An application server is software that provides services to support Web-based applications that tie end users to corporate databases. It acts as a middleman between Web browsers and the database servers, so firms don't need to install high-maintenance Windows applications at the user end. You want to use the Web to let internal users or your customers look at corporate information. But you want to keep installation at the user end simple, and you don't want just anyone to get into your databases. That may be where an application server enters the picture.
Application servers manage the process of connecting users to that data.
They set up an application session for each user, check identifications, fetch requested information from the appropriate database and build the data in to a Web page to serve directly to the users. All of the code required to run an application is basically built in to the server software, she adds. Application server software packages,whichbysome counts are being sold by more than 40 vendors, also provide application management services such as monitoring system performance to sniff out bottlenecks. And they can be tied together to build large-scale applications that require multiple servers to meet the demands of users for data. Adding Complexity Companies looking to build more complex applications can hook application servers to separate software servers that process orders and other transactions and that distribute reusable chunks of application code called objects to users.