Orchestration vs Message Driven Architecture

Question

What are the responsibilities of an Orchestration engine vs a Message Driven System.

If I have to build a system which have to string together different independent components(cross-technology/platform components which need not expose a web service end point), which is the toolset to be chosen?

Is there a better option?

Answer 1

Use openESB with netbeans editor or any other open source BPEL engines which provides standard way or orchestrating the process. if you think performance is very important than standardization you can try out some proprietary ESB or BPM tools like Jboss jBPM or mule ESB etc.

Please note BPEL can be used only to consume Web Services if your components are not web services then you may have to use some ESB like Mule which can support some 200+ protocols with extensions.

Answer 2

When deciding if you should use Orchestration or Message Directed work flow, the big question you face is, do you think it will be necessary to change your orchestration work-flow on a regular basis. If you think the Business Process needs to be flexible because it is subject to change, then adopt a Canonical Message format and use Orchestration, which will minimise he impact of changing relationships between services. If you think the work-flow is stable you can adopt a message driven work-flow. Personnally I think Orchestration is the superior approach in general, however it does require more software infrastructure which with tools like Apache Camel the investment is time with the reward of increased long term flexibility.