What is WebSphere Application Server?

IBM WebSphere Application Server, is IBM's answer to the JEE application server. WAS first appeared in the market as a Java Servlet engine in June 1998, but it wasn't until version 4 (released in 2001) that the product became a fully JEE 1.2-compliant application server.

Over the last 10 years, since version 1.2 was released, IBM has invested heavily in WAS and it is developed with open industry standards in mind such as Java EE, XML, and Web Services. WebSphere Application Server is now IBM's flagship for the WebSphere brand and forms the base of many of IBM's extended product range.

The latest release of WebSphere Application Server version 8, is a JEE 6-compliant application server. Every new version is required to provide improved efficiency and continued compliancy with standards, allowing customers who invest in WAS to make use of the new Java capabilities of each new JEE release.

When choosing an application server platform on which to run applications and services, architects and developers need to know that WAS will support new JEE features and improved coding practices. WAS has evolved as a product with each new update of the JEE standard, and IBM has continued to provide new versions of WAS to support available features of each new JEE release.

The following table shows a simple comparison of current and previous WAS versions and its compliancy to JEE specifications: