Must You Choose Between Business Rules And Complex Event Processing Platforms?

How can you choose between investing in a business rules platform and a complex event processing (CEP) platform? The answer is not as easy as saying "a business rules platform is for rules" and "CEP is for events." Each platform strives to facilitate more-agile application development by providing specialized tools that enable both developers and business users to externalize business logic. Each platform, however, takes a different approach and is optimal for certain kinds of business problems. To confuse matters, both use similar terminology — for example, "rules" — which makes understanding the differences and where to use each that much more difficult. Nevertheless, there are clear differences, and understanding these differences will help application development professionals use either business rules, complex event processing, or both, where appropriate.