Apps Servers Today

Mention applications servers and it's likely the application that springs to mind will be database access. But the office does not function by databases alone. More often than not, communication across the room or across the world depends on a suite of productivity servers.

Electronic mail. Although not always a critical line-of-business application, e-mail is currently the most widely used network application. Messaging, a superset of e-mail, enables users to participate in collaborative computing applications such as scheduling, notifying, conferencing, and forms routing. Examples include Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Netscape Mail Server.

Inter net access. Whether to support controlled access to the Net, establish a corporate presence, or support roving users, a connection server is becoming a mandatory part of any network system. The connection server passes on requests from client browsers, acting as a proxy to remote servers, possibly caching often-accessed pages to improve performance. And clients outside the enterprise can easily access documents. Examples include Netscape Proxy Server, Trusted Information Systems' Gauntlet Internet Firewall, and Microsoft Internet Information Server.

Communications. Homogeneous networks are rare. To enable servers to communicate and share resources across a variety of hardware and software platforms, regardless of protocol, some sites use a communications server. Routing is a critical component that ties users, servers, networks, and sites into a single, coherent network.

Network management. Along with enhanced capability comes increased complexity. Network ma nagement systems are designed to collect information about the network and its components and display that information where managers can manipulate it. An ideal system gives IS personnel the ability to manage the network from any workstation, remote connection, or Internet terminal.

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File Servers and Applications Servers

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