Nowadays rules-based business decision models are usually developed and maintained by business analysts or other subject matter experts (not by software developers). And more and more people want to make their business decision models available from cloud as operational decision services. But is it possible for non-technical people to achieve this objective? There are so many new terms and concepts to learn, that it seems doubtful for business people to handle this task.

The latest progress in cloud development overturns such an assumption. The new Serverless approach makes cloud deployment much easier as you don’t even think about cloud servers and other technical terms. Today the most popular and easiest way to deploy your rules-based services on cloud is using a combination of AWS Lambda and AWS API Gateway provided by Amazon. You create an AWS account, and simply upload your decision service to AWS Lambda, then deploy it with AWS API Gateway, and receive an URL address of your ready-to-go decision service. You give this address to your technical guys. They will use it to call your cloud-based decision service from their decision-making applications whether they are written in Java, Python, or other languages preferred by your IT.

Sounds great, right? However, the way how you build and prepare your Lambda Decision Service is usually not as straightforward as it seems on the surface. To prepare your business decision model for cloud deployment could be a serious task that requires deep understanding of the supporting software and yes, it might require additional coding.  Can this process be automated?

The answer is YES! OpenRules just announced general availability of its Decision Manager 8.0.1 that essentially simplifies this process by automatically generating all necessary components and allowing you to convert your business decision model to an AWS Lambda function without any coding. You just need to have your own AWS account to open the user-friendly AWS Lambda graphical interface and upload one zip-file generated by OpenRules. Then you will go AWS API Gateway (that also has a friendly GUI) and after a few clicks you would be able to deploy your Lambda function and receive its invocation URL. This process does not require any preliminary knowledge of the AWS environment and is described in detail in this OpenRules tutorial “Building Operational Decision Services with OpenRules + AWS Lambda + AWS API Gateway”.

OpenRules also generates a model-specific Java client that can be used by your IT specialists to invoke the Lambda function from their Java applications.

You may download a free evaluation version of OpenRules Decision Manager now,  create your own business decision model considering various OpenRules examples as prototypes. Then you may deploy your model as an AWS Lambda function and control its execution preferences from your AWS account.

OpenRules essentially demystifies cloud deployment for business analysts. Business decision model are continued to be created by business people, in case of OpenRules they do it mainly with MS Excel. Then, instead of going through many unfamiliar concepts, the same business people who created the model, can deploy is as an AWS Lambda function themselves without IT involvement. Business analysts will continue to stay in charge of their business decision models, making changes in Excel, and redeploying their models whenever necessary. Try It Now – it’s simple and free!