Being at Apama for so many years, I was fortunate to learn about the applications being built with Complex Event Processing (CEP) technology. The academic or deep technical issues of CEP, although fascinating, are well covered by others - I was more interested in the business value of CEP. That is, when a business person considers buying paying money for this technology, how do we answer the question: "Yes my techies tell me CEP is neat and new, but - so what? How will it impact my business?" So naturally, now that I'm with StreamBase, my first order of business is to get back on the road and see what's new through the eyes of a very different product and company. I'm looking to answer the "so what" question from a fresh perspective.
Apama is very public and open about its adoption for algorithmic trading. (Disclosure: my comments about Apama are restricted to public information, given my direct involvement in running the company). Indeed, algorithmic trading was so dominant a use of Apama that some wondered if algorithmic trading was the only application of CEP. And the deep customization of Apama as an algorithmic trading solution only emboldened this perception: of the 150+ articles, blog posts, etc. I did as general manager of Apama, roughly 95% of them were about algorithmic trading.
But looking through the eyes of StreamBase customers, for me, has shed a new light on the business question of "so what?" It's already been a fascinating look into the broad application of CEP. Naturally capital markets has adopted StreamBase aggressively; but what's new and different is the wide variety of use cases, far beyond algorithmic trading. Crossing engines, real time P&L, smart order routing, more generic, supporting applications in the trading space like trade signaling, alerting, and monitoring. Market data cleansing and optimization. And, since StreamBase has historically been a horizontal, general purpose platform, the applications outside capital markets in the government space, such as intelligence and defense applications, are fascinating as well. More on these specific use cases in the future.
On the other hand, one thing has remained consistent: the core value proposition, or answer to "so what?" It's never been about "feeds and speeds"; speed and scalability are just table stakes for mission critical applications. The core value of CEP is that it empowers business users. Graphical tools allow a business analyst, or even a pure business person, to quickly express their "secret sauce" - their knowledge of how they might best react and capitalize on changing business conditions. CEP empowers business users to make better decisions, more quickly than ever before. More quickly than their competition. More intelligently than the next guy.
I'm seeing customers quickly imagine, express, test, deploy, and evolve their most innovative ideas, ideas that can help them better understand and react to what's happening now, while the opportunity to seize the advantage still exists. That's an important answer to the question: "so what?" And I'm finding it's an answer any business person can appreciate.