Patent ID: 8561080

Claim:
A computer implemented method performed by one or more processors for dispatching an event to a business process instance, the method comprising the following operations: receiving a message at a first computer node executing a first business process instance, the first computer node operating as one of a plurality of nodes in a cloud computing environment, the message associated with a particular business process instance executing in the cloud computing environment; identifying a second business process instance associated with the message, the second business process instance associated with at least one particular node in the plurality of nodes in the cloud computing environment; obtaining a lock on a shared state variable if the message indicates a change to the shared state variable; and sending the message from the first computer node to a centralized messaging queue associated with the cloud computing environment for storage and subsequent retrieval by the particular node associated with the second business process instance if the second business process instance is not locally executing at the first computer node, where the message is associated with the particular node associated with the second business process instance in the centralized messaging queue, and wherein the at least one particular node can access the centralized messaging queue to retrieve the message.