What are you selling?
Hyper-automation software and consulting. The software resides on a small LINUX VM with very modest requirements, between your ticketing system (ServiceNow, etc.) and your infrastructure to be maintained, be it hardware or software. For installation instructions refer to the README file for each version.
How Does the Software Work?
Nothing changes from a manager's perspective, except for two aspects:
1) From here on out, you start assigning the work to the automation modules, instead of your administrators. You keep assigning the modules you purchased more and more tasks and incidents, until all or at least most of your resolutions, installations, provisioning and maintenance tasks are automated and are on a schedule.
2) You do this in the same familiar ServiceNow ticketing system. But be careful. The automation modules work hard. They never eat, sleep, or vacation. They don't understand the concept of "good enough". Everything they do will result in the best possible outcome. It will not just be some DBAs' best. It will consistently be the industry's best, thanks to the Best Practices embedded in our automation modules.
How is Your Software Different from Autonomous Databases?
While some of the current autonomous database software requires less or no maintenance, that "simplification" applies to one such installed instance. True, for a small mom'n'pop shop that plays a significant role. After all, the owners no longer need to maintain their small "Orders" or "Customers" database or be aware of its existence in the Cloud. But in the context of an enterprise with 100,000+ employees, such user-friendliness is of little consequence. To an enterprise, an administrator is the same as a cell to an organism (cells are essential, a cell isn't). There are thousands of disparate database systems, hundreds of incompatible technologies by countless vendors supported by warring departments, each locked up in its own technological and procedural silo. The enterprise is more interested in ensuring that all its diverse personnel, hardware, and software are efficient and flexible to change. That is usually measured by change velocity, governance, and stability. Unfortunately, none of these crucial factors are improved by the current automation offerings. Let's consider an example. Suppose a database administrator completed a given task 10 minutes earlier because of some autonomous feature or an open-loop automated shortcut. Will the admin's manager notice? The answer is a resounding "no". The manager has already been delaying all due dates by a week because his administrators are always busy and they need a week to get around to it. So, as long as the task is completed within the week, the manager would not notice the 10 minutes improvement. But if the same tasks didn't even have to be assigned or opened at all - that the manager will notice. If the work was magically done by itself, 24x7, always under budget and ahead of schedule - that, again, the manager will notice (so will the manager's manager). This is where open-loop automation falls short.
The second factor is organizational, and that is protecting the company from all this stubborn technology. Let's keep exploiting the same configuration change script. Lets say the buffer week has passed. Before an administrator actually runs the script, he/she has to sit through hours of CAB, Agile, Kanban, and other discussions and approval meetings. This is another week wasted, on top of the first one. What is worse, it is the same configuration change that is being discussed/approved and executed each time, just a different iteration of it. This makes as much sense as disassembling your car in your garage after work just to reassemble it again in the morning to drive back to work.
It is an enormous waste of time and effort that could have been used more productively. There is currently no technological solution to this problem of extreme organizational inefficiency (the bigger the company, the worse). What is needed is a method that will allow all the disparate departments, teams, technologies, and processes to work in tandem to implement a long-term business strategy. The current Cloud autonomous database offerings don't even begin to scratch the surface of usability there because all current offerings are open-loop.
Your Paid License Fees are Astronomical. How Do You Justify Such High Prices?
Our software is unlike any other currently available. It doesn't provide decision support to your personnel. It becomes your personnel, but on steroids. So, along with other things, we base our licensing fees on the amount of time (execution and task management/approvals) this particular module saves an enterprise in the first two years. We charge only 10% of that amount as a one-time licensing fee. There are other considerations, such as the effort we have put in so far and are likely to continue to provide to maintain the code in the future.
How is the Free Version Different from the Paid?
There are three licensing versions. The free version is free. You can download it and use it at your discretion. You can alter the code to your liking. There is no support, but free forums are available. This version isn't integrated with your ticketing system, nor with your password Vault, nor any external API of any kind. It also lacks premium features, including rollback, delegation, and error resolution. Nevertheless, the free version will perform its basic job correctly, as specified in vendor manuals. Whether it is an export, an upgrade, a refresh, a GoldenGate or DataGuard resync - all of our versions will do an equally brilliant job, whether free or paid. But they are open-loop only in the case of the FREE version, meaning your administrator will have to kick them off manually, enter all the passwords and variables by hand, and track their status and dependencies manually in your ticketing system.
The following table describes features and versions. For a demo please click here. For pricing please visit the Buy page. For a technical description please refer to the Technology page. Please Contact Us if you have questions.
Replayable Closed-Loop Automation Modules, Versions & Core Features
(Click on the table to expand)
 Free/Faster |
 Turbocharge |
 WarpSpeed |
|---|---|---|
ServiceNow Integration
|
ServiceNow Integration
|
ServiceNow Integration
|
| C-L Automation Error Detection: On Error Remediation: Off Delegation: Off Auto-Rollback: Off Best-Practices: Off Federation: Off |
C-L Automation Error Detection: On Error Remediation: On Delegation: On Auto-Rollback: On Best-Practices: Off Auto-SR: Off Federation: Off |
C-L Automation Error Detection: On Error Remediation: On Delegation: On Auto-Rollback: On Best-Practices: On Auto-SR: On Federation: On |
| Free Support 0 Hours, ($199/hr thereafter) |
Free Support 100 Hours, ($99/hr thereafter) |
Free Support Unlimited, Free |