workload Automation's proprietary scripting language, upgrading it can be extremely challenging, unlike other workflow automation products that offer seamless migration. This inflexibility makes Automic Workload Automation the most complex and restrictive solution in the market. Choosing Automic Workload Automation essentially locks us into their ecosystem, making it nearly impossible to switch to a different product. Therefore, I strongly advise against using Automic Workload Automation. Automic Workload Automation's AI capabilities are limited. Most traditional workflow products lack robust support for AI workflows. Airflow might be a suitable option for AI workflows. However, if real-time AI processing is required, a different product altogether is necessary. For example, in the field of genetics, if a workflow involves thousands of jobs, traditional workflow products such as Automic Workload Automation may struggle to handle such a large workload. The maximum capacity of these products might be around 1,000 or 2,000 jobs. In contrast, a genetic workflow could involve up to 100,000 jobs, requiring a completely different workflow product specifically designed for such large-scale processing. Mainstream workflow products like Automic Workload Automation offer similar functionalities and are widely used around the globe. These products typically check for process completion every second. However, in high-performance computing and emerging fields like medicine or ophthalmology, we need to control thousands of jobs simultaneously, requiring millisecond-level process completion checks. To achieve this, we can store event data in databases or perform on-the-fly checks. Additionally, we need to integrate workflow control with workload management to prevent machine overload. These requirements make it unsuitable for tasks like controlling genomic workflows.
JuanGonzalez6 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 28, 2022
A continuously evolving, stable solution, with responsive support
The visual whiteboard for design and execution included with the solution is very crucial to those who are new to Rocket Zena, especially so that the learning curve is minimized and they can focus on accomplishing the task. We process our system's payroll through Rocket Zena. The fact that it's a multi-process, multi-layered application, means that we can rely on the solution for kicking off processes, notifying user vendors of the steps, completions, error logging, and historic events from the previous run times. Rocket Zena's ability to automate jobs on the mainframe as a distribution workload automation solution is good. The solution continuously improves over time. We're eager to start the latest upgrade this coming year that'll put us on the cloud. Hopefully, this will improve the product even more. We can run things natively without the scheduler if needed. The solution working properly and up to date without the need for a mainframe scheduler is crucial. We use the solution to manage a few complex operational workflows end-to-end across multiple technology stacks. Rocket Zena does a great job of simplifying our cross-platform processes through automation. The solution helps speed operations up and keeps them automated allowing us to focus on other priorities. The solution helps increase our completion rates by working overnight to meet our SLAs. Rocket Zena completes 30 percent of our workload outside of our standard work hours. Rocket Zena's cross-platform job scheduling helped us save around 40 percent of programming time by automating repetitive tasks. We use the solution to transfer our current files and keep up with our infrastructure on a few automated jobs, such as refreshing our database which happens overnight. The solution helped free up around 15 percent of our engineer's time to focus on more value-added work.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's very hard to transfer the feeling when you have a platform that came to handle infrastructure issues, but at the end of the day, they are making real changes and impacting our business level, which is amazing, because it's very uncommon. That's it, basicalSly."
"We use it to automate our business."
"The most valuable features are that a lot systems are supported. You can use this for z/OS, Windows, Unix, SAP, etc."
"We can take something from crontab, something that's very nitty-gritty and low-level, and be able to put it into a nice interface, and be able to track it at every junction along the way, add alerting, interdependencies."
"It is the automation. Saving time and money is the key. We automate everything."
"It integrates well with the CICD pipeline."
"We have seen improvements in time efficiency and cost resources, because we are mainly focused on the SAP area, and its automation in that part."
"We use it in every aspect of our IT operations, and the scalability is very good."
"I have found the scheduling feature the most valuable. I can map dependencies by using ASG-Zena. It gives a nice, quick visualization as to where things are."
"You can click Ctrl-G and bring a diagram view. You're able to view in a diagram format. The view that it provides is easy, and you can move to the left, up, or down. You can double-click on a certain process. It'll drill into that process and all of its underlying components. You can double-click on an arrow or a component, and it'll bring up a screen that'll have all the variables that are assigned to that particular piece, as well as the values at run time. So, the diagram feature of it, at least for me, is pretty valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the FTP file transfer."
"From a Linux configuration point of view, Rocket Zena is straightforward. It's fairly easy to set up the server and agents once you know how to do it."
"We haven't had any problems since we installed it. It runs as expected, we haven't had any critical problems. It helps keeps the business running 24/7."
"I have used other tools with similar capabilities; it's the ease of use."
"I like the whole product, but specifically, I like the license part. It's very easy to acquire a license for this product."
"Its FTP feature is very good, as is scheduling any process or task with the Zena client. I have found it to be very helpful. If a task fails, it gives you a prompt."
 

