RED HAT JBOSS BRMS 6 COMPARED WITH ORACLE SOA SUITE

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1 RED HAT JBOSS BRMS 6 COMPARED WITH ORACLE SOA SUITE COMPETITIVE REVIEW, APRIL 2014 INTRODUCTION Changing technology challenges companies to keep up. Technologies that were new a few years ago are now commonplace and ready for an upgrade. Today, it is increasingly important that technologies like business rules management systems (BRMS) and complex event processing (CEP) complement and seamlessly integrate with enterprise, web, and mobile applications. The combination of BRMS and CEP allow companies to create business solutions with less variability, improved accuracy, and greater environmental awareness. And these targeted management and automation tools can often boast corresponding improvements in business outcome. The people and processes used to create business solutions are also evolving. Today, business solution creation and maintenance favors business resources over technical resources. Analysts and subject-matter experts (SMEs) no longer have to constrain themselves to creating specifications and then hand them off to technical resources for the system to be designed and built. Instead, business resources can use tools that let them directly manage technology. Technical resources may reduce change management tasks, and can instead apply their skills and capabilities to innovating for the business solution life cycle. This limits IT roles to the most technical aspects, where they won t disrupt the work of the business resources. The work of the business and technical resources, just like the BRMS and CEP technologies, needs to be well-integrated to allow seamless and efficient interaction. Each Red Hat JBoss BRMS subscription combines powerful technology including BRMS, CEP, and system management with an application platform to run it all on. In comparison, Oracle offers Oracle SOA Suite, which provides BRMS and CEP capabilities appropriate for comparison with the functionality found in Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6. This competitive review presents similarities and differences between Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 and Oracle SOA Suite linkedin.com/company/red-hat 1 Comparison is based on Oracle SOA Suite running on WebLogic Application Server , distributed as part of Oracle WebLogic Suite. redhat.com

2 BUSINESS RULES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Red Hat JBoss BRMS includes a powerful business rules engine and rule authoring tools, together with a management system and repository. 2 Red Hat JBoss BRMS makes it possible to manage and automate the business rules that drive IT applications. Business analysts and application developers using the platform have confidence that rules correctly implement business policies and comply with external regulations. Oracle s business rules capabilities are a component of the SOA Suite. 3 Oracle business rules capabilities include: A rules engine Development tools to create rules and associated artifacts A software development kit (SDK or devkit) to manipulate rule dictionaries An SOA Composer application for working with deployed dictionaries that are part of an SOA composite application Red Hat JBoss BRMS includes all of the aforementioned Oracle functionality, plus capabilities that Oracle is missing. The asset repository is an important piece of functionality found in Red Hat JBoss BRMS but missing from Oracle business rules. Business rules that are managed by Red Hat JBoss BRMS are stored in the repository as assets. In addition to rules, anything that can be stored as a version in the BRMS repository is considered an asset. This includes: rules packages business processes decision tables fact models domain-specific languages The repository allows you to organize rules, control versions, and apply security to control access to assets. Oracle s lack of a business rules repository has several drawbacks. First, in development environments, developers rely on source code control systems to manage versions of dictionaries. In production, rule dictionaries are stored in the Oracle Metadata Service (MDS) and can be versioned if the MDS is database-backed. However, developers can t use MDS versioning for development purposes. 4 2 The rules engine is based on the Drools project, which is a widely used open source business rules engine and the subject of three published books. 3 Oracle Business Rules web site 4 Item C.10 in Oracle Business Rules Frequently Asked Questions section of Oracle Fusion Middleware User s Guide for Oracle Business Rules 11g Release 1 ( ) htm#bgbejgei 2

