Control-M vs VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator comparison

Control-M vs. VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

JAMS

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Workload Automation category, the mindshare of JAMS is 2.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Control-M is 13.8%, down from 25.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator is 1.0%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Workload Automation Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Control-M	13.8%
JAMS	2.8%
VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator	1.0%
Other	82.4%

Workload Automation

Featured Reviews

reviewer2770605

Cloud Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Has streamlined complex job scheduling across scripting languages while reducing manual effort

JAMS could be improved with a web client that is accessible and as fast as a normal website, eliminating the need to RDP to the servers to access the JAMS client. A functionality running on the JAMS server to continuously check the JAMS agents would ensure they are working properly. If an agent is not responding, a feature to restart the service from the job server machine would be beneficial. The upgrade process, particularly when switching from V6 to V7, could be clearer in terms of documentation, ideally with screenshots showing exactly what needs to be done on each screen.

Read full review

Raj Pattni

Batch Admin at NBC Universal

Brings data together from multiple platforms and optimizes cross-environment orchestration

The features of Control-M that I like the most include the ability to easily integrate or bring in different platforms into Control-M. For instance, AWS, mainframe, TWS, and something that's running on Autosys can all be brought into Control-M, converted to how Control-M runs it, and then the batch can be executed. This centralizes various applications in Control-M, which doesn't just have to handle batch processes, but also other tasks like reporting on required data. I find this functionality very useful and the setup is impressive, with more advancements yet to come. With Control-M, my company has achieved several measurable improvements since I started. The metrics indicate that the number of failures has dropped, and we have addressed the issue of excessive false alerts that I encountered when I joined. Previously, we received an overwhelming number of alerts daily, but now we manage to maintain that at a normalized level, perhaps around five to fifteen alerts, depending on running core batches and their setup.

Read full review

Mayank-Goyal

Senior Technical Consultant at MBCOM

Have streamlined multi-cloud provisioning and reduced virtual machine delivery time from days to hours

In terms of Orchestrator as a tool there is a lot of room for improvement, specifically in being more developer-friendly though it has come a long way. From that perspective, certain modern features are missing, especially when compared to developer tools such as Visual Studio Code or other code editors. That's essential, considering it's the primary development tool for VMware. In terms of Automation, there should be more features that align with what public cloud interfaces can provide. Not everyone is a developer; therefore, if they can offer out-of-the-box features for the most common scenarios that customers need, it would be highly beneficial for end users.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We also use the solution’s Interactive Agents. If we need to push something to our dealer portal, we can just drop a file in a folder and it goes. Running interactive tasks helps me users focus on business processes since I don’t have to take care of running the jobs manually."

"Our company is based on data. Everything we do is data-driven, so it has been very valuable having one place where we can process all of the data and do batch schedules with chunks of data."

"The interface is good, and it's very easy to define and create jobs. If a job is not running or there is an error, the solution will send an email. That's all very good and very useful."

"Being able to create a series of chained jobs, which are basically linked jobs is valuable."

"The user-friendly and adaptable scheduler allows us to manage various scheduling scenarios."

"We looked at other companies, like VisualCron, that were cheaper, but one of the main sticking points was the fact that they wouldn't have provided a central location for us to monitor across all servers. That was one of the biggest selling points of JAMS."

"It has definitely drastically improved our capabilities to scale our automation. Before JAMS, there were a lot of manual processes. We had a couple of operators who spent all day doing that. A lot of the time with human intervention and human processes, it is as good as the person who may be following a procedure and human error is a big problem."

"The most valuable feature of JAMS is its user-friendly interface, especially after upgrading from version six to seven."

More JAMS pros

"The GUI is good if I'm comparing it to other scheduling products."

"I can say around twenty to twenty-five percent productivity increase has been realized, and even the margins have been increased, and I can see at least fifteen to twenty percent of the company's revenue has been increased at the infrastructure level by using Control-M."

"The solution has the power to reduce resources, which is good for business. It is constantly updated to remain compatible with new technologies such as Amazon, Azure, and Google Cloud. It's very easy to take advantage of the compatibilities."

"Unlike the batch controls of other solutions, BMC includes a graphical user interface (GUI)."

"We value Control-M mainly for the ability to control multiple nodes in a coordinated manner. Control-M has the ability to really coordinate across a lot of nodes."

"BIM is a good tool to monitor SLAs, and being a financial organization, this is a very good feature for us."

