Oracle Application Server 10g Gains Ground

The market for Oracle's application development, integration and deployment platform, Oracle Application Server 10g, is growing at 15% year-on-year, according to figures recently released by analyst firm IDC. Its rate of uptake far exceeds that of IBM's Websphere, and it is taking market share from BEA WebLogic, whose share has been declining by 5% a year for the last three years, according to IDC.

In 2004, Oracle held 20% of the worldwide application server suite market, with 22,600 customers and a host of accolades and awards for its powerful , flexible and feature-rich integration platform.

The latest version, Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2, has been applauded by Forrester Research as meeting the needs of a growing market. "Oracle will now have a broader application portfolio that can be used to provide its expanded base of customers with robust composite application development capability that, going forward, will be demanded by an increasing number of organisations," said Forrester principal analyst Ken Vollmer in a December 2004 report*.

IDC Research, meanwhile, sees Oracle out of all the major application server vendors as being "arguably the furthest along in offering a very seamless application deployment software suite." Oracle Application Server 10g has also gained recognition in the press, winning DM Review magazine's Top Readership Award for 2004 and Web Services Journal's World Class Product award.

The product is also beating all comers in terms of speed, performance and availability. It holds world speed records in the prestigious SpecJAppServer performance benchmarks, for both multiple-node and dual-node configurations, among other categories. Its tight integration with Oracle Database guarantees high availability for users running both platforms - if one node goes down, the Oracle Application Server can move to another within four seconds, compared with five to ten minutes for a non-Oracle application server.

According to Amit Zavery, senior director of product management in Oracle's Server Technologies division, Oracle Application Server 10g presents a very compelling case for ISVs looking to develop and deploy their solutions through an open-standards integration and delivery platform. "The level of integration with the database make Oracle Application Server the best choice for ISVs developing with Oracle Database," he says. "There are many common features, such as a common security model and integration model, a single management tool for both platforms and the same levels of quality, scalability and performance."

"For anyone familiar with Oracle Database, using the Application Server is a very easy learning curve," he says.

Compared with other application server suites, Oracle's is rich in features and functionality, Zavery says. As well as the core Java enterprise application server, the product includes integration technologies, an Enterprise Portal development and deployment environment, business intelligence, identity management including user provisioning and management, Oracle JDeveloper application development tool and the Oracle Application Development Framework. "The combination of JDeveloper and ADF makes Java as easy to develop in as any 4GL tool," says Zavery.

ISVs with no experience of Oracle can also derive major benefits from the application server suite, even if they are coming from a Microsoft .Net or other development/deployment environment. "There is very strong interoperability with .Net in our Application Server platform," Zavery says. "Not only can .Net applications be integrated and deployed using Oracle Application Server, but we also provide more than 250 adapters for connectivity with other disparate systems including databases, packaged applications, and legacy systems."

Zavery says that the licensing options for ISVs are another very attractive aspect of the Oracle Application Server. Oracle's embedded software licence in particular means that ISVs can bundle the Application Server with their own solution and simply pay Oracle a percentage of Oracle's or the ISVs's list price. This makes the application server financially appealing in even the smallest deals, such as those made in the SMB market.

In May this year, Oracle intends to make the product even simpler to purchase and use for SMBs, with the introduction of Oracle Application Server 10g Standard Edition One. This single or dual-processor version of the product will also feature templates and wizards allowing end-users and ISVs to build enterprise portals very easily.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa is one of the fastest-growing markets for Oracle Application Server. In some EMEA countries it has now overtaken BEA, the previous market leader. A good example is Poland, where Oracle has recently migrated all ISVs who were previously using Oracle Database and BEA WebLogic to the Oracle Application Server platform.

* Latest Release of Oracle Application Server Provides Robust Integration Capability, Forrester Research, December 2004

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