Would you like to have reduced likelihood of human error, time savings, and satisfied end users?

As your business grows, your Power Systems running IBM i grow with you. You add processors, disks, an external SAN, virtual partitions, and all of the latest technology that keeps an end user's system available. And as it expands, your system remains competitive, both in processing power and cost, with any enterprise class system in the world.

But for all of the heavy lifting you expect your IBM i system to perform, you may have overlooked it in terms of its potency as a centralized platform for enterprise scheduling. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the answer to your cross-platform scheduling headaches may be right under your nose.

Multi-Platform Problems

You may be running critical processes on the IBM i, trying to coordinate them with other platforms so that data is updated, reports are created, and files are ready to be transferred at the correct time. You may have resorted to imperfect methods like using "timer" jobs to estimate when a process will finish on one system so the data will be waiting when the database update process starts on your IBM i.

Such practices leave plenty of room for error. Timing issues and other cross-platform job scheduling problems affect your service-level agreements (SLAs) and your budget.

To avoid errors, your IBM i must be able to trigger updates when data arrives, detect when data is ready on another platform, and:

1. Control the FTP process
2. Run updates
3. Record the history for auditing purposes

A Foundation for Success

You can achieve this kind of event-based, automated scheduling with the help of enterprise job scheduling solutions like Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise from Help/Systems. However, you'll need to decide which platform will be home base for your new software, and Power Systems running IBM i is a time-tested option worth considering.

The IBM i Platform Gives You…

1. True Reliability--Depending on your business, your IBM i system may house core business applications for inventory, order processing and fulfillment, manufacturing planning, banking systems, and more—applications that may be taken for granted because they run without problems. The IBM i is so reliable that year after year it continues to play the role of unsung hero.

2. Industry-Leading Security--Its object-oriented architecture means every object on your IBM i is of a defined type and, for instance, will not allow a file-type object to morph into an executable file and infect your OS. The OS itself is essentially immune to viruses and supports Department of Defense C2-level security.

3. Scalable with Your Busines--The smallest IBM i is binary-compatible with the largest multi-core IBM i system available. You will not outgrow this system.

4. The Cream of the IBM Crop--Power Systems running IBM i are built on highly tested technology. You can host IBM i, Linux, and AIX on the same Power Systems footprint. And Power Systems have some of the lowest power consumption statistics in the industry.

5. Unbeatable Native Features--Other operating systems dream of having the kind of built-in operating system tools that make this system enterprise class:

• Security auditing
• File journaling
• Performance monitoring
• Job accounting
• File indexing (tables and views) maintained automatically
• Memory and job management that outpace Windows and UNIX

Put Enterprise Scheduling on Autopilot

Adding a third-party enterprise scheduling package to your IBM i's secure, stable framework allows you to schedule across your various server platforms from a central location, and even automate jobs with cross-platform dependencies.

By using a tool like Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise to automate your enterprise-wide scheduling from the IBM i, job processes across multiple systems and platforms can be monitored in real time, and adjustments can be made to avoid errors and delays. It will also notify you of problems and keep a log of the details.

Programs like Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise from Help/Systems bring comprehensive, event-driven scheduling to your network. It ensures your jobs run at the correct time across multiple systems, including IBM i, Windows, UNIX, and Linux.

The Verdict on IBM i

An IBM i-based enterprise job scheduling tool like Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise addresses the complexities of modern, mixed-platform environments. It offers benefits in the form of simplicity, reduced likelihood of human error, time savings, and satisfied end users. That it operates on one of the sturdiest and most secure server platforms on the planet is simply icing on the cake.

Request a free 30-day trial of Robot /SCHEDULE Enterprise.

Chuck Losinski is Director of Automation Technology for the Robot product line. He has more than 25 years of experience with IBM i systems. Chuck¹s background includes system implementation, programming, operations, and support. He is certified as an IBM System Administrator and has helped customers automate business applications from InFor, JDE Enterprise One, HBOC, RxClaim, Infinium, Jack Henry, and more.