Frequently Asked Questions

About sci-flex

1. What is SCI-Flex

SCI-Flex stands for flexible integration of CEP with SOA.The project SCI-Flex is an attempt to combine the power of a Complex Event Processing system with a Service Oriented Architecture of another. Our attempt is focused mainly in making the CEP experience truly parallel and distributed.

2. What is CEP….

Complex event processing (CEP) is a new technology. It can be applied to extracting and analyzing information from any kind of distributed message-based system. It is developed from the Rapid concepts of (1) causal event modeling, (2) event patterns and pattern matching, and (3) event pattern maps and constraints. Complex event processing can be applied to a wide variety of Enterprise monitoring and management problems, from low level network management to high level enterprise intelligence gathering.

3. What are the Applications of Complex Event Processing:

• Business Activity Monitoring
• Business Process Management
• Enterprise Application Integration
• Event-Driven Architectures
• Network and business level Security
• Real time conformance to regulations and policies.

4. What is the difference between CEP and Traditional databases

Complex Event Processing systems and Databases have many things in common but the two paradigms are quite different in their implementation and usefulness. First of all, a CEP acts upon transient data whereas a Database acts upon persistent data. A CEP system performs operations on a specific time interval whereas a Database performs an operation which does not depend on time. Also, a CEP system operates on a fixed query whereas a Database operates on querys that vary according to the transaction performed.

Hence the CEP system can therefore be thought of as an inversion of concept of Database system.

5. Why SOA and CEP

Our aim is to make it possible for someone who wishes to make use of a CEP system in a distributed SOA environment, without having to worry much about low-level configuring and interfacing. Unlike many developers who are involved with SOA frameworks, most users are accustomed to simply make use of a pre-built framework and integrate some code of business logic which will route information to/from an SOA network. Thus, a typical SOA user will not be looking forward to extend a framework to support a CEP system, but rather look for another that already has that feature

6. What is SOA

In computing, Service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides methods for systems development and integration where systems group functionality around business processes and package these as interoperable services. SOA also describes IT infrastructure which allows different applications to exchange data with one another as they participate in business processes. Service-orientation aims at a loose coupling of services with operating systems, programming languages and other technologies which underlie applications.SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services, which developers make accessible over a network in order that users can combine and reuse them in the production of business applications. These services communicate with each other by passing data from one service to another, or by coordinating an activity between two or more services.