Oracle full of beans over app server launch

The battle over the highly lucrative application server market cranked up today with fresh products announced from two of the largest players, BEA Systems and Oracle.

Oracle said today its new 9i application server will run Java-based applications two or three times faster than the equivalent products from BEA and IBM.

However, analysts claim Oracle's move is unlikely to prove enough to win it market share from run-away industry leader BEA.

By most estimates, Oracle currently languishes near the bottom of the application server market, behind the likes of BEA, IBM, iPlanet and Microsoft. However, today's announcement looks to signal a more aggressive strategy for the software giant.

However, keen not to be outdone, BEA itself launched an update to its WebLogic application server platform, which will ultimately improve its interoperability with legacy systems such as mainframes and ERP.

It has also unveiled a new product, WebLogic Portal, which can be used as a front-end to its software.

Ian Doyle, senior architect at BEA, said: "What we're doing here is allowing much easier interconnection between businesses. What Oracle is doing is essentially trying to sell more products to their existing database customers. For those working in more heterogeneous IT environments, it will not be appealing."

Application servers are software packages designed to run applications which work over the internet. Essentially a form of middleware used to connect old systems to the web, they are becoming increasingly important as companies use the web in a more sophisticated manner, requiring complex transactional engines to sit on the internet.

However, analysts aren't convinced Oracle can make real inroads to a market sector currently dominated by BEA and IBM.

Neil Ward-Dutton, research director at analyst house Ovum, told silicon.com: "Oracle can produce some very nice technology here, but unfortunately for them at the end of the day, it's not just about technology.

"Because the application server is so fundamental to ebusiness strategy, as a customer you need to know the company is going to be in it for the long-term. IBM and BEA obviously are, but Oracle hasn't demonstrated that yet."

He estimates IBM and BEA each currently take up around 30 per cent of the market, with the rest split between players such as Borland, iPlanet, Microsoft and Sybase.

Philip Dawson, program director at Meta Group, also doubted Oracle's ability to compete: "For Oracle it's about selling more to their existing database customers. I don't think they're going to beat IBM or BEA, however neat their technology is."

Tim Payne, Oracle's director of 9i marketing, denied the product was only for existing Oracle database customers. He admitted, however, that it would only work 'out of the box' with an Oracle database. He also dismissed BEA's technology as a "niche product, that only does one thing".