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New Trade Group Tackles Event Processing Standards
June 9, 2008
As complex event processing (CEP) technology spreads across industries and disciplines, a new non-profit association wants to encourage that growth by establishing best practices and standardized terminology.
Unveiled last week, the Event Processing Technology Society (EPTS) includes representatives from 29 organizations such as Coral8, Gartner, IBM Corp., Oracle Corp., Progress Software Corp., StreamBase Systems and Tibco Software, along with 27 individual members. The group runs the gamut from technology vendors to academics, analysts and consultants.
IBM, Oracle and Gartner were the initial sponsors of EPTS, which aims to facilitate the adoption and usage of event processing in a diverse range of applications and areas. The CEP industry currently garners approximately two-thirds of its revenue from capital markets firms.
"The explosion in the amount of business event data being generated in modern enterprises demands a new event processing technology foundation," which the society hopes to supply, said David Luckham, an EPTS steering committee member, professor emeritus at Stanford University and author of an introductory book on event processing.
"We are a consortium of vendors, companies and customers who intend to promote greater understanding of event processing as a major computing area," added Opher Etzion, chairman of the EPTS steering committee and event processing leader at IBM's research lab in Haifa, Israel.
The group says it intends to develop an event processing glossary, to resolve the confusion surrounding the divergent terms used by different companies. It also plans to work with standards development groups such as the Object Management Group, Oasis and W3C on a set of consistent standards to ease development and product integration efforts.
"The basic glossary we have created currently consists of 30 terms, and I can tell you that I have seen half a dozen different definitions for each of them," said Luckham. "There is a need to have common, general definitions and common terminology for event processing, and I think that we are beginning to arrive at that."
Also on the EPTS agenda is accelerating the creation of best practices, documenting usage scenarios to highlight the business benefits of event processing and encouraging academic research in the field. The consortium will hold annual meetings in Stamford, Conn. from Sept. 17 to Sept. 19, though much of the work will be handled by working groups that gather at various times throughout the year, according to Etzion.
For many, the formation of an industry consortium is a welcome development. "There are a lot of people at these companies who realize that a rising tide lifts all boats," said Mark Palmer, president and COO of Lexington, Mass.-based StreamBase. "They know that the more you do to standardize and help customers to deploy this stuff, the more chances you have that the market can succeed." Standardization does not necessarily mean commoditization of industry products, he added. "Databases are standardized and Oracle seems to continue to be doing fairly well."
Adam Honore, senior analyst with Boston-based Aite Group, questioned whether the members of the consortium will be able to get along and produce results. "Ideally, you are going to need some people to step up and take the lead, for example, in helping to establish standards and take ownership of other efforts," he said. "The overall effort has promise, but it remains to be seen how it all shakes out."
