In today’s tech era, Batch Processing is significantly more sophisticated than just feeding punched cards in sequence into the mainframe as it was in the past. A lot more aspects need to be considered while performing Batch Processing due to its time-consuming and task-intensive nature.
Engineers typically submitted Batch Jobs based on a manual that instructed them on what to do and how to handle certain situations. However, manually processing and scheduling batches becomes cumbersome in the fast-paced world. This is where automating your Batch Process can help save you from all these challenges.
This article guides you through Batch Automation. You will learn more about Batch Processing and why you need Batch Automation in your business. So, read along to explore the various benefits of Batch Automation and discover the best Batch Automation Tools available in the market.
Table of Contents
What is Batch Processing?
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Batch Processing is a technique for processing large amounts of data repeatedly. The batch technique allows users to process data with little or no human intervention when computational resources are available.
In simple words, Batch Processing is the method through which a computer completes batches of work in a continuous, sequential manner, typically simultaneously. It’s also a command that guarantees huge jobs are broken down into smaller chunks for debugging efficiency.
You can refer to What is Batch Processing? 2022’s Comprehensive Guide to understand more about Batch Processing.
A Brief History of Batch Processing
Batch Processing dates back to the dawn of computers. In the 1890s, the United States Census Bureau employed an electromechanical tabulator to capture information from the US census. Herman Hollerith, the Tabulator’s inventor, later founded the organization that became IBM.
Batch Jobs were being executed using data punched on cards. Herman Hollerith punched holes on the card at the suitable row/column intersections to indicate a sequence of data values. He created the Tabulator to “read” the holes in the card, and a computing unit sorted and tabulated the resulting electrical signal.
With the advent of multiprogramming in the 1960s, computer systems were able to process data from magnetic tape rather than punch cards by running numerous Batch Processes simultaneously.
As mainframes grew in power, more batch processes were performed, necessitating the development of applications to ensure that batch jobs only ran when adequate resources were available, thereby avoiding delays. This contributed to the development of modern Batch Processing systems.
What is Batch Automation?
Batch Automation is when your automation tool handles multiple jobs or data processes simultaneously. This implies that Batch Automation handles everything instead of processing data and dividing it into batches.
There is minimal to no user engagement with Batch Automation. Instead, the Batch Process Automation system processes the tasks and data that comprise the Batch Jobs. For instance, data or tasks might be collected throughout the day and processed after working hours or when resources are available.
Why do you Need Batch Automation?
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Batch Processing keeps your business running by fueling jobs, tasks, and workflows. Traditional Batch Processing necessitates engineers to write extensive code to design and schedule scripts. This process may be lengthy and time-consuming, diverting valuable resources from other important work.
This is where Batch Automation helps save your day. Batch Automation facilitates the automation of batch processes – creating optimized batches, scheduling, and monitoring them.
Hevo Data, an Automated No-code Data Pipeline, can help you automate, simplify & enrich your Batch Process in a few clicks. With Hevo’s out-of-the-box connectors and blazing-fast Data Pipelines, you can extract data from 100+ Data Sources, including 40+ Free Sources, straight into your Data Warehouse or any destination & run different pipelines in parallel.
To further streamline and prepare your data for analysis, you can process and enrich Raw Granular Data using Hevo’s robust & built-in Transformation Layer!
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What are the Benefits of Batch Process Automation?
Let’s explore some of the key advantages of Batch Automation:
- Enhances Efficiency: Batch Automation completes the tasks at hand without incurring the labor expenses associated with human data entering. It eliminates the potential for human mistakes and boosts productivity.
- Increases Team Productivity: Batch Automation can help optimize and match the free schedules. This implies that Batch Processing & Scheduling do not require the team’s time or attention. In other words, it’s a time-saving method for doing repeated, non-time-sensitive jobs.
- Easy, Hands-Off Management: Batch Automation eliminates the need for user engagement, so the only moment a person needs to intervene is when something goes wrong. Most Batch Automation systems monitor the batches in real-time and give notifications/alerts. This allows the team to concentrate on more critical activities.
Now that you have a basic understanding of what a Batch Automation Tool does let’s look at some of the popular Batch Automation Tools available.
Hevo Data
Loading data in batches can be a mammoth task without the right set of tools. Hevo’s automated no-code data pipeline empowers you with everything you need to have a smooth Data Collection, Processing, and Transforming.
Our platform has the following in store for you:
- Data Transformations: Best-in-class & Native Support for Complex Data Transformation at fingertips. Code & No-code Fexibilty designed for everyone.
- Smooth Schema Mapping: Fully-managed Automated Schema Management for incoming data with the desired destination.
- Built to Scale: Exceptional Horizontal Scalability with Minimal Latency for Modern-data Needs.
- Built-in Connectors: Support for 100+ Data Sources, including Databases, SaaS Platforms, Files & More. Native Webhooks & REST API Connector available for Custom Sources.
- Blazing-fast Setup: Straightforward interface for new customers to work on, with minimal setup time.
- Exceptional Security: A Fault-tolerant Architecture that ensures Zero Data Loss.
- Live Support: The Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.
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AWS Batch
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AWS Batch is an Amazon Web Services Batch Service that offers flexible computing resources. It integrates with different batch computing workflow engines and languages and various AWS services, including Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, Elastic Beanstalk, etc.
Unlike typical batch computing technologies, AWS Batch eliminates the undifferentiated heavy lifting of setting up and maintaining the necessary infrastructure. You can quickly package the code for your Batch Jobs, declare their dependencies, and submit your Batch Job using the AWS Batch.
Refer to AWS Batch Scheduling: How to Schedule & Batch Data Jobs Simplified to learn more.
Apache Spark
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Apache Spark is a multi-language, open-source Data Processing engine for large-scale workloads. It allows you to perform distributed stream and batch processing operations.
Since Apache Spark is a multi-language data processing platform, you can customize and reuse code for batch processing, interactive querying, machine learning, graph processing, and real-time analytics.
Read Apache Spark Batch Processing: 5 Easy Steps to learn more.
Spring Batch
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Spring Batch is a batch processing framework that is open-source. It’s an all-in-one solution for building robust batch applications prevalent in today’s enterprise applications.
For processing vast amounts of data, Spring Batch provides reusable functions. It also provides features for logging, transactions management, job processing statistics, job restart skip, and resource management.
Read Spring Batch Jobs: Setup Batch Processing in Spring Simplified to learn more.
Future of Batch Automation
High-performance automation and orchestration systems that provide the flexibility to handle change have supplanted traditional Batch Processing solutions. Modern Batch Automation tools allow IT to function in hybrid and multi-cloud settings while reducing human intervention requirements.
New Batch Automation solutions are using Machine Learning Algorithms to decrease slack time and idle resources. These techniques automatically distribute the required resources to the batch workloads.
Batch Automation, when combined with auto-remediation (a process that triggers warnings or responds to alerts by performing actions that can avoid or resolve the issue), provides a powerful tool for ensuring service delivery to end-users or external customers is not delayed.
Conclusion
Batch Processing is most commonly used to handle large, repetitive transactions that can be scheduled to execute at regular intervals. This article talked about Batch Automation and gave a brief overview of Batch Processing History. You understood why you need to automate batch processes and explored the various advantages of Batch Automation.
As a result, companies can no longer manage their data through batch processing alone. Organizations today use a variety of processing methods to stay competitive. A simple solution like Hevo can help!
Hevo Data is a No-Code Data Pipeline that offers a faster way to move data from 100+ Data Sources, including 40+ Free Sources, into your Data Warehouse to be visualized in a BI tool. Hevo is fully automated and hence does not require you to code.
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