With these new SmartBlock features, both business users and developers can now more easily create and package business logic for re-use in Apama applications, thereby accelerating the speed with which those applications can be deployed and later modified.

Apama SmartBlocks are encapsulated elements of CEP logic that can be easily incorporated within Apama applications through Apama's graphical development tool, Apama Event Modeler. A SmartBlock might represent a computationally-intensive calculation within an algorithmic trading application, a complex event pattern to be sought, or the connectivity that integrates Apama with a market data feed. SmartBlocks make the incorporation of such functionality accessible to, not just power-users and programmers, but also business users.

A January 2008 report published by Forrester Research noted that "one reason why the business is so involved with CEP is that it tends to know what events matter and where to find them." (CEP Adoption is Broader, Deeper, and More Business-Driven Than IT May Expect, January 31, 2008)

A key element of the Apama CEP platform, SmartBlocks help to bridge the gap between IT and business users. Using Event Modeler's drag-and-drop development model, non-programmers can create or modify sophisticated complex event processing scenarios, selecting the packaged logic from SmartBlock catalogues, defining parameters, and wiring the components together. Business users can access complex feeds, services and analytics without need to understand the system-level complexities associated with their execution.

With the new Apama SmartBlock features, the creation of SmartBlocks is now accessible via both Apama's Eclipse-based Developer Studio environment and the Apama Event Modeler itself. Core event processing logic or higher level event sequences and state transitions can now be packaged and made available for reuse. With SmartBlock Builder, the CEP 'monitor-analyze-act' functionality is now much more easily harnessed for rapid application development and deployment.

"Recent reports have indicated that business users, as well as technologists, are driving the uptake of CEP technology. SmartBlocks facilitate the collaboration between the line-of-business users and IT in creating high-value CEP applications," said Dr. John Bates, founder and general manager, Apama Division of Progress Software. "Our experience with CEP customers has proven that both business and technical users require tools to shorten time-to-market, minimize complexity and maximize reuse. Apama's new Smart Block Builder is designed to enhance technology and business users to work together to achieve these goals."

The Progress Apama platform is the industry's leading complex event processing (CEP) environment, supporting applications that monitor rapidly moving event streams, detect patterns and take action - with sub-millisecond latency. The Apama CEP technology offers business users a new dimension of real-time analytics, pattern and opportunity recognition, and event management. Progress is recognized as the leader in this field with the largest client base in capital markets with more than 70 implementations that comprise top sell-side firms, buy-side firms, hedge funds and regulators (with companies such as JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank), the retail industry (for example, Boekhandels Groep and the first item-level RFID implementation worldwide), and manufacturing (for instance, Manuvis and their real-time visibility into manufacturing ERP systems).