SYS-CON Media, publisher of Web Services Journal, today announced further details of the "Application Server Shoot-Out" due to take place at its upcoming cross-platform technology event, Web Services Edge 2005 East - International Web Services Conference & Expo, to be held in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center, February 15-17, 2005.

The "Application Server Shoot-Out," in which leading application server providers are expected to participate will be staged under the auspices of Burton Group, the only enterprise IT research and advisory services firm focused exclusively on offering in-depth analysis of infrastructure architecture and technologies.

"SAP is renowned for the robust 'always-on' infrastructure it provides for its world-leading business solutions," said Christopher Hearn, Director Product Marketing, SAP NetWeaver. "SAP is now delighted to be able to participate in the application server shootout and demonstrate the power of SAP Web Application Server as a development and runtime platform for enterprise-scale Java applications."

Invited shoot-out participants include BEA Systems (WebLogic), Borland (Borland Enterprise Server), IBM (WebSphere), JBoss (JBoss Application Server), JOnAS (Java Open Application Server), Macromedia (JRun), Microsoft (IIS / ASP.NET), Pramati (Pramati Server), Open Link (Virtuoso), Oracle (Oracle Application Server 10g), Orion (Orion Application Server), SAP, Sun (Sun Java System Application Server), and Sybase (EAServer).

"Even though Microsoft, IBM, and BEA have the lion's share of the market, there are many viable application server alternatives that offer excellent performance and ROI metrics for specific situations," said Grisha Davida, president of SYS-CON Events, Inc. and the show's producer. "As application servers are not a one-size-fits-all proposition, we want the developers, IT managers, and enterprise technologists who come to Web Services Edge 2005 East to be in a position to find out which application server fits their specific performance and ROI metrics best. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Burton Group on board in the important role of independent, vendor-neutral coordinator of this Shoot-Out."

"We are delighted to be tapped to help make this a clear and fair fight," said Anne Thomas Manes, vice president and research director at Burton Group. "The application server companies competing can be assured that we will be bringing to this contest Burton Group's characteristic rigor and vigor. Burton Group's reputation is to a great extent built on keeping far outside the shadow of vendor agendas."

The "Application Server Shoot-Out" will provide the vendors with an opportunity to demonstrate the features and capabilities of their products, with a particular focus on interoperability, resiliency, security, and ease-of-use in terms of development, deployment, and management. All vendors will be given a prior assignment to develop an application supporting desktop, portal, and Web services clients. The application will be based on one of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) sample applications. As part of the live demonstration, the vendors will show WS-I conformance and interoperability among all the systems, and they can demonstrate the tools used to build, deploy, and manage the application and the application code itself. And finally, during the shoot-out, the vendors will be assigned a series of tests that demonstrate the resiliency and flexibility of the environment. The tests will include system failure and recovery, modification of the application's security requirements, and modification of the application's interface. Burton Group will evaluate the tests both quantitatively and qualitatively.

The occasion will be a unique opportunity to learn first hand and on-site which application servers support the latest WS-I standards and to see how they compare in terms of resiliency, security, and ease-of-use.

The live shoot-out will be held in Boston's Hynes Convention Center during the second day of Web Services Edge and will be moderated by SYS-CON editor Jack Martin. More than 3,000 delegates from around the world are expected to attend this year's conference and expo.

Participating teams can contact the event management by email at appservershootout@sys-con.com.