Could Robot/SCHEDULE Help You Manage Your Cloud?!

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Wed, 05/11/2011 - 1:52pm

What is the cloud? Are you planning on running your IBM i application in the cloud? Is Robot/SCHEDULE ready for the cloud?

Among other things, cloud computing means that you can access your application from anywhere in the world. But, when I think of the cloud, I don’t think of someone walking down the street with a cell phone and a cloud image trailing behind them. I see the person in the data center who has to make sure that the servers supporting the cloud and all of its resources are available 24/7. Some things don’t change...

The need for monitoring, backups, scheduling, reporting, and performance on the server that supports the cloud doesn’t change. If your application runs on IBM i, your cloud needs infrastructure products to make sure that the end user’s cloud experience is good. Just because you’re running a cloud doesn’t mean you no longer need computing basics.

It’s easy to forget the important role that automated operations and systems management play in everyday life. Many tools we use daily are monitored or automated by products like Robot/SCHEDULE. WebEx and Amazon are two examples of cloud products that have many background servers supporting end users around the globe. Without automation and monitoring, these clouds would experience more outages and require more staff to manage. Just last week at COMMON, I spoke with a High Availability vendor that is using IBM i servers to build a cloud to help professionals replicate their data to a highly secure and reliable co-location.

As an IT manager, you still need to plan for disasters and manage the data center, whether your application is serving cloud computing internally or externally. Those of us in the lights-out automation business need to verify that critical resources are always available, and that there is no downtime due to events, planned or otherwise.

So, the short answer is that Robot/SCHEDULE can help your cloud (or our new Skybot Scheduler—if you plan to host your cloud on a UNIX, Windows, or Linux server).

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