February 26, 2001

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Internet Infrastructure
App Servers Meet E-commerce

As companies realize the importance of a scalable Internet infrastructure, application servers and E-commerce platforms are converging, with vendors providing greater functionality to simplify development, ease integration, and reduce costs

By Gautam Desai, Eric Sanchez, and Joe Fenner

More on Internet infrastructure:

Internet Appliances Take Hold (1/15/01) TechWeb News: Cisco Showcases High-Speed Networking Gear (1/31/01)

pplication servers are going away in large measure as a standalone technology and are being integrated into various types of E-commerce applications. As IT departments strive to build out their Internet infrastructures, the need for scalability is bringing about this commingling of technologies.

The trend is a direct result of IT's shift away from deploying point products like E-commerce systems that are independent from other applications, such as content management and customer self-service, and legacy data sources. IT shops see the value in standardizing on a platform that can support a range of E-business applications. It makes good economic sense and also eases the development process.

Many infrastructure components can be combined into an integrated suite that includes middleware, Web servers, application servers, wireless gateways, transaction-processing monitors, integration software, message-queue servers, and application frameworks.

The driving force in the Web application server and E-commerce markets is not in simply the convergence of the technologies, but rather the breadth of applications that can be supported by the same infrastructure. Most vendors, whether they come from an E-commerce or an application-server heritage, are providing more functionality in their platforms and are making it easier for companies to quickly build working applications with less development effort.

There are many examples of application-server and E-commerce vendors that are extending their products through internal development, partnerships, or acquisitions. For example, BEA Systems Inc. enhanced its Tuxedo transaction server through the acquisition of application-server vendor WebLogic and Java-based commerce-component vendor Theory Center. Today, BEA offers a platform that includes the application server and integrated components for E-commerce, personalization, collaboration, and process management.

Art Technology Group Inc. has expanded its offerings beyond its original Dynamo application server to offer packages for E-commerce, personalization, and customer management. Bluestone Software Inc. has evolved beyond its application-server roots to offer packages for business-to-business and business-to-consumer E-commerce.

The shift is just as clear when looking at E-commerce vendors that realize that application servers are so important that they're building their E-commerce packages to run on top of them. IBM and iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions offer complete E-business environments with E-commerce products and other components that sit on top of their application-server infrastructures.

On the technology front, both E-commerce and application-server vendors are embracing the Java 2 Enterprise Edition specification, giving customers a foundation for running any application built to the specification, along with the interoperability of objects on different platforms. Any E-commerce application developed in a J2EE-compliant environment should run on any J2EE-compliant application server, thus cutting the cost of development while adding flexibility.

Many people think this growing support for J2EE will accelerate the consolidation in the application-server market, and some people expect that back-end services will become commodities that can be provided by any compliant application server. The truth is that the J2EE specification merely provides a reference for how an application server should work and what kinds of services it should provide. Most application-server vendors have built their products to accomplish these tasks in different ways, often providing considerable performance advantages.

For example, Persistence Software Inc.'s PowerTier for J2EE application server has a distributed cache architecture that provides rapid data synchronization and data access. Inprise Corp.'s application server excels at the serialization of objects resulting from queries.

Even with growing support for the J2EE specification and a decrease in the number of application-server vendors, differentiation among application servers will remain. In addition, as more IT shops turn to E-business platforms, the architecture of the platform's underlying application server layer will be one of the determining factors in product selection.

