Versata - Business Logic Development & Management

Versata provides the most productive solution for

• creating
• executing
• reusing and
• changing

business logic in your distributed Java application infrastructure.

Executing Business Logic

Business Logic Executes in the Versata Logic Server:

Rule Types		Are Executed By		Within the
Transaction Rules		Transaction Logic Engine		Versata Logic Server
Process Models		Process Logic Engine		Versata Logic Server

• Transaction rules are executed by the Transaction Logic Engine, which runs in the Versata Logic Server.
• Process models are executed by the Process Logic Engine, which runs in the Versata Logic Server

Transaction Rules				Process Models
		Figure 3: Transaction Rules and Process Models execute in the Versata Logic Server

Strategic Layering
Versata's products are layered on industry standard platforms and designed to integrate into enterprise environments.

Versata believes in leveraging industry standards rather than providing proprietary infrastructure. Currently, the chosen platform for the Versata Logic Server is the J2EE application server (IBM WebSphere or BEA WebLogic), which provides services for scalability, performance, load balancing, and failover. But more importantly, Versata is committed to continually migrating to the latest and greatest of industry standards as they evolve.

In Forrester's research report, "Putting J2EE to Work", they write "J2EE additions and changes will force costly application rewrites." "For example: Upgrading from a J2EE 1.2-compatible app server to a J2EE 1.3-compatible release should be easy, right? Wrong. The new version of the Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) specification is different from the previous version; therefore, firms must budget for recoding and retesting their EJB's."

Versata believes that this is a burden to be carried by software vendors rather than corporate IT shops. Rather than programming your business logic at a 3GL level directly in Java, companies should invest in capturing their application business logic at a higher level of abstraction - store your logic in Versata and deploy to the latest and greatest of platforms. Versata enables you to do this.

Is there a risk to depending on Versata for this? Sure, but it is outweighed by the risk of trying to do it yourself. Not only would you have to understand in detail the differences between each of the J2EE standards, but you would have to re-architect, re-code, and re-test your applications to take advantage of the new features. Do you have the time or resources to do this? Probably not. And you will be forced to upgrade. The application server vendors will scurry to support each new specification and discontinue support of the older versions. Your applications will become legacy within a couple of years. Is this a risk that you are willing to take?

Execution Framework
Versata also provides an Execution Framework to fill the gap between your custom reusable Java components and the J2EE application server. These are services, which are necessary for every distributed application, but aren't yet provided by the application server. They include such services as value lists, transaction caching, transaction bracketing, and optimistic locking.

In Forrester's research report, "Putting J2EE to Work", they write, "Rely on lead vendors to work around J2EE shortcomings. Vendors' proprietary features and APIs may provide legitimate workarounds for fatal shortcomings in the current J2EE standard." Versata has done this; we are providing real solutions to the shortcomings of J2EE. In addition, we also plan to revise these services which each release of the J2EE specification once these services are provided by the application servers.

These services are important because they require, not only the understanding of the Java syntax, but also the working knowledge of the J2EE architecture. Again from Forrester, "Object architects define application layers and business logic. Without the proper logical layering, it will be impossible for multiple Java developers to work on pieces of the system in parallel. The object architect defines the system 's logical layers --presentation layer, business logic layer, data layer --and the interactions between them. The object architect must possess object-oriented analysis and design skills, industry/domain expertise, and distributed systems expertise (in Java with J2EE if possible, otherwise in C++ with CORBA)."