"The Automation API has opened up a world of possibilities for us, including the ability to create workflows on-demand using traditional DevOps tools."

"Control-M is excellent when it comes to building, scheduling, managing, and monitoring production workflows. Those workflows are of very high importance to our operations."

More Control-M pros

"Primarily, customers are looking for workflows and day-to-day actions, as well as advanced templates."

"The best features of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator include peace of mind and lesser complexity; simplicity is crucial, and there is no complexity in the system."

"Primarily, customers are looking for workflows and day-to-day actions, as well as advanced templates."

"With automation, I can provision a virtual machine in just one to two hours; this is a drastic improvement."

Cons

"JAMS has built-in reporting. I've never really used it. I tried using it a few years ago and I couldn't figure it out. It was wonky. It could be improved upon."

"The monitoring of the JAMS product and its performance is an area of concern for me."

"If there were a softcover book on how to really take advantage of all of JAMS' tools, I would buy it. I do better with training books than online searching, so a book would be helpful."

"The search capability needs to be improved because when we try to search for a job, it's hard to do."

"The client is horrible. Every time JAMS puts out a survey on what they can improve, I always say, "The client: When you are setting up jobs, it is quite horrible." The response has been, "Well, we are just using the Windows foundation," and I am like, "Why isn't it only your product?" We can get around it now that we know its quirks, but it is not the most user-friendly of tools out there. The UI is completely unintuitive. We had to go and open up a support ticket with JAMS just to get something back. It is not user-friendly at all."

"With no programming experience, I find JAMS code-driven automation challenging due to the required PowerShell scripting."

"JAMS notifications for hung jobs could be improved."

"The UI could be better. There were some things that were not quite intuitive, such as the search tool. When we tried to search for jobs, we had to clear the entire search and then go in and enter the new search query. That's something that wasn't intuitive for a new user."

More JAMS cons

"I would love to see REST API integration and more plugins for Google Cloud Platform compared to AWS and Azure."

"Its cost can be more competitive. One of the main things customers look at is the cost. It's not affordable. The cost is very high, according to my customers."

"With the current version update, I'm not sure why we needed a separate database upgrade. Why not put it all in one package? Previously, you could do it either via a manual upgrade or an in-place upgrade but it wasn't separate."

"Another aspect that always bothered me, as an administrator, was the Old bug out-New bug in conundrum regarding compatibility of the tool when a new version/FixPack was installed."

"One thing we have criticized is the MFTE capabilities, particularly regarding high availability. BMC hasn't provided a setup with multiple fallbacks for error situations."

"Implementing it is not straightforward. It requires careful installation, customization, and configuration."

"Control-M should receive more notice when it releases new features. The user interface is also a bit complex, and the navigation should be streamlined."

"If I had to note one improvement, it would be that jobs already in the system for a given day could be updated en masse."

More Control-M cons

"I would like to see improvements related to AI integration, which could make understanding from a language perspective easier."

"There are areas of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator that have room for improvement, specifically in being more developer-friendly."

"VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator is a very solid and acceptable product, but after the transition to Broadcom, prices are very high."

"Some students, especially beginners, may find the learning curve to be steep due to a lack of requisite knowledge in backend languages like YAML, Python, or JavaScript."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortra's JAMS pricing structure has deteriorated significantly since its acquisition by Fortra."

"I haven't been involved in the financial side for several years, but we buy one host and unlimited agents, and we get a reasonable price for that. We're happy with the amount we pay and the scalability it provides."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The product is reasonably priced, and we don't have any add-ons."

"Definitely check how many single processes you want to run and count them as jobs. That is how you would work out your pricing on JAMS. For example, if you're running a number of commands and you can put them all into one script and run that script, you can count that as one job."

"All licensing models are a little overpriced, but JAMS offers a good value, especially given their support response times and ability to handle unforeseen issues like the SFTP transfers. I hope to find more use cases to get a better bang for our buck."

"There are no additional costs other than the license for Fortra's JAMS which is affordable."

"JAMS is priced competitively compared to similar solutions and offers flexible licensing options to cater to user needs."

More JAMS pricing and cost advice

"BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer has reasonable pricing. What you pay for is the task or job, and as it's a module, it's complimentary, so you save about twenty percent of the job cost."

"Its cost can be more competitive. One of the main things customers look at is the cost. It's not affordable. The cost is very high, according to my customers."

"Licensing costs are around $3000 a year."

