In a world focused intently on 24 x 7 operations…

We live in a truly 24 x 7 world today where enterprises keep their doors open 24 x 7 just to remain competitive. Not literally, of course, although many grocery store chains have opted for round the clock operation, but via online portals accessible from the Internet. And yet, there are so many instances where enterprises are still required to erect boundaries around specific workloads and to close these doors for a while. Yes, it is a 24 x 7 world but as much as we like to be able to work online no matter what the time, there are still very important batch windows operating right alongside these open doors.
Just before the doors to the plane are closed for the last time, gateway staff can be seen rushing headlong up the jet-bridge with a list of all passengers on the flight; with a definitive time for departure, the list has to be finalized and once the list is closed, no more passengers can be accepted and the plane will pull back from the gate. Likewise, when a container ship is loaded and pulls away from the dock, a ships manifest is finalized and in many cases electronically transmitted to the upcoming ports of call for the authorities to evaluate the likelihood of containers being used by smugglers. In both cases, there is no app for the general public to see these lists, but for security and regulatory personnel these lists are very important.

Just the use of the word “list” establishes boundaries – a beginning and an end are clearly identifiable, most often by a timestamp. And these aren’t the only examples of data being batched for subsequent processing. Consider the stock markets that sell futures; the only reason futures markets work is that someone set a closing time that in turn triggers the start of trading in futures. Even as stock markets have moved to 24 x 7 electronic trading, for reasons of revenue creation, times for closing trades (in the market) are still created. Phone companies still send lists of phone numbers of users who accessed their network back to these users’ respective subscriber phone companies and credit card processors have many lists to create and transmit as real cash flows through their payments solutions.

There is very little that takes place today within IT that at some point doesn’t call for a window to close, data collected and processed and yes, lists produced (and in some cases, still printed)! According to Insider Technology Ltd. Director, Karl Gilbank, “It still surprises me to hear my colleagues in business talk of their online processing at the expense of all else. For many of them, the significance of being able to run a batch process in a timely manner is completely overlooked and yet, these businesses have customers and partners who depend upon prompt delivery of batches of information that they can then consume.” To this end, Insider Technologies continues to invest in the premier product offering in this market, MultiBatch.

“As with any product, there are clear-cut benefits of one implementation over others and we know that MultiBatch excels in areas most important to the enterprise,” said Gilbank. “Looking at what we provide today I would have to say that the top three benefits from deploying MultiBatch are our audited and replicated recover file – we run on NonStop and we leverage NonStop’s fault tolerance – our real time status monitoring so that anxious end users can be accommodated and kept informed of progress being made and the automation we can bring to even the most complex of workflows. Without automated workflow, for instance, there is opportunity to miss steps letting critical business information fall through the cracks. No enterprise wants to be accused of incomplete batch processing!

Gilbank believes it is the combination of increased efficiencies, along with a tangible reduction in risk as well as a lot less overhead costs that have contributed to making MultiBatch the premier product offering for batch processing. “If you still resort to running a few TACL scripts, then perhaps it’s time to rethink how you execute batch processing in your NonStop environment and to give us a call!” For more information, you can check out our web site and read more about what really needs to be considered when addressing batch processing by visiting https://www.multibatch.co.uk/

Insider Technologies will be present for BITUG and GTUG; I am sure there will be ample opportunities to discuss what you have been doing in support of your batch operation – windows for batches may close but our doors remain open.

Just call or email us anytime, 24 x 7!

Karl Gilbank | Sales & Marketing Director
+44 161 868 6658
www.insidertech.co.uk