Automic Automation, now officially named Broadcom Automation, offers capabilities for automating IT processes and workloads across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments. However, businesses have several alternatives to evaluate based on their specific requirements, environments, and use cases when selecting a workload automation (WLA) platform.
This analysis provides an in-depth comparison of the top Automic competitors—detailing functionality, strengths and limitations, and ideal implementations for each.
Evaluating Key Criteria for Workload Automation Platforms
Here is a high-level overview of key evaluation criteria to consider around workload automation solutions:
Automation Capabilities
- Support for visual workflow design and orchestration
- Event-driven automation triggering
- Integration with third party monitoring, analytics, ITSM tools
- Availability of templates, pre-built workflows, reusable components
Scalability & Resilience
- Distributed, fault tolerant execution engine
- Ability to handle increasing execution volumes without disruption
- On-premise, multi/hybrid cloud deployment options
Ease of Use & Learning Curve
- Intuitive drag-and-drop workflow designer
- Options to build automation without coding expertise
- Ramp up time for both administrators and end users
Analytics & Reporting
- Real time insights into job execution
- Historical views for optimization
- Performance benchmarking capabilities
Licensing Flexibility & TCO
- Perpetual license vs annual subscription models
- Additional fees for maintenance, support, managed services
- On premises vs SaaS/cloud options
Carefully evaluating solutions against these criteria enables IT leaders to select the best fit WLA platform based on infrastructure needs, team capabilities, and cost.
Comparing Automic Automation to Leading Competitors
Here is an overview comparing Automic Automation to top alternative workload automation platforms on key aspects:
| Automic Automation | ActiveBatch | RunMyJobs | Stonebranch | Tidal Workload Automation | OpCon | |
| Workflow Design | Scripting-based | Visual drag & drop | Visual drag & drop | Visual drag & drop | Wizard-based | Mostly coding |
| Scheduling Capabilities | Advances options | Wide range | Broad flexibility | Enterprise-grade | End-to-end control | Very robust |
| Alerting & Monitoring | Lacking | Solid | Average | Strong | Average | Strong |
| Reporting & Analytics | Average | Advanced | Basic | Very strong | Average | Average |
| Resilience Capabilities | High | High | Very high | High | High | Very high |
| Learning Curve | Steep | Intermediate | Easy | Steep | Easy | Steep |
Delving deeper, here is an overview of Automic Automation and a detailed analysis of the top alternative WLA platforms:
Automic Automation Overview
Automic Automation (Broadcom Automation) provides extensive controls for highly customized automation tuned to an organizations‘ specific environment.
Use Cases: Workload automation, job scheduling, IT monitoring/event management
Key Strengths:
- Supports both Windows and UNIX environments
- Extensive pre-built components and templates accelerate builds
- Broad application and platform integration ecosystem
- Integrates with leading DevOps toolchains
- On premises and SaaS deployment options
Limitations:
- Steep learning curves for developers and users
- Unintuitive visualization and interface
- Weak troubleshooting and alerting capabilities
- Lacking native business process modelling capabilities
For teams willing to invest in ramp up and customization, Automic delivers highly capable workload automation. But it falls short on usability compared to competitors.
Detailed Analysis of Top Automic Competitors
1. ActiveBatch
ActiveBatch by Redwood offers advanced workload automation providing centralized orchestration across platforms.
Use Cases: Application release automation, enterprise job scheduling, cloud workload management, ETL pipeline orchestration
Key Strengths
- Centralized control for automating tasks across almost any platform
- Low code drag and drop designer enables citizen developers to build workflows
- Scalable to handle increasing workload volumes
- Comprehensive automation analytics and dashboards
- Available both on premises and SaaS
Limitations
- Steep learning curve to utilize full capabilities
- Building custom integrations with external systems can be complex
- Less granular control compared to scripting-based tools
ActiveBatch matches much of Automic’s cross-platform capabilities while enabling more user-friendly automation design. It provides better ease of use overall though may lack some deeper custom controls.
2. Redwood RunMyJobs
RunMyJobs focuses on resilient automation for business-critical production workloads.
Use Cases: Enterprise job scheduling, business process automation, analytics pipeline orchestration
Key Strengths:
- Create visual workflows with an intuitive drag-and-drop designer
- Scale automated processes across systems without disruption
- Inbuilt fault tolerance provides resilient execution
- Easy integration across cloud and on-premises landscape
- Available as a SaaS platform
Limitations:
- Light on advanced workload analytics and reporting
- Third party tools required for comprehensive alerting
- Less flexible compared to code-based approaches
RunMyJobs simplifies building automated processes connecting disparate systems with a focus on resilience over customizability.
3. Stonebranch
Stonebranch Universal Automation Center delivers centralized orchestration for IT process automation.
