AWS Step Functions vs Control-M comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and BMC are both solutions in the Workload Automation category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0, while BMC is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.3. Additionally, 77% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of BMC users who would recommend it.

AWS Step Functions

Read 10 AWS Step Functions reviews

194 Views
174 Comparison Views

77% willing to recommend

Control-M

Read 117 Control-M reviews

23,170 Views
8,820 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

AWS Step Functions

Control-M

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between AWS Step Functions and Control-M based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Workload Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Step Functions vs. Control-M Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Step Functions vs. Control-M

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

AWS Step Functions

Ranking in Workload Automation

15th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (12th)

Control-M

Ranking in Workload Automation

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

117

Ranking in other categories

Process Automation (3rd), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (4th)

Featured Reviews

Mahender Nirwan

Software developer at TAIGLE LLC

Aug 15, 2024

Good integration with many AWS services and create a workflow to call one Lambda function after another, and other serverless features

I worked with Step Functions about a year ago for six months. Currently, I don't have any use cases for Step Functions. But overall, I was pretty amazed with it. It has great integration with many AWS services, and if you use it correctly, it could save you a ton of money. Again, it leverages AWS…

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Pedro Fuentes

System Engineer at Community Loans of America, Inc.

Jan 9, 2024

Cost-effective, excellent support, and centralized access and control

They have a department that handles requests for enhancements. I talked to Control-M guys back in October or November when they had a gathering here in Atlanta. We talked about not being able to go back in history in Helix Control-M for more than two weeks. We submitted a request for enhancement. They told us that they are working on it, and they are thinking of expanding that to 30 days. We would like to see it expand to 90 days, but they are working on it. In Control-M, we were able to go back 180 days, but that was on-prem. The storage of that data was on our own servers. We know that storage is money, and we do not expect them to store that much of the data, but at least 30 to 60 days seem proper.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"AWS Step Functions acts as a high-level layer, allowing us to seamlessly integrate with microservices."

"The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky."

"The solution is stable...The solution is easy to scale."

"It is a scalable solution."

"It's Amazon, it's scalable."

"One can rate all the calls and that is a good feature."

"If you want to create a workflow to call one Lambda function after another, and other serverless features, it could save you a ton of money. That's for sure."

"It's a general solution that you can adapt to your own needs and is simple to use. We like that it can be integrated with everything in the AWS suite, and that the creation of the pipeline can be done using the graphical user interface."

More AWS Step Functions pros

"We can tie together all the workloads across the estate and make the whole process reactive to events."

"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."

"The most valuable features are the GUI console, stability, and workflow."

"If a job fails, that development team is notified right away, which improves reliability. Previously, it was on the operators to notify the developers that their job failed, erred, or aborted. Now, it's all automated."

"Control-M has helped to improve our data transfers because it allows us to monitor the execution of the process. With other technologies, we cannot do that."

"I find it very helpful to be able to keep track of all our help desk tickets."

"It has certainly helped speed things up."

"Self Service, BIM features are most valuable. As no need to login to EM client and check the job status."

More Control-M pros

Cons

"The pricing of the solution can be improved."

"The interface can sometimes feel limited, as we're unable to see what AWS is running behind the scenes."

"I would like to see more data transformation features in Amazon Step Functions like additional operators and logic."

"It is hard to coordinate the declaratory language."

"If AWS Step Functions keeps adding more integrations, it would be even better."

"Setup took about one day. We had some errors to understand in the beginning, but now everything is working good."

"The solution's pricing could be cheaper. It is cheaper than Airflow."

"It wasn't easy to understand the licensing model. It's like if you use just a little, it's cheap, but it becomes more expensive as you use more. It's like a hook that ties you inside the Amazon ecosystem. So, it creates a dependency."

More AWS Step Functions cons

"The high availability that comes from BMC with its supplied Postgres database is very limited. Even using your customer-supplied Postgres database is problematic. We have engaged with them regarding this, but it is difficult. My company doesn't want to do this and BMC doesn't want to do that. We just need to find some middle ground to get the proper high availability. We're also moving away, like the rest of the world, from the more expensive offerings, like Oracle. We are trying to use Postgres, which is free. The stability is good. It is just that the high availability configuration is not ideal. It could be better."

"The MFT applications should have more functionality and flexibility within that tool. Having more flexibility with that tool for handling the one to many or many to one concept. Like being able to take data from one source and push it to many locations or pull data from many locations and bring it back into a single source. That's why we still use our TPS program for the file transfers just because we don't have some of those capabilities available to us within MFT."

"Finding documentation on the website can be a bit confusing."

"The biggest improvement they could have is better QA testing before releases come out the door."

"I would like to see automatic license management. And probably more importantly, some kind of machine learning to help identify the optimum automation path."

"I talked to Control-M guys back in October or November when they had a gathering here in Atlanta. We talked about not being able to go back in history in Helix Control-M for more than two weeks. We submitted a request for enhancement. They told us that they are working on it, and they are thinking of expanding that to 30 days. We would like to see it expand to 90 days, but they are working on it."

"I would like to see more audit report templates added, and perhaps more customizability in terms of reporting."

"A lot of businesses are using ServiceNow, which is another tool. I would like there to be some integration with ServiceNow or other third-party tools as well as have easily available integrations. Right now, we need to write scripts. Apart from that, if there were some integrations with an ITSM tool, then that would be good. Because at the end of the day, most of our clients are using different ITSM tools. I know that BMC Remedy is easy to integrate with Control-M. However, if there was availability for Jira as well as other ITSM and DevOps tools, that would be a good improvement."

