Transcription
White PaperILOG JRules:Leading the Way inBusiness RuleManagement Systems
ILOG JRules:Leading the Way inBusiness RuleManagement SystemsWhite Paper ILOG, March 2005 – Do not duplicate without permission.ILOG, CPLEX and their respective logotypes are registered trademarks.All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.The material presented in this document is summary in nature, subject to change,not contractual and intended for general information only and does not constitute a representation.
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesContentsAudience . 4Applicable ILOG JRules Versions. 4Introduction . 5The Five Strengths . 5Strength 1: Comprehensive Feature Set. 6Tools. 6Rule Languages . 7Repository . 8BRE Server. 8Rule Engine . 9Strength 2: Reliability . 10Rule execution speed . 10A Scalable BRMS . 11Dedication to standards . 11Strength 3: Customizability and Extensibility . 13Customization services. 13Extension services . 13Strength 4: Track Record. 14Stability of ILOG . 14“Blue Chip” references . 14Growing customer base. 14Strength 5: Complete Offering . 15Conclusion . 15Additional Resources . 15 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.-3-
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesAudienceThis document is intended for those who wish to learn more about business rulemanagement and business rule management systems, and to understand whyJRules is the leading BRMS available.Applicable ILOG JRules VersionsThis document covers ILOG JRules 5.0.x 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.-4-
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesIntroductionILOG has worked for many years to make ILOG JRules the market-leading businessrule management system (BRMS). JRules makes business rule management practicalby providing innovative tools to author, deploy and manage business rules acrossthe enterprise. This is why it has become an essential part of the IT infrastructures ofhundreds of businesses worldwide, and the list of customers continues to grow witheach passing quarter.ILOG JRules’ reputation has resulted in the BRMS’s inclusion in the SD Times 100and the Crossroads A-List. It has received the Intelligent Enterprise Editor’s ChoiceAward and Software Development magazine’s Productivity Award, among othertop industry honors.Major IT research firms recognize ILOG JRules as a market leader. Gartner has listedit in the Magic Quadrant for Business Rule Engines in every version of the MagicQuadrant, and Giga, Butler Group and Bloor Research all recommend ILOG JRulesspecifically for business rule management. IDC identifies ILOG as the overall leaderin market share for the BRMS market.Why does ILOG JRules hold this commanding position among business rulemanagement systems? Put simply, ILOG JRules has strengths that – taken together– are unsurpassed in the marketplace.The Five StrengthsILOG JRules’ strengths begin with its comprehensive feature set. ILOG JRules providestools and rule languages that help policy managers, business analysts anddevelopers author, deploy and manage business rules. It also includes a repositoryto store and protect business rules, a powerful rule engine to execute rules, and anextensive Java library to define and extend rule execution and managementenvironments.Another major strength is ILOG JRules reliability. The combination of highperformance and robustness make the product’s rule engine the one to depend onwith mission-critical business applications, regardless of the throughputrequirements. All the components in ILOG JRules are based on the latest standardsfor J2EE, XML, Web services and even rule engines (e.g., JSR94). It is designed to fitinto a modern computing environment seamlessly and efficiently, so there is noneed for a custom or proprietary interface or adapter. 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.-5-
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesILOG JRules is customizable and extensible to an unprecedented degree. Practicallyevery feature provided “out of the box” can be customized. The tools, repositoryand engine are all supported with rich APIs, and frameworks that enable theirextension programmatically.ILOG JRules has achieved an impressive track record over the last several years. Acontributing factor is the stability of its maker -- ILOG --both from a financial and anorganizational standpoint. There are also its blue-chip references. ILOG JRules isemployed across the enterprise at leading companies around the world in finance,government, telecommunications, insurance, e-businesses and manufacturing. Andthis list is growing fast.ILOG JRules’ fifth major strength is its complete offering. ILOG JRules is not justsoftware and documentation, although the software is award winning, and itsdocumentation comprehensive and educational. ILOG