HCL Workload Automation vs Tidal by Redwood comparison

HCLSoftware and Tidal Software by Redwood are both solutions in the Workload Automation category. HCLSoftware is ranked #23, while Tidal Software by Redwood is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.6. HCLSoftware holds a 2.4% mindshare in WA, compared to Tidal Software by Redwood’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of HCLSoftware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Tidal Software by Redwood users who would recommend it.

HCL Workload Automation

Read 1 HCL Workload Automation review

769 Views
641 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Tidal by Redwood

Read 37 Tidal by Redwood reviews

2,585 Views
1,090 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

HCL Workload Automation

Tidal by Redwood

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Tidal by Redwood and HCL Workload Automation compete in workload automation. HCL Workload Automation has the upper hand due to its robust feature set, though Tidal by Redwood offers competitive pricing and ease of deployment.

Features: Tidal by Redwood provides an intuitive interface for automation, strong integration capabilities, and detailed analytics. HCL Workload Automation offers comprehensive automation features including advanced scheduling, dynamic workload placement, and seamless cloud integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tidal by Redwood delivers straightforward deployment with responsive customer service, resulting in easier onboarding. HCL Workload Automation, while more complex to deploy, is supported by extensive documentation and a global customer support network.

Pricing and ROI: Tidal by Redwood presents a cost-effective setup with quick ROI, ideal for budget-conscious organizations. HCL Workload Automation requires a higher initial investment but promises substantial long-term ROI through its extensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Workload Automation Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Workload Automation

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

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

HCL Workload Automation

Ranking in Workload Automation

23rd

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tidal by Redwood

Ranking in Workload Automation

6th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Workload Automation category, the mindshare of HCL Workload Automation is 2.4%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tidal by Redwood is 3.9%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Workload Automation

Featured Reviews

reviewer1418508

Subject Matter Expert at DXC Technology

Easy to set up, good support, and helps to decrease project costs

With the mainframe environment that we have, it is more similar to the HCL migration, or the workload scheduler. We also like the CWHC utilities; they are more current and under the umbrella of HCL. It reduces project risks. Easy to set up, it doesn't require a lot. You can start working immediately. Migration is increased while it decreases the cost of the project.

Read full review

Steve Mikula

IT Scheduling Manager at Paychex, Inc.

Very reliable processing engine, and scheduling is flawless—crucial elements in our financial transaction processing

Because we've been on it for 20 years, it's pretty easy for us to automate jobs with Tidal at this point. It has become second nature. It's pretty simplistic to set up and get going, although there are different levels of complexity you can have within the product. It depends on how simple you want to keep it. If you just keep it: Job A, Job B, Job C, Job D, that becomes pretty simple. But when you start integrating some complex calendars that use sub-calendars—and you can go three, four, or five deep to set up schedules—it becomes more complicated. The beauty of it is you can go as deep as you need to. We can get really complex or we can keep it simple. We have some use cases for both scenarios. The thing that I like the most is the reliability of the engine. The actual scheduling part of the product is pretty much flawless, but the stability of the product is what I find to be reassuring. We are a financial company, we move billions of dollars a day, and if we don't have our transactions processed in a timely manner we can be penalized and our clients can be penalized. It can have a serious financial impact.

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

"Easy to set up, it doesn't require a lot."

"Tidal integrates with other third-party systems, which makes it easy to connect and exchange data."

"Tidal helps administrators and users to see the information that is relevant to them in that single pane of glass. They can see jobs running, they can see job history, and they can see job progression. If you look at alternatives like Airflow and clouds, you'd have to design your own UI to monitor the progress of the different jobs that you've created in Airflow. So Tidal is huge for us."

"Tidal Automation offers extensive monitoring and reporting features that let users keep track of the status of their workflows and quickly spot any problems."

"The best feature is that it allows task scheduling based on particular occurrences, like the receipt of files, database updates, or system notifications."

