Operational Decision Manager and IBM

Transcription

1 January 2013 Introduction 1 IM usiness Process Manager Express, IM usiness Process Manager Standard, IM usiness Process Manager dvanced 2 IM Operational Decision Manager web page - www-01.ibm.com/software/ decision-management/operational-decision-management/ websphere-operational-decision-management/ 3 CDW software licensing center web page - cdw.com/content/softwarelicensing/ibm.aspx 4 IM International Passport dvantage greement - public.dhe.ibm.com/software/ passportadvantage/p_ greements/p_greement_ International_English.pdf Section 1.8 RSVP Level. 5 IM Software online catalog - software/info/app/ecatalog/ atoz.html using US pricing 6 Joss N Channel SKUs - html/jboss_channel_skus.html Technology changes at a rate that consistently challenges companies to keep up to date. Several technologies that were labeled as new or emerging just a few years ago are now facing changes. Some changes are revolutionary while others are evolutionary. n evolution is currently taking place with business process management (PM). This evolution raises the importance of technologies like business rules management systems (RMS) and complex event processing (CEP) that complement and seamlessly integrate with PM. The combination of RMS, CEP, and PM allows companies to create business solutions with less variability, improved accuracy, and greater environmental awareness. The resources used to create business solutions are also evolving. usiness solutions are no longer tied to business resources (like analysts and subject-matter experts) focused on creating specifications that are handed off to technical resources to base system designs and builds on. Today, business solution creation and maintenance favor business resources over technical resources. We see business resources using tools created specifically for them that allow them to directly leverage technology. Technical resources still provide important skills and capabilities for the business solution life cycle. However, their role is limited to the most technical aspects of using technology without disrupting the work of the business resources. The work of the business and technical resources just like the three technologies (PM, RMS, CEP) needs to be well-integrated and allow seamless and efficient interaction. Each Joss Enterprise RMS subscription from Red Hat provides a powerful combination of technology, including RMS, CEP, PM, system management, and an application platform to run it all on. In comparison, IM WebSphere offers a selection of three offerings for PM 1 capabilities each of which must be supplemented with IM Operational Decision Manager 2 to add RMS and CEP capabilities to match the combined PM, RMS, and CEP capabilities found in Joss Enterprise RMS 5.3. Economics There is a significant difference in the total cost of acquisition between Joss Enterprise RMS 5.3 and the combination of IM usiness Process Manager Standard. While Red Hat does not believe that price alone drives purchase decisions, the economic advantage Red Hat has over IM is so significant that it shouldn t be overlooked. With an IM WebSphere purchase under the Passport dvantage program, there is one charge in the first year that combines license costs with subscription and support costs. 3 fter the first anniversary of purchase, IM subscription and support charges are based on your Passport dvantage RSVP level. 4 Subscription and support costs change as your Passport dvantage RSVP level changes.

