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iLog Rules Engine family

By: Simon Holloway
Format: InDetail
Published: September 2007

PDF document Free Download (subject to terms)

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.