"We use the solution for cross-platform, cross-application workloads. The solution’s ability to manage and monitor these workloads is very easy and accurate. We have file dependencies for running jobs. The job does not start until a file exists on a completely different server, then where the job will run. So, it is cross systems."

"The thing that I like the most is the reliability of the engine. The actual scheduling part of the product is pretty much flawless, but the stability of the product is what I find to be reassuring."

"We use the solution for cross-platform, cross-application workloads. That's the biggest use for us and that's the biggest advantage."

"From a management standpoint, when using the solution for cross-platform, cross-application workloads, I've never had a problem with the application. It's very interactive, especially with the different security levels that they offer."

More Tidal by Redwood pros

Cons

"The interface needs some improvements."

"Understanding and using Tidal Automation could be overwhelming for someone with minimal programming language."

"I'm still hoping with Explorer to be able to see end-to-end job streams. That's not really something that's easy to see today in the web client. However, I haven't worked with Explorer yet. One of the things that we have found frustrating is not being able to see an end-to-end job stream across multiple applications within Tidal. We use jobs for that right now, but I have high hopes that we'll be able to see that in Explorer."

"One of the weaknesses of the product is, when something happens, it's difficult to find out the root cause. There are a lot of logs you can take a look at in Tidal. Sometimes, they are useful, but other times, they're not. That is mostly relegated to the administrative team. Users for the most part don't see that and don't know anything about that. They just know they have a problem, then it's up to the administrative team to see what happened and figure out the problem."

"We've had some quirky stuff happen on an occasional basis where a job does not take off. For example, a job we expected to be finished by 3:00 a.m. is sitting there and not executing when we come in in the morning. We have to go all the way back to the dependencies and then we can see that one of the dependencies has become unscheduled, for some reason. No changes were made to the schedule but this prerequisite job has, all of a sudden, become unscheduled. I have brought this up with Tidal's support but they have never had an answer for it."

"I would like more involvement with the cloud."

"The user interface is the place that needs the most work. If and when we find issues with the product, they are usually in that area. If I had to choose, that's where I'd want issues, as opposed to in the engine. But the UI is average. It's a little sluggish at times and there are some bugs in it."

"One thing I would like to see improved is that, currently, when an action is executed and finishes in Tidal, it's marked as either "success" or "failure." I would like more options that would flag a job according to multiple options, rather than just "good" or bad"... Tidal has told us that it's possible to do so through the product or with a workaround."

"Some users have complained that the initial setup process is complicated and time-consuming, while others have suggested that the software could offer more freedom in customizing processes."

More Tidal by Redwood cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Our yearly licensing costs are between $10,000 to $20,000. They have always been reasonable with us. I like that non-production licensing is about half the cost of production licensing. Licensing is by adapter typically. We have had scenarios where we have had to take an adapter from one environment to another, and they've allowed us to do that. They have made it a very reasonable process. There's definitely a feeling that they will work with you."

"They work with you on licensing. So, it has been great. Everybody has different licensing, but I've had good luck with the licensing. They've been very accommodating. You basically need to buy a license for each physical server, but then you're allowed an unlimited number of virtual servers."

"The pricing is pretty reasonable. That seems to help a lot versus other companies. There are no other fees aside from the standard licensing fees. There are other products out there where you pay based on how many jobs you run and so on, and I know that's very frustrating for users."

"We've been able to purchase more adapters because the cost of the product has been very reasonable."

"...it is a pretty affordable scheduler tool that lets us do a lot. You get a lot of bang for the buck... The licensing model is hugely flexible."

"There have been pricing increases, but with the reduction that our company obtained from Tidal this year, the pricing has become very acceptable for this type of product."

"We think the pricing is very fair. We have been happy with the pricing compared to some of the other solutions in the space."