2 Table : 2-year IM calculations using 16 cores Cores PVU p/core Price p/pvu Total IM Operational Decision Manager IM WebSphere Decision Center Processor Value Unit (PVU) License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months (D0IIZLL) IM WebSphere Decision Server Processor Value Unit (PVU) License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months (D0G80LL) $1,490 $2,384, $1,370 $2,192,000 Subtotal $4,576,000 IM IM Process Server Standard (D0ILJLL) $902 $1,443,200 IM Process Center Standard (D0IM6LL) $1,330 $2,128,000 IM Process Designer (D0IMVLL) priced p/user 25 $5,460 $136,500 Subtotal $3,707,700 Total License Fees $8,283,700 nnual Subscription and Support 20% of license $1,656,740 Two Year Total IM Cost $9,940,440 7 IM Processor Value Unit [PVU] licensing for Distributed Software - com/software/lotus/passportadvantage/pvu_licensing_ for_customers.html 8 See page 25 of the IM whitepaper Comparing IM WebSphere and Oracle WebLogic for 20 percent reference - ftp:// public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ ssi/ecm/en/wsw14127usen/ WSW14127USEN.PDF What are the opportunity costs of choosing IM Operational Decision Manager and IM usiness Process Manager Standard? With Joss Enterprise Middleware, you pay an annual subscription fee and are never charged software licensing fees. Getting started with a Red Hat subscription is very economical when compared to IM WebSphere. For example, compare the 2-year list price acquisition costs of IM Operational Decision Manager 5 and IM to Joss Enterprise RMS 6 deployed on 16 cores of Intel-based servers. For IM, the Intel cores are rated at 100 PVU 7 per core and the U.S. price list in effect January 2013 is used. First-year IM costs are calculated by multiplying 16 (cores) X 100 (PVU per core) X [product price]. Second-year IM subscription and support is calculated at 20% of license cost. 8 s shown in Table, the 2-year list price acquisition costs of 16 cores of IM Operational Decision Manager and IM is more than $9.9M USD at list price. Joss Enterprise RMS Platform 2-year acquisition costs are significantly lower than IM s combined product offers as shown in Table. Joss Enterprise RMS can be purchased with a 1- or 3-year subscription with 16- or 64-core count increments. Red Hat recommends managed subscriptions with premium support. Using this subscription profile, a Joss Enterprise RMS subscription is millions less (USD) than the IM offering at list price. Consider the Red Hat cost advantages already presented. With dramatically lower costs to acquire and use Joss Enterprise Middleware, how many more projects could you start? How much more focus could you give to innovation? Can you find enough technical advantages in IM to justify the added expense of that software? usiness process management Joss Enterprise RMS includes a PM component based on the usiness Process Model and Notation version 2 (PMN) standard. This component is derived from the Joss jpm community project and includes all the PMN-based functionality available from Red Hat. With IM 2

3 Table : 2-year Joss Enterprise RMS subscription costs Joss Enterprise RMS Platform with Management, 16 Core Premium Joss Enterprise RMS Platform with Management, 64 Core Premium nnual Subscription $36,000 $130,000 2-year subscription $72,000 $260,000 Savings versus IM (USD) $9,868,440 $39,501,760 Table : 2-year IM calculations using 64 cores IM Operational Decision Manager Cores PVU p/core Price p/pvu Total IM WebSphere Decision Center Processor Value Unit (PVU) License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months (D0IIZLL) IM WebSphere Decision Server Processor Value Unit (PVU) License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months (D0G80LL) $1,490 $9,536, $1,370 $8,768,000 Subtotal $18,304,000 IM IM Process Server Standard (D0ILJLL) $902 $5,772,800 IM Process Center Standard (D0IM6LL) $1,330 $8,512,000 IM Process Designer (D0IMVLL) priced p/user 100 $5,460 $546,000 Subtotal $14,830,800 Total License Fees $33,134,800 nnual Subscription and Support 20% of license $6,626,960 Two Year Total IM Cost $39,761,760 9 IM usiness Process Manager Express, IM usiness Process Manager Standard, IM usiness Process Manager dvanced 10 IM usiness Process Manager V8.0 configuration capabilities - ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/ v8r0mx/topic/com.ibm.wbpm. main.doc/topics/cbpm_wbpm_ pkg.html WebSphere, you select from one of three offerings 9 for PM capabilities. While all three IM offerings support PMN modeling, there are variations in functional and deployment features. 10 Red Hat has determined based on technical and deployment capabilities, that IM usiness Process Manager Standard is the best IM PM software product to compare with the jpm component in Joss Enterprise RMS. IM usiness Process Manager Express Edition limits the numbers of users and cores that can be used for production and development and does not include transaction support. Joss Enterprise RMS does not have similar restrictions it allows you to host as many users as the cores you deploy across environments of your choice can handle, all while providing transaction support. IM usiness Process Manager dvanced brings adds PEL modeling and execution with IM Process Server compatibility to the capabilities found in IM. Red Hat offers PEL capabilities (plus other technologies) as part of the Joss Enterprise SO platform. Therefore, IM usiness Process Manager dvanced is not appropriate to compare to Joss Enterprise RMS. uilding business process models in a graphical environment is a common PM market feature. Joss Enterprise RMS and IM allow users to graphically model and execute PMN version 2 process flows. Joss Enterprise RMS uses PMN for business process modeling using web- or Eclipse-based tooling and stores and manages assets in a common repository. In addition, advanced users can embed the designer tool in their own 3

