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For small to midsize installations-for which J2EE compliance is not an overriding priority-Macromedia's ColdFusion remains the undisputed leader. ColdFusion forgoes the lure of J2EE and sticks to the basics. Its proprietary but extensible tag-based CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) makes any developer familiar with HTML immediately productive. If you want to build reasonably sophisticated applications and get them up and running quickly, ColdFusion is a great choice.
Full text
Many application servers are evolving into e-business 'solution platforms' with integrated development tools and e-commerce services. We examined 11 such servers to see how they are meeting market demands.
As companies move beyond running simple catalog-and-- transaction e-commerce sites to building out more sophisticated e-business applications for both internal and external users, application servers have become much more commonplace. By providing run-time architectures that give Webbased applications the scalability, performance and reliability they need while tying together disparate back-end data sources and applications, application servers are perfect for such environments.
The products in this field are maturing, particularly in their support of J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) and in offering a "solution" platform that extends beyond traditional application-server services to include e-commerce and portal services. We reviewed application servers from Art Technology Group (ATG), Borland Software Corp., Brokat Infosystems, IBM Corp., iPlanet, Lutris Technologies, Macromedia, Persistence Software, SilverStream Software and Sybase. We also looked at a beta version of Microsoft .Net Enterprise (see ".Net Enterprise Is Powerful, Proprietary," page 68).
Our tests resulted in two Editor's Choice winners: IBM's WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition 3.5 and Macromedia's ColdFusion 4.5.1 Enterprise. For large enterprises, IBM's product provides an open, Java-based platform that lets organizations build or, preferably, buy whatever is needed to solve typical business problems. In addition, the WebSphere Application Server is part of IBM's larger suite of complementary products that sits on top of this world-class solution.
For small to midsize installations-for which J2EE compliance is not an overriding priority-Macromedia's ColdFusion remains the undisputed leader. ColdFusion forgoes the lure of J2EE and sticks to the basics. Its proprietary but extensible tag-based CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) makes any developer familiar with HTML immediately productive. If you want to build reasonably sophisticated applications and get them up and running quickly, ColdFusion is a great choice. Macromedia also offers a Java-based application server, JRun, to cater to the J2EE crowd. But in terms of development simplicity and developer support, its ColdFusion is an extremely strong offering.
J2EE COMPLIANCE
The J2EE standard is gaining acceptance as a specification for the services and baseline capabilities that application servers should provide under a standard Java-based architecture. J2EE-compliant application servers let their customers run any application built to the standard. Moreover, the resulting application objects are fully interoperable with any other objects built to J2EE and running on any other J2EE-compliant application server.
Such standards compliance should reduce the total cost of ownership. Organizations embracing the standard can deploy different J2EE application servers and reduce their risk of getting locked into a particular application-- server platform and having migration problems if the organizational standard for application servers changes.
There has been speculation that the growing support for J2EE will accelerate consolidation in the application-- server market. That is, back-end services will become commodities that can be provided by any compliant application server. In truth, J2EE merely provides a reference for how an application server should work and the kinds of services it should provide, including a reference implementation. The way in which these services are implemented is left to the vendor.
We found considerable differences in how the application servers deliver their services. Some vendors have taken the time and effort to ensure that specified services are delivered with better flexibility and performance than a simple reference implementation can offer.
Borland's Inprise Application Server, for example, excels at the serialization of objects resulting from application queries. In addition, the company has taken pains to ensure that the product leverages the Microsoft Net architecture, which other Java-based application servers do not take into account. Persistence's PowerTier for J2EE has an advanced distributed cache architecture that provides high performance for applications requiring rapid data-synchronization and data-access functionality (such as bid-and-response applications in an e-marketplace).
Such differentiation will remain among J2EE-compliant application servers. Therefore, the server's underlying architecture should be the critical factor when you're shopping around.
