Marco Seiriö asks, To Integrate Or Not? And How? with an underlying message that he thinks it is unwise for RuleCore, as a CEP vendor, to spend development resources on integration and adapters.

I think most small companies in RuleCore’s position would make similar statements for a number of reasons, including Marco’s observation that they are resource constrained.

Unfortunately for these small companies, the flip side of that position is that large software companies with an event processing offering and a complimentary integration platform are favored by most large companies and government organizations.     Remember the old saying that goes something like, “An executive has never been fired by hiring IBM!”   This tongue-in-cheek perspective mirrors the risk adverse position of most company executives.

If you are an executive in a large company you tend to want less contracts to manage, less software licenses to negotiate,  and less companies to try to integrate.   You want large stable companies who will still be in business in 5 years.   You want companies with a proven track record that are part of a larger business ecosystem.   You want companies with a strong professional services organization.  You want companies that can survive the “an executive has never been fired for buying IBM” test.

There are only two companies that fit the executive litmus test that have referenceable customers in the CEP/EP space.  Therefore, it is not by accident that the same two companies happen to be at the top of the list of CEP/EP Reference Customers 2005-2007.