Java App Server Bolsters Apache

Covalent Technologies Inc. will announce Monday the general availability of Enterprise Ready Server 2.0, a Java application server used to improve the security, reliability and system management capabilities of the Apache Web server.

This version of ERS is designed specifically for large organizations that would be looking to manage many Web servers and virtual hosts running the open-source Apache software, according to Covalent officials.

Officials of the San Francisco-based vendor say ERS 2.0 adds management, security and reliability capabilities to Apache that will make it a viable alternative to Microsoft Corp.s Internet Information Server and Sun Microsystems Inc.s iPlanet server.

This version of ERS features new authentication and authorization services for Apache, including RSA B-safe libraries for SSL encryption. It supports several authentication options including ANON, DB, Oracle, LDAP and NIS.

Other new features include a consolidated logging service over multiple servers and multiple types of content, and multi-protocol content serving capabilities, including support for HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, with shared services across all of those protocols.

Meanwhile, the Covalent Management Portal (CMP), is used to deploy, configure, control and monitor Apache Web servers and virtual hosts across multiple data centers from a single location.

Covalent ERS 2.0 is available Monday. It includes the complete binary for Apache 2.0, Tomcat 4.0 Java server, Covalent Management Portal, Covalent UserTrack, Covalent Logging Services, Covalent Authorization and Authentication Services, Covalent SSL, FTP support, SNMPsupport, PHP and mod_Perl.

Covalent ERS 2.0 will initially ship on Solaris, Linux, HP-UX and Windows for $1,495 per CPU.