Independent CEP (Complex/Event Processing) vendors continue to flounder, at least outside the financial services and national intelligence markets.

CEP's penetration outside of its classical markets isn't quite zero. Customers include several transportation companies (various vendors), Sallie Mae (Coral8), a game vendor or two (StreamBase, if I recall correctly), Verizon (Aleri, I think), and more. But I just wrote that list from memory -- based mainly on not-so-recent deals -- and a quick tour of the vendors' web sites hasn't turned up much I overlooked. (Truviso does have a recent deal with Technorati, but that's not exactly a blue chip customer these days.)

So far as I can tell, this is a new version of a repeated story. A clever alternative to relational DBMS was invented. It proved superior in some specific applications and vertical markets. It failed to achieve much broader adoption. Initial high hopes got dashed, companies failed to grow rapidly, and shareholders grew tired.

So where will things go from here? My best guesses include:

Sadly, that's about it.Independent CEP vendors continue to flounder, at least outside the financial services and national intelligence markets... So far as I can tell, this is a new version of a repeated story. A clever alternative to relational DBMS was invented... Initial high hopes got dashed, companies failed to grow rapidly, and shareholders grew tired.