Rocket Zena Reviews

Name: Rocket Zena
Brand: Rocket Software
Rating: 4 (9 reviews)

4.2 out of 5

9 reviews
100% willing to recommend

What is Rocket Zena?UNIXBusinessApplication
Price:

Zena enables you to optimize business process flows with advanced workload automation that reduces manual intervention, system downtime, and processing errors. You can easily define processes and tasks, making them repeatable so you can focus on other priorities.

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Rocket Zena is the #12 ranked solution in top Workload Automation solutions. PeerSpot users give Rocket Zena an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. Rocket Zena is most commonly compared to Control-M: Rocket Zena vs Control-M. Rocket Zena is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 82% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 27% of all views.

Helped 768,415 peers since 2012

Featured reviews

JuanGonzalez6

IT Solutions Manager at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Dec 28, 2022

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.

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Gus Calero

Sr. IT Product Manager at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 3, 2022

There is a limit of 6,000 components in a particular process. The processes that we've developed have a lot of components, but there's a limit, which is fine, but it would be great if it just didn't have that limitation. I understand the system limitation and so forth, but it would be great to not have this limitation. 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. For processes, Rocket Zena has four bubbles. It's green if a process is running and nothing has failed. It's yellow if something inside a process has failed, but the rest of the process is running. It's red if a process has failed, and it's blue if a process is complete. If there's something yellow, you can dig into a process and eventually find the error. For alerts, there's another screen, and this alert screen has everyone's alerts. Generally, I only have a view of the components that are owned by my department, but when I go to the alerts screen, the alerts from everyone in the company are there. Because I am not on the admin side, I don't know if this is something that wasn't set up properly on the admin side or if it is something that could have been improved in the tool. They can improve the UI loading time, at least in dev. It takes a long time. It could be because it has got so many components. It literally takes two or three minutes before it loads and you start using it. They can make some updates to get it up and running faster.

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Bridgette Friedman

System administrator at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 25, 2022

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 useful. The whiteboard is handy when setting up processes and scheduling tasks, especially large ones. It helps you visualize the processes you're building so you can see what you're doing a lot easier than if you were just using a text-based system. It's a critical feature when you're building or troubleshooting jobs. You can see what you're doing and take out or add steps as needed.

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Rocket Zena market share

As of March 2024, the market share of Rocket Zena in the Workload Automation category stands at 3.6%, marking an increase of 35.2% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Workload Automation

Key learnings from peers

Valuable Features

The most valuable features of Rocket Zena are:

its FTP file transfer capability, scheduling tasks and processes with the Zena client
easy licensing process
user-friendly graphical user interface
informative help option
communication between Zena Client and Zena workstation
adding task results as email attachments
straightforward Linux configuration
containerized deployment with Docker
managing complex operational workflows across multiple technology stacks
cross-platform job scheduling
web-based client
whiteboard feature for visualizing processes
user interface that is better than Control-M with diagram views and drill-down capabilities

Room for Improvement

Some areas of improvement for Rocket Zena include:

better communication between servers and agents
improved user interface and documentation
the ability to use the software on a distributed platform or in the cloud
a better web interface
a solution with RPM packages
easier navigation in the knowledge base
the removal of limitations on the number of components in a process
a more intuitive error alert system
better visibility of connections between different applications/components
improved monitoring of agents with alert features

ROI

Rocket Zena has a good return on investment. It has greatly assisted in automating overnight processes and alleviating stress for engineers and administrators. The time savings and accuracy provided by Zena in scheduling jobs far outweigh its cost.

Pricing

Users find the pricing and licensing for Rocket Zena to be affordable and advantageous for improving productivity. They appreciate that the price is not high, making it accessible even for small companies.

"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."

Popular Use Cases

The primary use case of Rocket Zena is for scheduling and automating tasks. It is used for file transfers, scheduling RPA processes, email scheduling, and managing jobs. It allows users to schedule file transfers, monitor and manage jobs, and customize tasks based on time and date.

Rocket Zena is also used for scheduling Oracle products, managing files on the Windows infrastructure, SFTP transfers, exporting or importing data to a database, running external scripts, and scheduling backup jobs. Additionally, it is used to schedule Powershell and batch script jobs within the company, particularly within specific applications and areas.

Service and Support

Users describe the technical support as very good, helpful, and responsive. The support team tries to understand each problem and provides instant solutions. However, there are also a few instances where the initial point of contact was not able to answer questions and had to seek help from the development team, resulting in delayed responses.

Deployment

The initial setup for Rocket Zena was initially complex for some users as they were not familiar with the different components of the tool. The Zena Client and Zena workstation work similarly but have some different features. It took some time for users to understand how to create diagrams and processes using the Client.

