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 TEST CENTER Stretching middleware By Maggie Biggs November 8, 2002 INTEGRATING DISSIMILAR and far-flung enterprise assets can be daunting. But IT executives can successfully address the issue by selecting midtier technologies that can act as scalable hubs. With its latest application server release, Oracle provides a solid, all-inclusive approach that effectively addresses many facets of enterprise integration.
Oracle's application server solution comes in two editions, Standard and Enterprise. The Standard Edition includes the application server, the Apache Web server (Version 1.3.22, not 2.0), a portal development kit; Oracle's Internet File System; and TopLink, an object-relational mapping facility. The Standard Edition also includes support for clustering, but the Enterprise Edition offers a better toolset for managing clusters. The Enterprise Edition also includes Oracle's Web caching server, which provides a high degree of granularity for caching content using Edge Side Includes. We were able to easily cache frequently accessed pages in our test applications as well as parts of pages. In addition, we were able to use available administration tools that follow Oracle's Enterprise Manager look-and-feel to monitor cache activity. This version of Oracle9iAS implements J2EE 1.3, with support for the latest Java specifications. We implemented a number of J2EE 1.3 applications on Oracle9iAS using several of the application server's supported platforms, including Linux, Solaris, and Windows. We found the implementation to be straightforward and we were able to implement and access our transactional applications. Interesting in this release is expanded support for Web servers and databases. We used the included Oracle HTTP Server, which is based on Apache, but also iPlanet with equal success. Oracle also supports Microsoft's IIS Web server. On the database side, customers can use the Oracle database or other databases, such as IBM DB2, Sybase, or Microsoft SQL Server. Oracle has included a new clickstream server with Oracle9iAS that can provide useful metrics about customer-facing and business partner-related applications. Examining clickstream output can give you insight into application traffic trends and other customer data, such as referring sites. This release also offers a built-in online analytical processing server and a forms server. Sites that need to integrate enterprise applications or legacy assets willing find Oracle's InterConnect a compelling part of the Enterprise Edition. Customers can use InterConnect adapters to link data housed in enterprise applications such as SAP, PeopleSoft, and Siebel, with other business applications riding on the midtier. Likewise, data stored in mainframes or in application messaging environments, such as MQ Series, can also be included. Web services support is well-implemented in this release of Oracle9iAS. We were able to easily create Web services from EJBs and from Java classes. Oracle offers plug-ins for several leading development environments to simplify deployment of J2EE applications and Web services. Oracle9iAS automatically generates WSDL for deployed Web services. We used Oracle's Enterprise Manager to register some of our Web services with the included UDDI registry. We also tried consuming Web services from some J2EE applications and were pleased with the results. Oracle has included SSO (Single Sign-on) technologies in this release of the application server. Customers can implement SSO to simplify user interactions with applications. Once the user has logged on for the first time, SSO support enables them to access all authorized applications, components, and data without having to enter multiple passwords. In general, Oracle does a good job supporting clustering to enable load balancing and fail-over configurations. However, rivals, such as IBM, currently offer more options for customized load balancing and easier configuration of scalability features. Bolstering this support in upcoming releases would help customers. The downside to Oracle9iAS is the lengthy installation and configuration. The initial setup takes much longer than competing solutions, including IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic. The current installation and initial configuration should be further modularized and simplified to reduce administrative resource requirements. Once installed and configured, we found Oracle administration tools to be well implemented and easy to use. Using interfaces with a comfortable look-and-feel, administrators can manage all aspects of Oracle9iAS with ease. Overall, we found a lot to like in this release of Oracle9iAS. The included capabilities, such as Web caching, portal support, business intelligence tools, including click stream analysis and forms serving, go well beyond basic J2EE application server support. Additionally, built-in integration capabilities will make it easier for customers to include data from enterprise applications and legacy systems in midtier business processes and customer-facing applications. Existing customers and companies that may be rethinking their midtier strategy will definitely want to consider deploying this release. The additions in this particular version of Oracle9iAS provide another choice in the mature application server market. By growing beyond basic J2EE application serving, Oracle9iAS becomes a viable solution for enterprisewide midtier integration.
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