3 The next issue is rule availability. Developers must be aware of existing rules when developing to avoid duplication and conflicts. It can be challenging for Oracle developers to find all existing rules available for modification and re-use when there is no central repository. Concurrency is another Oracle business rules issue. Only one developer at a time can work with a business rule dictionary. As the number of rules contained in a given dictionary increases, it gets harder for concurrent rule development to take place. Developers using Red Hat JBoss BRMS are not constrained by concurrency. Developers can edit any rule assets they have repository access to. Red Hat JBoss BRMS even includes tools to help developers manage conflicts that might arise when multiple developers change a rule simultaneously. Rule access is the final Oracle business rule repository drawback to highlight. Oracle business rules have no central repository that can control and enforce security, so any developer who can access a rule dictionary has full access to the assets in that dictionary. 5 Red Hat JBoss BRMS has multiple levels of repository security, allowing you to control who has access and what type of repository-managed assets they can access. Authoring Oracle business rules always starts with the JDeveloper integrated development environment. Rule dictionaries created in JDeveloper are deployed to the server, where some business rule editing can be performed using the Oracle SOA Composer. 6 The Oracle SOA Composer is a web-based application. And though it is less complex than JDeveloper, it is complex enough that the average business user may have difficulty understanding it without training. The authoring environment for a business rules management system must allow technical resources and business users to collaborate without corrupting each other s work. Red Hat JBoss BRMS allows business users to participate in rules development using a web-based application called Business Central. Business Central contains features like interactive guided rules, rule templates, and decision tables. Red Hat JBoss BRMS users working in Business Central have full rule life cycle editing capabilities that are not matched by Oracle SOA Composer. Oracle SOA Composer has many editing capabilities that are in JDeveloper, but not all. For example, you cannot create any decision function, rename an existing decision function, or add or delete any input or output. 7 You also cannot create or delete rule sets using Oracle SOA Composer. 8 5 Customers may be able to secure their source code control system. However, that is not an Oracle-provided feature. 6 See section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User s Guide for Oracle Business Rules 11g Release 1 ( ) 7 See section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User s Guide for Oracle Business Rules 11g Release 1 ( ) guide 8 See section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User s Guide for Oracle Business Rules 11g Release 1 ( ) guide 3

4 Changes that you make using Oracle SOA Composer are not automatically synchronized with developers using JDeveloper. You must manually export dictionaries from the runtime that are then consumed by JDeveloper. Red Hat JBoss BRMS developers working with Business Central and JBoss Developer Studio interact directly with the governance repository. JBoss Developer Studio developers have advanced asset life cycle capabilities permitting them to: add update commit compare with version switch to version show history delete resources directly This simplifies developer activities and avoids the potential synchronization errors that are still possible with Oracle business rules. Another piece of Red Hat JBoss BRMS functionality that Oracle business rules lacks is domainspecific languages. A domain-specific language, or DSL, is a rule language that is dedicated to the problem domain. This can greatly simplify working with rules, especially for business users. For example, Figure A shows a DSL rule that illustrates the type of simplification possible. DSLs are also used in the guided editor, where they help simplify the assembly of rules. Oracle business rules lack DSL capabilities, requiring business users to work at the same technical level as developers. There is a person with name of Kitty ==> Person(name= Kitty ) Person is at least 42 years old and lives in Atlanta ==> Person(age >= 42, location= Atlanta ) Log boo ==> System.out.println( boo ); There is a person with name of Bob and Person is at least 30 years old and lives in Utah ==> Person(name= Bob ) and Person(age >= 30, location= Utah ) Figure A There are many differences between Red Hat JBoss BRMS and Oracle business rules. The Red Hat JBoss BRMS features presented here are only a sample of those differences. Red Hat JBoss BRMS has business rules features and governance capabilities not found in Oracle business rules, and these are two of the larger areas of difference. 4

5 COMPLEX EVENT MANAGEMENT The complex event processing (CEP) component in Red Hat JBoss BRMS is derived from the JBoss Drools Fusion community project. This component is implemented by moving away from the narrow modeling perspective that sees only rules, processes, or events as main modeling concepts. Red Hat JBoss BRMS treats all of these as primary concepts. This allows them to use each others strengths to effectively achieve the flexibility and power of behavioral modeling. Although this competitive review compares the CEP component as an independent module, it is important to realize that it is completely integrated with the rest of the Red Hat JBoss BRMS platform. Enabling CEP adds the following features: Understand and handle events as first-class citizens of the platform. Select a set of interesting events in a cloud or stream of events. Detect the relevant relationships (patterns) among these events. Take appropriate actions based on the patterns detected. rule Sound the alarm in case temperature rises above threshold when TemperatureThreshold( $max : max ) Number( doublevalue > $max ) from accumulate( SensorReading( $temp : temperature ) over window:time( 10m ), average( $temp ) ) then // sound the alarm end Figure B Oracle CEP takes a different approach with separate event and rule development environments and run time environments. At runtime, Oracle CEP executes in a Java(TM) application container based on Equinox OSGI. 9 Oracle Business Rules runs on the Oracle WebLogic server, potentially with other Oracle SOA Suite componentb. The difference in runtimes results in different configuration, administration, and deployment methods and procedures for Oracle CEP and Oracle Business Rules. When developing for Oracle complex event processing, the logic associated with processing and analyzing complex event data is separate from business rule processing. Red Hat JBoss BRMS developers can mix rules with events in a single declaration. This is completely different from Red Hat JBoss BRMS, where CEP and business rules work together. The Red Hat approach allows you to mix rules with events in a single declaration. For example, a rule could be written that states, If the average temperature reading for the last ten minutes goes above a certain point, sound the alarm. (Figure B) Using this approach, events are used within business rules to allow the author to work within a single context. 9 See section 1.1 in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Getting Started Guide for Oracle Complex Event Processing 11g Release 1 ( ) guide 5