However, once users became more familiar with Zena, it became easy to create different use cases. The customer service provided by Rocket Zena was helpful in migrating servers and products. Maintenance has been minimal.

The installation and customization process was done by the users themselves, and upgrades required updating the OS before performing the Rocket upgrade.

The implementation took around two weeks, and upgrades took around five to six hours.

Integration with SAP is challenging and requires troubleshooting. Setting up Zena using the controller is straightforward, however, the SAP agents and associated JCO files pose difficulties. Trial and error are necessary, and there is a lack of documentation on Zena's website for using SAP agents.

The enterprise setup presented challenges in coordinating agents between different server environments.

Scalability

Rocket Zena has good scalability, as it can handle a high number of processes running daily on a server. It is capable of supporting multiple users and can be scaled up or down easily by adding or removing servers. However, there may be limitations in handling very large workloads without purchasing additional product options.

Stability

Some users have expressed concerns about its current stability, mentioning disturbances in the Zena server when a policy change occurs on a server. However, others have praised its stability, mentioning that it rarely experiences issues and can support high availability. There have been instances where emergency patching was required and hopes for improved stability with the latest patch.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Rocket Zena Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Insurance Company

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Educational Organization

Retailer

Non Profit

Healthcare Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

University

Construction Company

Logistics Company

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Transportation Company

Legal Firm

Pharma/Biotech Company

Media Company

Comms Service Provider

Training & Coaching Company

Compare Rocket Zena with alternative products

Learn more about Rocket Zena

Zena gives you the power to simplify management of complex cross-platform processes while making it easier to manage challenging hybrid IT operations environments. It speeds time-to-market while reducing the ongoing total cost of ownership associated with workload automation and enterprise application processing.

With Zena, IT leaders have the power to visualize and manage the execution of thousands of workloads across end-to-end Operational processes, while increasing the quality, velocity, and efficiency of their delivery.

Rocket Zena Features

Rocket Zena offers the following features:

Optimization of process flows: Rocket Zena allows you to optimize complex business process flows across your hybrid IT infrastructure, spanning from mainframe to cloud. It provides full visibility into your operations processes end-to-end.
Simplification of operations: The solution simplifies the management of complex cross-platform processes, making it easier to handle challenging hybrid IT operations environments.
Advanced workload automation: Rocket Zena offers advanced workload automation capabilities for operations. It reduces manual intervention, system downtime, and processing errors by enabling you to define processes and tasks that are repeatable.
Visualization and management of workloads: IT staff can visualize and manage the execution of thousands of workloads across end-to-end operational processes. It enhances the quality, velocity, and efficiency of delivery.
Maximize workload automation flexibility: Zena features a graphical process whiteboard for task definition, minimizing redundant definitions and maximizing flexibility in designing workflows.
Integration with ease and at scale: The solution seamlessly integrates workload management on multiple platforms and facilitates the integration of critical applications with newer technologies, eliminating manual scripting and reducing overall costs.
Centralized scheduling management: It enables centralized scheduling management through a console with dashboard capabilities. Zena provides predefined and customizable views and reports to meet individual user needs.
Production statistics and reports: Zena simplifies monitoring and intervention by providing customizable dashboards. It offers drill-down capability to quickly navigate to problem areas and take necessary action.
Improved operational excellence: The solution helps optimize business process flows through advanced workload automation, increasing productivity and scalability. It also reduces operational complexity and ensures high process completion by automating complex processes with reliability and repeatability.
Integration with applications and platforms: Zena connects with a range of applications and platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Docker, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Micro Focus, SAP, PeopleSoft, and more, allowing seamless integration within your workflows.
DevOps and value stream management: Users have access to design-time configuration of DevOps value streams, enables the use of variables for reusable and customized workflows, and provides monitoring and management of run-time execution of value streams.
Branching and condition management: Zena allows specifying critical branching for tasks with infinite conditions to ensure automation flows meet business requirements.
Mainframe and hybrid cloud support: The solution has the capability to span mainframe to cloud environments, distributing work across the entire IT ecosystem, including hybrid cloud environments and sysplex awareness on mainframes.

Rocket Zena Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Rocket Zena are:

Optimization of operational business flows
Simplification of complex cross-platform processes
Reduction of manual intervention, system downtime, and processing errors
Speeding up time-to-market
Lowering the total cost of ownership associated with workload automation
Enhanced visibility and management of workloads across end-to-end operational processes
Maximizing workload automation flexibility
Seamless integration with multiple platforms and applications
Centralized scheduling management with customizable views and reports
Improved operational excellence and reliability
Reviews from Real Users

Akash Vishwakarma, a RPA Developer at a consultancy observes: "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."

Gus Calero, a Sr. IT Product Manager at a healthcare company shares his 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.”

Bridgette Friedman, a System administrator at a wholesaler shares her experience: "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 useful."