Not to be outdone by rival Oracle, BEA Systems has
unveiled version 9.0 of its WebLogic Server application
server.
Homing in on the theme of service-oriented architecture
deployment, BEA said the product would simplify the development of
service-oriented applications to help lower development and
operational costs.
Highlights of WebLogic Server 9.0 include support for J2EE 1.4
and web services standards such as WS-ReliableMessaging. According
to BEA, the server's messaging infrastructure can process thousands
of messages a second.
The server also allows administrators to identify and resolve
issues in applications running in production in real-time, as well
as auto-tuning to help specify service levels.
At its OpenWorld conference on Monday, Oracle touted similar
functionality for Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2.
WebLogic Server 9.0 is scheduled for download in beta form from
16 December, with general availability set for next summer. One BEA
user said he looked forward to disruption-free capabilities in
version 9.0
"We're really looking to WebLogic Server 9.0's disruption-free
deployment because it's still the customer-facing apps that we have
the problem with," said Jeff Davies, director of software
architecture and standards at DSL supplier Covad
Communications.
BEA declares itself an industry leader ready to move forward,
but the company has undergone a lot of personnel changes at the top
lately, with the departures of its chief technology officer and
chief architect.
According to Alfred Chuang, BEA president and chief operating
officer, the company is focused on innovation and is top on
throughput and price/performance. "From JRockit [Java virtual
machine] to component technology, we have the absolute cheapest
technology out there, or the biggest bang for the buck," he
said.
He also scoffed at the threat that freely available open-source
application servers might present to the company's commercially
available application server. He stressed that BEA's revenues
dwarved those of open source, and said that users cared about the
APIs and openness that BEA could provide.
"I think open source is way overblown in the marketplace," he
said.
BEA this week is also announcing general availability of the
WebLogic JRockit 5.0 Java Development Kit, for the company's
JRockit JVM for Intel systems.
JRockit 5.0, which also is scheduled to be available in beta
from 16 December, is designed for more easy diagnosis of problems
and to help analyse an application's behaviour and performance in
real-time during production, without sustaining a noticeable
performance penalty.
The SDK includes the Java Runtime Environment, which includes
the JVM and Java class libraries. It also contains development
tools such as a compiler and debugger, compliant with the J2SE 5.0
specification.
BEA has also presented a roadmap of several technologies,
including the following:
- Devils Thumb portal product beta release, due in summer
2005
- QuickSilver beta, due in spring 2005, with general availability
next summer. The product combines web services and enterprise
service bus technologies
- Liquid Data 8.2, codenamed Danube, shipping early next
year
- Davinci telecoms product for SIP and VOIP support, due in
winter 2005, with a follow-up planned for the following
spring.
- Liquid Data 9.0, shipping in autumn 2005
- Dublin business process management product, due in winter
2006
- Taurus version of the Tuxedo transaction processing monitor,
due in summer 2005
- Ripcurl RFID edge product, due in spring 2005.
Paul Krill writes for InfoWorld