'Beehive is not an alternative to open source, Beehive IS open source'

The open source community will find your latest code
releases for Apache Beehive, Apache XMLBeans and the Eclipse Web Tools Platform
exciting. But isn't BEA also facing the risk of losing some open source projects
to platforms like Tomcat and JBoss?

All J2EE application server vendors face the risk of some developers finding
Tomcat and JBoss adequate for their needs. BEA, however, is unique in its
attitude. We are keenly aware that the majority of our own customers and many
other potential customers are already blending together open source and
commercial solutions. By providing open source solution support, like the Spring
support we announced at JavaOne, and taking the lead in tooling efforts to ease
platform migration, like the Eclipse Web Tools Platform, BEA is making it easier
to build and use open source projects.

Bill Roth

We expect to see more and more open source projects appearing
in production environments and WebLogic is uniquely positioned to provide the
enterprise services and support to enable this transition.

By co-opting the open source developer base, are you
positioning Beehive as an alternative to open source? If yes, then what is the
roadmap ahead?

Well, Beehive is not an alternative to open source, Beehive IS open
source. Beehive has graduated from incubator status to a full-fledged
project in the Apache Software Foundation, one of the most revered bastions of
open source solutions. This transition would not have been possible without
widespread developer interest, participation and adoption far beyond Beehive's
humble beginnings within BEA.

As for the roadmap ahead, BEA will continue to listen to
customers and developers about what open source solutions help them solve their
problems and investigate ways to make WebLogic Server the best place to run
those solutions.

How will the apps server market fare into 2006? What are
the emerging paradigms in application development and deployment?

The intensity in competition in the application server market will only
increase in 2006 and this will lead developers and administrators to make new
demands on application server vendors. BEA is already ahead of the competition
in this area with the recent release of WebLogic 9.0 which has many advanced
application deployment features like side-by-side deployment, zero downtime
application and server upgrades, transacted deployment changes and a built-in
diagnostic framework.

Application developers are increasingly building components
that need to participate in Service-Oriented Architectures, and besides having
an extensive and fast service execution environment, WebLogic 9.0 can be a
crucial piece in the task of implementing a complete SOA solution. BEA WebLogic
Platform, together with the new AquaLogic products, now provides developers and
architects with all the pieces necessary to build an enterprise grade
Service-Oriented Architecture.