30 minute interview

BEA guns for second place in integration software

Michael Smith Senior Principal Technologist, BEA Systems

BEA Systems continues to be on J2EE as it guns for the runner-up position in integration software, a rank it already enjoys in the global portal market.

*Where is Weblogic headed?

We are launching 9x, a new version of WebLogic next year. The advanced version will have two new additions, Web service management and Web services messaging. We are already number two in the global portal market after IBM, and number four in the integration segment after IBM, TIBCO, and webMethods. BEA is likely to reach the number two position in the integration segment in the near future.

*What do you foresee in the enterprise infrastructure software segment?

The 6-7-year-old application servers market has now matured. Security is still a base level requirement in e-commerce. We are aiming at a larger share in the integration application server market. About 90 percent of IT products are produced in the US. Since the US understands sales and marketing, American companies can do the marketing and product development can be outsourced to India. Indian companies such as TCS are trying to do development in the homeland with marketing offices in the US. In the long-term, services on Web architecture software will become more like a service than a package. According to Gartner's study on SOA, by 2007, application platform suite vendors will sell over 75 percent of all applications software infrastructure licences.

*How is Beehive progressing?

Considering the tremendous need for an easy-to-use programming model for building Java to Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications, we advise independent software vendors and other programmers to make use of the Beehive software platform, a runtime component with a higher level of programming abstraction to deliver a comprehensive and easy-to-use framework for SOA and dynamic J2EE. We felt that pieces were missing for the world of SOA on J2EE, hence the Beehive project was initiated to bridge this gap. With tools such as pre-written pieces of code, and drag-and-drop tools to assemble components, Beehive software is designed to spread Java development. The software also has tools to accelerate development of Web services and portal applications.

*.Net is catching up. How do you justify your focus on J2EE?

Today we have only two major developer bases, Sun's Java and Microsoft's. There are three choices for software developers'J2EE, .Net and a combination of both'and we see the potential for a combination of the two. Developers who don't want to be limited to single vendor and prefer the open standards way are working on Sun's platform. The Beehive project is based on the workshop application framework, and is intended to make Java enterprise development more broadly accessible and easier than .NET.

Of the 4.5 million software developers worldwide, over three million are Java developers. In India, of the six lakh developers, about half are on Java. Sun says that the number of Java developers is growing almost 30 percent per annum.

*Why do you organise dev2dev conferences?

We hold an annual developer conference, dev2dev, through which we share our knowledge about the understanding of cutting-edge technologies on a practical and code-level basis, as well as the latest standards and open-source development technologies. It is a free one-day developer event conducted across the world that is designed to provide technical education through detailed demonstrations and code samples for developers, enterprise architects and application development managers, among others. In India, it was held in 2002 in Mumbai and Bangalore in 2003. For the first time, we organised the conference in Hyderabad during October.

*What are your plans for India?

India contributes a major part of the worldwide developer community. For us, India works as a platform for expanding activities. Our R&D centre is located in Bangalore. We have sales offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. We see good potential in the Indian domestic market. If needed, we may set up another facility in Hyderabad.

*There is a widening gap between industry and academia. What are you doing to bridge it?

The world is moving from software and programmes to platforms of high technology and solutions-based higher development. We help educational institutes to familiarise themselves with the latest technologies. Towards this end, we are talking with the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government on training students in various latest technologies. We are planning to train students on J2EE, Web servers and open source technologies along with the AP Higher Education Council (APHEC).

Srinivasa Rao Dasari