WebSphere Application Server
WebSphere Application Server is a software product which helps to perform the role of a web application server. WebSphere is a flagship product and a set of Java-based tools by IBM which allows customers to create and manage sophisticated business Web sites. It was originally created by Donald F. Ferguson, who later became CTO of Software for Dell and the first version was launched in 1998.
While the central WebSphere tool is known as WebSphere Application Server (WAS). WAS is an application server that helps the customer to connect Web site users with Servlets or Java applications. A Servlet is a Java program that runs on the server rather than on the user's application as Java applets do. Servlets are developed to replace the traditional common gateway interface (CGI) scripts. These scripts are usually written in C language, Practical Extraction or Reporting Language to run much faster and to control all other user requests that run in the same process space.
In addition to Java, WebSphere also supports the open standard interfaces such as Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and Java Database Connectivity — JDBC. WebSphere is designed to use across different operating system platforms. You have an option of selecting the version suitable for your business purpose, as one edition of WebSphere will be offered for small to medium size businesses and another edition is for larger businesses with a huge number of transactions. It also has a Studio, which is a developer's environment added with additional components which allow creating web pages’ for a website and you can also the web pages accordingly. Both the versions support Solaris, Windows NT, OS/2, OS/390, and AIX operating systems.
While the WebSphere Studio includes a copy of the Apache Web server; which helps the developers to test Web pages and Java applications at any given time.
What is WebSphere?
The moment you ask this question, the first thing that strikes in your mind is WebSphere is an application server; but in reality, WebSphere is the name of the product in IBM family. IBM has many more products under the brand name WebSphere, here are some of them WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere MQ, WebSphere Message broker, WebSphere process Server, WebSphere business modeler, WebSphere business monitor, WebSphere integration developer, WebSphere partner gateway.
WebSphere Application Server Architecture
WAS is built using Open standards such as Java EE, XML, and Web Services. WebSphere application is supported on the following platforms; Linux, Windows, AIX, Solaris, IBM i and z/OS. It was started with Version 6.1 and the latest version is Version 8.5. While the open and standard specifications are aligned across all the platforms. Platform utilization is to an extent it takes place, but now it is done below across all open standard specifications line.
Security
The WebSphere Application Server security model is based on the services provided by the operating system and as per the Java EE security model. WebSphere Application Server provides implementations of user authentication and authorization mechanisms given that support for various user registries:
- Local operating system user registry
- LDAP user registry
- Federated user registry (version 6.1)
- Custom user registry
The authentication mechanisms supported by WebSphere are
- Lightweight Third Party Authentication (LTPA)