A Closer Look at the Application Server Marketplace

The next thing to understand about Web services is that there is no Web services marketplace. Instead, Web services are part of a large, established "integration/application server" marketplace.

What is an integration/application server? It is a turnkey system that includes software for application development, application deployment, and extensions (such as personalization or wireless device integration) that make it possible to easily build and deploy component (object-based) applications. Figure 1-3 shows one such server platform, illustrating the structure of an IBM WebSphere platform. IBM, Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and others all supply J2EE-based application servers. BEA provides Web services software as well as other application tools and utilities that run on various vendor platforms (but the company does not sell hardware). Microsoft sells its own application language environment (C#) plus other languages, tools, utilities, and value-added software that can run on Intel-based platforms (but Microsoft does not sell systems hardware).

Microsoft's strategy is known as .NET, Sun Microsystem's is Sun ONE, HP's is Netaction, and Oracle's is Dynamic services. All are making a run at becoming major players in this marketplace. The stakes are high: revenues in the application server marketplace totaled almost $1.7 billion in 2001 and are expected to top $9 billion in 2003, according to projections by Boston-based Giga Group. A big reason for the fierce competition is that IS buyers, once they have made their decision on a platform, tend to stick with it so winning big now is expected to help competitors win even bigger deals in the future.

As mentioned previously, Web services involve far more than just the implementation of certain protocols and directory/registry standards. Application servers fill in the gaps with additional presentation, process, and development/integration elements that are needed in order to expeditiously build Web services applications.

The primary benefit of using an all-inclusive application server approach to building Web services applications is that your supplier has done a lot of the integration and optimization work for you so that your developers do not need to spend a lot of time trying to get various application tools and utilities to work together. For instance, most of these application servers include tools that allow application developers to create applications, then automatically compile those applications and automatically optimize the business process flow of those applications. These integrated product suites save a lot of time and eliminate a lot of application development complexity for developers, resulting in decreased product development cycles and less application development cost for enterprises that use application server products and tools.