Running a company intranet that is accessed by over 20k employees per day, (reaching up to 200k hits per day) has required us to utilize a web server package that would not just meet the simple needs of offering an application server, but a full range of web resources, made for the 21st century. Choosing IBM’s WebSphere Application Server came without much choice to our local data center, as it was part of a complete software and hardware support package from IBM. We have since then changed from IBM to Compaq hardware due to budget constraints, but in doing so, we have insisted that a few pieces of software stay with us. The two key elements we would not let go were DB2 and WebSphere.

What sets WebSphere apart?
WebSphere is not a software package for the novice, or even the small company looking for an application server. With both the extremely high cost of more than 10k for our enterprise license, as well as a system that requires more knowledge of server applications than can be found in most LAN offices, WebSphere allows most of the competition to move ahead in the novice server application field.

The most important part of the WebSphere software for us, was the need to utilize all of our legacy data from centers, and provide an open resource to distribute it, real time, to any other center, at will. Our system also required almost 100% stability, something its Microsoft counterparts have trouble matching. As with most companies in this day and age, 100% reliability is not an option, however, with periodic clocking, and other annoying software bugs, anything close to this number is rarely found. With this application, we were able to develop software tools that allow our company’s service representatives, sales personnel, and IT personnel to enter orders, work requests, or contracts from anywhere on the globe, from virtually any platform, and be seen across whatever spectrum of the system that the data is sent. This has been a large problem for our company in the past as it has acquired every small company we could. With all of these acquisitions, both in the telecom sector, as well as the finance software sector, we are constantly running into the problem of completely different software infrastructures. WebSphere has allowed us to integrate many of these infrastructures with out having to actually overhaul them. What this has resulted in is a major cost savings during the expensive time of acquisition, as well as the time lost in reconfiguring these networks.

What will WebSphere do for the future?
As our company moves forward, we are developing, what we hope to be a universal business software plan based, in large part, on an integrated web-based interactive office. WebSphere is offering us both the ability to reconfigure our entire web platform from a Java based, into an XML system that should keep our infrastructure stable for the next decade. On top of that, we are also able to develop, and support a wide variety of WML and WAP based systems for both our employees and our wireless portal customers. In almost an archaic plan, that most companies preach, but never realize, we are in the process of integrating all of our offices to a completely ‘paperless’ system. We hope that this will lead to not only cost savings, but also the availability for every tiny piece of data used in any office can be referenced from anywhere. While this sounds like something that should be accomplished by most Fortune 500 companies, I have found most are quite archaic.

WebSphere’s solutions.
With all of these expectations and demands on an application package, the component software makes all of the difference in its success. The specific software components of WebSphere provide all the needed functionality, with little crossover redundancy (quite often seen in similar Microsoft components.) Two components that truly stand out in this suite are:

MQSeries Workflow is truly the glue that holds all of our applications together in a web environment. Mapping all of our software applications, and combining their functionality is actually capable with Workflow. The best part of Workflow is that not only does your visual mapping provide a reference for the flow of data; it actually finds ways for individual software components to work together. This used to be accomplished via mapping our entire software platform with Visio, then figuring out, with the help of many consultants, how to integrate all of that together. In addition, using XML, Workflow can actually start, and run any application from any location, thus providing a new way to share software across platform lines (something Microsoft is still trying to accomplish.) Workflow also provides modeling of all application data, and where it is actually used, time of use, and what processes are run. This helps us decide what improvements are needed.

UDDI Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration is the newest B2B standard that will allow business to directly communicate over the web, sharing software and data. We have been able to use this platform to customize our applications for our vendors, yet make it communicate flawlessly with our system.

After all of this jargon, why should I use this system
If you are in a company that would like to unite all of your offices, vendors, clients, and customers under a single web based system, with out requiring that each link of the chain be configured to match your standards, then this is definitely a suite to look into. I have only scratched the surface in this review, of all the applications, and functions available, but I hope, that I may have provided just enough insight into what WebSphere Application Server can do for you. Eliminate the problem of the weakest link, by providing a software package that will reinforce all software links in your business chain.


Recommended: Yes