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April 5, 1999

More Than A Movement
Third of 3 Parts

continued...page 3 of 3

Related links:

Web Application Servers are Here To stay (part 1)

Independent Visions (part 2)

VIew the table "Things To Look For In Web Application Tools" as a PDF file. To view a PDF file, download the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Netscape Application Server 3.0
When Netscape acquired Kiva Software in 1997, it bought one of the premiere high-end application servers on the market. Netscape Application Server, as it is now called, has maintained its place as a leader in performance and scalability.

Netscape provides an architecture that can handle key business applications over the Web. The application server is mature, with back-end services that provide transaction-oriented business applications with scalability, availability, fault tolerance, and dynamic load balancing. In addition, the system can prioritize certain transactions or applications based on their importance to the organization.

The primary changes with version 3.0 come in the area of the integrated development environment. The IDE is much improved in terms of usability. The process is more intuitive, and the IDE now includes integrated debugging capabilities.

Overall, Netscape Application Server is rightfully perceived as one of the most mature Web application servers for high-end applications. Still, the product didn't improve as much as we expected in the current version, which may be due to the company's recent merger with America Online and its impact on the organization.

Oracle Application Server 1.0
Although Oracle is certainly a force in terms of its enterprise database products, its Web application server offering is not yet in this class. This is particularly true in its development environment, which consists of a plethora of tools that aren't integrated and that provide some redundant functionality. For the developer, this results in confusion over which tools to use and when to use them. Deployment and configuration must be performed manually within Enterprise JavaBeans configuration files.

However, the application server architecture supports a variety of development languages and makes the server open to expansion. In addition, Oracle's "cartridge" approach to its Network Computing Architecture allows applications in specific languages to be run on specific cartridges. Oracle provides cartridges for a variety of technologies such as Perl, Java, Corba, C++, PL/SQL, and others. The cartridge approach is powerful, and it makes great sense for organizations that are moving their old Perl and CGI applications up to today's standards for speed and performance.

The truth is that many Oracle shops already own a Web application server without realizing it: Oracle8i itself has many Web features, and they seem better integrated and easier to use than those found in Oracle Application Server. Customers who have both will likely take the path of least resistance and use the familiar tools--and Oracle is not likely to create much resistance to this approach until it can better define where Oracle Application Server fits in its product line, and makes the product easier to use.

Sun Microsystems NetDynamics
Sun Microsystems finally got into the Web application server game with the 1998 purchase of NetDynamics. When we reviewed the NetDynamics server last summer (June 22, 1998, p. 63, we found an extremely mature system with a good development environment.

On the server side, NetDynamics offers system services such as database access and connection pooling, security, cluster support, and dynamic load balancing. The product is based on a Corba foundation, which has advantages but can cause performance problems if applications are not properly designed and implemented. On the development side, the system provides wizards that can be used to create either HTML or Java forms, or developers can opt to build applications with third-party development environments such as Symantec Café, or Inprise J++.

The problem for Sun is not the technology, but what to do with it. It's unclear how NetDynamics fits into Sun's vision of enterprise computing platforms. And with Sun's recent partnership with AOL-Netscape, in which Sun will sell Netscape enterprise software, the role of the NetDynamics product line becomes even more questionable. It will take a significant and concerted effort on Sun's part to make NetDynamics a dominant force in the Web application server market.

Gautam Desai is a senior analyst, Jeetu Patel is VP of research, Joe Fenner is a senior technical writer, and Mark Schenecker is VP of electronic commerce at Doculabs, an independent advisory firm that specializes in infrastructure components and technologies for Web applications, knowledge-management, document-management, and document-output strategies. You cancontact them at info@doculabs.com. Sean Gallagher is managing editor of InformationWeek Labs.

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