Opher Etzion wrote an interesting blog responding to analyst Phil Howard, which in turn provoked another response by Rainer Ammon. Phil had commented that the recent developments in event processing pointed to a convergence with “BPM” (and – per his own prediction and with somewhat less evidence - Data Warehousing).
- Phil says:
…Then there was IBM’s acquisition of AptSoft in 2008, …with an emphasis on integration with business process management. And, of course, Oracle and TIBCO are doing much the same thing…
I cannot speak for Oracle (who AFAIK have continued to develop the BEA event server as a part of the Oracle EDA and BAM, not BPM, suite), but in TIBCO, CEP technology is considered an adjunct to BPM. Or course there are a number of patterns we see using CEP and BPM together, but in no way can TIBCO CEP be considered emphasising integation with TIBCO BPM. Indeed, more TIBCO customers use CEP together with SOA (AMX BusinessWorks) than with TIBCO BPM (iProcess or AMX BPM)… - Phil adds:
…So, the clear trend is towards integrating complex event processing with other types of process management, though these may not necessarily be with business process management per se…
So, what process management is not business process management? Indeed we do see “business processes” implemented using CEP: this is the event/pattern – decision – action cycle that CEP tools provide. Instead of “integrating with”, think “more agile or dynamic business processes”. And although events provide great integration mechanisms, the implication that CEP is a mere “supporting act” is not seen so much in practice. - Phil concludes:
Indeed, we will have to wait to see if complex event processing becomes completely subsumed into other technology areas and, if so, what new acronyms the industry can come up with: what is the acronym for a convergence of complex event processing and business process management?
Conveniently for Phil, Rainer has already coined “edBPM” for event driven BPM. - Opher gives the wise man’s response:
This is a similar situation to databases; database can be used for various reasons, and also be embedded with various other technologies and products…
Which makes perfect sense: CEP technology can be used standalone and in supporting roles, and different vendors will see different markets and focus different technologies for each… - Rainer adds a comment containing an interesting quote from a European solutions provider (who is not, AFAIK, working in the CEP space):
CEP a lot was indeed now written all over the world and spun very much, and unfortunately it is also an unusual amount of charlatanism… A machine for example runs with very continuous transitions through the phase space of their operating states. The prediction of a complex event would be in this case e.g. the simple need for maintenance, even for conditions that were never previously in this exact combination … Even this simple example could solved only in a combination of methods.
As it happens I have a nice successful CEP-based counterexample here.
From the last point, there is still seemingly a lot of education required for systems integrators and their architects and software designers – especially if they want to be involved in “charlatan event processing applications”! Luckily CEP vendors like TIBCO have partners folk who are more than happy to arrange webinars and talks about CEP and event processing to these folk. Just drop your TIBCO rep a line!
Hi Paul,
:
these are very good points and I started to think about that when I wrote on the CITT-website this idea in the News from June 16, 2009http://www.citt-online.com/index.php?id=veranstaltungen&id3=use_cases&id4=more which I intended to be addressed as Grand Challenges at the 2nd CEP Dagstuhl seminar in May 2010, but somebody meant that the most attendees would not be interested in such things:-(
“…
If we read books like Biology of Beliefs by Bruce H. Lipton, a former cell biology professor from Stanford, we see that we are really still at the beginning of Complex Event Processing.
Looking for appropriate use cases
At present, we are looking for appropriate use cases for a project proposal for the 7th European Framework Programme about Future Internet of Things and Services, based on Complex Event Processing or Event-Driven (Business) Process Management (I don’t like the term “Business” in this connection because the idea is not restricted to “Business”).
We can submit such a project proposal in different kinds, as a smaller STREP (Specific Targeted Research Project) or a larger IP (Integrated Project). Our potential consortium believes that the proposal is comprehensive enough to get submitted as an IP although we have learned from some events of the European Commission that “… an IP must change the world”.
So, presently all is going to be replaced from “e” like eHealth, eBanking to “Smart” like SmartHospital, SmartBank and so on. Also IBM is promoting the new paradigm of “The SmartPlanet”. Actually, I don’t believe that such projects will change the world and I don’t believe that we will change the world at all. But we could perhaps try to help understanding how reality gets reality.
[Section removed to new post - blog admin]
Best,
Rainer
Hi Paul,
just a comment about processes or business processes:
Indeed we are going to extrapolate the edBPM idea to other application areas in the sense of what David Luckham called Ubiquitous Complex Event Processing and what we try to substantiate presently, also in connection with the European Commission’s Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship Intitiative 2020 and Beyond where they hope to find radically new ideas for new products and outcomes. If the workshop “From edBPM to U-CEP” is accepted, I will ask you to participate and you could find your name already in the list of PC member, panelists, world cafe roles:-)
Workshop proposal for ServiceWave 2010
Ghent, Dec. 13, 2010
„From Event-Driven Business Process Management to Ubiquitous Complex Event Processing“
This workshop focuses on the topics of connecting Internet of Services and Things with the management of business processes and the Future and Emerging Technologies as addressed by the ISTAG Recommendations of the European FET-F 2020 and Beyond Initiative. Such FET challenges are not longer limited to business processes, but focus on new ideas in order to connect processes on the basis of CEP with disciplines of Cell Biology, Epigenetics, Brain Research, Robotics, Emergency Management, SocioGeonomics, Bio- and Quantum Computing – summarized under the concept of U-CEP.
In continuation with the edBPM workshops at the 1st ServiceWave 2008 in Madrid and the 2nd ServiceWave 2009 in Stockholm, this 3rd workshop is a thematical enhancement considering the grand challenges defined by FET-F. FET-F initiative is looking for radically new ideas, products and outcomes and U-CEP is a contribution in order to bring together the relevant Future and Emerging Technologies under one umbrella…
see more, will be finalized and published within the next days perhaps
http://www.citt-online.com/downloads/EDBPM-UCEP-ServiceWave10-proposal.doc
Hi Rainer – sounds intriguing and we’ll support where we can. Some of the U-CEP areas look far-reaching (or way-out, depending on your point of view) – eg DNA evolution may be “event driven” on a v long timescale, but is there anything useful we can deduce from that for information theory / CEP? Or indeed vice versa – what event patterns can drive future DNA evolution (etc etc)…
Cheers