6 Developing with Oracle CEP is more complex. An Oracle CEP application typically includes the following main component types: adapters channels beans event beans Adapters are used to consume and publish data streams. They are connected channels that queue data streams that processors use to execute logic and publish results. The adapters available to Oracle CEP applications are not the same as those used by SOA Suite. Oracle CEP adapters must work in a Java application container based on an Equinox OSGI runtime. Implementing Oracle CEP requires you to use Oracle Continuous Query Language (Oracle CQL). Oracle CQL is a query language based on SQL with added constructs that support streaming data. 10 The structure and syntax of Oracle CQL is different from Oracle business rules, which are authored using a syntax closer to Java than SQL. Oracle business rules and CEP developers must build different skills instead of learning one shared environment like users of Red Hat JBoss BRMS. Oracle developers also must coordinate their efforts to make sure that CEP detects events to process and that the right rules get evaluated. This effort is not required in Red Hat JBoss BRMS, where complex event and business rules are developed in one place and then executed in tandem when deployed. <processor> <name>cqlprocessor</name> <rules> <query id= Temps ><![CDATA[ select max(temperature), avg(temperature) from lastevents [ range 10 minutes] ]]></query>... </rules> </processor> Figure C 10 Oracle EPL is superseded by Oracle Continuous Query Language (Oracle CQL). See Preface of Oracle Fusion Middleware EPL Language Reference for Oracle Complex Event Processing 11g Release 1 ( ) 6

7 Oracle CQL is based on SQL. Developers creating complex event logic must think from the perspective of pulling data from event streams. This is analogous to querying a database with a CQL example, as shown in Figure C. In the example, maximum and average temperature data is calculated from a data stream with a sliding 10-minute window. Once completed, the processor component publishes the data (not shown) to a bean that performs an action. The action could call a rule deployed in an Oracle business rule dictionary. This approach is very different from Red Hat JBoss BRMS, where data is fed to the combination of business rules and complex events. For temporal complex events, Red Hat JBoss BRMS automatically takes care of buffering data as needed. Red Hat JBoss Developer Studio can provide a single development environment for all Red Hat JBoss BRMS functionality. Another challenge for Oracle developers is the different tools that are used for Oracle CEP and Oracle Business rules. Oracle CEP development is performed using an Eclipse-based development environment. Development for other components in the Oracle SOA suite, including business rules, is performed using the Oracle JDeveloper product. Once you have detected an event pattern of interest, the next step is to store and manipulate data, as well as perform a task in response to the event. Using Oracle CEP, you define beans and event beans that consume output streams and take action on that data (such as calling the Oracle business rules engine). External communications from Oracle CEP can use the built-in HTTP, JMS, and file-based capabilities. To communicate with an external system using a different method, you would need to create a custom adapter that can operate within the Oracle CEP OSGi environment. Remember that the adapters available to Oracle CEP applications are not the same as those used by SOA Suite. 11 By comparison, Red Hat JBoss BRMS runs on the Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. This allows you to connect to external systems using any of the predefined technology connectors such as , file system, FTP, HTTP, JDBC, JMS, and SOAP. You can also use custom and thirdparty adapters. Regardless of how you communicate, you can do so using plain old Java objects (POJO) with methods you define. Further, since Red Hat JBoss BRMS is running Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, you can have the option to re-use code that is already deployed. Deployment is another area of inconsistency between Oracle CEP and Oracle Business Rules. Oracle CEP projects get built and deployed as a single OSGi bundle. This needs to be done since Oracle CEP engine runs as a Java application container based on Equinox OSGi. This is different from the Oracle business rules engine, which runs as a JEE application on the WebLogic application server. In fact, all components of SOA suite excluding CEP run as JEE applications. Oracle CEP packages are deployed and managed differently than other SOA Suite components. This leads to a disparate mix of Oracle technologies that developers and administrators must account for. With Red Hat JBoss BRMS, all components are developed using the same development tool and deployed on Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. 11 Compare list of Oracle CEP adapters in section of Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer s Guide for Oracle Complex Event Processing 11g Release 1 ( ) for Eclipse to tab labeled Adapter Certification in System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11gR1 spreadsheet accessed from Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations 7

