Control-M vs SaltStack comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Control-M
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (3rd), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (2nd), Workload Automation (1st)
SaltStack
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (14th), Network Automation (7th)
 

Featured Reviews

Nagarajan Sankarammal - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 20, 2022
A highly capable, feature-rich solution with excellent third-party integrations
The product has improved dramatically over the years; it offers a lot in terms of features and capabilities and integration with third-party tools. A wide range of models available with the product is critical in reducing manual and mundane work such as custom script writing. This saves significant amounts of time and, by association, money for the organization. As a Control-M user for over 15 years, I see it as very straightforward to create, integrate, and automate data pipelines. Even in the beginning, when Control-M was more of a data architecture product, it was easy to pick up. I've seen multiple people adapting very well in terms of adapting and enabling the capabilities of the solution for business; it's straightforward. Ideally, agent lift modes of connectivity would be established on different platforms. We can get applications integrated directly with Control-M. That's a recent feature. There are ready-made platforms and plugins which allow us to see templates for workflow orchestration in third-party and custom in-house applications. It's a straightforward solution, and this is an area where Control-M excels. Our customers are pleased being with Control-M, despite some minor hiccups, which happen with any solution. They have been happy with the product for years, and it's an enterprise-wide batch workflow orchestration tool. That's how it is established in our organization and what our users are satisfied and familiar with. The process execution speed is excellent and has constantly improved over the years. The bottom line is Control-M is a mission-critical solution, it's integral to our organization.
BF
Oct 13, 2023
A strong and flexible solution that helps with configuration management
We use SaltStack for configuration management, where we maintain configurations of 150 servers. It also helps with file integrity monitoring.  We monitor the configurations against CIS standards. We run CIS benchmarks and maintain configurations with higher CIS values for each server.…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The integration with ServiceNow is good. When a job ends and there are problems with it, we automatically open an incident in this platform, and the number of the incident is forwarded to Control-M. This means that we have a record of it with the log of the job."
"There is a batch monitoring tool called Batch Impact Manager, which proactively warns when processing is behind and SLAs are in jeopardy of being missed."
"First of all, the shift from manual to automation has been valuable. We have a tool that can automate."
"We have a team called pro-mon and they monitor all the jobs for us. A single view for them makes it easy for them to monitor things."
"I think the administration part is much more valuable than any other feature."
"I find it very helpful to be able to keep track of all our help desk tickets."
"It has absolutely saved us time. It has made us more efficient. As far as the processing between systems, we don't have as many people. They have been able to focus on other efforts, because we have been able to automate more stuff with Control-M."
"I find Control-M for SAP and Control-M for Informatica good. You can connect to the Linux or Windows servers, and you can run multiple jobs."
"It is a highly stable solution."
"The automation functionality has been most valuable. With a click of a button, we are able to automate provisioning, the build of new hardware and apply patches. These are all extremely important and differentiated tasks that can be automated in SaltStack."
"SaltStack has given us the ability to deal with systems at scale and rectify issues at scale."
"I want to build automation that is intelligent, part of the fabric of our environment, and is somewhat self-sustaining. I think SaltStack can help me do this."
"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to provide environmental security."
"We monitor the configurations against CIS standards. We run CIS benchmarks and maintain configurations with higher CIS values for each server."
"The ability to programmatically describe the desired state of a single, or an entire fleet of servers, on-premises, and in a cloud environment."
 

Cons

"Some of the documentation could use some improvement, however, it gets you from point A to point B pretty quickly to get the solution in place."
"A lot of the areas of improvement revolve around Automation API because that area is constantly evolving. It is constantly changing, and it is constantly being updated. There are some bugs that are introduced from one version to the next. So, the regression testing doesn't seem to capture some of the bugs that have been fixed in prior versions, and those bugs are then reintroduced in later versions."
"It is a very strong product, but the reporting could be better."
"Finding documentation on the website can be a bit confusing."
"There's a lot of room for improvement and I think it can be more user-friendly."
"It has a slight issue with daylight savings time while advancing the clock in the Spring."
"The community and the networking that goes on within that community need improvement. We want to be able to reach out to an SME, and say, "Hey, we are doing it this way. Does that make sense?" Ideally, they come back. and say, "Yes, it does make sense to do it that way. However, if you want to do it this way, then it is a little more efficient." We understand that one solution framework doesn't fit everybody. Depending on the breadth of the data and how broad it is, you may have different models for one over the other."
"Regarding product design and R&D, the DevOps pipeline could be improved with better capabilities and automation. API security and authentication is another area that could use improvement; users must have static credential passwords, which is a security concern."
"It is difficult to set up."
"There is a little bit of pain when it comes to libraries and what is needed to run the product."
"SaltStack's features are minimal."
"This solution could be integrated with more hardware for an improved offering."
"Web UI."
"A hardened set of tests would be much appreciated."
"Its configuration process could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is basically $100 a job, give or take."
"Its pricing is a little bit high. They could provide an enterprise-level license for an unlimited number of jobs. Currently, it is based on the number of jobs, and if you exceed the number of jobs, there are charges. For example, if your license is for 3,000 jobs per day, but you run 3,050 jobs, you will have to pay for the extra 50 jobs. They charge $120 per job. So, it is too costly."
"As we increase the number of tasks or jobs on the system, there are concerns about cost."
"This product saves hours in a day based on my experience working here versus other companies with manually operations."
"One of the restrictions that we had was with some of the licensing, and not having any insight on the financials part of the product. I don't know what the licensing on the product is, but we don't have an unlimited enterprise license. So, there might be a limitation on either the cost of the licensing or the number of seats."
"Its cost is a little bit higher than other solutions such as AutoSys or DAC. For the demo, there were some plans, such as start plan, scale plan, etc. Pricing was based on the plan."
"Compare to other tools Pricing and licensing was more. It should be decrease."
"There are two different types of licenses available. The first is based on the number of jobs that we run per day, and the other is based on the number of agents that we install. My current project has a contract for five years."
"It is an open-source product."
"So much can be done with the Open Source side, and especially for smaller shops. I personally think the pricing for Enterprise is hard to justify."
"The solution is free of cost."
"The pricing for this solution is roughly 20% lower than the competitive products in the market."
"SaltStack is an open-source product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Control-M compare with AutoSys Workload Automation?
Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful because nothing gets left unattended since it is all visible in one place, and th...
What do you like most about Control-M?
First of all, the shift from manual to automation has been valuable. We have a tool that can automate.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?
They are expensive. If we were a small company, it would be complicated because we have to have strong sales and operations to be able to afford a tool of this level. Being a large company, the cos...
What do you like most about SaltStack?
We monitor the configurations against CIS standards. We run CIS benchmarks and maintain configurations with higher CIS values for each server.
What is your primary use case for SaltStack?
We use SaltStack for configuration management, where we maintain configurations of 150 servers. It also helps with file integrity monitoring.
 

Also Known As

Control M
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

CARFAX, Tampa General Hospital, Navistar, Amadeus, Raymond James, Railinc
IBM CloudTD BankScotiaBankLinkedIneBayLiberty MutualTargetHyattCyxteraNetAppFacebookLyft
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