What is an Application Server?
The term “Application Server” has been used with respect to so many diverse software products that the term can seem confusing. One way to understand an application server is to think about it as an application that provides services for other applications. For example, virtually every web application needs to accept HTTP requests, maintain session state, and pool database connections. Instead of rewriting these services for every application, you can run your application on top of an application server that already provides these services.
An Application Server is used to develop and deploy Java/JEE applications — a JEE certified platform for developing and deploying enterprise Java applications, Web applications, and Portals. JBoss Application Server, for example, provides the full range of JEE 1.4/1.5 features as well as extended enterprise services including clustering, caching, and persistence.
Sometimes, you can figure out what something is or does just by puzzling over its name. The term application server fits that bill. Technically and non-technically speaking, an application server is a server that is designed for or dedicated to running specific applications. At its most basic, an application server might be used to run one application. If that application is the one that keeps your company network going and is, therefore, a massive application, it might take up the entire RAM and ROM requirement of one server. Another possibility is that an application server is used to run certain kinds of applications. For example, your company might have several word processing or spreadsheet or desktop publishing programs, and all of those applications might reside on one type of server. You and everyone who needs to access those programs would then log on to the Desktop Publishing Server, for example, to use InDesign or Quark XPress or Pages or any other kind of design program tha
An application server is software that runs between web-based client programs and back-end databases and legacy applications. It helps separate system complexity from business logic, enabling developers to focus on solving business problems. An application server helps reduce the size and complexity of client programs by enabling these programs to share capabilities and resources in an organized and efficient way. Application servers provide benefits in the areas of usability, flexibility, scalability, maintainability, and interoperability.
If you’re building and deploying mobile location-based services, your application server should allow you to develop and shelter the business logic that will differentiate you from your competitors and save you from having to rearchitect or throw out your system if a component in your architecture needs to change. Start learning here.
