What is Kogito?

Kogito is an open source, end-to-end business process automation (BPA) technology designed to develop, deploy, and execute process- and rules-based cloud-native applications on a modern container platform.

Optimized for hybrid cloud environments, Kogito provides developers flexibility when building cloud-native applications on their domain-specific services.

Kogito’s name refers to cogito, as in "Cogito ergo sum," Latin for "I think, therefore I am." The K in the name pays homage to Kubernetes—the foundation of this tool.

Kogito (pronounced KO-jee-tow) helps developers build intelligent cloud-native applications to automate, optimize and manage complex business processes and decisions. 

Automating business processes is nothing new. Process- and decision-based applications have been around for years. BPA systems help manage and automate business processes, from routing insurance claims to filling customer orders at a coffee shop. However, many BPA tools were not developed with cloud-native platforms in mind. Kogito is designed specifically for cloud-native application development, unlike traditional systems that are not well-adapted for use with cloud computing.

Kogito offers a flexible open source solution to business process management (BPM), drawing on trusted business automation Knowledge Is Everything (KIE) projects:

• Drools for business rules management
• jBPM for business processes
• OptaPlanner for resource planning and scheduling

Kogito’s cloud-first runtime environment makes it stand out. Traditional business process management systems can be very large and are mainly deployed in physical data centers. Kogito not only takes advantage of leading cloud-native technologies, but it’s also capable of bridging with traditional BPM systems. 

Kogito is compatible with a number of open source technologies, including Red Hat® Openshift®, Kubernetes, Quarkus, Knative, Apache Kafka, and others.

Developers can use their existing tools and workflows to build and deploy Kogito services, either for testing on local servers or pushing to the cloud. The development-mode features in Quarkus help with local testing and include advanced debugging tools.

Kogito adapts to the business domain rather than forcing developers to modify the domain to suit the toolkit. This allows developers to publish Kogito services with domain-specific application programming interfaces (APIs) based on pre-defined processes and decisions. Third-party or internal APIs are not required.

Since Kogito runs on the latest cloud-based technologies, scaling up or down on container platforms is easy and automatic. Depending on the demand, Kogito can scale to as many or as few containers as needed—even to zero.

Kogito is designed to give developers flexibility. Its command-line interface (CLI) supports commands and operations on Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems. Developers can use Kogito to build decision services in Decision Model and Notation (DMN), Drools Rule Language, XLS(X), or a combination of all three.

The benefits of Kogito reach into the long-term as well. Business process automation is a significant part of an organization’s digital transformation strategies.

The focus of IT has shifted from serving internal needs, like efficiency and cost control, to engaging with external customers and creating new business opportunities. That’s why Red Hat believes the traditional business automation model needs to evolve. Instead of focusing solely on streamlining processes, businesses need to develop new strategies to automate the business itself. 

Red Hat works with the greater open source community on automation technologies. Our engineers help improve features, reliability, and security to make sure your business performs, with IT that remains stable and secure. 

Our solutions, services, and training give you the control you need to automate your business and free up the resources you need to build an innovative future.