provides maintenanceservices and technical support, classroom and onsite training, solution frameworksand product consulting. ILOG provides all the software and services needed tosuccessfully apply business rule management.Strength 1: Comprehensive Feature SetILOG JRules provides tools and rule languages that help policy managers, businessanalysts and developers author, deploy, and manage business rules. It also includesa repository to store and protect business rules; a powerful rule engine to executerules; and an extensive Java library to define and extend the rule execution andmanagement environments. Each of these major component areas is rich withfeatures.ToolsFeatureRuleflowDecision Table EditorDecision Table DesignerDecision Tree EditorDecision Tree DesignerGraphical Business Object ModelEditor 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.DescriptionOrchestrate the execution of rule packagesusing UMLAuthor and maintain rules as decisiontablesMake templates for decision tablesAuthor and maintain rules as decisiontreesMake templates for decision treesDiagram objects manipulated by rulesusing UML-6-
ILOG Business RulesConsistency CheckingRule ValidationQueryPlug-In ArchitectureRepository ExplorerBusiness Object Model ExplorerTemplate DesignerTemplate EditorSyntactic Rule EditorWeb Rule EditorProperty SheetProfilerDebuggerTracerILOG JRulesIdentify broken or redundant rulesAutomatically check rule syntaxSearch for and update anything in therepositoryWork with only the tools you need; hidethe ones you don’t needBrowse and select rules, templates, queries,decision tables, Ruleflow and moreBrowse and select objects manipulated byrulesCreate rule templatesAuthor, read and update template-basedrulesAuthor, read and update rules on yourdesktopAuthor, read and update rules through aWeb browserView and edit rule propertiesEvaluate the runtime performance of a rulesetDebug rules, decision tables and Ruleflowas they are executed by the rule engineMonitor execution events as they occurRule LanguagesFeatureBusiness Action Language (BAL)ILOG Rule Language (IRL)Business Rule Language DefinitionFrameworkJava Language IntegrationTemporal ExpressionsInternationalization 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.DescriptionAuthor rules using natural languagesyntaxAuthor rules using Java- or XML-likesyntaxCustomize the provided rule languages orcreate your ownUse Java expressions directly in the IRLInclude time-based conditions and actionsin rulesAuthor rules in English, French, Japaneseand other languages-7-
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesRepositoryFeatureRule VersioningPermission ManagementRule HistoryPersistenceLockingSCC IntegrationDescriptionAssign versions to rules and decisiontablesControl access to rules and toolsView the history of changes made to rulesand rule propertiesStore rules, rule properties, decision tables,Ruleflow, templates and more in files ordatabase management systemsAutomatically coordinate multiusercollaboration on rule authoring andmanagementUse third-party SCC tools to store andretrieve repository artifactsBRE ServerFeatureJ2EE ComponentsManagementBuilder IntegrationAS IntegrationRemote DebuggingJIT code generationRuleset Persistence 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.DescriptionIntegrated suite of components forexecuting business rules on productionJ2EE application servers and databases.Web-based system administration consoleand Java Management Beans. Integrationwith Java Management Bean tools such asIBM Tivoli or HP OpenView.Hot-deployment and packaging ofbusiness rules from JRules Builder.Powerful integration with the underlyingJ2EE Application Server for cachemanagement and configuration.Interactive, remote debugging of rulesetsdeployed to the BRES from Rule BuilderSafe Just-In-Time generation of Java bytecode from rulesetsRDBMS used to persist rulesets in-8-
ILOG Business RulesAutomation ToolsILOG JRulesproductionSuite of automation tools for developersand system administrators to perform allmajor management tasks through scriptsor application build filesRule EngineFeatureInferencing Execution ModeSequential Execution ModeXML BindingWeb Service BindingDatabase BindingContext PoolingSupport for JSR94Ruleset Update ManagementJIT Bytecode GenerationRemote DebuggingConflict ResolutionMultithreaded ArchitectureTruth Maintenance SystemTemporal ReasoningSupport for Ruleflow 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.DescriptionApply sophisticated pattern-matchingalgorithms to arbitrarily execute complexrule setsMaximize execution speed for simple rulesetsRead and write XML files directlyInvoke external Web services directly fromrulesConnection to DBMS facilitatedManage performance using pools of ruleenginesCall the JRule engine by using the JSR94standard rule engine interfaceUpdate rule sets “on the fly” withoutrestartingBoost performance by automaticallytranslating rule sets into Java bytecodeEnable remote connection of debuggingtool for embedded application diagnosisAutomatically resolve rule conflicts duringexecution by using refraction, priority andversionShare objects across multiple threadsUse logical objects to automatically assertand retract conditional hypothesesIncorporate time as a parameter duringrule executionExecute Ruleflow and rules in the sameengine-9-
