Building software applications is a complex business. Deploying them is even more so, because there are just too many variables and interactions to consider. Because of this, companies need automation by way of cognitive technology to streamline their tech pipelines.

“BMC has been working with our customers to modernize not only our tool chain, but the way automation is used and deployed throughout the organization,” said Joe Goldberg (pictured), innovation evangelist at BMC Software Inc.

Goldberg spoke with Lisa Martin (@Luccazara) and Peter Burris (@plburris), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the DataWorks Summit in San Jose, California, about automation, data processing and the new “jobs-as-code” concept. (* Disclosure below.)

Defining automation in the data business

BMC ran a survey called “The State of Automation” that confirmed how critical automation is in the enterprise. The response from leaders was overwhelming in support for the idea that automation was key to helping them through the digital transformation. This concept has become a driving element for what BMC is doing today, Goldberg explained.

Then, there’s the matter of data processing. One customer built a separation between their speed and batch layers, running both in parallel. For BMC, the batch layer underpins the sort of insights that come from the speed layer. Data from the batch layer enriches those insights.

“In order to really be predictive, the only way to do that is to make sure you’re basing yourself on history that is well-curated and enriched from a variety of sources,” Goldberg said.

BMC has its history in the data center and operations arena. However, the marketplace today has shifted. Now, people can do the manual work of building and delivering applications up front. An automated pipeline handles the rest, Goldberg explained. Developers need to create the automation up front because it shares an equal partnership to the business logic, he added.

This creates a sort of “jobs-as-code” approach that enables developers to work with operational plumbing in the same way they do with business logic. BMC is working to evolve this idea, according to Goldberg. The company wants to provide the same sort of capabilities that developers have with programming languages. This includes test and debugging environments, he added.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of DataWorks Summit. (* Disclosure: BMC Software Inc. sponsored this DataWorks Summit segment on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither BMC Software nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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