Borland's Inprise Application Server 4.1 is geared toward telecommunications, financial services and healthcare solutions. It combines J2EE compliance with its own VisiBroker CORBA ORB.

Borland's Inprise Application Server 4.1 (screen view) Click here to enlarge

AppServer 4.1 is a highly scalable and robust application server powered by the VisiBroker e-business engine and high-performance XA-compliant JTS. The product would do a good job supporting high-transaction-throughput systems by providing best-of-breed transaction and security management as well as performance- and reliability-enhancing characteristics, such as built-in load-balancing and failure-recovery capabilities. In the same vein, AppServer delivers strong caching, cookie- and memory-based session management, and application-, component- and session-level failover capabilities. JTS and JMS (Java Messaging Service) are both used for the product's transaction- and message-queuing services. In addition, AppServer provides tools for real-time system monitoring and alerts that can be generated automatically using SNMP or e-mail.

On the development side, Borland's environment is used for building HTML- and JSP-based front ends, Java applets and applications, CORBA objects, and EJBs -- and assembling all those objects. Wizards and drag-and-drop programming features allow quick integration of business logic with data logic. However, the product does not bundle testing tools, which some other vendors (including Microsoft) provide out of the box.

AppServer's administration features include remote administration and an SNMP interface with third-party management consoles. Deployment is based on J2EE technology. AppServer can deploy applications without restart, but does not provide the authentication and access control to manage deployment.

Inprise Application Server 4.1, $200,000 on average. Borland Software Corp., (831) 431-1000. www.borland.com

IPlanet Application Server 6.0

IPlanet's offering, iPlanet Application Server 6.0, is a standards-based application server that serves as the foundation of iPlanet's e-business platform, which includes e-commerce and portal components. The application server is a solid and complete solution, and is well-suited for medium to large organizations seeking a J2EE-compliant product that offers a variety of prebuilt applications.

IPlanet Application Server (screen view) Click here to enlarge

IPlanet Application Server offers many capabilities to enhance performance, and it excels at thread and database connection pooling. The product supports multiprocessing and several load-balancing schemes. For reliability, it offers solid session management and fault-tolerance capabilities. Built-in integration with IBM's TXSeries for transaction processing and MQSeries for message queuing enable fail-safe data manipulation and updates. The product's monitoring and logging services make observing and measuring system operation easy.

IPlanet Application Server supports multiple development environments. The product includes iPlanet Application Builder, a Java-based development environment, to facilitate the creation of data-driven applications. IPlanet also includes Forte for Java Community Edition, another Java-based IDE. Finally, the product can seamlessly integrate with other development environments, such as WebGain, through proprietary product APIs.

The application server can package and deploy applications across complex, multitier, multienvironment infrastructures. And it offers a native management console, though it does not provide adequate analysis of server and application performance and usage. In addition, iPlanet Application Server integrates with third-party management tools through SNMP.

iPlanet Application Server 6.0, $34,995 per CPU (includes bundled Web server, directory server and TP monitor). iPlanet, (650) 254-1900. www.iplanet.com