Software AG is shipping an application deployment package for Web servers called iXpress, which it claims tackles back-end applications integration in a way that competitive two-tier products such as Oracle Corp Request Broker and Sybase Inc Web.sql don’t. The firm’s client is a Windows 32-bit application called PageManager which enables users to create and manage Web pages and connect them to back-end data sources using dynamic HTML tags. PageServer includes an adapter, which responds to browser requests and then sends the URL to a dispatcher that gauges load balancing to prevent inquiry overloads. The system protects back-end data by saving requested pages in cache so that databases don’t receive millions of hits. Using Software AG’s Entire Broker middleware, back-end applications running on Unix, MVS, VSE and NT can be integrated with Web applications. iXpress supports Microsoft Internet Information Server and Netscape Server. The software is priced at $7,500.