4 11 See authoring environments documentation - dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r0mx/topic/com.ibm. wbpm.main.doc/topics/cbpm_ ae.html#cbpm_ae tab-2 web-based applications. IM users can create and modify PMN processes using a web-based tool and store and manage assets in a central repository. IM Eclipse-based process modeling is available with IM Integration Designer that is available for use with IM usiness Process Manager dvanced or as a stand-alone tool for other uses. IM documentation does not explicitly state that IM Integration Designer can be used with IM. 11 Joss Enterprise RMS allows you to introduce domain-specific nodes into the PMN modeling environments. Domain-specific nodes can be customized and then exposed via the design tool palette to reflect the nuances of your business. This can result in processes more easily understood by business users and can help simplify business process development. Domain-specific nodes can be used for a single process as well as registered in the service repository and made available for use with any business process. IM does not provide domain-specific node functionality. s a result, users cannot customize the PM business process designer palette to reflect the special needs of their business. What about business process designs generated using other tools? Joss Enterprise RMS allows you to import and export PMN 2 models. s process diagrams are developed and mature, the need to share and review them increases. Joss Enterprise RMS can export process flows in formats such as ERDF, JSON, PDF, PNG, SVG, and of course PMN2. IM usiness Process Manager Standard PMN import functionality is limited to WebSphere usiness Compass, IM WebSphere usiness Modeler, and IM lueworks Live artifacts. IM export functionality is limited to a simple zip file. Once business processes are defined, your attention turns to executing them. PMN process flows can be executed via a central server using both Joss Enterprise RMS and IM usiness Process Manager Standard. However, with Joss Enterprise RMS, PMN process models are executed natively while IM uses an execution environment engine common to both PMN and PEL. oth solutions allow you to define users and associated security that dictates what business processes can be controlled. Users log in via a web-based tool to work with assigned and unassigned tasks as well as launch and monitor new business process instances with proper security permissions. Unique to Joss Enterprise RMS is the ability to embed business process execution in Java and web-based applications. You are not forced to run all business processes from a centralized server. usiness processes, like business rules, are a powerful way to avoid having business logic hard coded into custom applications. With Joss Enterprise RMS, you get the flexibility to deploy business processes as you see fit and the accompanying economics make that option feasible. s business processes execute, some may have human tasks embedded. Human tasks are manual business process interactions satisfied in a variety of ways, including using simple web user interfaces and mobile device applications. Joss Enterprise RMS and IM usiness Process Manager Standard both support human tasks implemented outside of the PM server. Joss Enterprise RMS provides a default implementation of a human task service based on the WS-HumanTask specification, and the implementation is fully pluggable, meaning that users can integrate their own human task solutions if necessary. This allows users with existing implementations of a WS-HumanTask human task service to get even more value out of that deployment. Despite contributing to the WS-HumanTask specification, IM does not leverage this standard for its external human task integration solution. The ability to easily create custom applications for business processes is an important factor to consider. Without this ability, you may force business process users into an environment used for PM human tasks and nothing else. 4

