In a March, 2006 survey on WebSphere.org, over 80 percent of users polled* indicated they were still running older versions of WebSphere Application Server in their company. Whether or not you are among the majority of those who responded that they plan to upgrade to WebSphere Application Server version 6.1 (WAS v6.1) in the next 9 months, a review of IBM's new features and enhancements should convince you to upgrade sooner, rather than later.

IBM's WAS v6.1 is the cornerstone of the WebSphere software platform and one of 11 new products and 20 enhancements to existing products recently created by IBM to facilitate easier implementation, reuse, and management of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). WAS v6.1 is a flexible, standards-based application infrastructure that simplifies and shortens the process of building and deploying reusable Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application services. It also provides a secure, scaleable, and highly available platform on which to run the SOA applications you create.

WAS v6.1 uses the latest Java technology as well as new and improved functionality to manage your applications, leverage your core assets, and expand your capabilities as your development and deployment needs evolve. Enhanced capability in the following key areas will certainly improve your productivity, while reducing your development costs and time to market:

1. Highly functional environment for rapid development and deployment that includes Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 / JDK 5.0 support for increased performance and full J2EE 1.4 compatibility—in addition to improvements to the Web services engine and messaging infrastructure
2. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) servlets support for enhancing communications and creating more compelling and interactive user experiences with real-time multimedia technology such as VOIP, video, instant messaging, and online games.
3. Robust security features and capabilities to provide a secure, scalable, highly available SOA runtime
4. New and improved functionality to reduce tasks, costs, and time associated with administration, application management, and maintenance

An Exceptionally Productive Environment for SOA and J2SE 5.0 Development
One of the most compelling reasons to consider upgrading to WAS v6.1 is the breadth of features that let you develop and deploy innovative SOA applications and services faster than ever before. WAS v6.1 automates many of the more difficult and complex functions while leveraging your existing skills.

You will be off to a fast, smooth start with the IBM Installation Factory for WAS v6.1 for single step installation, default configuration, wizards, and sample code. You will also find pre-built functions as well as improved tools, including a JSF Widget Library, "Cell out-of-the-box" profiles for working with IBM's latest multi-core processors, and new automation and assembly tools for creating Web applications, services, and portlets. When you are finished coding, there is a comprehensive unit test environment and new features for rapid and easy deployment.

WAS v6.1 supports J2SE 5.0—which, as you probably know, delivers much faster performance along with increased productivity and improved portability across all JDK 5 platforms. Many new features and enhancements help you produce better code with less effort. For instance, J2SE 5.0 auto-boxing and auto un-boxing automates the process of converting between primitive values and the appropriate wrapper class. These functions also reduce the additional frustration and complexity of working with disparate object references and will substantially reduce your code clutter.

J2SE 5.0 support for generic types allows you to create common functionality to use with multiple data types that are type-checked at run time. This eliminates the need for casts and improves the runtime type-checking process, thereby increasing your efficiency. J2SE 5.0 also does a better job checking generic class libraries, which significantly reduces collection-based programming mistakes.

J2SE 5.0 automatically chooses the default selection for the garbage collector, heap size, and runtime compiler to better match the needs of different types of applications you have created. J2SE 5.0 enumerated types provide a more intuitive way to declare a sequence of named constants. J2SE 5.0 also allows you to specify performance and memory utilization criteria. With all these features, you will spend less time fine-tuning command lines.

Performance is enhanced with WAS v6.1 because Java classes can be shared between multiple JVM processes running on the same system. A single copy of each class is loaded into a shared class cache when the first JVM process starts; subsequent JVM processes (e.g. Application Server processes) can then use those existing, loaded classes, giving much faster server start times and reduced memory use.

Additionally, IBM optimized the JIT (Just-in-time) compiler's performance giving you dynamic and more granular control over the time spent compiling less important portions of the application.

Many other J2SE 5.0 and WAS v6.1 features also contribute to a more efficient development and deployment environment. There are enhancements to the base and integration libraries, the user interface, tools, virtual machine capabilities, as well as monitoring and management improvements for additional increases in performance and business value.