'SOLUTION' CAPABILITIES
Over the past year or so, we have seen a clear shift in the application-server market from a pure tools-and-infrastructure play to a full-solution approach for providing a complete e-business platform. This is a good thing: It gives organizations more out-of-thebox functionality while letting them build highly customized applications.
The larger vendors provide the best examples. For instance, along with its WebSphere Application Server, IBM offers the WebSphere Commerce Suite commerce platform, which includes the application server, a commerce engine, catalog management and personalization features. The iPlanet Application Server product family includes components for e-commerce, e-billing and payment, and portal services.
Other vendors are following similar strategies. ATG has expanded its offerings beyond its original Dynamo Application Server to offer packages for e-commerce, personalization and customer management. Web-design-- tool vendor Macromedia recently merged with Allaire-a company that offers two different application servers as well as the ColdFusion-- based Spectra platform for commerce and content management.
In fact, of the vendors participating in this roundup, only Borland, Lutris and Persistence are not pursuing some sort of e-business-solution strategy in expanding their products beyond application-server capabilities. Why the keen focus on e-business? Most of the application-server vendors are searching for ways to differentiate themselves in a crowded market; adding capabilities for commerce or portal services is a natural evolution. In addition, these vendors are offering a one-stop shop for e-business needs.
Application-server vendors also have expanded the flexibility they provide in terms of development. A few years ago, nearly every application server offered an IDE (integrated development environment) and required organizations to use this environment to build applications destined for deployment on the server. Those organizations using an alternative environment could not leverage all the server's capabilities.
Because many organizations have invested in specific development environments (and trained their developers in those environments), today's application servers enable applications built with other systems to be deployed on their servers. In fact, many vendors now bundle development environments from multiple vendors, giving organizations additional choices.
Network Computing
EDITOR'S CHOICE
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IBM CORP. WEBSPHERE APPLICATION SERVER ADVANCED EDITION 3.5
IBM WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition 3.5 is our pick for large to midsize companies seeking an enterprise-level e-business solution and for those that want to develop in Java across a common platform. Its strengths include its reliability and integration capabilities, globalization, and platform support. However, the product lacks strong support for third-party management and EAI (enterprise application integration) products.
WebSphere uses JDBC Java Database Connectivity) drivers to access DB2, Informix, Oracle and Sybase databases. It supports CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) 2.3, JavaBeans 1.0 and EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) 1.0 object technologies, and includes an ORB (Object Request Broker), a J2EE container and tools for wrapping COM (Component Object Model) objects. WebSphere has a built-in proprietary transaction service, works with CICS and supports JTS (Java Transaction Service) to ensure reliability and data integrity. The product integrates with MQSeries for message queuing through JMS Java Messaging Service). IBM also offers adapters for integration with J.D. Edwards & Co. and Lawson Software back-end systems. WebSphere works with SMTP mail gateways and Lotus Notes.
Visual Age for Java, the primary IDE, is bundled with the product. Because WebSphere is designed to be an open environment, organizations can use third-party development tools. Wizard-based tools enable drag-anddrop development and code completion features that can be used for object introspection. WebSphere lets developers create HTML and DHTML (Dynamic HTML), and create and assemble Java applets, Java applications, JSPs (Java Server Pages), JavaBeans, EJBs and CORBA objects.
WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition 3.5, $7,500 per CPU license, $2,500 per CPU support and maintenance. IBM Corp., (914) 499-1900. www.ibm.com
Network Computing
EDITOR'S CHOICE
B+
MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION 4.5.1 ENTERPRISE
Since its inception, ColdFusion has undergone several evolutionary changes that have drastically improved the product. ColdFusion 4.5.1 offers an easyto-use development environment that doesn't require much programming expertise. Its development, security and integration capabilities are enough to outweigh its lack of J2EE compliance.
CO-WINNER OF OUR EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD, THE IBM WEBSPHERE APPLICATION SERVER IS MANAGED THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONSOLE.