"Their pricing seems very fair. It is more than the other solutions, but the functionality and the support are very much there. You pay for the job scheduler, and then they have certain things that are built into it, such as the FTP processes. If you then want to do JD Edwards jobs, you need an adapter. If you want to do SQL jobs, there is another adapter. Similarly, if you want to do Oracle jobs, there is an adapter. It is like there is the base and then there are the adapters for the jobs that you want to do, but it seems that's also how they pay for each of those adapters and keep them up to date."

More Tidal by Redwood pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Workload Automation solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Insurance Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What do you like most about Tidal Automation?

Tidal Automation by Redwood is a user-friendly solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tidal Automation?

The price is reasonable in terms of the product’s functionality.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tidal Automation?

Initially, it is complicated to understand the functionalities as there is limited product documentation. The setup and configuration of the software is a bit complicated. Providing the training vi...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Workload Automation vs HCL Workload Automation

Compared 62% of the time

Control-M vs HCL Workload Automation

Compared 28% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs HCL Workload Automation

Compared 5% of the time

Automic Automation vs HCL Workload Automation

Compared 4% of the time

More HCL Workload Automation Competitors

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs Tidal by Redwood

Compared 44% of the time

Control-M vs Tidal by Redwood

Compared 23% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs Tidal by Redwood

Compared 7% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs Tidal by Redwood

Compared 7% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs Tidal by Redwood

Compared 5% of the time

More Tidal by Redwood Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Workload Automation

April 2025

Download HCL Workload Automation product report

Buyer's Guide

Tidal by Redwood

April 2025

Download Tidal by Redwood product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tidal Workload Automation, Cisco Workload Automation, Tidal Enterprise Scheduler

Overview

HCL Workload Automation manages complex workflows, enabling efficient job scheduling and monitoring, essential for companies needing robust task automation.

HCL Workload Automation is designed to streamline tasks, handle large data volumes, ensure timely execution of processes, and integrate applications seamlessly. It is crucial for improving operational efficiency and reducing manual intervention. Users value its scheduling capabilities, integration flexibility, and performance. The tool's advanced features for monitoring and reporting enhance task management efficiency. Its reliability and scalability are key strengths. However, users note that it could benefit from enhanced reporting, simplified configuration, improved documentation, and better technical support response times. Optimization for resource utilization would also boost performance levels.

What are the key features of HCL Workload Automation?

Scheduling Capabilities: Flexible job scheduling to meet diverse automation needs.
Integration: Seamless integration with various applications and systems.
Performance: Robust performance in managing workloads efficiently.
Monitoring and Reporting: Advanced capabilities for monitoring and analytics.
Scalability: Reliable and scalable to handle growing demands.

What benefits should you consider when reviewing HCL Workload Automation?

Operational Efficiency: Streamlines tasks and reduces manual intervention.
Time Management: Ensures timely execution of processes.
Data Handling: Capable of managing large volumes efficiently.
Reduced Error Rates: Automates tasks to minimize human error.
Flexibility and Integration: Handles various applications seamlessly.

HCL Workload Automation is implemented in industries that require efficient job scheduling and monitoring, such as finance, healthcare, and IT services. It helps streamline processes, manage high volumes of data, and integrate with critical applications, ensuring operational efficiency. Different industries use it for automating repetitive tasks and enhancing productivity.

HCLSoftware

Tidal Software is a leading provider of enterprise workload automation solutions that orchestrate the execution of complex workflows across systems, applications and IT environments. With a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, Tidal optimizes mission-critical business processes, increases IT cost efficiencies and satisfies legal and regulatory compliance requirements. Hundreds of customers around the world count on Tidal for modernizing their workload automation and driving their digital transformation. Tidal Software is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Houston, London, Minsk, Belarus and Chennai, India. For more information, visit tidalsoftware.com.

Tidal Software by Redwood

Find out what your peers are saying about BMC, Broadcom, Redwood Software and others in Workload Automation. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best Workload Automation vendors.

We monitor all Workload Automation reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.