The Direction Of Convergence
Vendor	Heritage	Direction
Allaire Newton, Mass. 617-219-2000 www.allaire.com	Application-server and development-tools vendor	Added Spectra E-commerce platform to its application server and development tools. Recently revealed plans to merge with Web development tools vendor Macromedia.
Art Technology Group Cambridge, Mass. 617-386-1000 www.atg.com	Application-server vendor	Added Dynamo Commerce Suite to its application sever.
BEA Systems San Jose, Calif. 408-570-8000 www.bea.com	Transaction-processing monitor vendor (Tuxedo)	Purchased application-server vendor WebLogic and commerce-component vendor Theory Center in the past two years. Has integrated the technologies into its WebLogic E-Business Platform.
Bluestone Software Philadelphia 610-915-5000 www.bluestone.com	Application-server vendor	Evolved beyond its original Sapphire/Web application server, now offers the Total-e-Business Platform, which includes editions for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and mobile computing. Was recently acquired by Hewlett-Packard.
BroadVision Redwood City, Calif. 800-269-9375 www.broadvision.com	E-commerce platform vendor	One-to-One Enterprise E-commerce platform is based on BroadVision's own C++ application server. Stated direction is to support multiple J2EE application servers.
IBM Armonk, NY 914-499-1900 www.ibm.com	Infrastructure technology vendor	WebSphere product suite includes new Java-based versions of the WebSphere application server and the WebSphere Commerce Suite.
iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions Mountain View, Calif. 650-254-1900 www.iplanet.com	Infrastructure technology vendor	iPlanet Application Server is evolving into a common infrastructure layer for iPlanet's various e-commerce packages and portal offerings.
SilverStream Billerica, Mass. 978-262-3000 www.silverstream.com	Application-server vendor	Added components for portal applications and B-to-B application integration to its Java-based application server.
DATA: DOCULABS

Whether an IT shop chooses standalone products or E-business platforms, there's no escaping the challenges of integrating legacy applications and systems with new customer-focused applications and services. Today's E-business platforms still have work to do to ease this burden.

Many E-commerce vendors didn't anticipate the need to integrate with other systems. But as E-commerce systems grow in size, scope, and strategic importance, integration is essential, especially as E-businesses collaborate with their business partners.

The good news is that the app-server and E-business platform vendors are starting to address the integration issue. Some vendors are forming partnerships with enterprise application integration and B-to-B integration vendors such as IBM, Tibco Software, and webMethods. Other vendors are building their own B-to-B integration components, such as SilverStream Software Inc.'s XML-based xCommerce component.

Standards are also making integration easier. For example, the Simple Object Access Protocol lets applications execute remote procedures or methods on objects over standard Internet protocols using XML information exchange. Though no products in this space support Soap today, vendors such as Ariba, IBM, and Microsoft have disclosed plans to ship products with Soap support as early as midyear.

Another key consideration when investing in an E-business platform is security. As security and privacy issues become more pronounced, companies are being forced to develop a single global security strategy that encompasses employees, customers, and business partners. Application servers and E-business platforms provide companies with flexibility in this area. With a J2EE application server, any compliant security package can be leveraged, and the applications themselves don't need to be changed as a company changes its security technologies or practices. In addition, most E-business solution platforms support the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and other directory standards, letting them integrate with most customer environments.

E-business platforms are continuing to abstract business processes from application code, all the while implementing tools that make development easier. With this shift, during the next year we expect to see a dramatic increase in the role that business analysts can play in developing and maintaining applications. Thanks to more intuitive development tools, line-of-business personnel will be able to participate in tasks such as business-process modeling and development, reducing the reliance on object developers and other IT staff.

In spite of this technology direction, it will take some vendors awhile to get there. Even today, "turnkey" and "fully packaged" are not the reality in the E-commerce and application-server world. If a vendor tells you that no programming is required, show that company the door. For now, developing real-world applications still means getting your hands dirty and still requires system architects, object developers, designers, and business analysts.

Finally, expect integration and security to be the next big frontiers for E-business platform vendors.

Just as E-commerce vendors have added application servers to their offerings (and vice versa), providing integration capabilities and packaged security features are key pieces of the total E-business infrastructure.

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Gautam Desai is a senior analyst, Eric Sanchez is a senior analyst, and Joe Fenner is a senior technical editor with Doculabs, an E-business research and advisory firm in Chicago. You can reach them at info@doculabs.com.

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