More Control-M cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"The solution's price is reasonable."

"We are paying way more for Control-M than we've paid for any of our other scheduling tools."

"This is an area where it is a little difficult to work with BMC. They want to do licenses by job, which is what we have. For example, the simplest is to license by job, but they can also license by nodes. While the licensing is simple to use, it might not be the correct licensing model for the customer. It is okay because we want to license by job, which is something measurable. At the end of the day, licensing by job is the most important."

"This is an expensive product compared to other solutions, although I think that it is a good one. We are in a good position with licensing, as we can run 10,000 jobs."

"The license model is based on the number of jobs we run on the SaaS application or the number of executions, unlike the on-premise model options. If we have a handful of jobs, it's always good to consider Control-M, but if it's a large number of jobs, Control-M might not be a great option."

"Control-M isn't cheap, but this is an enterprise model."

"Licensing costs are around $3000 a year."

"Pricing can be steep, but you get what you pay for."

"It is not bad. The company can afford it, and it pays for itself. We have those jobs running automatically."

More Control-M pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

33%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Step Functions?

The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Amazon Step Functions?

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Step Functions?

I would rate my experience with this product a ten out of ten. Step Functions obviously cannot solve every problem statement. But it makes sense for a wide range of use cases. Everything has some l...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?

While it is quite flexible, the licensing cost could be more affordable, especially for small and mid-sized enterprises.

See all answers

Comparisons

Camunda vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 41% of the time

IBM BPM vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 18% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 6% of the time

Pega Platform vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle BPM vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 5% of the time

More AWS Step Functions Competitors

AutoSys Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 21% of the time

IBM Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 9% of the time

Automic Automation vs Control-M

Compared 7% of the time

Rocket Zena vs Control-M

Compared 6% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs Control-M

Compared 5% of the time

More Control-M Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS Step Functions

November 2024

Download AWS Step Functions product report

Buyer's Guide

Control-M

November 2024

Download Control-M product report

Also Known As

Amazon Step Functions, Step Functions

Control M

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

BMC

Overview

AWS Step Functions enables orchestration of complex workflows, parallel task execution, and seamless integration with AWS services, simplifying ETL automation and data pipeline management.

With AWS Step Functions, developers streamline task automation and ensure smooth microservices orchestration. It simplifies development and manages interdependencies, validates data, and integrates AWS services for cost-effective workflows. It offers a user-friendly graphical interface for creating pipelines, scalable parallelization via the "map" state, control over historical events, and visualization with JSON. Enhanced by a dashboard-like view, it aids in visual workflows and debugging.

What are the most valuable features?

Seamless AWS Integration: Easily integrates with the entire AWS suite for efficient workflow creation.
User-Friendly Graphical Interface: Simplifies creating and managing workflows with visual tools.
Scalable Parallelization: Utilizes the "map" state for efficient parallel processing tasks.
Control Historical Events: Manages and controls historical data and events effectively.
Visualization and Debugging: Provides a dashboard-like view to enhance understanding and debugging.

What are the benefits and ROI to look for?

Streamlined Development: Simplifies orchestration and automates task management.
Cost-Effective Workflows: Creates efficient, cost-saving workflows by integrating with AWS services.
Enhanced Data Validation: Ensures data correctness by managing interdependencies.
Automation of ETL Jobs: Automates data extraction, transformation, and loading processes seamlessly.

In specific industries such as finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, enterprises implement AWS Step Functions to manage data pipelines, orchestrate microservices, and automate complex ETL jobs. They benefit from seamless integration with AWS services, enhanced data validation, and streamlined development, resulting in efficient and cost-effective workflows tailored to their operational needs.

Control-M is used for enterprise workload automation, orchestrating finance, retail, healthcare, and supply chain processes. It handles batch job scheduling, managed file transfers, cloud integrations, and compliance auditing across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Organizations leverage Control-M to efficiently monitor and manage business-critical processes like payroll, HR, SAP, Informatica, and database tasks. It enhances visibility, security, and error resolution. Automating and optimizing workflows in data centers, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, Control-M supports diverse technological environments. The platform's robust capabilities make it suitable for effective centralized management of applications and data pipelines, ensuring enhanced collaboration and scalability.

What are Control-M's most important features?

Integration capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various systems
Automation API: Facilitates automation through APIs
Managed File Transfer: Simplifies secure file transfers
GUI console: Intuitive graphical user interface
Role-based administration: Provides access control
Single-pane view: Centralized monitoring dashboard
Scheduling options: Flexible job scheduling
Workflow orchestration: Coordinates complex workflows
Reporting: Generates insightful reports
Monitoring: Tracks and manages tasks
Forecasting: Predicts future workloads
Self-service portal: Empowers users with self-service tools
Plugins: Extends functionality through additional plugins

What are the benefits or ROI of using Control-M?

Enhanced visibility: Centralized view of all processes
Ease of use: User-friendly interface
Error reduction: Minimizes manual errors
Improved collaboration: Facilitates teamwork
Scalability: Supports growth and scale
Support: Comprehensive customer support

Control-M is implemented in industries like finance to handle payroll and HR tasks, in retail for inventory management and supply chain processes, and in healthcare for compliance auditing and patient data processing. Organizations benefit from streamlined workflows and automated processes across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, ensuring efficient and secure operations.

Sample Customers

Alpha Apps, The Guardian, SGK, Bigfinite

CARFAX, Tampa General Hospital, Navistar, Amadeus, Raymond James, Railinc

Buyer's Guide

AWS Step Functions vs. Control-M

October 2024

Free Report: AWS Step Functions vs. Control-M

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