8 PRODUCT ACQUISITION Get comprehensive Red Hat JBoss BRMS functionality from a single subscription. Red Hat JBoss BRMS is available in 16- and 64-core entitlement increments offered as annual or 3-year subscriptions. (3-year subscriptions include a discount.) With Red Hat JBoss Middleware, you pay an annual subscription fee and are never charged software licensing fees. 12 There are three different ways to acquire Oracle SOA Suite. It can be purchased as a WebLogic Suite option, as an option for use with non-oracle middleware, or as a middleware option for Oracle applications. 13 Regardless of how you acquire the product, software license and support costs apply. The combined license and support costs are different depending on which acquisition option you choose. There are also license and functional differences depending on the Oracle licensing option you choose. For example: The Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 Certification Matrix indicates that if you use Oracle SOA Suite for non-oracle middleware with IBM WebSphere, the following functionality is not supported: Oracle B2B Oracle Reports Oracle Forms Oracle Service Bus Oracle Web Tier (Oracle HTTP Server, Web Cache) Oracle Complex Event Processing 14 Oracle SOA Suite for Oracle Middleware for Oracle Applications may be used only to enable integration, business processes, workflow interactions and approvals within eligible Oracle Applications. 15 Both Red Hat JBoss BRMS and all of the Oracle SOA Suite components with the exception of complex events run on a Java application platform. 16 Red Hat JBoss BRMS runs on the Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform version Oracle SOA Suite runs on the WebLogic Server and However, based on Oracle s public technology commercial price list, you must use the Oracle WebLogic Server that is contained in the WebLogic Suite to run SOA Suite. 18 It is 80% more expensive to license and purchase annual support for Oracle WebLogic Suite than it is to buy the same license and support for Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition Red Hat subscription model 13 See Oracle Technology Global Price List dated Feb. 13, See System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11gR1 spreadsheet on Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations web page downloads/fusion-certification html 15 See Oracle Applications Licensing Table for more information application-licensing-table pdf 16 Oracle Event Processing runs in an OSGi container separately form other Oracle SOA Suite components 17 See Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations, 11g Release 1 certifications 18 Oracle SOA Suite is listed as a WebLogic Suite option in the US Oracle Technology Commercial Price List 19 Based on list price processor licenses listed in the Oracle Technology Global Price List dated Feb. 13,

9 ECONOMICS There is a significant difference in total cost of acquisition between Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 and the combination of Oracle WebLogic Suite and Oracle SOA Suite. While Red Hat does not believe that price alone drives purchase decisions, the economic advantage Red Hat has over Oracle is so significant that it shouldn t be overlooked. With an Oracle Fusion Middleware 20 purchase, there are two charges in the first year: one for software licensing and another for software update license and support fees 21. In subsequent years, the Oracle renewal price for software update license and support is based on fees paid in the prior year, increased by the Inflationary Adjustment Rate (IAR). For licenses with an active Contractual Cap Rate (CCR), fees increase by the lower of the CCR or the IAR. With Red Hat JBoss Middleware, you pay for your annual subscription and are never charged software licensing fees. 22 A Red Hat JBoss Middleware subscription is very economical when compared with Oracle Fusion Middleware. For example, compare the 2-year list price acquisition costs of Oracle WebLogic Suite and Oracle SOA Suite to Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 23, deployed on 16 cores of Intel-based servers. For Oracle, the Intel cores are rated at a core factor of 0.5 per core 24. Price comparison is based on two years of cost at current list prices for both Red Hat JBoss Middleware 25 and Oracle 26. For Oracle, the price list dated February 13, 2014, is used. First-year Oracle license costs for each product are calculated by multiplying 16 (cores) X.5 (core factor) X [product price]. Second-year Oracle software update license and support fees are calculated at 22% of license cost Oracle describes to Fusion Middleware as a platform that includes multiple products including Oracle WebLogic Suite, and Oracle SOA Suite 21 See support renewal section in Oracle Technology Global Price List 22 Red Hat subscription model 23 JBoss NA Channel SKUs 24 See Oracle Processor Core Factor Table found on Oracle License and Service Agreement web page 25 JBoss NA Channel SKUs 26 Oracle Technology Global Price List dated Feb. 13, Oracle Technology Global Price List dated Feb. 13, 2014 shows software update license and support costs at 22% of processor-based pricing for all Oracle software discussed in this competitive review 9