Cons

"The search is sometimes a little bit slow."
"The only thing that we would like improved is the FTP agent. It only supports SOCKS proxy, and we would like it to also support an HTTP proxy."
"The versioning and support for the lifecycle of Automic's developed solution is what we were missing. However, this is coming in version 12.2, so I am looking forward to seeing how it works."
"It is a bit of a problem, because they like to do email ping-pong via their web page. Sometimes, it would be much easier if someone would call you on the phone."
"There are some monitoring features that could be added."
"It would be better if it was easier to view the automated processes."
"There are certain jobs that are triggered one after another. It would be helpful to have a more user-friendly way of seeing how these jobs are connecting from one server to another."
"The user interface could be a little more user-friendly, as it is not the best out there."
"Rocket Zena is a mainframe-based job scheduler. I would like it to be more open so that we can use it on a distributed platform."
"In the web interface, it stacks the tasks across the top, and they accumulate until you close or clean those out. That seems a little cumbersome. You must right-click and close all tabs constantly to keep the console clean and manage your views."
"In the next release, I would like the user experience to be improved. The user interface should be more appealing to gen-z."
"The documentation has room for improvement."
"The UI is not intuitive, and it would be nice if there was a web interface."
"Another one that is probably a little bit bigger for me is that when there is an issue or there's an error, it writes on a different screen. I have to find the actual process name and go to a different screen to view the alert that got generated. On that screen, everyone's processes, not just the processes of the folks in my department, are thrown. It takes me a while to find the actual error so that I could go in there and look at the alert. It could be because of the way it was set up, but at least for me, it isn't too intuitive."
"In the next release, I would like to have an alert feature to indicate when an agent is down. Rocket Zena is not capable of sending alerts that the agent is down. As of now, you have manually monitor to see when the agent is down."
"The scheduling mapping is a little disjointed. There is no wizard-type approach. There are a lot of different things that you have to do in completely different areas. They could probably add the functionality for creating all components of a mapping or an OPA schedule. The component creation could be done collectively rather than through individual components."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is way up there with BMC. It is a little bit on the expensive side."
"It costs to scale. While, it is scalable, the add-ons are expensive."
"You do not need any humans to start jobs, so you can save a lot of money."
"We have received a lot of time and cost efficiencies from using the product."
"Certain licenses can be a bit expensive. The PeopleSoft agents, in particular, are a bit pricey."
"There are a lot of new features, but we do not use them because they are too expensive. The price point could be less."
"There are different licensing fees for cases where high availability is important."
"Do your own proof of concept. Make sure you know what you want. Be clear about what you want the product to do for you. Go out and meet with the vendor, then test it."
"The pricing and the licensing are good. It is affordable and can be used to improve and optimize productivity."
"I don't know the exact cost, but I believe that it is approximately $150 to $180,000.00 Singapore dollars per year. This would be approximately $100 to $120,000 USD per year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Insurance Company
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Automic Workload Automation?
It is easy to manage complex workloads and use electronic workflow automation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Automic Workload Automation?
The solution was flexible in terms of pricing. We're moving away from it, not due to price, but rather based on our requirements. They did provide us with an unlimited license that matched our budget.
What needs improvement with Automic Workload Automation?
The AI capabilities and predictive modeling aren't very good. I don't see a future for that. It's very basic. That's part of the reason we moved to Stonebranch. They have more analytic capabilities...
What do you like most about Rocket Zena?
In the latest upgrade, Zena added a web-based client. The more I use it, the more I like it. It's an excellent interface. They do a good job of steadily improving the solution to make it more usefu...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rocket Zena?
The pricing and the licensing are good. It is affordable and can be used to improve and optimize productivity.
What needs improvement with Rocket Zena?
In the web interface, it stacks the tasks across the top, and they accumulate until you close or clean those out. That seems a little cumbersome. You must right-click and close all tabs constantly ...
 

Also Known As

Automic Dollar Universe
ASG-Zena
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ING, Adidas, 84.51, ESB
Fraternidad Muprespa
Find out what your peers are saying about Automic Workload Automation vs. Rocket Zena and other solutions. Updated: June 2024.
787,779 professionals have used our research since 2012.