Universal Automation Center

We use Stonebranch  for our enterprise workload automation and orchestration because we are a fintech, and all of the data we have, all of the application-related jobs, and all of our automated workflows are managed through Stonebranch .

What I appreciate about Stonebranch is mainly the UI experience, which is easy to use and allows for user-friendly creation of all tasks and workflows, along with lightweight agents and easy-to-use integrations.

The benefits of integrating Stonebranch with third-party applications include having observability ITSM  tools to audit and resolve critical job failures, the ability to automate tasks through REST APIs for COTS products, and using orchestration for self-remediation or diagnostics, making it versatile for various repetitive tasks beyond just batch jobs.

Stonebranch's workload automation with cross-environment job dependencies has streamlined our processes significantly, as we operate in a multi-cloud environment with existing data centers. The orchestration acts as a controller, facilitating communication across systems without needing individual systems to talk to each other, thus easing orchestration processes whether in a single or multi-environment.

Stonebranch's compliance and security features play a crucial role in our workload automation from a governance perspective, as we are a fintech that needs to monitor controls to prevent potential SLA breaches when jobs are delayed.

The key benefits of using Stonebranch that improve our organization's functionality include the numerous integrations provided by Stonebranch that continue to get updated, the flexible licensing model that can yield significant benefits through Enterprise License Agreements, allowing for many features to be bundled within a single solution, and positive impacts on upgrade processes, vulnerability remediation, and the responsive support from our Customer Success Manager.

From an improvement perspective, since everything is moving towards the cloud and AI, the integrations with Stonebranch need to be accelerated. Stonebranch does provide SDKs for building our own integrations, but they need to enhance this further as the market evolves.

A few features we would like to see included in Stonebranch are improvements to reporting capabilities, specifically the ability to pull an entire workflow into a single report seamlessly. Stonebranch has mentioned they are developing a new solution called the reporting database to address these limitations.

I have been working with Stonebranch for the last four years.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the tech support and customer service of Stonebranch around eight or nine.

Before Stonebranch, we used Broadcom's AutoSys and several other individual schedulers including the Windows Task Scheduler, cron job, Visual Cron, and Ab Initio Control Center, among many more.

The initial setup of Stonebranch was challenging because it was not widely known in the market. However, through professional services, Stonebranch helped train our team and facilitated the migration process. While the migration did have challenges, Stonebranch was able to fix issues that arose during the migration.

We have seen a return on investment with Stonebranch, as the centralization of all jobs has reduced overall efforts, although it is not directly equating to a cost reduction. We are meeting our audit requirements and are close to achieving full ROI.

In evaluating other solutions before choosing Stonebranch, we assessed at least twelve to thirteen market products and finally  considered three solutions: Stonebranch, JAMS  Scheduler, and a Redwood product, among a few others.

The key differences between Stonebranch and the Redwood solution or JAMS  Scheduler include the fact that some solutions did not support our Solaris environment, cost factors, technical capabilities, compliance with our fintech regulations and policies, and resource utilization. We needed lightweight agents versus heavy ones running across our systems, which helped us select features that meet ninety to ninety-five percent of our requirements.

Based on my experience with Stonebranch, I would advise other organizations to find value in their customer-friendly approach that supports necessary customizations. During our extensive nine-month proof of concept, the support and service provided after the sale has remained high, ensuring we got what we needed even post-implementation.

Overall, I would rate Stonebranch as a product or solution an eight out of ten. I believe Stonebranch needs to expand further into the infrastructure automation space.