Application server platforms are the most important category of application platform software for most enterprises. An application server platform is infrastructure software for building Web and composite applications and, increasingly, applications based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) design principles. An application server platform integrates an application server, which manages user requests, data access, and business logic, with portal servers and integration/business process management (BPM) servers — and often additional features, as well.

- App server platforms are the most strategic of all application platforms. According to data from Forrester’s Business Data Services, Microsoft’s .NET and Java/J2EE have consistently finished at the top of the list of most commonly used development platforms. .NET and Java/ J2EE are the core technologies for most application server platforms. Hot new platform options, including Ruby on Rails, Java Spring, and PHP, and new hosted platforms like salesforce.com’s Apex are simply not as important to platform buyers in our surveys yet, and older platforms like 4GLs and host platforms are in declining usage (see Figure 1).· - Application server platforms help customers consolidate to save money. Many customers turn to application server platforms and suites and dump their best-of-breed products. Why? Application server platforms offer higher volume discounts and reduced product integration costs.
- App server platforms are the base for a growing number of solutions. Buyers of many packaged business applications either use application server platforms now or soon will, adding to the importance of this category. Microsoft’s Dynamics packaged applications are based on its .NET platform. NetWeaver is the platform for mySAP. Elements of Oracle Fusion Middleware are the basis for Fusion applications.

Microsoft is the sole supplier of the .NET platform, while BEA, IBM, Oracle, Red Hat/JBoss, SAP, and Sun Microsystems provide application server platforms based on Java/J2EE and its successor, Java EE 5. Most enterprises select one of these two platform foundations as the basis for the majority of their custom development and packaged application deployments.
- Customers have long-term investments in app server platforms. Many customers that use Java/J2EE/Java EE made their initial commitments during 2000 and 2001 and want to ride their investments in skills, organizational development, and data-center infrastructure for many more years. .NET shops are no less committed, although they typically started later than Java/J2EE/ Java EE customers.
- App server platform evolution assures future relevance. In both cases, users can expect new features in SOA, Social Computing, and Web 2.0 in new releases of their application server platforms, rather than having to switch to new platforms to obtain those features.

Download pdf The Forrester Wave: Application Server Platforms