Allocate is the space recovery process that's almost like automation. It puts "hooks" into a system so when files grow and shrink, and when people are creating their data, CA Allocate intercepts and fixes them in a way that there is no bend even if the user does not put the right space parameters because they don't know the data or the data just grew. It changes those space parameters so that the job doesn't bend. We can run reports after and talk to the people and tell them they can go ahead and fix their job later.
One of the biggest benefits of CA Allocate is in the cost. We initially went with BMC MainView, which is a great product and a little more user friendly than CA Allocate. But because of our good relationship with CA, we were able to mimic everything we had with BMC. Any issues we had doing that, CA collected them right away to help us.
As a space recovery product, CA Allocate helps us fix problems before they happen and then we work on them after we run a job. If somebody does not put the right space parameter, we let the job run and then we fix it after. If somebody does not optimize a data set, we run our reports after talking to these people without ever having an event waste CPU cycles.