NERD ON THE STREET

Although they are not yet on the radar screens of most securities firms, Java servers are on the horizon thanks to several West Coast software startups.

Based in Oakland, California, Vision Software touts its technology as a new layer of distributed computing, and company officials say the software is used by a variety of firms, including Chase (but Vision doesn't say how). The vendor recently rolled out Vision Jade 4.0 with the Vision Business Logic Server, an integrated Java server that combines the services of an application server with standards-based logic execution services. The Logic Server is designed to aid the deployment of multi-tier applications that integrate with existing enterprise applications and data. The Vision extensible Data Access (XDA) architecture applies business rule automation to leading relational databases and standard object formats such as Corba, Java, Enterprise Javabeans (EJB) and Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM), packaged applications and custom systems. The company can be contacted at http://www.vision-soft.com.

Cloudscape, also in Oakland, and Weblogic, of San Francisco, have integrated Cloudscape's embeddable Java SQL database with Weblogic's Tengah Java-based application server. An implementation of the Enterprise Javabeans (EJB) 1.0 specification from Sun Microsystems, Tengah was created for networked applications. The 100% Pure Java Cloudscape portable database manager can be embedded in applications as a local data manager and includes the Tengah technology. Weblogic officials confirm that the Cloudscape database is bundled with the Tengah evaluation edition, available via the Weblogic Web site at http://www.weblogic.com. Through the embedded Tengah technology, Cloudscape users can make remote Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) calls from a networked, client application; get access to Cloudscape using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol; and secure connections to the Cloudscape server. Cloudscape officials say the combination provides users with local data caching, which allows them to avoid installing and managing a separate database. Although far afield from the trading room, Cloudscape's database is a key component of the Dow Jones Interactive Toolkit, say Cloudscape officials. The toolkit helps developers integrate content from the Dow Jones Interactive business intelligence service into their intranets and then distribute that content throughout their organizations. The Cloudscape Web site is http://www.cloudscape.com.