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesStrength 2: ReliabilityAnother primary reason why ILOG customers select ILOG JRules over other BRMSsis its reliability. The three aspects of reliability most cited are rule execution speed,rule engine robustness, and a dedication to industry standards apparent throughoutthe software.Rule execution speedIn a recent lab test, ILOG personnel measured the execution speed of the ILOGJRules rule engine. The rule set for the test consisted of 1,500 rules. Each rule usedfive conditions to assign one of five actions to a sales item, based on thecharacteristics of the item. A total of 10,000 sales items were included in the test.Three execution modes were run in the test: inferencing, inferencing with bytecodegeneration, and sequential. Rule execution by inferencing used the highly advancedRETE algorithm to efficiently match rule conditions to the sales items. Duringinferencing, all the rules were reactive to data change and became applicable whenthe conditions were verified. A rule selection strategy was used to select the rules toexecute.Inferencing with bytecode generation added a just-in-time optimization step thattranslated test evaluations into efficient Java bytecode before execution. (Bytecodegeneration is an optional enhancement for the inferencing mode.)Sequential execution applied a brute-force approach to the rule evaluation. In thismode, rules were evaluated and executed in a predefined order, and the ruleselection strategy was discarded.Usually, the characteristics of a rule set make it executable with either inferencing orsequential mode, but not both. In this case, the test rule set was designed so thatboth inferencing and sequential execution modes could be applied and compared.Execution ModeInferencingInferencing w/ bytecode generationSequentialExecution Speed (rules per second)22.7K68.6K384KK Thousand (Tests conducted on a Sun Blade 1000 running Solaris 8 with 1.5 GBytes of memory)Running the test produced an execution speed of 22,700 rules per second for pureinferencing. Adding bytecode generation produced a 3X increase to 68,600 rules per 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.- 10 -
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulessecond. Switching to sequential mode increased performance enormously, to anexecution speed of 384,000 rules per second.A Scalable BRMSILOG JRules is being successfully applied across business applications varyinggreatly in operating profile and performance requirements. This point is illustratedin the following table of examples taken from real deployments by ILOG JRulescustomers:Application TypeRules Operating ProfileStraight Through Processing: Data1K2-2.5K orders/day, 2MValidation, Confirmation, Orderrules/dayRouting and Message TransformationAsset Management: Validation and300300K validations/hourConsolidationCredit Qualification502.8K records/sec, 130K rules/secAutomatic Trading3015 rules/secAutomatic Trading12050 trades/secOrder Validation and Routing602K orders/dayMediationClaim AssignmentWelfare Benefit EligibilityLoan Acquisition and ServicingClaim Validation and RoutingTransaction Validation and RoutingOrder ManagementContent RoutingAutomobile FinancingReservation Data cleansingK ThousandM Million6K4503002003608K1.8K151001.6K10M transactions/hour225K claims/day 300 rules/sec5M loans/day0.25 claims/sec, 1Mclaims/month120K transactions/day20K transactions/day150K-250K messages/dayUp to 40K requests/day16K reservations/dayILOG JRules has been proven stable and reliable from proof of concept to deployment ofmission-critical business applications operating in a 24x7x365 environments.Dedication to standardsILOG JRules conforms to the current and emerging standards of the Object ManagementGroup (OMG), Java Community Process (JCP) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),for: 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.- 11 -
ILOG Business Rules ILOG JRulesRepositoriesRule enginesXMLWeb servicesWeb Rule BuilderStandards implemented by ILOG JRules dard typeXMI1.1OMGObject modelspecificationXML grammarJMIJSR-941.01.0JCPJCPAPIAPIImplemented in ILOGJRules byBusiness Object ModelRepository filepersistenceRepository Model APIRule engine serverStandards supported by ILOG JRules dtypeAPISupported inILOG JRules byAll modulesJCPAPIRepositorydatabasepersistenceRule engine EJBdeploymentRule engine EJBdeploymentAll XML parsers,XSLT invocationXML bindingJDBC1.3.1, 1.4.1,1.4.22.0J2EE1.3JCPAPIEJB1.1, grammarXMLgrammarSOAP1.1W3C 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.XML- 12 -Web servicebinding,Rule enginedeploymentWeb service
