BEA, Partners Formally Launch WebLogic 8.1

WebLogic Platform 8.1 is BEA's first unified software suite combining J2EE-baesd portal, integration and application server technology with an application framework for modeling and developing applications, Nielsen said.

WebLogic Platform 8.1, shipping now, consists of WebLogic Server 8.1, BEA's application server; WebLogic Portal 8.1, BEA's portal software; WebLogic Liquid Data 8.1, BEA's data integration tool; WebLogic Integration 8.1, BEA's EAI and business process integration tool; WebLogic Workshop 8.1, BEA's visual modeling and design tool for Java application and Web services development; and WebLogic JRockit 8.1, a Java virtual machine.

Nielsen told attendees that BEA created the platform out of customers' need to more efficiently and economically leverage existing IT assets while also having the ability to add new ones quickly as business demands change. WebLogic 8.1 will help solution providers create J2EE-based IT infrastructure to help customers' businesses run more efficiently, he said.

The design goals BEA has achieved with WebLogic 8.1 are merging application development and design, making J2EE development easier for corporate application developers, providing a foundation for a services-oriented architecture, and creating a unified development platform across portal, application server and integration technologies, Nielsen said.

BEA's Chaung reinforced Nielsen's points, saying that integrating all of these capabilities into one software suite ultimately allows solution providers to extend customers' existing business processes and add new ones across all of their applications without ripping out and replacing legacy and other existing software programs.

"Rewriting them all is not only impractical, it's a dumb thing to do," Chuang said of companies' existing IT applications and data sources. "BEA's entire vision of enterprise computing is contained in the idea of convergence."

As CRN first reported, BEA, at its analyst conference last October, introduced its vision to unify portal, application server and integration technologies and an application modeling and development environment, now sold mainly as separate software components. Since then, research firm Gartner has defined the unified software stack as the application platform suite and cites BEA as the thought and technology leader in this area.

BEA competitors IBM, Sun Microsystems and Oracle also have strategies to combine their comparable technologies into an application platform suite. However, BEA, with WebLogic 8.1, has a leg up on those companies, notably primary competitor IBM, said Shawn Willett, principal analyst for Current Analysis. "BEA is ahead of IBM in terms of having a converged platform," he said.

Willett noted, however, that IBM has more mature and expansive software for various forms of integration with its WebSphere Business Integration and MQ Series product lines. IBM, Armonk, N.Y., also has a range of adapter technology to link legacy applications with its own integration suites--technology BEA currently offers through partner iWay Software, he said.

In fact, partners were a major theme of Monday's event, as BEA relies on them to provide key technologies for enterprise IT systems that the company does not have itself.

Both Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Services Organization, and David Schmaier, executive vice president at Siebel Systems, were on hand to emphasize how BEA's new software suite fits into their companies' strategies to help customers integrate business processes and applications across their enterprises.

HP, in particular, is key to BEA's software strategy, providing both hardware and professional services for WebLogic 8.1. BEA does not sell hardware products and lacks a large professional services organization, making it sometimes difficult for it to sell against IBM and its behemoth services arm, IBM Global Services.

Livermore, stressing HP's deepening relationship with BEA, said BEA's software is essential for the company to deliver on its Adaptive Enterprise strategy--HP's plan to create IT infrastructure for companies that can adapt quickly to changing business needs.

Livermore said the problems BEA is trying to solve with its WebLogic 8.1 software suite--unifying business processes across disparate company applications, and from legacy systems to customer- and employee-facing portals--are the same as those HP aims to solve with its Adaptive Enterprise strategy.

"That's what's great about aligning HP and BEA," Livermore said. "We're solving the same set of customer problems in similar ways. ... For the adaptive enterprise, HP needs WebLogic 8.1, and BEA needs HP to help [8.1] be successful."

Livermore said HP Services, which is teaming closely with BEA, now has more than 300 services professionals with expertise around WebLogic 8.1, and 1,000 engineers skilled in the J2EE environment. She said HP is certifying more engineers every week around these technologies to show its commitment to delivering services using J2EE.

Sam Jankovich, CEO of Atlanta-based solution provider Enterpulse, who attended the event Monday, said he currently does not see a high level of J2EE expertise from HP Services engineers. Because of this, he said his company can still partner effectively with HP without being in direct competition.

"In our experience, we have different skill sets [than HP engineers]," Jankovich said. In fact, Enterpulse currently is teaming successfully with both BEA and HP to deliver IT services using WebLogic 8.1 and related HP products, he said.

However, Jankovich said that with HP Services' significant investment to build out a skilled practice around J2EE, and BEA WebLogic in particular, HP in a year from now could be competing directly with Enterpulse and other solution providers with J2EE expertise.

In other partner news, Siebel's Schmaier unveiled that Siebel, San Mateo, Calif., is shipping the first release of its Universal Application Network (UAN) on BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1.

UAN is Siebel's Web services-based software for linking legacy systems with other businesses processes and applications in the enterprise.

Schmaier also said Siebel is working to integrate the next version of its CRM applications with WebLogic 8.1, so Siebel's next-generation applications will link up seamlessly with J2EE applications and Web services built on WebLogic 8.1.