To make use of that powerful capability we need to make EJB available across a range of our servers. IBM may achieve this by building a separate application server, forming a partnership with EJB server vendors such as Gemstone or WebLogic, or developing an application container that will run inside or on top of current server offerings such as CICS, according to sources. Meanwhile, IBM's San Francisco project provides greater functionality than EJB, said Kathy Bohrer, an architect with the San Francisco project. The merging of the San Francisco project with EJB will be a slow process, taking at least 12 months. We only developed it so that we could deploy the business objects.
Some analysts agree.
IBM will launch Version 1.2 of the San Francisco project at JavaOne. The new release will add Order Processing and Warehouse Management to its General Ledger core business module and will run approximately three times faster, according to Bohrer. Meanwhile, Sun is expected to roll out Version 1.0 of the EJB specification at JavaOne. The first version of EJB will require support for Session Beans. Version 2.0, slated for release in 1999, will require support for Entity Beans.