And ColdFusion does not intend to focus on J2EE (Macromedia offers JRun as its J2EE-based server). Instead, ColdFusion does an exemplary job of concentrating on its target market: midsize organizations that need robust tools to help them get up and running quickly with sophisticated applications, without exorbitant costs. ColdFusion also has features that enable high performance and excellent reliability. And with a vast developer base and great ISV (independent software vendor) support, ColdFusion holds an enviable position in mind and market share.
ColdFusion's architecture is highly scalable. Macromedia's tag-based approach and customizable development studio allow for easy HTML development using its proprietary language. The ColdFusion server runs on IBM AIX, Microsoft Windows NT and Sun Microsystems Solaris; the development tools run on Windows. ColdFusion offers a browser-based administration tool, though centralized administration is difficult because it does not integrate with third-party management consoles and does not support SNMP. Reporting and analysis of server performance must be done manually by administrators or developers using ColdFusion's log files.
For development, ColdFusion provides ColdFusion Studio, a native tool for presentation-tier development. Programming is primarily tag-based, using HTML and CFML. These tools simplify localizing an application. External objects and data can be integrated into the design of business objects through the use of introspection capabilities.
ColdFusion 4.5.1 Enterprise, $4,995. Macromedia, (617) 219-2000. www.allaire.com
B
BORLAND SOFTWARE CORP. INPRISE
HOW WE TESTED APPLICATION SERVERS To evaluate application servers, we invited more than a dozen application-server vendors-including the market leaders-to take part in a two-day, hands-on assessment of their products at the Doculabs' facility in Chicago. We looked at 11 products from the vendors that acepted our invitation. We started each evaluation by asking the company representatives to provide background information on their organizaions: positioning, value proposition, product architecture and functionality. We followed this working session with a hands-on evaluation in our labs. Our test scenario was based on an e-commerce application for Nile.com, a fictional online retailer. The vendors dedeloped portions of the sample application in advance, and our analyst team completed other portions of the application in our labs (including the shopping-cart and order-entry functionality). The hands-on lab assessment gave us a chance to exercise each product's features, functions, major capabilities and ease of administration and development. The lab testing also let us evaluate each product against our predefined criteria for application servers, which include dozens of line-item criteria in high-level categories, such as performance and reliability, security, integration, administration, development, and Java-standards compliance (see 'Evaluation Criteria' below). These criteria are among the important capabilities that our end-user customers require in an application server. Note that this evaluation did not include a performance test. While we examined features that contribute to performance (such as load-balancing, caching and database-connection approaches), we did not conduct any performance benchmarking as part of the assessment.
APPLICATION SERVER 4.1
Borland's Inprise Application Server 4.1 is geared toward telecommunications, financial services and healthcare solutions. It combines J2EE compliance with its own VisiBroker CORBA ORB.
AppServer 4.1 is a highly scalable and robust application server powered by the VisiBroker e-business engine and high-performance XA-compliant JTS. The product would do a good job supporting high-transaction-throughput systems by providing best-of-breed transaction and security management as well as performance- and reliability-enhancing characteristics, such as built-in load-balancing and failure-recovery capabilities. In the same vein, AppServer delivers strong caching, cookie- and memory-based session management, and application-, component- and session-level failover capabilities. JTS and JMS (ava Messaging Service) are both used for the product's transaction- and message-queuing services. In addition, AppServer provides tools for real-time system monitoring and alerts that can be generated automatically using SNMP or e-mail.
On the development side, Borland's environment is used for building HTML- and JSP-based front ends, Java applets and applications, CORBA objects, and EJBs-and assembling all those objects. Wizards and drag-anddrop programming features allow quick integration of business logic with data logic. However, the product does not bundle testing tools, which some other vendors (including Microsoft) provide out of the box.
THIS VIEW OF BORLAND'S INPRISE APPLICATION SERVER 4.1 SHOWS SEVERAL DISPLAY OPTIONS FOR USERS, INCLUDING THE CONSOLE, J2EE DEPLOYMENT WIZARD AND ARCHIVE TOOL.
