Camunda

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Camunda is a process orchestration and automation platform used to design, execute, and control complex business processes for enterprise companies. The software is classified by specialist media as a business process automation tool or digital process automation software, or business orchestration and automation technology (BOAT) as classified by Gartner<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or digital process automation software and therefore represents a further development of the classic workflow management platform. It also enables agentic orchestration by combining deterministic processes with dynamic processes controlled by AI agents.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Camunda focuses on the automation of end-to-end business processes.

The company name is a portmanteau of ‘capere’ (Latin for ‘to understand’) and ‘munda’ (Latin for ‘clean’). According to the company, it is intended to express its aspiration to make the world a better place through understanding.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Overview

Camunda provides tools for creating process and decision models and for operating deployed models in production environments. The platform includes a workflow engine compliant with the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard and a decision engine compliant with the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard, which can also be used as a standalone component.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It can be used as an architectural component in distributed systems through a REST API.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> External endpoints, including AI services, can be integrated via Connectors.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>

Camunda has been deployed in companies such as Universal Music Group,<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> Commerzbank, GLS, NASA, Telekom<ref name=":0" /> Atlassian<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Audi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Process orchestration is the main topic at the biannual CamundaCon (formerly BPM Con), which is organized by Camunda. Other conferences such as JAX (and W-JAX) or Devoxx are also regularly dedicated to the topic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

License

Since October 2024, Camunda has released all components of Camunda 8 Self-Managed, including Zeebe, Operate Tasklist, Optimize, and Identity, under Camunda License 1.0. This license allows access to the source code of these components and the free use for development and testing purposes, but requires a production license for deployment.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref>

History and developer

Camunda is developed by Berlin-based Camunda Services GmbH. The company was founded in 2008 by Jakob Freund and Bernd Rücker as a consulting firm for business process management (BPM).<ref name=":2" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Camunda 7 was an originally commercial workflow management system, which was based on Activiti, a free business process management system. Alongside Alfresco, Camunda was one of the biggest contributors of Activiti.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 18 March 2013, the further development of Camunda was spun off from the development of Activiti.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In December 2018, Camunda received €25 million in Series A funding from Highland Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":2" /> In March 2021, Camunda raised €82 million in a Series B funding round led by Insight Partners together with Highland Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2022, Camunda released Camunda Platform 8<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (now Camunda 8) as a successor to Camunda Cloud, incorporating the cloud-native workflow and decision engine Zeebe.

In May 2024, Camunda introduced artificial intelligence features to its process orchestration platform. Additionally, the company released Camunda Copilot, which provides process modeling suggestions, generates BPMN diagrams from natural language prompts, creates documentation, and includes a form builder.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It also provides connectors for integrating AI endpoints (e.g., OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Hugging Face) into processes.

In October 2024, SAP integration and the integration of task automation capabilities, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), were announced. The same year, Camunda achieved revenues of over 100 million euros.<ref name=":0" />

Camunda was included in Viva Technology's "Top 100 next unicorns" list in 2023<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2025, Camunda integrated agentic orchestration capabilities into the platform, allowing AI agents to dynamically control (sub-)processes.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref>

Features

Camunda consists of a number of components and applications that are used together to define and execute business processes:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Camunda Modeler desktop application and web modeler allow developers to create and edit BPMN process diagrams and DMN decision tables.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External endpoints can be integrated into processes via Connectors, which are pre-built and customizable packages consisting of BPMN elements and API templates. With the release of Camunda 8.3, Camunda Marketplace was added, allowing users to share and download additional Connectors for various business systems.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Created files are deployed in the Camunda engine, which use a BPMN parser to transform BPMN 2.0 XML files, and DMN XML files, into Java objects, and implements BPMN 2.0 constructs with a set of BPMN Behavior implementations.<ref name="infoq">Template:Cite news</ref>

Typical use cases for the Camunda BPMN Workflow Engine can be microservices orchestration and human task management.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Camunda DMN Decision Engine executes business-driven decision tables. It is pre-integrated with the Workflow Engine but can be used as a standalone application via REST or inside Java applications.<ref name="infoworld">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="programmableweb">Template:Cite news</ref>

Camunda's additional web applications provide the following tools for developers and business users:<ref name="infoq"/>

  • Operate: A tool for technical process operations enabling users to monitor workflows and decisions in production, to analyze and solve technical problems.<ref name="infoworld"/>
  • Tasklist: Allows end users to work on assigned tasks and provides additional visibility when using the Camunda Workflow Engine for human task management.
  • Optimize: An analytics and reporting tool to identify errors and bottlenecks in workflow processes.
  • Modeler: A collaborative modeling tool allowing multiple users to create, edit and specify BPMN process diagrams.
  • Console: Allows users to manage Camunda web applications or REST API users. Existing user management can be integrated via LDAP.

Architecture

Camunda 8 is a cloud-native platform based on the Zeebe orchestration and decision engine. Zeebe applies event stream processing for process automation and stores workflow data as event streams on server nodes. The platform also provides REST APIs covering its different components.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A self-hosted version of Camunda 8 is available under Camunda License 1.0 as well.<ref name=":4" />

Further reading

References

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