Visual orchestration tool addresses event processing and SOA

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Visual orchestration tool addresses event processing and SOA

Rich Seeley, News Writer

ActiveVOS 6.0 is a standards-based visual orchestration tool for enterprise architects, business analysts and Java developers working on "service-based development." Moreover, it is said to help designers working on complex event processing (CEP) projects. The software was released this week by Active Endpoints, Inc.

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By making it possible to use CEP easily, lots and lots of people are going to do it. That's why I call it democratization.
Alex Neihaus
VP of marketingActive Endpoints

ActiveVOS 6.0 combines integrated process modeling, design, testing, debugging and deployment and includes an integrated CEP engine that directly challenges to SOA vendor stack approach to development tooling, said Alex Neihaus, vice president of marketing at Active Endpoints.

"This is part of the maturation of the whole SOA space," he said. "Now you see visual orchestration systems that combine in single products a services-based development system that also takes you through production.

Orchestration tools allow individuals to create integrations and workflows where various system elements can be combined to support well-defined processes.

Asked if ActiveVOS is as unique as the vendor claims, Dana Gardner, principal analyst of Interarbor Solutions LLC, said: "I'm not sure if it's full function set is unique but Active Endpoints' packaging and integration, along with the emphasis on the business analyst-level process and visualization tools does strike me as what the market is looking for. The way they package their tools helps reduce complexity in a unique way. I'd say that they have a fuller package as a solution than what I've seen elsewhere."

Gardner said the fact that other vendors repackage ActiveVOS "testifies to the technical capabilities and adherence to standards."

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Neihaus said ActiveVOS is "100 percent standards-based with no extensions." Among the standards implemented, he listed Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), BPEL4People, and WS-Human Task.

With its integrated CEP engine, ActiveVOS will democratize CEP, Neihaus claimed, predicting it won't just be for large corporations anymore. CEP statements can be written in an "SQL-like language, so any Java developer at any size company can use it," he said. Developers can even modify CEP operations while an application is running, he added.

"By making it possible to use CEP easily, lots and lots of people are going to do it. That's why I call it democratization," Neihaus said.