AppServer's administration features include remote administration and an SNMP interface with third-party management consoles. Deployment is based on J2EE technology. AppServer can deploy applications without restart, but does not provide the authentication and access control to manage deployment.
Inprise Application Server 4.1, $200,000 on average. Borland Software Corp., (831) 431-1000. www.borland.com
B
IPLANET APPLICATION SERVER 6.0
Manet's offering, iPlanet Application Server 6.0, is a standards-based application server that serves as the foundation of Manet's e-business platform, which includes e-commerce and portal components. The application server is a solid and complete solution, and is well-suited for medium to large organizations seeking a J2EE-compliant product that offers a variety of prebuilt applications.
Manet Application Server offers many capabilities to enhance performance, and it excels at thread and database connection pooling. The product supports multiprocessing and several load-balancing schemes. For reliability, it offers solid session management and fault-tolerance capabilities. Built-in integration with IBM's TXSeries for transaction processing and MQSeries for message queuing enable fail-safe data manipulation and updates. The product's monitoring and logging services make observing and measuring system operation easy.
IPLANET APPLICATION SERVER HAS A NATIVE MANAGEMENT CONSOLE BUT LACKS ADEQUATE ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE AND USAGE.
Planet Application Server supports multiple development environments. The product includes iPlanet Application Builder, a Java-based development environment, to facilitate the creation of data-driven applications. Planet also includes Forte for Java Community Edition, another Java-based IDE. Finally, the product can seamlessly integrate with other development environments, such as WebGain, through proprietary product APIs.
The application server can package and deploy applications across complex, multitier, multienvironment infrastructures. And it offers a native management console, though it does not provide adequate analysis of server and application performance and usage. In addition, iPlanet Application Server integrates with third-party management tools through SNMP.
iPlanet Application Server 6.0, $34,995 per CPU (includes bundled web server, directory server and TP monitor). iPlanet, (650) 2541900. www.iplanet.com
B
SILVERSTREAM SOFTWARE SILVERSTREAM APPLICATION SERVER 3.7
SilverStream Application Server 3.7 is a standards-based application server that functions as the foundation of SilverStream's e-business platform, which includes components for XML (Extensible Markup Language) and portal services.
Its application development and deployment are its major strengths. The product's development environment offers comprehensive debugging capabilities, straightforward development, strong platform support, and support for leading third-party development environments. Organizations building an enterprise solution using J2EE will find value in SilverStream, as it provides most of the services and ease-of-use features that are required for rapid, low-cost development of ebusiness applications.
SilverStream offers good results and objects caching, as well as database connection and thread pooling. The product uses round-robin and weighted round-robin for load-balancing. For availability, it stores user sessions in cookies, in memory or in a database. Fault tolerance is available at the application and session levels.
SilverStream Application Server does not integrate with third-party QoS (Quality of Service) products or transaction-processing monitors, but it includes the SilverStream jBroker message-queue service that uses JMS. The product provides a tool for performance monitoring and is SNMP-compliant for integration with third-party management consoles.
SilverStream Application Server 3.7, pricing is based on number of servers or named users; bundled as editions. SilverStream Software, (978) 262-3000. www.silverstream.com
B
SYBASE ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SERVER 3.6
Sybase's Enterprise Application Server 3.6 (EAServer) is aimed at Internet. and portal solutions, and is available in developer and deployment editions. It is ideal for organizations seeking a high-performance transactionprocessing-based application server.
EAServer offers complete security features, comprehensive messagebroker technology and strong loadbalancing capabilities. The product provides flexible integration with thirdparty solutions and excellent standards support. However, QoS and performance-monitoring features are limited.
For development, Sybase offers a wizard-based tool that enables drag-anddrop development. The development environment is limited to running within Windows environments and lacks testing features, content management, source control, project management and advanced debugging capabilities.
