JBPM Scalability and support

[tejjbpm]

Hi

We are using JBPM workflow engine for one of our big client. They have now raised question about the JBPM's scalability in handling huge volumes of processes. Has anybody tried in this line? Is it suitable?

Also I know it is under open source, but if needed is that possible to buy commercial paid support if we have any issues with the engine and it needs fixing?

Is there any chance they will withdraw JBPM as a open source? What happens then? ( I know i am thinking extreme..but we have to convince the client) do we have any document in JBPM website which highlights this?

Thanks very much for all your answers.

[sebastian.s]

I am not a lawyer but AFAIK source code which has been released under an open source licence cannot be withdrawn afterwards. They could stop providing patches but the cannot change anything about the already released source code.

You have not mentioned which version of jBPM you are talking about. There is indeed support for jBPM 3.2 but there is none for jBPM 4.3 and as announced by JBoss/Red Hat recently there won't be any support. Instead they see jBPM 4 as the way to jBPM 5. Regarding your performance questions it depends on the version you are using. For jbpm 3.2 there are some benchmark results available in Joram's blog:

http://www.jorambarrez.be/blog/2008/04/14/short-jbpm-performance-showdown/

[tejjbpm]

Thanks - I am using JBPM 4.2

[camunda]

I wouldn't use jBPM 4.x for any production project. You can check some posts on this forum why... At the moment I would go for jBPM 3.x

[tejjbpm]

Oh..I am getting very concerned where I stand now. We have used JBPM 4.2. I cant move back to JBPM 3 for the reason that I need html support in emails and few other features which were released in 4.2.. Without any deadline for JBPM 5 , I feel like standing on a wall.......

I am surpised to know that they withdrew the support.......My client is quite specific he needs to understand the knitty gritty of how it will be supported in future........if jbpm 5 is so different from jbpm 4 i am goin to be stormed with the problem of rewriting the whole thing in 5!!

Anybody else, any other better suggestions........one of the question I was asked is what happens if JBoss withdrew its support - that seems to be kind of happening now !!!

[sebastian.s]

You are using jBPM4 in production but you are not reading the forums, blogs and the JBoss announcements? AFAIK one goal is to make it possible to have a smooth transition from jBPM3 AND From jBPM4. jBPM 4.4 is soon to be released: Huisheng Xu and Maciej haven been able to resolve almost all the open issues.