Progress Software, a provider of application infrastructure software to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, has added Progress Apama SmartBlock features to the Apama complex event processing (CEP) platform. The firm says that with these new SmartBlock features, both business users and developers can more easily create and package business logic for re-use in Apama applications, accelerating the speed with which those applications can be deployed and later modified.
Apama SmartBlocks are elements of CEP logic that can be incorporated within Apama applications through the firm's graphical development tool, Apama Event Modeler. A SmartBlock might represent a calculation within an algorithmic trading application, a complex event pattern to be sought, or the connectivity that integrates Apama with a market data feed. SmartBlocks make the incorporation of such functionality accessible to power users, programmers and business users.
A key element of the Apama CEP platform, SmartBlocks help to bridge the gap between IT and business users, according to Progress Software. Using Event Modeler's drag-and-drop development model, non-programmers can create or modify complex event processing scenarios, selecting the packaged logic from SmartBlock catalogues, defining parameters, and wiring the components together. Business users can access complex feeds, services and analytics without the need to understand the system-level complexities associated with their execution, explains the firm.
"Recent reports have indicated that business users, as well as technologists, are driving the take-up of CEP technology," comments Dr. John Bates, founder and general manager, Apama division, Progress Software. "SmartBlocks facilitate the collaboration between the line-of-business users and IT in creating CEP applications. Our experience with CEP customers has proven that both business and technical users require tools to shorten time-to-market, minimise complexity and maximise reuse. Apama's new SmartBlock builder is designed to enable business users to work together to achieve these goals," he explains.