IndicThreads>>Hi Debu. Welcome to IndicThreads. Could you introduce yourself to IndicThreads members?

Debu Panda>>I?m a Principal Product Manager in the Oracle Application Server development organization and my responsibility is to drive the development process, from functional requirement to shipping, of some core functionalities such as EJB Container and Transaction Manager. I have a Masters degree in Computer Applications and more than 13 years of experience in the IT industry. I recently joined the EJB 3.0 expert committee as a second member from Oracle.

"Oracle Application Server

is the fastest application server

on the market"

IndicThreads>>How does Oracle?s Application Server stand out from the other application servers currently in the market?

Debu Panda>>Oracle provides a comprehensive and integrated platform for building and deploying middleware applications. Unlike other application server platforms that are sold as a package of individual applications, Oracle Application Server is an integrated suite. Our platform provides a complete solution to build and deploy Service-Oriented Applications using Java. We provideOracle JDeveloperto build Service-Oriented Applications and Oracle Application Development Framework to make the development cycle faster. We provide Oracle TopLink, the best persistence framework on the market to build a persistence layer of J2EE applications and deploy your J2EE and Web services applications in our J2EE 1.4-compliant application server. We also provide the BPEL Process Manager that you can use to orchestrate Web services to create business processes and integrate legacy applications. Finally, Oracle Application Server is the fastest application server on the market, according to industry benchmarks like SPECjAppServer2002, SPECjAppServer2001, and ECPerf benchmarks.

IndicThreads>>Is the Oracle Application Server suitable for all businesses or just for large enterprises?

Debu Panda>>Oracle Application Sever is suitable for all types of businesses. We provide choices to all types of businesses and all kind of users, whether you are building a simple Web site using JSP or Servlet or a complex business application that requires integration with legacy applications. We have aJava Editionfor deployment of pure J2EE applications. It includes Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J), Oracle HTTP Server, Oracle TopLink, and Oracle JDeveloper. We have Oracle Application ServerStandard Edition Onetargeted at small-to-medium businesses with limited resources. You can find out more about components available in different editions athttp://www.oracle.com/appserver/appserver_family.html

"Oracle Application Server is

definitely the best application server

for Oracle Database"

IndicThreads>>What kind of integration does the application server offer for Oracle products as well as other third party products?

Debu Panda>>Oracle Application Server is definitely the best application server for Oracle Database. It provides facilities to leverage several Oracle Database features, such as Implicit Connection Cache and Fast Connection Failover. Also Oracle eBusiness Suite runs on Oracle Application Server.

There is some confusion in some sections of the Java community that you cannot use third-party databases and this is not true. We support databases like IBM DB2, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL Server with both our J2EE container and persistence framework, TopLink. We provide the DataDirect JDBC providers for exclusive use with Oracle Application Server. We also support several third-party JMS providers like Websphere MQ, Tibco, etc. Many ISVs have certified their applications with Oracle Application Server.