Conclusion and future directions

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This chapter covers what can be achieved with WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 5. The scenarios and techniques presented demonstrate techniques and can be combined and enhanced for extremely sophisticated scenarios.

Maintaining continuous availability is still a fairly manual process, but the future is all about automation. One example of the future direction is the dynamic load balancing function provided by the IBM software group's IBM Server Allocation for WebSphere Application Server. IBM Server Allocation for WebSphere technology will make it even easier to virtualize a WebSphere server environment by providing advanced automation and load balancing functions among WebSphere applications and compute intensive workloads. Version 1 supports a WebSphere application workload and a compute-intensive low priority workload. Future versions will load balance multiple WebSphere application server workloads.

IBM will continue to deliver new offerings and road maps to enable its customers to convert to an e-business on demand operating environment. IBM is ready to help enterprises transform to an e-business on demand environment regardless of where they are today. Additional information about this technology and other IBM e-business on demand offerings can be found at www.ibm.com/e-business.

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