Today is the first day of the SIFMA technology show, the big event of the year in the US for trading technology in the capital markets. It’s particularly significant for Aleri, since we announced version 3.0 of Aleri CEP yesterday, and will be previewing it for the public starting today at SIFMA.
We’re really excited by this new release. While we’ve always aimed to deliver a CEP platform that was unsurpassed in terms of breadth of functionality, performance and scalability, and enterprise-class features, those of you who have gotten to know current - or earlier - versions of the product know that it’s not exactly the easiest thing to learn how to use.
With 3.0 we focused our attention on reducing the learning curve for new users, making experienced users more efficient, and making it easier and faster to get up and running quickly. Part of this simply involved improving the look and feel of the Aleri Studio to make it more intuitive, but the even bigger gains were around our approach to connectivity, a new enhanced syntax for pattern matching, and some general simplifications to our language.
Connectivity is probably the biggest difference. 3.0 comes with integrated connectivity. The base product includes a range of built-in connectors for different types of data sources and destinations. Connections can easily and quickly be defined from within the Studio. A data discovery feature allows you to explore a data source and import the data schema directly into your Aleri data model. Field-installable adapters for specialized systems are discovered by the Studio and function the same as the built in connectors.
The new Pattern Matching operator uses a new syntax for expressing complex patterns of events on a single stream or across multiple streams, including things like the time window over which to watch for a pattern, the sequence and relationship of the events that make up the pattern, and even the absence of events as part of the pattern. When a pattern is detected, an output event is generated with the desired information. More info on the new syntax will be available in the days to come on aleri.com.
And while I’m excited about all the features that make Aleri CEP easier to use, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are also a range of new features that increase the capabilities, including some significant extensions to Aleri’s SPLASH scripting language. SPLASH is an imperative language that overcomes the limitations of SQL. Standard SQL operators provide simplicity for many common operations such as filtering, joins or aggregation, but there are times when you just need a greater level of control. That’s where SPLASH comes in, with Aleri’s programmable Flex Stream that invokes methods written in SPLASH on the arrival of each new event. In 3.0 SPLASH has become more powerful, with new advanced data structures, user defined functions, some new pre-defined functions and greater control.
More to come in the coming weeks. 3.0 is currently available for previews. A public beta version is expected to be downloadable from aleri.com in early July.
Tags: Aleri, Aleri Streaming Platform, CEP, Complex Event Processing, FlexStream, SPLASH 3.0