On Event Proessing Platforms and Engines

Here are pictures of some engine and some platform, and they don't seem to be compatible, however if a car will replace the horse in the 2nd picture, all of a sudden, the engine (of the car) will have a role in the platform. In event processing we hear more and more about platforms, and even about event-based middleware that will be a basis for XTP and other stuff. The platform is providing some services for agents to run, like a road system that can enable to get from place to place and provide services such as: signs, traffic lights etc... The way to go there can be by foot, riding an hoarse, and driving a car, among other options. Taking this analogy further -- in the event processing world, every agent can be implemented in ad-hoc fashion (going by foot), use C/Java code with some tools to help create EP applications, or use engines, which are COTS tools that do event processing. Implementation of heterogenous agents on the same platform requires interoperability standards, if we also wish to implement it in a seamless applications we'll need language standards. There are some starts of event processing platform, quite basic at that point, but the direction seems promising, and may, at some point in time we may see event processing platforms as a basis for the new generation of enterprise application servers.