DollarU, Control-M, Kestra — how to choose the right scheduling platform

Over the past decade, job scheduling has evolved from basic cron jobs to sophisticated platforms that cater to modern engineering needs, such as microservices and cloud-native technologies. The text examines three scheduling platforms—Dollar Universe, Control-M, and Kestra—highlighting their capabilities and limitations. Dollar Universe, by Broadcom, excels in enterprise-scale scheduling across various platforms but struggles with cloud-native architectures and dynamic scaling. Control-M, from BMC Software, offers robust workload automation with features like file transfer management and batch processing but bears legacy overhead that hampers agility in complex workflows. Kestra, a modern solution, stands out for its flexibility and Infrastructure as Code practices, allowing for seamless scheduling, monitoring, and management of workflows with support for complex conditions and backfill capabilities. The choice of scheduling platform depends on various factors, including task complexity and system architecture, with Kestra providing a more adaptable option for contemporary requirements.