Enterprise Application Server 3.6, $595, developer; $2,995, deployment. Sybase, (510) 922-3500. www.sybase.com
B
ART TECHNOLOGY GROUP DYNAMO APPLICATION SERVER 5
ATG's Dynamo 5 is an e-commerce platform for business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications. The Dynamo application platform, based entirely on Java and designed for J2EE compliance, comprises the Dynamo Commerce Server, Dynamo Scenario Server, Dynamo Personalization Server and Dynamo Application Server. The product allows applications to be built by business users with "scenarios"customization and commerce transactions based on business language.
ATG has positioned Dynamo as the platform for scenario-driven online customer management that lets business managers optimize their customer interactions across the enterprise. Because Dynamo provides Java interfaces and components that can be wired together, it requires little low-level programming. In addition, given ATG's extensive partnerships, Dynamo is an attractive offering for companies seeking a solution that provides not only development features, but also personalization and e-commerce functionality.
The product offers many methods for load-balancing-simple roundrobin, weighted round-robin, performance-based and load-based algorithms for a high level of scalability. However, Dynamo's other capabilities for reliability and performance are limited.
Dynamo incorporates excellent built-in administration tools and works with third-party management products. It provides extensive analysis features to monitor performance and usage. On the development side, Dynamo has strong support for Java development, as it is fully certified for the J2EE and J2SE (Standard Edition) specifications and officially supports the J2ME (Micro Edition) specification.
Dynamo Application Server 5, custom pricing. Art Technology Group, (617) 3861000. www. atg.com
C+
PERSISTENCE SOFTWARE POWERTIER 6.0
Persistence's PowerTier 6.0 is a standards-based development and deployment platform designed primarily for use in the financial services market and by ISPs and ASPs (application service providers). PowerTier's strengths lie in performance and object mapping, but it suffers from development, deployment and management limitations.
For high performance, PowerTier offers an advanced distributed object caching architecture that should appeal to high-volume transaction-oriented sites. The product uses random and weighted-random methods for server load-balancing, though it does not perform load-balancing between applications and components. PowerTier provides strong application and session fault tolerance and management features. Sessions are managed across multiple servers or databases. A third-party message queue (SilverStream's jBroker) and a JMS interface are embedded in the product.
PowerTier has advanced object-relation mapping features, including an object persistence layer. The product supports popular development environments and provides an adapter for Rational Software Corp.'s Rational Rose modeling tool.
PowerTier is administered via its own Web-based console (which we found to be limited) or through use of a third-party console, such as management utilities from Tivoli. The product lacks deployment features and advanced debugging capabilities, such as distributed debugging.
PowerTier 6.0, $25,000 per CPU for deployment, $7,500 per developers license (20 percent of license cost is for maintenance and support). Persistence Software, (650) 372-3600. www.persistence.com
C+ MACROMEDIA JRUN 3.0
JRun is Macromedia's J2EE application server and development environment. JRun is a complete J2EE platform for rapid development and deployment of reliable, scalable and secure server-side Java applications. The product is available in developer, professional, enterprise and studio editions.
PERSISTENCE POWERTIER'S OBJECTBUILDER HELPS USERS CONSTRUCT AN OBJECT MODEL, THEN GENERATES ALL THE EJB CODE TO RUN THAT MODEL ON POWERTIER/J2EE.
JRun provides a logical environment to run enterprise-level applications using Java-based development technology. It is ideally suited for organizations that want to continue to rapidly develop applications in Macromedia's midsize-- enterprise-focused ColdFusion product but also want enterprise-level scaling using a Java-based application server.
For performance, JRun provides resuits and configurable object caching, as well as configurable connection and thread pooling. Load-balancing is achieved through Macromedia's ClusterCats clustering technology.
Sessions are managed with cookies or stored in memory or a database. The product embeds its own transactionprocessing and message-queuing software but does not provide enterprise application integration functionality.
