Borland Extends Java's AppealBorland Extends Java's Appeal

to say that that Java has gone mainstream. Java has transformed how companies develop enterprise applications, and it can be credited with transforming Borland, a long-time application development tool vendor.

Borland, which derives half of its revenue from Java tools and the other half from Windows tools, is expected today to unveil its Java2 Enterprise Edition Platform--an environment for building, deploying, and managing Java applications and Web services. The tool suite includes the Borland Enterprise Studio and Enterprise Server.

Studio includes new versions of the JBuilder Java development tool for entry-level as well as experienced developers. Borland hopes to lower the barrier to using Java for development by providing capabilities that make it easier to build Enterprise JavaBeans.

Savvion Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif., maker of business-process management software, is an early adopter of Borland's tools. JBuilder Professional lets Savvion's business managers and developers collaborate on the creation of new products. It also lets developers focus on creating business logic rather than having to worry about the underlying architecture, says Don Nanneman, Savvion's marketing VP. That makes application development more efficient and cost effective, he says.

The Borland J2EE suite also comes with three versions of the Borland application server, a new entry-level server that addresses the needs of 90% of the market, says Axel Kratel, Borland's Java product manager. The Enterprise Server includes new application partitioning technology that lets users run multiple applications or components on a single server while protecting each application from the others. If one application misbehaves, it shouldn't corrupt the rest. There's also a VisiBroker version of the application server for Corba developers.