Analyst View On Microsoft Business Rules Engine

I'm a big fan of the Microsoft Business Rules Engine, and now we see that Forrester Research thinks our Rules Engine is something to keep an eye on. The Forrester Wave: Business Rules Platforms, Q1 2006 report identifies Microsoft as a both a "strong performer" and "sleeping giant" in the space.

Now, we are not the leader in this space, and have some significant work to do in order to reach that status. This report outlines some of the current shortcomings of our offering, which are pretty fair assessments. However, given that Microsoft is the only major application platform vendor with a Rules offering, we're not doing too shabby. Whatever your rule preferences are, this is a valuable look into the Rules Engine space and who to watch.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2006
    Huh?  "...given that Microsoft is the only major application platform vendor with a Rules offering".   We won't mention the Oracle Business Rule Engine, built on JESS (Java Expert System Shell) then.  Maybe in Microsoft's eyes Oracle is not a 'major vendor' anymore?  

    Microsoft got there first, but Oracle has been there for a little while now as well.
  • Anonymous
    August 22, 2006
    Hey Ahmed, actually that comment was taken from the report itself.  The full quote is "At the time of the lab evaluations, Microsoft was the only major application platform vendor to provide a business rules engine. The Microsoft Business Rule Engine is bundled with BizTalk Server 2004. Microsoft's major competitors — BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, and SAP — did not provide business rules engines (Oracle has since announced Oracle Rules for delivery by the end of 2005)."  So, you're right, the Oracle Engine may very well end up on next year's Forrester report.
  • Anonymous
    August 22, 2006
    OK.   And your post is from the beginning of this year.  I just like to play it fair.

    Do you know if Microsoft planning to address their Rule Engine shortcomings in a future release?   I know WF has a different sequential engine.
  • Anonymous
    August 23, 2006
    Glad you returned.  I'd personally argue that the primary shortcoming of the current Business Rules Engine is the lack of a robust modeling/design/test surface.  From a technical perspective, the BRE is actually fairly robust.  The WF rules engine is pretty different at this point (in some ways better, some ways worse), and we are actively figuring out how to present a unified rules engine moving forward.
  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2006
    The comment has been removed