Use Cases: Workload automation, task orchestration, cloud workload management
Key Strengths:
- Drag-and-drop designer to visualize cross-system workflows
- Unified console controlling automation across environments
- Real-time automation analytics and drill-down reporting
- Extensive pre-built integrations across technologies
- Open automation exchange enables community sharing
Limitations:
- Steep learning curve for optimally leveraging capabilities
- Visual workflow representations can be unclear
- Limited support for resilient process restart logic
Stonebranch provides advanced capabilities through pre-built integrations across platforms and tools. However, it has usability issues and a steeper ramp up relative to options like ActiveBatch.
4. Tidal Workload Automation
Tidal Workload Automation (TWA) is designed to streamline IT process orchestration.
Use Cases: Enterprise job scheduling, cross-platform batch processing, ETL pipeline orchestration
Key Strengths:
- Visual workflow design without coding
- Event-based automation triggering
- Agentless architecture simplifies deployment
- Scalable distributed execution engine
- Real-time monitoring and alerts
Limitations:
- Light on historical analytics and reporting
- Job failure alerting needs improvement
- UI not as intuitive as some competitors
Tidal Workload Automation focuses on high-level orchestration capabilities but has room for improvement around analytics and ease-of-use. It balances automation power against approachability.
5. OpCon
OpCon from SMA Technologies specializes in resilient enterprise-grade workload automation.
Use Cases: Workload automation, job scheduling, business process orchestration
Key Strengths:
- Broad platform support including mainframe
- Complex event-processing drives workflows
- Integrates with email, file transfers, APIs
- Scalable for maximum resilience
- Available on premises or cloud hosted
Limitations:
- Challenging learning curve for administrators
- Weak workflow visualization capabilities
OpCon delivers industrial-grade scalable automation with unique event-driven orchestration. But it suffers from usability issues compared to alternatives.
Comparing Workload Automation Solutions
Beyond the highest rated options covered above, IT leaders have dozens of workload automation tools to choose from.
The digital transformation era with dynamic IT environments demands that companies maximize automation to optimize costs, accelerate deployments, and keep up with the pace of business.
Here we analyze the business impact of workload automation and benefits of leveraging the latest solutions:
The Cost of Manual Workflows
Many organizations still handle IT processes like application deployments, job scheduling, data pipelines with highly manual efforts. This incurs significant costs in terms of:
- Lower IT productivity – too many hours spent on repetitive tasks rather than innovation
- Increased business risk – reliance on error-prone manual hand-offs between teams and systems
- Lack of scalability – inability to handle increasing workloads without major resource expansion
The Benefits of Modern Automation
Transitioning from manual efforts to automated workflow platforms provides major improvements:
- IT productivity gains – reduce manual hours for repetitive tasks by 80% or more
- Risk and outage minimization – cut downtimes from human errors by over 60%
- Scalability – handle 2-3x increases in workloads without added headcount
- Compliance – meet security, governance, and auditing policies more easily
- Higher performance – accelerate execution timelines by 30-50%
These gains highlight why automation is mandatory for any high velocity IT organization looking to meet business needs cost effectively while minimizing risks.
Key Trends in Workload Automation
The WLA landscape continues to rapidly evolve as companies automate more of their tech stack. Key trends shaping the market include:
- Hybrid cloud adoption – fuels demand for unified automation across on-prem, cloud environments
- AI-driven automation – self-optimizing workflows based on analytics and machine learning
- Rise of containers and microservices – requiring updated orchestration capabilities
- Event-driven automation – triggering actions based on real-time signals vs schedules
Top workload automation vendors are quickly building capabilities in these areas while allowing customers to unify next-gen innovations with legacy platforms.
Final Recommendations and Best Practices
In summary, leading Automic competitors like ActiveBatch, RunMyJobs, and Tidal TWA provide more user-friendly automation orchestration paired with enterprise-grade scalability.
There are many workload automation solutions to evaluate based on distinct environments, use cases, and challenges.
Here are best practices to identify the top options and make the right selection:
- Document detailed requirements and ideal outcomes
- Reach out to top vendors for custom demo and sandbox access
- Speak with peer references leveraging solutions in similar industries
- Prioritize ease of use, support availability, and TCO
- Check analysts reports from Gartner, Forrester Wave for alternatives
- Factor in capabilities roadmap and global presence
While Automic provides advanced controls, for many customers alternatives like ActiveBatch or Tidal TWA may prove easier to leverage and extend over time. But organizations should thoroughly evaluate multiple competing solutions against their specific needs.
With the pace of technology change accelerating, and business demands growing, IT automation is no longer an option but a requirement. Workload automation solutions give teams the capabilities, control and productivity boost critical for success in the digital age.