JRun includes a proprietary browserbased administration console, but it does not support SNMP or offer any integration with third-party management consoles. For development, the product's JRun Developer simplifies building front-end interfaces in HTML, WML (Wireless Markup Language), JSP and ASP (Active Server Page). Developers can script objects together using JavaScript. JRun can create installation packaging and enables onestep installation with authorization, but it lacks rollback capabilities.
Run 3.0, free, developer; $795 per CPU, professional; $4,995 per CPU, enterprise; $495 per seat, Run Studio. Macromedia (Allaire), (617) 219-2000. www.allaire.com
C
BROKAT INFOSYSTEMS GEMSTONE/JA.1
GemStone Systems was acquired by Brokat Infosystems last year. The company's application server offering, GemStone/J 4.1, is based on open Java, J2EE, XML and CORBA. GemStone/j is available in commerce automation, enterprise, component and Web editions. We were impressed with the product's performance and reliability.
For example, GemStone/J offers configurable data and object caching, and uses JTS for transaction integrity.
ABOVE IS MACROMEDIA'S JRUN 3.0 MANAGEMENT CONSOLE. JRUN DOES NOT SUPPORT SNMP OR INTEGRATE WITH THIRD-PARTY CONSOLES.
The product is limited in security and integration. It enables HTTP and IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol) data-stream encryption through SSL to protect data but does not provide data encryption to protect data that resides on file systems or databases. The product supports JDBC for relational database connectivity but does not offer connectors for major line-of-business or ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems-a capability that a number of other products (notably those from Borland, IBM and Sybase) offer.
GemStone/J enables remote management through a proprietary console and provides QoS features as well as system- and application-usage reports. Unlike the other products tested, GemStone does not include a development environment as part of its package.
GemStone/J 4.1, $75,000 per CPU. Brokat Infosystems, (503) 533-3000. www.gemstone.com
C
LUTRIS TECHNOLOGIES ENHYDRA PROFESSIONAL 3.0
Lutris' Enhydra is an open-source Java/XML application server. It can be downloaded for free or purchased on a CD with manuals and technical support. In addition, Lutris offers Internet strategy and development consulting in e-business, application architecture and development, creative GUI design and branding, and repeatable automated processes. Lutris also maintains enhydra.org, a site devoted to the Enhydra development community.
Indeed, Enhydra is the only opensource Java/XML-based application sever and development environment available. Among Enhydra's strengths are its excellent support for wireless functions and its localization features.
However, the product lacks features that enable a high level of reliability, such as persistent session state management and transaction control support. One of the few bright spots is its inclusion of load-balancing capabilities.
In addition, Lutris' Enhydra Professional provides only a simple solution for security and administration, which includes basic HTTP authentication. Companies that seek to standardize on a Java application server based on opensource will find that Enhydra is the best of their limited choices, but they should be aware of the product's weaknesses in reliability, security and back-end data integration.
Enhydra Professional 3.0, $499. Lutris Technologies, (831) 471-9753. www.lutris.com
ONLINE SPECIAL
The application-server market has been very active lately, and 6ig changes are still in store. Find out what we expect out of this sector, at www.nwc.com/1215/1215rdl.html.
WEB LINKS
"Serving Up Java 2 Enterprise Edition" (InformationWeek, April 23, 2001) www.informationweek.com/834/ooj2ee.htm
"Java Hits the New Sweet Spot" (InformationWeek, April 30, 2001) www.informationweek.com/835/java.htm
"Scaling Your E-Business" (NETWORK COMPUTING, Feb. 5, 2001) www.nwc.com/1203/1203f1a1.html
"Buyer's Guide: Web Application Servers" (NETWORK COMPUTING, Feb. 7, 2000) www.nwc.com/1102/1102buyers2.html
Gautam Desai and Eric Sanchez are analysts with Doculabs (www.doculabs.com), an industry analyst and advisory firm that helps organizations plan for, select and appraise technologies for their business. Joe Fenner is vice president of quality. Send your comments on this article to them or contact Doculabs at [email protected] or (312) 433-7793.
Copyright CMP Media LLC Jul 23, 2001