AWS Step Functions vs IBM Business Automation Workflow comparison

AWS Step Functions vs. IBM Business Automation Workflow

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Categories and Ranking

AWS Step Functions

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Workload Automation (16th)

IBM Business Automation Wor...

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

14th

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of AWS Step Functions is 2.4%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Business Automation Workflow is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Management (BPM)

Featured Reviews

Mahender Nirwan

Software developer at TAIGLE LLC

Aug 15, 2024

Good integration with many AWS services and create a workflow to call one Lambda function after another, and other serverless features

I worked with Step Functions about a year ago for six months. Currently, I don't have any use cases for Step Functions. But overall, I was pretty amazed with it. It has great integration with many AWS services, and if you use it correctly, it could save you a ton of money. Again, it leverages AWS…

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Michael-CHUNG

Head of Platform Architecture at HSBC

Dec 29, 2023

Not a very user-friendly solution, though it provides good cost management

We use IBM Business Automation Workflow for operational workflows The most valuable feature of IBM Business Automation Workflow is cost management. IBM Business Automation Workflow is not a very user-friendly solution. It would be better if the solution provided LCNC support. IBM Business…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a scalable solution."

"It's a general solution that you can adapt to your own needs and is simple to use. We like that it can be integrated with everything in the AWS suite, and that the creation of the pipeline can be done using the graphical user interface."

"What I like the most about Amazon Step Functions is how easy it is to use."

"The number of historical events is great."

"It's Amazon, it's scalable."

"If you want to create a workflow to call one Lambda function after another, and other serverless features, it could save you a ton of money. That's for sure."

"The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky."

"AWS Step Functions acts as a high-level layer, allowing us to seamlessly integrate with microservices."

More AWS Step Functions pros

"The solution's most valuable aspect is the fact it is highly configurable. We can do configurations very easily."

"The workflow of BAW's automation is handled inside of BPM, so we can see what state it is at and how things are processing through."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Business Automation Workflow is cost management."

"The dashboards are helpful because you can display reports directly on your screen."

"IBM Business Automation Workflow provides a seamless streamlined collaboration within the organizations."

"The product is suitable for knowledge management processes."

"It provides a solution for integration orchestration. This solution is for any organization in the banking, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, and all domains and industries."

"It has integrated UI and deployment models, and it has a deep set of consultant and service provider ecosystem features."

More IBM Business Automation Workflow pros

Cons

"If AWS Step Functions keeps adding more integrations, it would be even better."

"The solution's pricing could be cheaper. It is cheaper than Airflow."

"I would like to see more data transformation features in Amazon Step Functions like additional operators and logic."

"The solution's data size limit can be improved."

"The pricing of the solution can be improved."

"Setup took about one day. We had some errors to understand in the beginning, but now everything is working good."

"It wasn't easy to understand the licensing model. It's like if you use just a little, it's cheap, but it becomes more expensive as you use more. It's like a hook that ties you inside the Amazon ecosystem. So, it creates a dependency."

"The price and support are areas with shortcomings where the solution needs to improve."

More AWS Step Functions cons

"The main improvement would be to make it easier to implement and deploy so that customers can kick it off and run quickly."

"From what I understand, in the next release they're actually going to combine all of this together as one integrated solution... If we could have one unified way to build a solution, that would really help."

"Integrating the solution with existing systems can be complicated and it needs careful planning and execution."

"The SCADA Systems are very sophisticated and have a hard time integrating with our older scales. The technical support in regards to the partner side needs some improvement."

"Improvements could be made in debugging and troubleshooting."

"The monitoring features must be improved."

"Requires a lot of customization code writing which could be reduced."

"I would definitely like to see a unified interface between the BPM side of the house and the case side of the house. Something that just seems a bit more cohesive, because right now there is sort of a disconnect between the BPM and the case side of the house. That makes it a bit of a hard sell sometimes. That is definitely first and foremost on my wish list."

More IBM Business Automation Workflow cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price is reasonable."

"The solution is expensive."

"Licensing varies by use-case."

"While it can be quite costly, it offers significant benefits for users."