"We have a five-year contract with task-based licensing."

"It depends. It's packaged in such a way that you can buy the base model without all of the fancy stuff. You can try and keep your price similar to competitors. I guess it's natural throughout the world. It doesn't matter whether you're buying cell phones or something else. The best cell phone will always be more expensive."

"The pricing is moderate, not too low or too high compared to other solutions."

"The pricing is reasonable. It's not an exorbitant amount. The licensing is pretty reasonable for the number of jobs that we run."

"BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is expensive."

More Control-M pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

26%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Retailer

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	38
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	151

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about JAMS?

I find the historical tracking feature of JAMS invaluable for reviewing past events.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JAMS?

My thoughts on the pricing of JAMS are that I won't say it is cheap, but it is cost-efficient, and that should be acc...

What needs improvement with JAMS?

An area that has room for improvement is related to the AWS RDS and database part, where they said that is in progres...

How does Control-M compare with AutoSys Workload Automation?

Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful b...

What do you like most about Control-M?

First of all, the shift from manual to automation has been valuable. We have a tool that can automate.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?

From what I know about pricing, I would probably put Control-M in the expensive category, but you do pay for what you...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator?

Currently, I find the pricing to be on the expensive side. After the Broadcom acquisition, the licenses skyrocketed i...

What needs improvement with VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator?

In terms of Orchestrator as a tool there is a lot of room for improvement, specifically in being more developer-frien...

What is your primary use case for VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator?

My use case for VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator or now known as VCF Operations Orchestrator which is part of VCF ...

AutoSys Workload Automation vs JAMS

Comparisons

Stonebranch vs JAMS

Compared 9% of the time

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Redwood RunMyJobs vs JAMS

Compared 8% of the time

VisualCron vs JAMS

Compared 7% of the time

Automic Automation vs JAMS

Compared 6% of the time

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AutoSys Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 11% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs Control-M

Compared 8% of the time

Stonebranch vs Control-M

Compared 6% of the time

Automic Automation vs Control-M

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 4% of the time

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Automic Automation vs VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

Compared 12% of the time

UiPath Orchestrator vs VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

Compared 12% of the time

Rocket Zena vs VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

Compared 9% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

Compared 9% of the time

OpCon vs VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Competitors

Product Reports

JAMS

Download JAMS product report

Control-M

Download Control-M product report

Workload Automation

Download VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator product report

VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator report

Also Known As

No data available

Control M, BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer, BMC Australia CTM

No data available

Interactive Demo

JAMS Software

BMC

Demo not available

Broadcom

Overview

JAMS is an automation and job scheduling solution designed for workflow optimization, catering to businesses large and small with flexible licensing and integration options.

Offering both Core and Advanced packages, JAMS supports a range of environments from small teams to large-scale operations. Its standout features include integration with platforms like PowerShell, SQL, and SAP, coupled with capabilities such as dependency management and natural language scheduling. JAMS simplifies job management, centralizes workflows, and boosts productivity with its robust automation features. Customizable workflows and insightful logging make it adaptable for diverse needs, supported by responsive customer service ensuring seamless operations.

What are JAMS's key features?

Automation & Scheduling: Flexible automation helps manage complex job schedules efficiently.
Integration: Connects seamlessly with platforms like SQL Server, SAP, and Python for diverse applications.
Centralized Job Management: A unified interface for handling thousands of jobs daily.
Dependency Management: Supports complex workflows with efficient dependency tracking.
Insightful Logging: Provides detailed logs and notifications for precise task execution.

What benefits should users look for in JAMS reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Automates repetitive tasks, freeing up resources for strategic initiatives.
Scalability: Flexible licensing models grow with business size and needs.
Efficient Workflow Automation: Streamlines job orchestration across environments.
Responsive Support: Helps ensure smooth operations with quick troubleshooting.

In industries, JAMS is employed for automating workflows and managing batch jobs. Organizations utilize it for SSIS, SQL Server tasks, file transfers, and integrating with vendor systems, achieving efficient file automation and data management. Scheduler enables precise execution of thousands of tasks daily, enhancing operational efficiency.