5 usiness rules management system etween the Joss Drools community project v5.1 and Joss Enterprise RMS v5.1 from Red Hat, there were 150+ bug fixes, 5 security fixes, 2 customer feature requests, and several performance enhancements. 12 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 13 See IM documentation on synchronizing and storing rules for more details - ibm.com/infocenter/dmanager/ v8r0/index.jsp?topic=%2fcom. ibm.wodm.dcenter. synchro%2ftopics%2fwodm_ dcenter_synchro.html 14 IM documentation - infocenter/dmanager/v8r0/ index.jsp?topic=%2fcom. ibm.websphere Operational Decision Management. dserver.rules.designer. dev%2fdesigning_bom_ topics%2ftpc_bom_designing_ for_java_model.html Joss Enterprise RMS includes a powerful business rules engine and rule-authoring tools together with a management system and repository. 12 Joss Enterprise RMS makes it possible to manage and automate the business rules that drive IT applications, such that business analysts and application developers can have confidence that encoded rules correctly implement business policies and comply with external regulations. IM Operational Decision Manager is based on proprietary source code and split into two major components: Decision Server, the design and run-time tool for setting up and executing ODM projects, and Decision Center, the business-user oriented tool for authoring, editing, and managing the sets of rules and events that make the decisions. Each of the IM components run as separate server processes. Joss Enterprise RMS business rules can be installed on an independent application platform instance or one that shares other components of the platform. The ideal authoring environment for a RMS will allow technical resources and business users to collaborate without corrupting each others work. For best results, business rules should be managed in a way that allows for versioning, security, and other governance features. uthoring rules in IM Operational Decision Manager is performed using multiple tools. One of the IM tools, rule designer, is an Eclipse-based tool targeted at technical resources. Rules designer users store rules in a file system, work on copies of a rule project in their Eclipse workspaces, and keep master copies in source code control systems that handle file sharing, conflict resolution, and version management. Joss Enterprise RMS developers working with Joss Developer Studio interact directly with the governance repository permitting them to add, update, commit, compare with version, switch to version, show history, and delete resources directly. This simplifies developer activities and helps avoid the potential synchronization errors between the source code control system and the repository that are possible with IM Operational Decision Manager. 13 When working with rules, there are multiple features that Joss Enterprise RMS has in common with IM Operational Decision Manager. For example, interactive guided rules, domain-specific language for rules, rule templates, decision tables, and many others. Still, Joss Enterprise RMS has several advantages over IM Operational Decision Manager in this area. For example, with Joss, you use the same method to define fact types for rules and events. IM uses different methods for defining events and rule facts. nother example is simplicity. Joss Enterprise RMS allows you to directly reference Java objects and use them as fact types for rules and events. IM Operational Decision Manager has different ways to reference Java objects for use, depending on if you are working with rules or events. If you are working with rules, you have two levels of abstraction (business object model or execution object model) between your Java object and rule vocabulary. 14 Complex event processing The complex event processing (CEP) component in Joss Enterprise RMS is derived from the Joss Drools Fusion community project. The component is implemented by moving away from the narrow modeling perspective that sees only rules, processes, or events as the main modeling concept. Joss Enterprise RMS treats all of these as primary concepts, allowing them to leverage each other s strengths to effectively achieve the flexibility and power of behavioral modeling. lthough this paper compares the CEP component as an independent module, it is important to realize that it is completely integrated with the rest of the RMS platform. Enabling CEP adds the following features: 5

6 Understands and handles events as first-class citizens of the platform Selects a set of interesting events in a cloud or stream of events Detects the relevant relationships (patterns) among these events Takes appropriate actions based on the patterns detected 15 See diagram on What is WebSphere Operational Decision Management documentation page - ibm.com/infocenter/dmanager/ v8r0/index.jsp IM Operational Decision Manager takes a different approach to complex event management, with event development separated from rule development and the event engine separated from the business rules engine. 15 s a result, the logic associated with processing and analyzing complex event data is separate from business rule processing. This is different from Joss Enterprise RMS, where complex event processing and business rules are configured to 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 10 minutes goes above a certain point, sound the alarm. Using this approach, events are used within business rules, allowing the author to work within a single context. 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 When using IM Operational Decision Manager, both the data and rule must be defined and executed using Decision Server Events because the example rule requires temporal evaluation of data. The IM event developer would design, author, test, and deploy the required logic using an Eclipse-based event designer tool. The defined event would have all the data needed for the required rule conditions. The Decision Server events engine would run the rule and the Decision Server rules engine would not be needed in the example. With Joss Enterprise RMS, you execute on a single run-time engine, eliminating the overhead of choosing to implement a rule run using the event engine or business rule engine. In order to effectively determine sequences of events that apply to rules, the author must have temporal functions available to work with. Joss Enterprise RMS CEP implements 13 temporal operators and their logical complements (negation) plus sliding time windows. sliding window is a time period that stretches back in time from the present. For instance, a sliding window of 2 minutes includes any events that have occurred in the past 2 minutes. s events fall out of the sliding time window (in this case because they occurred more than 2 minutes ago) they will no longer match against rules using this particular sliding window. The 13 Joss Enterprise RMS CEP temporal operators are after, before, coincides, during, finishes, finished by, includes, meets, met by, overlaps, overlapped by, starts, and started by. ll 13 can be used with point-interval and interval-interval scenarios. Point-point intervals can be used with before, after, and coincides operators. Table C illustrates a subset of Joss Enterprise RMS temporal operator intervals. IM Operational Decision Manager takes a different approach to temporal reasoning, providing varying functions and operators based on context or DateTime data. There are 8 context operators and 8 functions for context data. For DataTime data, there are 34 operators and 18 6

