The relationship of complex event processing (CEP) to service-oriented architecture (SOA) remains, in a word, complex.

Vendors, including two making CEP related announcements today, are taking different approaches, standards are yet to emerge, and at least one analyst argues that it all could be simpler. Oracle Corp., announcing a new version of its Business Process Analysis Suite designed to allow tech savvy business users to have direct input into SOA, continues to champion event-driven architecture (EDA). Coral8 Inc., a pure play CEP vendor announcing the formation of a Developer Council for CEP advancement today, has developed its own language for event processing. Meanwhile, Software AG, which will have announcements on the merger of its Infravio and CentraSite governance products at the end of this month, is working in its labs on a neural network approach that focuses more on correlation of events.