BEA WebLogic Workshop Version 8.1 for the Rapid Development and Integration of Service-Oriented Applications

BEA First to Unify Application Development and Integration into a Single Software Environment

BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 Offers Breakthrough in Time to Value, Dramatically Increases Developer Productivity

Orlando, FL, USA. March 3, 2003.

BEA Systems, Inc., the world's leading application infrastructure software company, today redefines time-to-value with BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 -- the industry's first unified environment for the rapid development and integration of service-oriented applications. Leveraging its revolutionary approach to simplifying J2EE and Web services development, BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 now provides a fully integrated development environment that covers all aspects of enterprise-class application development and integration, across the entire BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform.

With this release, IT organizations can achieve unprecedented productivity when using BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 to address enterprise software projects. By converging what has traditionally been two dramatically different methodologies around integration and application development into one unified model, BEA WebLogic Workshop is designed to provide one standard development approach across an entire IT organization. The Workshop development environment provides an easy-to-use tool that can enable customers to base all IT projects on one platform -- including development of Web applications, Web services, portal and integration projects -- thereby increasing productivity and reducing time to market and development costs.

"Integration developers and application developers have traditionally attacked IT challenges very differently, which has often led to divergent technologies and increased project complexity," said Girish Pancha, senior vice president of products at Informatica. "In this new wave of service-oriented development environments that converges the two development models, WebLogic Workshop's controls provide the ideal framework for rapidly integrating Informatica's PowerAnalyzer business intelligence software with the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. This also augments Informatica's current position as the only business intelligence platform that is built on a highly extensible J2EE architecture, like the BEA WebLogic Platform."

To best meet developer and IT needs, BEA is offering two editions of BEA WebLogic Workshop -- BEA WebLogic Workshop, Application Developer Edition, for Web services and Web application development; and BEA WebLogic Workshop, Platform Edition, for the development of enterprise applications, including custom applications, portal initiatives and integration projects utilizing the entire BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. Both packages introduce a host of Java controls, easy to use building blocks for rapid application construction that are designed to enable any developer to connect to, use and reuse IT assets -- increasing developer productivity and reducing application time-to-market.

BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 can also enable customers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to build their own custom controls to facilitate the development of rich composite applications with a service-oriented architecture. ISVs such as Documentum, Informatica and VeriSign intend to offer custom controls that enable a new community of developers to use their product or solution. Additional partners that have expressed plans to support BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 and/or BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 include Attachmate, Blue Titan, Borland, Computer Associates, Cyclone Commerce, FileNet, HP, i2, Intel Corporation, Interwoven, Manugistics, Mercator, Mercury Interactive, NEON Systems, RSA Security, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! Enterprise Solutions, and Yantra. ComponentSource, a key BEA partner helping to drive the growth of the third-party component ecosystem, plans to market WebLogic Workshop 8.1 controls from BEA's dev2dev portal via the ComponentSource hosted BEA galleries.

"The productivity enhancements enabled by the reusable controls in BEA WebLogic Workshop are a tremendous value-add to our developers and to the overall corporate goals of improving time to market for new business critical systems and services," said Dave DeWalt, president and chief executive officer of Documentum. "BEA WebLogic Workshop is a major step forward in Web application development, and an important advancement in our continued efforts to develop integrated applications that take Web services to the next level."

A key benefit of BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 is rapid Web application development, using a number of new technologies that build on industry standards to deliver order-of-magnitude increases in developer productivity. Specifically, the WebLogic Workshop 8.1 framework includes visual Java Server Page/HTML designers and Java Page Flows, which enable developers to assemble full Web applications through a top-down, visual development approach. The Workshop framework also enables automatic creation of forms and data bound Web pages, so the developer is always a few clicks away from building an initial application from any Web service or control. BEA WebLogic Workshop, Platform Edition, includes additional designers and framework extensions to support the simplified development and integration of enterprise applications leveraging the full capabilities of the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform.

In keeping true to its efforts to drive open standards created with BEA WebLogic Workshop, BEA is committed to standardizing the key innovations in WebLogic Workshop so that the broader Java and development community can easily integrate applications into BEA environments. (See today's related news release, "BEA Continues to Lead the Industry in Driving Java XML Productivity and Web Services Standards," for more specifics on BEA's latest standards efforts.)

"No other vendor offers customers one single environment for simplified development and integration of enterprise-class applications -- for all types of developers, regardless of the skill set," said Adam Bosworth, chief architect and senior vice president of Advanced Development at BEA Systems. "With the unique combination of a development and deployment platform that provides a single, coherent architecture and user-interface that is standards-based, industrial strength yet easier to use, BEA will continue to deliver to customers the best possible infrastructure for building, integrating and extending business applications."

BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 beta is available immediately through the new BEA dev2dev Subscriptions program at http://dev2dev.bea.com/subscriptions. BEA dev2dev Subscriptions also announced today, offers a tiered, subscription-based access model designed to meet the varying needs of developers in the enterprise. The program offers three levels of subscriptions, including a free 12-month downloadable trial version of the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. See related release for further details. ["BEA To Provide Free Development Licenses for the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. BEA dev2dev Subscriptions Offers Three Tiers for WebLogic Developers. Includes Comprehensive Tools and Resources to Enhance Developer Productivity and Success."]

About BEA

BEA Systems, Inc. is the world's leading application infrastructure software company, providing the enterprise software foundation for more than 13,000 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA and its WebLogic(R) brand are among the most trusted names in business.

Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 81 offices in 34 countries and is on the Web at http://www.bea.com.

Contact

Christina Grenier
Bea Systems, Inc.
Tel: +1-408-570-8330
Email: christina.grenier@bea.com

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.

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BEA Systems, Inc., the world's leading application infrastructure software company, today redefines time-to-value with BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 -- the industry's first unified environment for the rapid development and integration of service-oriented applications. Leveraging its revolutionary approach to simplifying J2EE and Web services development, BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 now provides a fully integrated development environment that covers all aspects of enterprise-class application development and integration, across the entire BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. With this release, IT organizations can achieve unprecedented productivity when using BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 to address enterprise software projects. By converging what has traditionally been two dramatically different methodologies around integration and application development into one unified model, BEA WebLogic Workshop is designed to provide one standard development approach across an entire IT organization. The Workshop development environment provides an easy-to-use tool that can enable customers to base all IT projects on one platform -- including development of Web applications, Web services, portal and integration projects -- thereby increasing productivity and reducing time to market and development costs. "Integration developers and application developers have traditionally attacked IT challenges very differently, which has often led to divergent technologies and increased project complexity," said Girish Pancha, senior vice president of products at Informatica. "In this new wave of service-oriented development environments that converges the two development models, WebLogic Workshop's controls provide the ideal framework for rapidly integrating Informatica's PowerAnalyzer business intelligence software with the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. This also augments Informatica's current position as the only business intelligence platform that is built on a highly extensible J2EE architecture, like the BEA WebLogic Platform." To best meet developer and IT needs, BEA is offering two editions of BEA WebLogic Workshop -- BEA WebLogic Workshop, Application Developer Edition, for Web services and Web application development; and BEA WebLogic Workshop, Platform Edition, for the development of enterprise applications, including custom applications, portal initiatives and integration projects utilizing the entire BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. Both packages introduce a host of Java controls, easy to use building blocks for rapid application construction that are designed to enable any developer to connect to, use and reuse IT assets -- increasing developer productivity and reducing application time-to-market. BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 can also enable customers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to build their own custom controls to facilitate the development of rich composite applications with a service-oriented architecture. ISVs such as Documentum, Informatica and VeriSign intend to offer custom controls that enable a new community of developers to use their product or solution. Additional partners that have expressed plans to support BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 and/or BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 include Attachmate, Blue Titan, Borland, Computer Associates, Cyclone Commerce, FileNet, HP, i2, Intel Corporation, Interwoven, Manugistics, Mercator, Mercury Interactive, NEON Systems, RSA Security, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! Enterprise Solutions, and Yantra. ComponentSource, a key BEA partner helping to drive the growth of the third-party component ecosystem, plans to market WebLogic Workshop 8.1 controls from BEA's dev2dev portal via the ComponentSource hosted BEA galleries. "The productivity enhancements enabled by the reusable controls in BEA WebLogic Workshop are a tremendous value-add to our developers and to the overall corporate goals of improving time to market for new business critical systems and services," said Dave DeWalt, president and chief executive officer of Documentum. "BEA WebLogic Workshop is a major step forward in Web application development, and an important advancement in our continued efforts to develop integrated applications that take Web services to the next level." A key benefit of BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 is rapid Web application development, using a number of new technologies that build on industry standards to deliver order-of-magnitude increases in developer productivity. Specifically, the WebLogic Workshop 8.1 framework includes visual Java Server Page/HTML designers and Java Page Flows, which enable developers to assemble full Web applications through a top-down, visual development approach. The Workshop framework also enables automatic creation of forms and data bound Web pages, so the developer is always a few clicks away from building an initial application from any Web service or control. BEA WebLogic Workshop, Platform Edition, includes additional designers and framework extensions to support the simplified development and integration of enterprise applications leveraging the full capabilities of the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. In keeping true to its efforts to drive open standards created with BEA WebLogic Workshop, BEA is committed to standardizing the key innovations in WebLogic Workshop so that the broader Java and development community can easily integrate applications into BEA environments. (See today's related news release, "BEA Continues to Lead the Industry in Driving Java XML Productivity and Web Services Standards," for more specifics on BEA's latest standards efforts.) "No other vendor offers customers one single environment for simplified development and integration of enterprise-class applications -- for all types of developers, regardless of the skill set," said Adam Bosworth, chief architect and senior vice president of Advanced Development at BEA Systems. "With the unique combination of a development and deployment platform that provides a single, coherent architecture and user-interface that is standards-based, industrial strength yet easier to use, BEA will continue to deliver to customers the best possible infrastructure for building, integrating and extending business applications." BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 beta is available immediately through the new BEA dev2dev Subscriptions program at http://dev2dev.bea.com/subscriptions. BEA dev2dev Subscriptions also announced today, offers a tiered, subscription-based access model designed to meet the varying needs of developers in the enterprise. The program offers three levels of subscriptions, including a free 12-month downloadable trial version of the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. See related release for further details. ["BEA To Provide Free Development Licenses for the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform. BEA dev2dev Subscriptions Offers Three Tiers for WebLogic Developers. Includes Comprehensive Tools and Resources to Enhance Developer Productivity and Success."] About BEA BEA Systems, Inc. is the world's leading application infrastructure software company, providing the enterprise software foundation for more than 13,000 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA and its WebLogic(R) brand are among the most trusted names in business. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 81 offices in 34 countries and is on the Web at http://www.bea.com. Contact Christina Grenier Bea Systems, Inc. Tel: +1-408-570-8330 Email: christina.grenier@bea.com Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.