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesgrammarServletJSPCSS2.2, 2.31.1, 1.22JCPJCPW3CAPIAPIGrammarbinding,Rule enginedeploymentWeb Rule BuilderWeb Rule BuilderWeb Rule Builderlook and feelStrength 3: Customizability and ExtensibilityILOG JRules provides mechanisms for customizing and extending all itscomponents, including its tools, languages, repository and engine. Thecustomization services make it easy to adjust the performance, functionality andappearance of components provided with ILOG JRules, while the extension servicesmake it possible to add capabilities that are not provided by default with ILOGJRules.Customization servicesILOG JRules can be customized in several ways: Installing or uninstalling tools using a plug-in architectureChanging configuration propertiesCustomizing the look and feel of ILOG JRules Web components via CSS(Cascading Style Sheets)Extension servicesILOG JRules can be extended in several ways: Adding a custom tool or function using the plug-in architectureAdding custom functionality via ILOG JRules Application ProgrammingInterfaceAdding a custom business rule languageEmbedding ILOG JRules Web components in custom user interfacesEmbedding ILOG JRules Java Beans in custom Java applications 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.- 13 -
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesStrength 4: Track RecordStability of ILOGFor more than 10 years, ILOGʹs innovative enterprise-class software componentsand services have helped companies maximize their business agility and improveoperating efficiency. Over 1,000 global corporations and more than 300 leadingsoftware vendors rely on ILOGʹs business rule, optimization and visualizationtechnologies to achieve dramatic returns on investment, create market-definingproducts and services, and sharpen their competitive edge. ILOG has had the samechief executive since the company’s inception, and its employee turnover rate is wellbelow the industry average. For R&D in particular, it is well below 5 percent.“Blue Chip” referencesHere are what CIOs of major companies have to say about ILOG JRules:“We selected ILOG JRules because of its rich user interface, and itsbusiness approach that puts the power of the customization in theuser’s hands. The performance and scalability of ILOG JRules wereother key reasons.”– Liz Shuttleworth, CIO, Radian Guaranty“Sometimes I walk out of my office and see a group of customersactively playing at a time that used to be slow. And I say to myself,they wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for the one-off promotions Ican do with our rules system.”– Tim Stanley, CIO, Harrah’s Entertainment“Using ILOG JRules, we will have a solution that will scale as ourbusiness requirements change while supporting CitiStreetʹs need toexchange and manage employee information in real time.”- Andy Marsh, CIO, Total Benefits Outsourcing, CitiStreetGrowing customer baseILOG’s customer base for ILOG JRules has experienced double-digit growth in thelast three years, with no letup in sight. It includes EBay, Freddie Mac, , Disney,Sabre and many other leading Global 2000 companies, and governments worldwide. 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.- 14 -
ILOG Business RulesILOG JRulesStrength 5: Complete OfferingILOG JRules includes more than just award-winning software and comprehensive,instructional documentation. It is also fully backed with maintenance and supportservices, classroom and onsite training, and solution frameworks and consultingfrom our professional services. Together, they add up to a complete solution forbusiness rule management.ConclusionILOG JRules leads in the business rule management marketplace because of itsstrengths:1.2.3.4.5.Comprehensive Feature SetReliabilityExtensibility and CustomizabilityTrack RecordCompleteness of OfferingTaken together, these five strengths make ILOG JRules the right choice in BRMS.Additional ResourcesMore information on ILOG JRules, including datasheets, specifications, case studiesand white papers, can be obtained from an ILOG Sales Representative near you orthe ILOG JRules Web pages, at www.ilog.com/products/jrules. 2004 ILOG S.A. All rights reserved.- 15 -
ILOG Business Rules ILOG JRules Strength 2: Reliability ther BRMSs ability. The three aspects of reliability most cited are rule execution speed, rule engine robustness, and a dedication to industry standards apparent throughout f the ILOG JRules rule engine. The rule set for the test consisted of 1,500 rules. Each rule used sed on the he test.
