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Event processing has emerged as one of the most important issues in IT today.
It encompasses two separate ideas:
1. Event-driven Architecture (EDA), is a style of application architecture
centered on asynchronous "push"-based communication. EDA is the architecture
of choice for implementing "straight-through" multistage business
processes that deliver goods, services and information with minimum delay. Processes
designed using EDA are also easier to modify than traditional applications.
2. Complex-Event Processing (CEP), a sophisticated form of EDA, is used
to extract the information value from multiple events. CEP systems find patterns
in event data to detect opportunities and threats. Timely alerts are then pushed
to the appropriate recipients, often using Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
dashboards. The result is faster and better operational decisions and more timely
responses.
Gartner has organized a new conference on event processing and BAM to be held
from September 19 - 21, 2007 in Orlando, Florida to address both aspects of
event processing. See http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=502259&tab=overview
for more information. This article is an introduction to EDA to provide background
for those who will attend the conference or for anyone who wants to learn more
about the subject. CEP is covered in a related article, "Understanding
the Role of Event Processing in Modern Business."
Sense and Respond
We live in an event-driven world. Animals, people and companies survive and
thrive based on their ability to act quickly on opportunities and threats. Zebras
on the savannah sense and respond to the opportunity of a water hole or the
threat of a lion. Wall Street traders use algorithmic trading systems that act
on arbitrage opportunities in sub-second response times. Banks track credit
card usage to stop fraudulent charges as they occur.
Opportunities and threats appear at unpredictable times so an event-driven
entity responds at times that are externally determined. Event-driven applications
are initiated when a shipping company delivers goods, a customer submits a change
of address or the price of a stock goes up. These happenings are business events:
meaningful changes in the state of something relevant to the business. An event
object is a report that documents the event. For example, the fact that Fred
withdrew $ 100 from his bank account at 10 AM today is an event. The computer
record associated the withdrawal transaction, perhaps in the form of an XML
message, is the event object.
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