JAMS Software

Control-M, from BMC, provides robust orchestration capabilities for managing hybrid cloud workflows, available both on-premise and as a SaaS option. Control-M from BMC supports growing teams in automating and scheduling enterprise workload processes. Control-M serves as a versatile tool for businesses, enabling automation across diverse platforms like SAP, mainframes, and cloud environments. It simplifies job scheduling with an intuitive GUI and integrates with multiple applications and platforms. Users benefit from managed file transfers, role-based administration, and self-service portals, enhancing security and workflow management. While the platform offers comprehensive alerting, reporting, and batch impact management, feedback has highlighted areas for improvement such as more flexible job execution, enhanced reporting capabilities, and better integration with third-party tools. Additionally, licensing costs and support during upgrades are common concerns. Organizations value Control-M for its ability to facilitate secure file transfers and support business-critical operations, minimizing manual intervention and ensuring efficiency.

What are the key features of Control-M?

Automation Capabilities: Control-M automates and orchestrates workflows seamlessly across platforms.
Integration: It works with multiple applications and environments for enhanced connectivity.
Intuitive GUI: Simplifies scheduling, monitoring, and management of jobs with ease.
Managed File Transfer: Securely facilitates and manages file transfers.
Cross-Platform Support: Ensures seamless operations across various systems like SAP and mainframes.

What benefits should you look for in Control-M reviews?

Operational Reliability: Improves efficiency and SLA compliance with reliable performance.
User Autonomy: Allows self-service for various users, enhancing independence.
Security: Strengthens security with advanced administration and file management.
Cost-Effectiveness: Provides orchestrated solutions with cost considerations.
Enhanced Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks, allowing teams to focus on strategic goals.

Control-M is instrumental in industries managing complex workflows and IT operations. In finance, it offers accurate real-time data processing. Supply chain sectors benefit from its orchestration capabilities to streamline operations and minimize disruption. IT departments leverage integration capabilities to optimize workflow processes, ensuring seamless application management.

BMC

VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator is a robust workflow automation platform that simplifies and accelerates IT processes and system integration. It provides a scalable approach to automating complex IT tasks across cloud and on-premises environments.

Known for its flexibility, VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator allows users to automate repetitive tasks, streamline operations, and integrate workflows with various IT systems. This tool improves operational efficiency by enabling seamless integration of IT resources and faster deployment of applications. Designed to support extensibility, it empowers IT teams to create custom, automated workflows tailored to their infrastructure requirements.

What are the essential features of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator?

Workflow Automation: Streamlines IT processes through customizable workflows.
Scalability: Supports expanding IT environments efficiently.
Integration: Facilitates seamless connection with multiple IT systems.
Custom Workflow: Allows creation of tailored workflows to meet infrastructure requirements.
Resource Management: Provides enhanced management of IT resources through automation.

What benefits and ROI metrics should be considered?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks and enhances productivity.
Cost Savings: Leads to reduced labor costs and faster deployment of services.
Flexibility: Offers adaptability to changing IT environments with ease.
Improved Consistency: Ensures consistent execution of complex workflows.
Resource Optimization: Promotes optimal utilization of IT infrastructure.

VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator finds application in industries such as finance, healthcare, and telecommunications, allowing organizations to automate regulatory compliance, manage complex data processing, and enhance service delivery efficiency. Its capability to handle diverse tasks and integrate with existing infrastructure makes it a valuable tool for IT departments looking to optimize operations and drive innovation.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Teradata, Arconic, General Dynamics, Yum!, CVS Health, Comcast, Ghiradelli, & Boston’s Children’s Hospital

The Bank of East Asia, LINE Bank Taiwan, Coop, Air Europa, Carrefour, Itau Unibanco, Snam, Embraer, ANZ Bank, EDP, Dominio's, Tampa General Hospital, W&W Informatik GmbH, Veterans General, Up Sí Vale, Sky Italia, REWE digital GmbH, Raymond James, Railinc, Navistar, Management Science Associates, Colruyt, CARFAX, Banpara, Aspiag Service, Amadeus, AG Insurance, ING Bank Slaski

1. VMware 2. Dell Technologies 3. Cisco Systems 4. IBM 5. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 6. Microsoft 7. Oracle 8. Amazon Web Services 9. Google Cloud 10. Intel 11. Accenture 12. Fujitsu 13. Hitachi Vantara 14. NetApp 15. Red Hat 16. SAP 17. Siemens 18. T-Systems 19. Verizon 20. AT&T 21. Vodafone 22. Orange 23. BT Group 24. Deutsche Telekom 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. Samsung 28. Sony 29. Toshiba 30. Panasonic 31. LG Electronics 32. Philips

Control-M vs. VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator