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BEA releases new version of WebLogic at eWorld 2003

With the release of Version 8.1 of WebLogic Workshop, BEA Systems claims to have found a solution to shrinking IT budgets. By combining integration and application development into a single unified environment, and offering built-in controls for connecting to database and back-end resources, the company claims it can significantly increase developer productivity.

BEA is looking to go beyond Workshop’s original purview of Web services. An objective of this release, said Carl Sjogeren, product manager for WebLogic Workshop, is increasing Workshop’s support of more established IT needs, including integration and portals.

The latest release is an extension of BEA’s initial efforts to create a software tool that allows a broader number of developers to work with Java enterprise solutions. A goal is ''to help application developers who may not be J2EE experts to be more productive working with business experts to create applications,'' said Sjogeren.

Overall, the string of announcements at BEA’s conference carries forward the theme of convergence, noted Sjogeren. ''We see tremendous opportunity in the integration space,'' he added.

About the Author

Jack Vaughan is former Editor-at-Large at Application Development Trends magazine.