In recent years the application server has greatly evolved, expanding the set
of core services provided by the infrastructure. The current Java platform
supports XML data handling, scalability, load balancing, and other
capabilities that allow application-level services to be developed more
easily and deployed more reliably. This progression must now address
developers' latest concerns regarding security, distributed transactions, and
reliable messaging because applications no longer stand alone - they're
deployed into a technology ecosystem that can span departmental and
organizational boundaries.
In this environment, a well-behaved application not only needs to interact
with external systems and consume services from them, but also needs to be a
service provider. Thi... (more)