iLog Rules Engine family
Date:
By: Simon Holloway
Classification: InDetail
Well you might ask—another acronym to
remember. According to iLog, a BRMS, or
Business Rule Management System, is a set of
tools and processes that facilitate the
communication, deployment and execution of
business policy within an IT infrastructure. To
put into SOA terms it allows you to hold the
business rules in a separate repository so that
they can be reused.
Now, for those of us who have used or who have
looked at integration and BPM tools and even
RFID, know that business rules are everywhere!
There are many drivers for this proliferation of
rules; these include applications that:
- are computation centric, such as credit-•
based financial applications. - have an emphasis on conditional logic, such •
as data validation, navigation and decision
analysis. - have a large rule base.
- experience frequent changes to the rule base •
(regulations, policy changes to reflect market
changes such as pricing, marketing
campaigns…). - are real-time event-driven where business •
rules decide what actions to take based on
event notification and event content.
iLog see that are three real benefits to the use
of business rules; these are namely:
- Agility: faster time to market. Business •
users, rather than IT, gain control over
tactics and strategies that impact products
and customers. This means that business
policy changes can be deployed instantly. - Transparency and control: Rules can clearly •
describe associated policies. Auditing is
simplified because changes to rules can be
tracked over time. - Cost reduction: Business analysts can •
directly create/update rules. Associated with
agility, efficient user interfaces mean that it
is quicker to maintain policies.