10 TABLE A: 2-YEAR ORACLE CALCULATIONS USING 16 CORES LICENSE FEES CORES CORE FACTOR LIST PRICE TOTAL Oracle WebLogic Suite $45,000 $360,000 Oracle SOA Suite $57,500 $460,000 SOFTWARE UPDATE LICENSE AND SUPPORT FEES Total software license fees $820,000 Oracle WebLogic Suite $9,900 $79,200 Oracle SOA Suite $12,650 $101,200 Annual Subtotal $180,400 2-year software update license and support fees total $360,800 2-year total Oracle cost $1,180,800 A Red Hat JBoss BRMS subscription is over one million less (USD) than the combination of Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle WebLogic Suite at list price over 2 years. As shown in Table A, the 2-year list price acquisition costs for 16 cores of Oracle WebLogic Suite and Oracle SOA Suite is more than $1.18M USD at list price. Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 2-year acquisition costs are significantly lower than Oracle s combined product offers, as shown in Table B. Red Hat recommends managed subscriptions with premium support. Using this subscription profile, a Red Hat JBoss BRMS subscription costs over one million dollars less (USD) than Oracle at list price. 10

11 TABLE B: 2-YEAR RED HAT JBOSS BRMS SUBSCRIPTION COSTS RED HAT JBOSS BRMS PLATFORM WITH MANAGEMENT, 16 CORE PREMIUM Annual Subscription $36,000 $130,000 RED HAT JBOSS BRMS PLATFORM WITH MANAGEMENT, 64 CORE PREMIUM 2-years of annual subscription Red Hat savings compared to Oracle (USD) $72,000 $260,000 $1,108,800 $4,463,200 2-YEAR ORACLE CALCULATIONS USING 64 CORES CORES CORE FACTOR LIST PRICE TOTAL LICENSE FEES Oracle WebLogic Suite $45,000 $1,440,000 Oracle SOA Suite $57,500 $1,840,000 Total software license fees $3,280,000 SOFTWARE UPDATE LICENSE AND SUPPORT FEES Oracle WebLogic Suite $9,900 $316,800 Oracle SOA Suite $12,650 $404,800 Annual Subtotal $721,600 2-year software update license and support fees total $1,443,200 2-year total Oracle cost $4,723,200 Consider the Red Hat cost advantages already presented. With dramatically lower costs to acquire and use Red Hat JBoss Middleware, how many more projects could you start? How much more could you focus on innovation? Can you find enough technical advantages in Oracle WebLogic Suite and Oracle SOA Suite to justify the added expense of that software? 11

12 COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 compared with Oracle SOA Suite CONCLUSION This competitive brief has presented a mix of similarities and differences between Red Hat JBoss BRMS and Oracle SOA Suite. While both Oracle and Red Hat offer complex event processing and business rules, only Red Hat commercially offers this functionality without any associated software license fees. Red Hat customers simply purchase subscriptions for the Red Hat technologies they use. Red Hat JBoss BRMS includes functionality not found in Oracle SOA Suite such as business rules governance, unified complex events and business rules syntax, a single integrated development environment for all functionality, and a single Java based platform to run it on. Plus, Red Hat JBoss BRMS platform offers BRMS and CEP capabilities for significantly lower acquisition costs than the combination of Oracle WebLogic Suite and Oracle SOA Suite. The cost savings you realize by choosing Red Hat can let you start more projects, deploy technology more pervasively within the enterprise, and apply more of your budget towards innovation. Innovate more and spend less with a Red Hat JBoss BRMS subscription. Contact your Red Hat sales professional for more information. ABOUT RED HAT Red Hat is the world s leading provider of open source solutions, using a community-powered approach to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, virtualization, storage, Linux, and middleware technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. Red Hat is an S&P company with more than 70 offices spanning the globe, empowering its customers businesses. linkedin.com/company/red-hat NORTH AMERICA REDHAT1 EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA europe@redhat.com ASIA PACIFIC apac@redhat.com LATIN AMERICA info-latam@redhat.com redhat.com # _v2_0314 Copyright 2014 Red Hat, Inc., Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, and JBoss are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.