iPlanet Keeps Word On App Server Upgrade

IPlanet Application Server 6.5 includes the basic plumbing for building enterprise-scale Java applications, and now includes enhancements for creating Web services, said Patrick Dorsey, product line marketing manager for iPlanet.

The upgrade's new features include an application framework that gives developers Java components and best practices for building applications, and a module from Sun's Forte for Java tool to support Web services, said Dorsey.

The app server includes another existing product, the iPlanet Business Process Builder, which lets developers expose business processes as Web services, he said.

Sun based the application framework on a specification in the Java Community Process, the community of vendors that creates and finalizes Java standards, Dorsey said. Sun also is releasing an open-source version of the framework that can run on any Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-based app server, he said.

Jacques Marine, COO and managing director of El Segundo, Calif.-based solution provider iRise, said including the framework in the app server will make it easier for solution providers to build J2EE applications because the framework does preliminary work for the developer.

"When you're building an application from scratch in Java or J2EE, one of the first things you do is define your application architecture," said Marine. "An application framework gives you that [predefined design."

He added that competing J2EE app servers, such as those from IBM and BEA Systems, do not have comparable frameworks.

iPlanet Application Server 6.5 will cost $19,995 per CPU and is slated to ship March 18, said Dorsey. This is one day after iPlanet,which has been operating as an alliance between Sun and AOL/Time-Warner since 1999,officially becomes a division of Sun.

While iPlanet's current app server is J2EE-compliant, observers have criticized the product, expecting more from the company that created Java. For one thing, the iPlanet app server doesn't support the Java Connector Architecture standard for connecting J2EE app servers to legacy systems; it uses a proprietary connecting architecture instead.

Even Sun executives have said the iPlanet application server isn't up to snuff. Last month, Sun President Edward Zander said the product "needs work."

Forrester Research analyst Chris Dial, who believes Sun will stick with the iPlanet line, said problems with the product stem from confusion over whether Sun or AOL controlled iPlanet.

"iPlanet's going to play catch-up for a little while because they've been directionless," said Dial.