Application server to power cloud, application consolidation

Dhruv Singhal, senior director, Fusion Middleware, Oracle India

BANGALORE, INDIA: Application server is the engine of any business application. Whether in the banking industry, telecommunications, manufacturing or the retail sector - business software require an application server to be run. A competitive application server allows businesses to ensure that the company's performance is optimized- especially in large e-Gov projects, banks, telcos, etc., where there are numerous customers visiting a site.

To run any application, enterprises need some basic infrastructure, of which, application server is a key component. The application server is what the application sits on - that allows the application to run. Most of us measure an application in terms of functionality, performance and scalability. The applications server is what really drives the performance and scalability of the application. An application server, in short, is at the heart of the application.

Application servers are being deployed extensively by enterprises across verticals. According to the study ‘Mission Critical J2EE Application Server: Market Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2012 to 2018' by WinterGreen Research, as enterprises invest in communications infrastructure, there will be an increased need for more advanced web applications and development. Also, mobility is increasing with the penetration of smartphones and tablets and this increased use of mobile devices will act as a great stimulus to the adoption of application servers as well. Currently, the global application server market stands at a value of $7 billion And, the report predicts that it will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent till 2018 and will reach a market value of $21.2 billion.

The Indian market is at a nascent stage of application server adoption - as far as optimising the functionality of the product is concerned. It is an opportunity for us, as the market for this product is getting built. A large organisation understands the value of such a product and how the right middleware can help transform their business. However, typically as far as the midsize customers are concerned, not enough importance is laid on middleware.

This is because it is not something that users can touch, feel or associate with directly and is unlike something that is happening on their screen. Therefore, there is an opportunity in terms of building this market further by educating potential customers - big or small - and helping them realize how middleware can help transform their business.

As organizations move from a cost-reduction focus to preparing for growth, modernizing the IT backbone has become an imperative. To support its high-end infrastructural needs, enterprises need to move to application servers.