Reduce Communications Complexity and Spur SOA Innovation with SIP
WAS v6.1 contains a sophisticated set of communication standards including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) servlets that standardize support for interactive user sessions. These open up new possibilities for a more flexible business model by allowing application services to expand in new directions and by making new forms of information accessible to new users, in new ways.

IBM provides SIP servlets and a unique function called the Converged Servlet Container that permits a variety of servlet types (SIP, HTTP, and portlets, etc.) with disparate protocols to share the same application session—no matter what state it is in. You can seamlessly build SIP functions into applications, while making the state of a particular activity using the SIP protocol visible to that application. WAS v6.1 not only reduces some of the complexity for creating SOA services and applications with SIP, it also enables you to achieve substantial cost, productivity, and competitive differentiation capabilities by simplifying the process of combining these disparate protocols to create converged and collaborative services and applications.

SIP facilitates the development of compelling, collaborative, and innovative applications using voice, streaming video, instant messaging, online games, and other real-time multimedia technology over an IP network. SIP's real significance is its ability to enable you to create a new breed of innovative services and applications such as voice-enabled e-commerce, Web page click-to-dial, interactive gaming, and other, rich, interactive, Web applications and SOA services.

A Secure, Scalable, Highly Available SOA Runtime Environment
WAS v6.1 supports and leverages your SOA development efforts with security that features out-of-the-box pre-set/default security configurations, as well as stringent Web services security, single sign-on support, an SOA user registry, and compliance to government standards.

IBM adheres to the WS-Security specification and the Web services Interoperability Basic Security Profile—a set of open Web services specifications that provide security for key infrastructure technologies such as SOAP messaging, the transport layer, etc. Additional security improvements include a trust association interceptor (TAI) that uses the Simple and Protected GSSAPI Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO) to provide an integrated single sign-on environment with Microsoft Windows 2000 or 2003 Servers. HTTP users log in and authenticate only once at their desktop and are subsequently authenticated (internally) with WebSphere Application Server.

WAS v6.1 is fully scaleable and the Network Deployment configuration offers near-continuous availability. It also comes with an improved Web services engine and a more robust runtime to support your efforts to build and deploy SOA applications and services. All this security and functionality, along with built in support for SOA development, assures you that your data, SOA applications, and services are fully protected from attacks—freeing you to work on business-related tasks instead of worrying about outside threats to your system.

More Effective Administration, Application Management, and Maintenance
WAS v6.1 contains effective, easy-to-use management tools to reduce the time, effort, and costs of managing and maintaining your environment. Self-managing and automatically-generated functionality simplifies installation and deployment tasks, while simultaneously making these processes reliable and repeatable. For example, a new Console Command Assistant monitors user interactions with the administration console (calling applications, changing parameters, etc.) and then automatically generates scripting commands.

You can fully configure and manage the IBM HTTP server (IBM's Apache-based server) through WebSphere Application Server's administrative console. The administrative console also has new tools for managing the Web server and plug-in certificates. A TrustManager function automatically authenticates hosts and users. In addition, WAS v6.1 makes it easier to perform key tasks, such as refreshing expiring certificates and configuring SSL attributes and security features. Furthermore, there is a new standalone thin administrative client that can be either a JAR file or an Open Services Gateway Initiative-based bundle. It is used to install an administrative client and command scripts on remote machines with limited disk capacity.

Finally, when you need more support or information IBM has put an extensive ecosystem of resources at your disposal, including: complete documentation, self-help tools such as the IBM Support Assistant, and access to a large pool of skilled and accessible partners and user communities.

Consider how these WAS v6.1 features and new capabilities might just benefit and simplify your own development, deployment, maintenance, communications, and management tasks. The productivity gains, performance upgrades, and cost benefits certainly merit upgrading to WAS v6.1 as soon as possible.

* 135 WebSphere Application Server users responded to the IBM poll