EN Camunda Compared To Alternatives 2024
EN Camunda Compared To Alternatives 2024
Alternatives
Contents
Microservices Orchestrators 9
Conclusion16
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3 Introduction: The Need for Process Orchestration
While CRM, ERP, RPA, and ITSM tools have some process
automation capabilities, they don’t compare with a dedicated
process orchestration solution. This paper analyzes popular
categories of automation tools and discusses how well they satisfy
the qualities that are required to orchestrate business processes
from end to end.
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4 Introduction: The Need for Process Orchestration
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5 The Automation Landscape
End-to-end process
orchestration
Process analytics
and optimization
One model
approach
Standards-based
collaboration
Developer
friendliness
Flexible
architecture
Highly scalable
and resilient
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6 Process Automation Tools
Challenges
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7 Monolithic Automation Platforms
Challenges
Inflexible architecture
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8 Monolithic Automation Platforms
No standards-based collaboration
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9 Microservices Orchestrators
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10 Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS)
Challenges
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11 Task Automation Tools
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12 Task Automation Tools
Lack of end-to-end process orchestration Point solutions and RPA tools are designed to
execute one task at a time, which poses issues
Task automation solutions are designed to au- as process volume increases. To increase
tomate one piece of work at a time, so the con- task execution capacity, teams have to add
cept of “process” isn’t built into them. That more instances of a tool or, in the case of RPA,
is, the solution isn’t aware of tasks that have more bots. This can lead to rapidly escalating
already been executed and it can’t make a deci- operations costs and an implementation
sion about what task should be executed next. that’s brittle and prone to failure. RPA bots in
particular can easily break when the systems
Some task automation tools can trigger they interface with change.
a next action — a capability that teams can
leverage to chain together a series of While scalability and resilience are challenges
automated tasks. However, chaining automated for task automation, organizations can use
tasks is incredibly limited when compared process orchestration to mitigate the impact of
to true end-to-end process orchestration. It task slowdowns and failures. A robust process
doesn’t make the process visible, it can’t orchestration solution supports processes that
be used to implement even minimally complex have built-in timers, timeouts, and fallback
processes, and it doesn’t lead to the process- flows, which ensure the process isn’t stuck
level insights that help teams evaluate and waiting for a response from a point tool. This
improve process performance. can ensure that the customer still has a good
experience, even if every task wasn’t executed
as intended.
No support for long-running processes
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13 Transformational Process Orchestration with Camunda
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14 Transformational Process Orchestration with Camunda
logs. Reports show historical process execution functional limitations, software developers have
data with the same visualization, including to learn the vendor-specific way of automating
heatmaps that provide an intuitive way to tasks, which takes time and can lead to
understand process performance. implementations that aren’t optimized for
performance, maintenance, or stability.
The one model approach enables business
users to be involved in the entire process Camunda is designed with developers in mind,
lifecycle, instead of being limited to so they can quickly start automating processes
collaboration during design time. It also eases without learning a vendor-specific development
cross-organization information sharing and framework or being forced to use a proprietary
reporting to regulatory organizations. IDE. Teams can use the type of environment
they’re familiar with when creating, testing,
and operating the applications they develop.
Standards-based collaboration For example, they can work in their preferred
code editor, program in the language they like,
Bridging the gap between IT and the business store their code in a version control system,
is a challenge for every organization, especially automatically test their code, implement
with process automation playing a key role continuous integration, and manage their
in digital transformation. Business and IT containerized applications on a platform such
stakeholders often have different goals, as Kubernetes. There’s no need to adjust to a
incentives, and priorities, and these differences Camunda-specific way of working.
tend to slow down communication, prevent
alignment on project priorities, and cause
implementation errors. Flexible architecture
Camunda uses the globally recognized Monolithic automation platforms — and even
standards of Business Process Model and some process automation and iPaaS tools — are
Notation (BPMN) and Decision Model and provided as a tightly integrated set of tools or
Notation (DMN) to bridge the gap between IT components that cannot be unbundled. They
and the business. Standards are a common promise that organizations can use the tool to
language that all stakeholders can speak, so do everything needed to automate business
nothing is lost in translation between business processes. In reality, this closed architecture
requirements and technical implementation. approach locks the organization into the
BPMN and DMN allow business users to create vendor’s product, reduces deployment options,
visual process diagrams and decision tables, and hinders integration with other IT systems.
while also allowing technical users to round
out the technical implementation of automated Organizations need the full flexibility to control
processes and decisions by editing the each part of their automation technology
underlying code. stack. Camunda offers the best of both
worlds: loosely coupled components that fully
integrate with one another, yet are designed
Developer friendliness to integrate seamlessly into an existing
technical architecture to create a composable
Many automation tools, particularly automation solution. For additional flexibility, Camunda
monoliths, take a vendor-specific approach components can be deployed to on-premises
to application development with the goal of infrastructure, to public or private clouds, or in
minimizing the amount of code that needs to a hybrid configuration. Camunda also offers a
be written. However, core business processes hosted SaaS option that provides fast, massive
are complex and require bespoke solutions, scalability for high-volume, high-performance
so organizations run into trouble as soon as use cases.
they need to implement requirements that are
outside the realm of what their automation
tool supports. To work around technical and
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15 Transformational Process Orchestration with Camunda
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Conclusion
Processes are the algorithms that determine how an organization
runs and, now more than ever, automating them is necessary to
deliver better customer experiences, keep up with competitors,
streamline operations, and improve your bottom line. At Camunda,
we take a modern approach to process automation that enables
your organization to:
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About Camunda
Camunda enables organizations to orchestrate processes across people, systems, and
devices to continuously overcome complexity and increase efficiency. A common visual
language enables seamless collaboration between business and IT teams to design,
automate, and improve end-to-end processes with the required speed, scale, and resilience
to remain competitive. Hundreds of enterprises such as Atlassian, ING, and Vodafone
orchestrate business-critical processes with Camunda to accelerate digital transformation.
To learn more visit camunda.com.