New BEA CTO says app server business is still growing

Although fostering development of new technologies will be a chief goal of BEA Systems’s new chief technology officer, don’t look for the company to lessen its emphasis on its WebLogic application server platform, which has been the company’s core offering.

The company named Rob Levy as its CTO this week. Having most recently served as BEA executive vice president of new product strategy, Levy replaces Mark Carges, who became vice president in charge of the company’s new Business Interaction Division, which focuses on portals.

“From a technology perspective, we’re looking to continue to drive innovation and make sure we keep our lead in SOA,” and think ahead to where the company needs to go, Levy said. Assessing the potential for new technologies will be critical, according to Levy.

BEA’s application server, however, will remain front and center. The application server business is still growing and BEA continues to pursue it, Levy said.

“We see great opportunities in supplementing our application server market,” with opportunities such as portals, Levy said.

Open source application servers such as the JBoss application server have become popular lately, but BEA is undaunted by open source. “I see it, I embrace it. Because at the end, I believe that open source will find its proper way to be an offering for the enterprise,” Levy said.

“A blended approach [featuring commercial and open source products] is what we believe will be successful,” Levy stated.

Levy could not cite what percentage of BEA revenues are generated by the WebLogic application server.

BEA, meanwhile, also will gauge which technologies to build and which it should partner on, Levy said. Before moving to BEA in June, Levy was a senior vice president and chief technology strategist at Computer Associates, responsible for driving CA’s global technology strategy.