As autopilots control complex processes in airplanes, job scheduling software similarly controls complex automation tasks within the enterprise. Job scheduling software completes all tasks performed by a computer system, ensuring the smooth and efficient execution of every process on the operating system.

Enterprise job scheduling has improved dramatically over the years. As an example, there are several schedulers that have expanded to operate in a central environment, covering both the mainframe and the entire enterprise. Using one, central job scheduler for the entire enterprise reduces maintenance and operating costs, simplifies data center operations and ensures a quicker reaction to business changes.

With enterprise-wide control of all jobs, job scheduling has become the most useful tool in managing the entire IT environment – that is, if used correctly.

Legacy Schedulers and Mainframe-specific Job Scheduling Myths

One of the most common job scheduling practices is to use a mainframe-specific scheduler in a mainframe environment. In this situation, it is necessary for additional schedulers to be added to ensure that critical IT-based business processes are integrated with processes from other applications and platforms. Yet, with two or more job schedulers, integration problems are still experienced between mainframe-specific schedulers and enterprise schedulers.

Because job scheduling was first available on mainframes, legacy mainframe schedulers are still perceived as more advanced in functionality for the mainframe than schedulers that can manage both mainframe jobs and jobs from the entire enterprise. However, the success that countless companies have experienced by utilizing one, comprehensive job scheduler proves that this impression is false. Today, select enterprise job schedulers offer all of the capabilities of classical mainframe schedulers while also meeting the needs of the entire enterprise and providing additional innovative functionalities.

In today’s IT environment, it is still common for enterprises to use two or more job schedulers – one for the mainframe and another for the remainder of the enterprise. This practice stems from the belief that mainframe-specific schedulers are superior to those that offer centralized control and automation for both the mainframe and the entire enterprise.

The following are some key misconceptions regarding legacy mainframe schedulers that often lead IT managers to believe they need to maintain two schedulers at once.

• A mainframe-specific scheduler is the most reliable solution for managing mainframe jobs. An enterprise scheduler can be relied on to process any job throughout the entire enterprise, whereas a legacy mainframe scheduler is very limited. An enterprise job scheduler can be implemented for nonstop operations while improving scalability across any number of CPUs and physical servers.
• A mainframe-specific scheduler is the most stable solution for managing mainframe jobs. In fact, an enterprise job scheduler allows the most stable scheduling by providing visibility and control – for the entire enterprise – in one location. Processes can constantly be monitored and the manager can be assured that everything is running properly through a centralized GUI.
• Using a mainframe-specific scheduler keeps business-critical jobs under control. A mainframe scheduler keeps critical processes located on the mainframe under control, but not all business critical jobs are kept on the mainframe. There is no assurance that the mainframe scheduler can see the job through to its end if the job is integrated across the entire enterprise. An enterprise-wide scheduler can monitor all business critical jobs across an enterprise, ensuring completion.

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