Data Center Optimization

Through Event-Driven Process

Automation: Enhanced Real-

Time, Event-Driven Management

of SAP and Non-SAP Systems

Automating Operations Across

Environments

IT organizations have always looked for ways to reduce the cost of running the corporate data

center. Many technologies exist to make this a realistic goal, and the starting point is

automation. Like most IT-related functions, automation is not a new idea and various aspects

such as data backup and environmental control have been automated for years. There is an

increasing focus on the move toward consolidation of automated operations across disparate

environments and platforms. The key here is process automation: the provision of a central

point for integrating and controlling the execution of application processes — in the right

order and under the right conditions.

SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood, a core integrated component of the SAP

NetWeaver® stack, is one of the latest applications available from SAP. It provides SAP

customers with a central point of control for all IT workload processing — not just within the

SAP landscape but also across non-SAP applications and operating-system-level tasks.

Increasing System Performance, Reducing Hardware

Costs

SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood offers customers the ability to increase

productivity, reduce hardware costs, and increase system performance by delivering on key

objectives such as “lights out” operations, data center optimization, “fast close” end-of-period

processing, and streamlined consolidation of multiple SAP implementations. Now, your IT

organization can move toward the kind of reliability and flexibility that is critical to reduce

manual intervention and improve resource utilization; for example:

Richard Page Sr. VP Global

Marketing Redwood

Software

Integration of processing across disparate environments

Parallel processing to reduce elapsed time and latency

Dynamic scheduling allowing real-time adjustments to workload based on conditions

prevailing at the time of and during execution

Optimization of IT resources by dynamically balancing workload across the available

systems, including support for SAP Adaptive Computing and Grid environments

Detection of failed processes and context-specific automated recovery actions

Real-time business event-driven processing

Architecture for SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood

Improving Data Center Operations Through Automation

Event-driven process automation is where real innovation can be applied to take data center

optimization even further. SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood removes the boundaries

imposed by time- and date-based scheduling solutions. The occurrence of actionable business

events such as an online user transaction, an incoming file transfer of a customer order, or the

receipt of an email can be used to trigger subsequent workload processing in the context of

the event that has occurred. Thus, the processes required to fulfill an order for a specific

customer can be executed as soon as the order is received, not at some artificially defined

“end-of-day batch-processing” time. Chains of related tasks can be constructed to optimize

workflow and reflect business requirements, breaking down the communication barriers that

previously existed between applications and environments. In this example, the benefits are

that the customer receives his or her order more quickly, contention for processing is spread

throughout the day, optimum use is made of the available resources, and background-

processing window requirements are reduced. See the Actebis sidebar for an example of how

a real customer achieved this.

Actebis Improves Order Fulfillment with SAP Central Job

Scheduling by Redwood

IT and telecommunications equipment distributor Actebis receives in excess of 5,000 orders a

day. In a highly competitive market with demanding customers expecting prompt delivery,

Actebis recognized that it needed a solution that would help it achieve 100 percent next-day

order fulfillment.

The real-time, event-driven capabilities of SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood enable

orders to be passed to the warehouse application for processing as soon as they arrive, having

a significant positive impact on the business and helping Actebis to achieve its business

goals.

The advanced automation techniques provided by SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood

and implemented by Redwood Software enable SAP customers to create a centralized

automation infrastructure that lays the foundation for fully optimizing single or distributed

corporate data centers and provide efficiencies that reduce costs and increase productivity.

Benefits of SAP Central Job Scheduling by Redwood

Increases productivity, simplifies cross-enterprise management, and reduces

training needs: Provides a single interface for management of all IT workload

including full integration with SAP Solution Manager

Reduces risk of errors and increases throughput: Enables automated workload

processing across all environments and composite applications

Streamlines processing and increases service-level compliance: Delivers

integration across all SAP, non-SAP, and composite applications

Improves overall operational efficiency: Permits integration with operating-system-

level workload (such as system backup)

Improves responsiveness: Provides real-time, event-driven workload automation

based on external activities such as incoming file transfers, business and system

events, or environmental metrics (CPU load or paging rates)

Optimizes resource utilization, throughput, and service-level compliance: Delivers high availability and dynamic balancing of workload across all available

resources

Reduces the time needed to detect and respond to exceptions: Permits automated

error recovery across related applications plus integration with systems management

frameworks

For more information visit: www.sap.com/centraljobscheduling.