BEA unveils WebLogic Platform 8.1

Once considered the leader in J2EE application servers, BEA Systems is fighting off fierce competition and the potential commoditization of the technology.

While the San Jose, Calif.-based company renews its application server push this week, it is also branching out into data integration.

The company will use its BEA eWorld technology conference in Orlando, Fla., on Monday to announce its WebLogic Platform 8.1, featuring what BEA described as a more unified solution for development, integration and deployment of applications.

“With the [new] WebLogic Platform, you have those three pieces together all running on the same application server and all having a common development environment,” said Olivier Helleboid, president of BEA’s products division.

Version 8.1 features upgraded versions of the WebLogic Server application server, Portal, for portal development; Integration, for application integration; and the JRockit Java Virtual Machine and Workshop development environment. “The biggest innovation in this new release is WebLogic Workshop 8.1,” Helleboid said.

The easier-to-use, more graphical version of Workshop enables developers to design Web pages, perform Java coding, and connect to third-party applications or databases, according to Helleboid. Unlike previous versions, the new release does not require a third-party tool, such as Borland JBuilder, to enable development, although developers still can integrate with such a tool, he said.

The new version of Workshop also can be utilized by laypersons not familiar with Java coding, Helleboid said.

BEA will release a beta version of WebLogic Platform 8.1 on Monday, and it expects general availability this summer.

A WebLogic user said he anticipates it will be easier to build Web services via WebLogic Workshop 8.1. The new version will enable “somebody who knows a business process without being a Java guru to be able to go out and produce something as a Web service,” said the user, Dave Gallaher, director of IT Development for Jefferson County in Golden, Colo.

At the show, BEA also plans to announce a developer subscription program as part of BEA dev2dev, featuring a software development kit.

The developments follow a new version of BEA’s Tuxedo transaction processing monitor, Version 8.1, announced in February, which features support for Web services. The company also recently unveiled WebLogic Server, Workgroup Edition, a low-end version of the company’s application server for departmental deployments.

In November, BEA announced a foray into data integration with its Liquid Data for WebLogic offering. “We’re branching out in integration because customers want it,” Helleboid said. “I think the value we’re providing is you have this integrated platform to solve the customers’ problems in the enterprise.”

The integration push comes at a financially demanding time for the company. Although operating income was $46.6 million — a 306 percent increase from last year’s fourth quarter — annual revenues have slipped, the company reported. Revenues of $934.1 million were down from the previous fiscal year’s $975.9 million.

In addition to competition from Oracle and IBM, BEA faces pressure from open-source offerings such as the TomCat application server. Additionally, Sun Microsystems now bundles its own lower-end application server in the latest version of Solaris.

Sun also includes BEA WebLogic Server 7 in the Solaris media kit, albeit with only a six-month trial license.

As a result, analysts are questioning BEA’s strength. Surveys by Peerstone Research indicate that IBM is becoming the preferred J2EE application server provider to function with packaged applications, namely ERP and CRM systems, and Oracle could displace BEA for the No. 2 spot.

“Right now, customers buying packaged application software, Siebel, PeopleSoft, etc., have a strong preference [for IBM and Oracle],” said Jeff Gould, CEO and research director at Peerstone. “For reasons that we don’t fully understand, they’re not picking BEA.”

Oracle is leveraging its core database to spur interest in its application server, which is “bad news for BEA,” according to Peerstone.

In February, Gartner reported results of a survey that found that Microsoft .Net, IBM WebSphere, and Oracle are the leading Web services products that systems integrators plan to support. Yet BEA has consistently positioned itself as a Web services leader.

“I think people are focused around infrastructure that’s more than just an application server,” argued Scott Hebner, IBM director of WebSphere Marketing. He claims BEA lacks full capabilities in integration, portals, and application development.

Oracle has even launched a BEA migration program called BEA WebLogic-to-Oracle9iAS Migration Service, giving credits for money already spent on BEA software in an effort to entice companies to move to Oracle.

Oracle’s John Magee, vice president of Oracle9i Application Server Marketing, agreed with the notion of partnering the company’s application server and database. “A lot of companies like the idea of getting their application server and their database from the same vendor,” he said.

But BEA’s Helleboid said his company’s integrated platform has an advantage over IBM in competitive situations. Oracle, he said, is “invisible to us in the application server space.”

And as far as competition with Microsoft is concerned, BEA is not under threat because of Microsoft’s emphasis on Windows, Helleboid said. BEA offers more value than open-source products such as Tomcat, with features such as clustering, scaling, and reliability, he said.

Gartner reports that BEA’s share of the application server market in 2001 was 34 percent, up from 33 percent in 2000. But IBM had jumped from 22 percent in 2000 to 31 percent in 2001, according to Gartner.

A BEA user in the banking industry, who requested anonymity, said that despite some commoditization of application servers, BEA maintains an edge in quality and functionality.

“In the end, they still have the best application server on the market,” the user said.