Event processing has emerged as one of the most important issues in IT today. It encompasses two separate ideas discussed in this note:
1. Event-driven Architecture (EDA), is a style of application architecture centered on asynchronous "push"-based communication. EDA is the architecture of choice for implementing "straight-through" multistage business processes that deliver goods, services and information with minimum delay. Processes designed using EDA are also easier to modify than traditional applications.
2. Complex-Event Processing (CEP), a sophisticated form of EDA, is used to extract the information value from multiple events. CEP systems find patterns in event data to detect opportunities and threats. Timely alerts are then pushed to the appropriate recipients, often using Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) dashboards. The result is faster and better operational decisions and more timely responses.