Our hands-on tests of eight products will help you determine the best of breed in this fast-changing area. Besides considering system services such as back-end data connectivity, load balancing, failover and session persistence for thin-client applications, we looked for a robust IDE for developers, including data modeling, debugging and application-monitoring tools. The usability of the development environment can be the difference between slow, expensive systems that are painfully difficult to deploy and maintain, and those that will consistently come in under budget and on schedule.

Apple's WebObjects leads in overall function and design, with Bluestone's Sapphire/Web and SilverStream's Application Server close behind. For small to medium-sized enterprises, Allaire Cold Fusion or Pervasive Tango provide the right mix of development ease, functionality and low up-front investment.

Vision Software's Business Logic Server offers an enticing view into a future in which basic application services are commoditized and business processes are separated from underlying code, allowing business managers to modify business processes without programmers' help.

Finally, IBM's WebSphere shows promise but is less mature than its competitors, and Oracle's Application Server lacks features that distinguish competing products, particularly in its development tools and environment. We included these two products in our report card and features chart; to read our full analysis of their test results, go online at www.networkcomputing.com/1011/1011r1.html.