1.6 Application Platform Building Block

Figure 1.5: Application Platform Building Block

Most applications need some additional services, known as application platforms, that enable them to work. We can identify the following services as part of the application platform building block:

  • Front-end servers are typically web servers (like Apache HTTP Server and Microsoft Internet Information Services—IIS) that provide end users with interactions to applications by presenting application screens in web browsers.

  • Application servers act as containers running the actual application. Examples are Java or .Net application servers and frameworks (like IBM WebSphere, Apache Tomcat, Red Hat JBoss, and Windows .Net).

  • Connectivity entails FTP servers, Extraction, Transformation and Load (ETL) servers, and Enterprise Service Buses (ESBs) like Microsoft BizTalk, the TIBCO Service Bus, IBM MQ, and SAP NetWeaver PI.

  • Databases, also known as database management systems (DBMSs), provide a way to store and retrieve structured data. Examples are Oracle RDBMS, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

Application platforms are typically managed by systems managers specialized in the specific technology.

Previous Next