7 functions. The granularity of IM temporal capabilities can make them more difficult to use than when applying the concise set of temporal operators in Joss Enterprise RMS. For example, the Joss overlaps operator correlates two events and matches when the current event starts before the correlated event starts and ends after the correlated event starts, but before the correlated event ends. Table C Point-Point Point-Interval Interval-Interval after mety overlapedy finishedy during finishes Joss Enterprise RMS events have metadata built in that allows you to check this condition via syntax such as $event : Event( this overlaps $event ). IM does not have similar builtin metadata, requiring you to explicitly declare start and end time stamps in each of the events and logically evaluate $event.starttimestamp < $event.starttimestamp < $event.endtimestamp < $event.endtimestamp. This adds complexity to an IM solution, when compared to one implemented using Joss Enterprise RMS. The temperature example also leverages a sliding time window to determine rolling average. Joss Enterprise RMS CEP uses the over keyword to associate windows with patterns. In the temperature example, the rule text accumulate(sensorreading( $temp : temperature ) over window:time( 10m ),average( $temp ) ) uses a 10-minute sliding time window to determine the average temperature. This straightforward rule process can t be replicated using IM Operational Decision Manager. Instead, with IM Operational Decision Manager, a multiplestep implementation starts by filtering events that fall within a fixed duration. s events are identified, they are the aggregated into an array. Once the fixed duration is satisfied, the event aggregation array is operated on to determine the average temperature. This is more complex than the implementation shown for Joss Enterprise RMS. It is also important to note that the IM time duration is static and therefore technically not a sliding time window another Joss Enterprise RMS advantage. Once you have detected an event pattern of interest, the next step is to store and manipulate data and possibly perform a task in response to the events. Using IM Operational Decision Manager, data is recorded using business objects and you define actions that are an output event sent from the event run time to an external system. To communicate with the external system, you use one of the predefined technology connectors that allow you to communicate via , file system, FTP, HTTP, JDC, JMS, SOP, or user console message. 7

8 16 IM documentation shows a fixed list of technology connectors - infocenter/dmanager/v8r0/ index.jsp?topic=%2fcom.ibm. wodm.dserver.events.dev%2ft opics%2fwhataretechnologyco nnectors.html With Joss Enterprise RMS, you have all of the same data and task capabilities found in IM Operational Decision Manager, plus additional capabilities. The greater capabilities are a result of the Joss Enterprise RMS run-time model that provides close access to Java objects with associated methods that you provide. You are not bound to a predefined set of technology connectors like you are with IM Operational Decision Manager. 16 [need backup] For example, within your rule you can directly call methods within a Java object instance that communicates with another system using the technology of your choice. lternatively, you can simply use Java class instances methods to manipulate data locally as needed. Joss Enterprise RMS offers developers maximum flexibility. Conclusion This competitive brief has presented a mix of similarities and differences between Joss Enterprise RMS and the combined IM usiness Process Manager Standard software. While both IM and Red Hat offer PM, CEP, and RMS software, Red Hat provides all three in one commercial offering. Red Hat offers the full functionality of Joss Enterprise RMS without any associated software licenses fees. Red Hat customers simply purchase subscriptions for the Red Hat technologies they use. Joss Enterprise RMS is available in 16- and 64-core entitlement increments in annual or discounted 3-year subscriptions. Regardless of the subscription you choose, Joss Enterprise RMS platform offers many of the functional capabilities found in IM usiness Process Manager Standard, at a significantly lower acquisition cost. The cost savings you realize by choosing Red Hat can enable you to 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 Joss Enterprise RMS subscription. Contact your Red Hat sales professional for more information. OUT RED HT 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. SLES ND INQUIRIES NORTH MERIC REDHT1 EUROPE, MIDDLE EST ND FRIC europe@redhat.com SI PCIFIC apac@redhat.com LTIN MERIC latammktg@redhat.com # _0113 Copyright 2013 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, and Joss 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.