"Nowadays, clients are looking at pricing as one of the major factors. For IBM products, they always think it is expensive for them. We are still educating our clients on the IBM FlexPoints licensing."

"There is still a relatively high total cost of ownership to actually implement, support, and stand up solutions."

"The solution has saved us time."

"Our license is on a three-year term."

"The product is expensive."

"When you compare with Laserfiche and M-Files, IBM is expensive."

More IBM Business Automation Workflow pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Management (BPM) solutions are best for your needs.

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813,418 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

32%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

38%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Step Functions?

The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky.

What is your primary use case for Amazon Step Functions?

What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Step Functions?

I would rate my experience with this product a ten out of ten. Step Functions obviously cannot solve every problem statement. But it makes sense for a wide range of use cases. Everything has some l...

Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?

We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...

What do you like most about IBM Business Automation Workflow?

The most valuable feature of IBM Business Automation Workflow is cost management.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Business Automation Workflow?

The product is expensive.

Camunda vs AWS Step Functions

Comparisons

Compared 44% of the time

IBM BPM vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 18% of the time

Oracle BPM vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 6% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 6% of the time

Appian vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 3% of the time

More AWS Step Functions Competitors

IBM BPM vs IBM Business Automation Workflow

Compared 39% of the time

Camunda vs IBM Business Automation Workflow

Compared 27% of the time

Apache Airflow vs IBM Business Automation Workflow

Compared 14% of the time

IBM Case Foundation vs IBM Business Automation Workflow

Compared 6% of the time

Appian vs IBM Business Automation Workflow

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Business Automation Workflow Competitors

Product Reports

AWS Step Functions

Download AWS Step Functions product report

IBM Business Automation Workflow

Download IBM Business Automation Workflow product report

Also Known As

Amazon Step Functions, Step Functions

Business Automation Workflow

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM

Overview

AWS Step Functions enables orchestration of complex workflows, parallel task execution, and seamless integration with AWS services, simplifying ETL automation and data pipeline management.

With AWS Step Functions, developers streamline task automation and ensure smooth microservices orchestration. It simplifies development and manages interdependencies, validates data, and integrates AWS services for cost-effective workflows. It offers a user-friendly graphical interface for creating pipelines, scalable parallelization via the "map" state, control over historical events, and visualization with JSON. Enhanced by a dashboard-like view, it aids in visual workflows and debugging.

What are the most valuable features?

Seamless AWS Integration: Easily integrates with the entire AWS suite for efficient workflow creation.
User-Friendly Graphical Interface: Simplifies creating and managing workflows with visual tools.
Scalable Parallelization: Utilizes the "map" state for efficient parallel processing tasks.
Control Historical Events: Manages and controls historical data and events effectively.
Visualization and Debugging: Provides a dashboard-like view to enhance understanding and debugging.

What are the benefits and ROI to look for?

Streamlined Development: Simplifies orchestration and automates task management.
Cost-Effective Workflows: Creates efficient, cost-saving workflows by integrating with AWS services.
Enhanced Data Validation: Ensures data correctness by managing interdependencies.
Automation of ETL Jobs: Automates data extraction, transformation, and loading processes seamlessly.

In specific industries such as finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, enterprises implement AWS Step Functions to manage data pipelines, orchestrate microservices, and automate complex ETL jobs. They benefit from seamless integration with AWS services, enhanced data validation, and streamlined development, resulting in efficient and cost-effective workflows tailored to their operational needs.

IBM Business Automation Workflow combines business process management and case management capabilities in one workflow solution. It integrates the capabilities of business process and case management into a single workflow offering. It unites information, process, and users to provide a 360-degree view of work to drive more successful optimized business outcomes. IBM Business Automation Workflow on Cloud provides the same capabilities that are offered in the IBM Business Automation Workflow offering, all within a ready-to-use, cloud-based environment that is hosted in IBM Cloud data centers and managed by IBM.

Sample Customers

Alpha Apps, The Guardian, SGK, Bigfinite

Key Bank, Barclays, Control€xpert, MIR Insurance Brokers, Conqord Oil

AWS Step Functions vs. IBM Business Automation Workflow