The Great Legacy Workload Automation Escape

“You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!”

Readers of a certain age will recognize those eerie lines from the classic Eagles song “Hotel California.” While the meaning behind the tune’s lyrics has long been debated, the line quoted here is essentially about addiction. In a 1970s Hollywood rock star context, we all know what they’re singing about. Unfortunately, this sentiment is equally applicable to the (only slightly) less glamorous world of infrastructure and operations, especially when it comes to job scheduling and workload automation.

According to the “Modernize to Digitize” white paper from industry analysts Enterprise Management Associates® (EMA™), the average age of workload automation products in use is 24 years, with the oldest products first created more than 30 years ago. While they’ve been in production, many of these tools have accumulated layers of workarounds and manual fixes that add to their complexity. As a result, most of the organizations that use these outdated technologies remain firmly in the grip of a legacy addiction they believe they are unable to escape.

Trapped in the escape room

Unlike those fun escape room games where you and a group of friends work together to solve puzzles and accomplish tasks to unlock the exit, running legacy workload automation tools is like some nightmarish version of this challenge. The escape room becomes a prison. When you think you’ve solved one puzzle, another more complex one is waiting. The clues then run out and, ultimately, it feels like there is no escape.

Legacy vendors often amplify that complexity. New product releases arrive infrequently and take months to implement. The process typically also means users must get approval for and provision new resources. Of course, organizations using these legacy tools could choose not to upgrade, but that means the clock is ticking on support for their existing version. It’s Hobson’s choice in reality.

Sadly, none of that time and investment spent on updates adds value or delivers innovation either. It’s a huge operational cost with few benefits other than maintaining the status quo.

The trick employed by vendors of these legacy systems is to make IT organizations think that it’s too hard, expensive and risky to make a change and move to something new. If it’s so painful just to upgrade to a new version, then how difficult must it be to leave altogether, right? And once they know that their customers won’t go anywhere else, these vendors also realize that can charge them anything they like.

Solve the puzzle and break free

Redwood’s technology and approach help organizations see beyond the illusion and make their escape to flexible, adaptable automation. Compare the legacy lock-in scenario above to what we do. Our native software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach to workload automation is the key that unlocks the door to freedom.

Redwood’s RunMyJobs® solution provides true workload automation and scheduling as-a-service. It frees organizations from provisioning and managing new infrastructure. Users can run the solution in parallel with existing tools while they make the switch, so there are no disruptions to operations. The SaaS approach also means that IT teams can make their transition at their own pace—without any big bang implementation. IT pros can develop and test results at a speed that works best for their organization. RunMyJobs gives our users all the functionality and connectors they need right out of the box. It’s all included in the unified SaaS service—and the price is based on what customers actually use.

The clues are all there and the puzzle can be solved. Let us help you make your legacy escape and allow your team to focus on what is really important to your operation. As analyst Gartner says, infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders will be measured by the innovation they deliver, not the infrastructure they manage.

Find out more about RunMyJobs, the world’s only enterprise workload automation as a service solution, and sign up for a free trial, here.