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Web server offers fast app deployment
Creditex chooses SilverStream's application server software to develop Internet trading platform
 
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The site is built on a classic three-tier architecture platform, using browser-based HTML on the front-end, Java services in the business layer, and Oracle for the database layer, says Miller. All communication from the client is via HTTP. Creditex's network includes five mirrored Sun Solaris E250 servers running SilverStream software, all hitting a Sun E450 server running Oracle database software. Creditex developed the trading platform internally on Dell PowerEdge NT servers and has the application hosted externally by Digex. Creditex initially implemented SilverStream's Application Server version 2.5, but is now using version 3.1. Miller says ease and speed of implementation were the most important factors in selecting the application server, however, transaction support, scalability, security and availability mattered, too. Overall, SilverStream's development environment, which is closely tied to the application server, appealed to Creditex. It includes a built-in Web server that allows the application server to act as a Web server, simplifying the implementation, says Miller. Most other application servers require a separate Web server like Netscape or IIS to serve the pages that the application server creates. Additionally, SilverStream's code management tools are also built-in, and its strong object support made it easier to develop good code quickly, he says. SilverStream also has strong site publication controls and is good at scaling to support additional users and more traffic by merely adding new servers, says Miller. While SilverStream offers integrated components and rapid development, Creditex found it weak in some areas of security, says Miller. It was also hard to find people with skills for using SilverStream, he says. For example, it's much easier to find people who have experience with IBM's WebSphere simply because more people have used it. As for security, Miller says SilverStream offers basic features like simple password access for pages, and basic directory restrictions to keep unauthorized users from accessing pages. It also allows for the publishing of pages without source code, making it hard to hack a site built with the SilverStream software. However, IS built in some additional things to tighten up security. A rules-based feature was developed to assign roles, such as trader or read only to users, to limit access to specific areas of the site and to ensure that the users had established valid sessions before trading. IS also built administration tools to manage these roles. Miller says while SilverStream does offer administration tools for managing the site, IS found the tools hard to apply to their environment. Integrated role-based security, better administration site access control and more complex authentication would be welcomed, says Miller. Another weakness is that SilverStream doesn't offer extended logging, so Creditex doesn't have as much information on site traffic as it would like, says Miller. He says extended logging, for example, would help IS determine what browsers users are on when technical issues arise. Creditex started investigating products in July 1999 and rolled out a beta version of their site by Jan 1, 2000. To select a product, they conducted a weighted-evaluation. IS developed some criteria, ranked its importance and then identified candidate products to evaluate against their criteria. The criteria included an open API, integration with source control tools, encryption, LDAP and NT security support. Additionally, content management, search capabilities and Java client support were on the list. Session-level failover, high availability, transactions across objects, and a server management API were other factors considered. IS also measured cost versus benefit. In addition to SilverStream, Creditex looked at IBM WebSphere, BEA System's WebLogic, ATG Dynamo, Microsoft's application server and Sun's NetDyanmics. Miller says all the products had different shortcomings and strengths. He says while WebSphere was a strong candidate, it didn't get chosen due to its cost. Because IS wanted the flexibility to run on either NT or Unix, Microsoft's software, besides being the weakest choice for other reasons such as high availability, was ruled out. Miller says NetDynamics was solid on its high availability, transaction-based objects, and scalability, but was weak in rapid development and security. IS found that WebLogic was great for security and scalability but weak for rapid development. ATG Dynamo was strong in availability, session management, and component architecture, but was weaker in rapid development and support for content management he says. SilverStream won out with its integrated development environment that enabled a rapid implementation. In hindsight, Miller says it's important to focus on criteria specifically related to near-term goals. For example, Creditex included search tools as criteria, but hasn't implemented search since it isn't critical to their site. He suggests that logging capability should be a key feature because it helps measure site traffic. Lastly, ensure ease of site update, including content management, he says. Related links
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Roundup looks at eight leading products. Buyer's Guide database
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