Chef vs. ActiveBatch Workload Automation
Chef and ActiveBatch Workload Automation are both enterprise-grade scheduling solutions. Both platforms provide cross-platform automation (Windows, Linux, UNIX, and more) and programmatic interfaces for managing the automation environment (like provisioning systems, configuration management, and more.) However, ActiveBatch excels in the area of end-to-end workflow orchestration, workflow visualization, resource optimization, and overall ease of use and access.
One of the most notable differences is in accessing the environment. While ActiveBatch does support programmatic interfaces, it offers several intuitive user interfaces to automate workflows, including on-premises thick clients for seamless DevOps, web interfaces, mobile applications, and self-service portals for help desks and business users.
ActiveBatch's primary Console and Web Console support low-code job assembly using drag-and-drop workflow actions, and unified monitoring of all workflows, systems, and service levels. ActiveBatch also offers innovative intelligence features that use historical and predictive analytics to optimize and dynamically scale IT infrastructure to meet real-time demands. Plus, self-documenting workflows, unified security, auditing, version control, and change management provide the core tenants for continuous delivery and IT service and application deployment.
ActiveBatch Workload Automation
ActiveBatch is a workload automation and enterprise job scheduling system that enables IT automation teams to coordinate cross-platform processes or job chains. ActiveBatch supports script scheduling and execution of any programming language, from Python to PowerShell, and Ruby to legacy scripts.
ActiveBatch also supports low-code connections to API endpoints for tools without direct integration, like Ansible or Google Cloud, and can perform command line functions for ultimate flexibility. So anything you might have already downloaded from GitHub, including open source job schedulers, can be consolidated into ActiveBatch if it can’t be outright replaced.
ActiveBatch readily integrates with virtually every solution and technology on the market, including:
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All major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, UNIX, and IBM iSeries AS/400
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Other schedulers, including cron and Windows Task Scheduler
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Configuration management tools like Microsoft System Center apps
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Numerous vendors, with prebuilt integrations for Informatica, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, VMware, Amazon (AWS), Apache Hadoop ecosystem, and more
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Multiple back-end databases like SQL Server, Azure SQL, and Oracle DBs
With ActiveBatch's powerful workload automation and job scheduling capabilities, IT teams can automate and orchestrate cross-platform workflows that:
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Provide data in real-time
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Use load balancing to reduce wait times
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Perform enterprise file transfers that support FTP, SFTP (SSH), or FTPS (TLS)
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Execute database procedures and integrate with ETL and data warehousing applications
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Include alerts and self-remediation
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Provision resources and manage cloud and virtual infrastructure
Other programmatic schedulers and management software: Puppet Enterprise / Puppet Agent, Jenkins, Saltstack, CFEngine