Patterns: Implementing Self-Service in an SOA Environment

74 Patterns: Implementing Self-Service in an SOA Environment

WebSphere Application Servers are available in multiple packages to meet

specific business needs. They also serve as the base for other WebSphere

products, such as WebSphere Commerce, by providing the application server

required for running these specialized applications.

WebSphere Application Servers are available on a wide range of platforms,

including UNIX®-based platforms, Microsoft operating systems, IBM z/OS®, and

IBM Eserver® iSeries.

5.2.1 WebSphere Application Server V6 for distributed platforms

The latest product to be announced in the WebSphere Application Server family

is IBM WebSphere Application Server V6. It features:

򐂰 Full J2EE 1.4 support

򐂰 High-performance connectors to many common back-end systems, reducing

the coding effort required to link dynamic Web pages to real line-of-business

data.

򐂰 Application services for session and state management

򐂰 Web services

Web services enable businesses to connect applications to other business

applications, to deliver business functions to a broader set of clients and

partners, to interact with marketplaces more efficiently, and to create new

business models dynamically.

򐂰 A fully integrated JMS 1.1 messaging provider

This messaging provider complements and extends WebSphere MQ and

application server. It is suitable for messaging among application servers and

for providing messaging capability between WebSphere Application Server

and an existing WebSphere MQ backbone.

򐂰 Many of the programming model extensions previously found in WebSphere

Business Integration Server Foundation

Because varying e-business application scenarios require different levels of

application server capabilities, WebSphere Application Server is available in

multiple packaging options. Although they share a common foundation, each

option provides unique benefits to meet the needs of applications and the

infrastructure that supports them. At least one WebSphere Application Server

product package fulfills the requirements of any particular project and the

prerequisites of the infrastructure that supports it. As your business grows, the

WebSphere Application Server family provides a migration path to higher

configurations.

Chapter 5. Product mappings and product overview 75

WebSphere Application Server - Express V6

The Express package is geared to those who need to get started quickly with

e-business. It is specifically targeted at medium-sized businesses or

departments of a large corporation, and is focused on providing ease of use and

ease of application development. It contains full J2EE 1.4 support but is limited to

a single-server environment.

WebSphere Application Server - Express is unique from the other packages in

that it is bundled with an application development tool. Although there are

WebSphere Studio and Rational Developer products designed to support each

WebSphere Application Server package, normally they are ordered independent

of the server. WebSphere Application Server - Express includes the Rational

Web Developer application development tool. It provides a development

environment geared toward Web developers and includes support for most J2EE

1.4 features with the exception of Enterprise JavaBeans™ (EJB™) and J2EE

Connector Architecture (JCA) development environments. However, keep in

mind that WebSphere Application Server - Express V6 does contain full support

for EJB and JCA, so you can deploy applications that use these technologies.

WebSphere Application Server V6

The WebSphere Application Server package is the next level of server

infrastructure in the WebSphere Application Server family. Though the

WebSphere Application Server is functionally equivalent to that shipped with

Express, this package differs slightly in packaging and licensing. The

development tool included is a trial version of Rational Application Developer, the

full J2EE 1.4 compliant development tool.

WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V6

WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment is an even higher level of

server infrastructure in the WebSphere Application Server family. It extends the

WebSphere Application Server base package to include clustering capabilities,

Edge components, and high availability for distributed configurations. These

features become more important at larger enterprises, where applications tend to

service a larger customer base, and more elaborate performance and availability

requirements are in place.

Application servers in a cluster can reside on the same or multiple machines. A

Web server plug-in installed in the Web server can distribute work among

clustered application servers. In turn, Web containers running servlets and Java

ServerPages (JSPs) can distribute requests for EJBs among EJB containers in a

cluster.

The addition of Edge components provides high performance and high

availability features. For example: