BPM-EAI

The thing that surprised me most was how good the 'big blue' is in communicating to its customers. The product is just released and customers are curious to know what it means to them. I told Mike, IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) 7.5 is the successor to WebSphere Process Server (WPS), WebSphere Lombardi Edition (WLE) and other WebSphere BPM family products. 

Knowing IBM, Mike they will continue to support its existing products for specific time period but eventually you will have to migrate to IBM BPM. Please pass me that paper napkin and let me explain the new product offering before talking about what you may be entitled to. The new IBM BPM 7.5 has the following components:

1. BPMN Process Designer 
2. BPEL Integration Designer, 
3. A common repository 
4. A process server that includes both the BPMN and BPEL engines
5. Process Center - This is a new web based component which along with common repository and process governance allows users to reuse artifacts from process or integration designer.
6. ILOG rules engine - Is a limited functionally. Interestingly can only be called from processes and not by external applications
7. Monitoring tools and UI options with both the process portal and the Business Space (IBM's composite application development tool)

Is currently available in three configurations:

• The Express edition - Is for starter BPM projects, it offers full functionality of the Process Designer to build and run BPMN processes but only one server with no clustering.
• The Standard edition - For multi BPM projects with more human centric involvement and lightweight integration functionality. I would think, it offers functionality similar to that available as part of former WebSphere Lombardi Edition  
• The Advanced edition - Is bundle of all 7 components (mentioned above).