Paul Krill
Editor at Large

BEA warms to ColdFusion users

news
Apr 17, 20062 mins

Apps can be run natively on WebLogic Server without rewrites

BEA Systems hopes to lure users of ColdFusion applications to BEA’s WebLogic Server platform by licensing New Atlanta’s BlueDragon software.

BlueDragon, BEA WebLogic Edition, enables users of CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) to easily run their applications natively on WebLogic Server. Legacy code can be redeployed to WebLogic, according to BEA.

“You don’t need to rewrite any software. You’re simply redeploying on WebLogic Server,” said Blake Connell, director of WebLogic Server product marketing at BEA. By using BEA’s application server, ColdFusion users get new benefits such as clustering and fail-over, he said.

ColdFusion is Macromedia-developed technology for dynamic, Web-based interactive applications. It is now under the jurisdiction of Adobe Systems as the two vendors merged.

ColdFusion “has had a very long and storied history,” said Jeff Whatcott, senior director of product marketing at Adobe, who previously worked at Macromedia. The technology began in 1995 as a way for building dynamic Web applications that connect to a database, Whatcott said.

Since 2002, ColdFusion applications have been able to run on top of J2EE servers such as WebLogic, Whatcott said. The New Atlanta technology has been seen as a more price-conscious way of running ColdFusion applications, but New Atlanta’s software lacks functions such as PDF generation, Whatcott said.

“This is not a new capability,” to run ColdFusion applications on J2EE, Whatcott said.

BEA, however, believes that the New Atlanta software offers a much more automated and user-friendly way of running CFML applications on WebLogic Server, said Lorenzo Cremona, BEA director of application infrastructure.

BlueDragon for BEA systems is available for $3,000 per CPU.

BEA, meanwhile, also is reporting that it has had a 12 percent increase in year-over-year license revenues for WebLogic Server.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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