Why Consider BlueDragon.NET

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Why Consider BlueDragon/.NET?
2
Agenda

• Challenges for CFML Developers
• Who is New Atlanta?
• What is BlueDragon? Advantages?
• Why .NET? Why BlueDragon on .NET?
• Summary

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Developers face a decision

• to choose a future direction
• Microsoft .NET or Java/J2EE
• IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic, or any standard J2EE
  Server
• Windows, UNIX/Linux, or Mac OS X
• IIS or Apache web servers
• and preserve existing investments in people,
  architectures and applications
• Minimized Retooling/Training (if any)
• Minimized Interruptions to Business
• Maximized Return on Investment in CFML
• Maximized Reuse of Deployed Applications and
  Architectures

BlueDragon Freedom of Choice
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Common Challenges

• Organizations and Industry moving to .NET
• General feeling is that CFML needs to be
  rewritten
• Many have extensive effort and man-years of CFML
• Gives great competitive advantage in enhancing
  app features, implementing custom deployments
• Macromedias answer to .NET integration?
• Web Services
• But can a CFML page call a .NET web service
  returning a DataTable?
• Can a .NET page call a CFC returning a CFQUERY?
• Other challenges
• Occasional vexing errors in JRun-based CFMX
• Macromedia support is expensive, often found
  wanting
• Macromedia pricing is high, flexibility low

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New Opportunities

• BlueDragon/.NET solves this dilemma
• Runs CFML natively on .NET. ColdFusion does not.
• .NET opens many new doors
• .NET adds many new features for CFML apps and
  their mgt
• Some require no changes to CFML. Just a better
  platform
• Migration path to .NET is eased
• CFML just runs on .NET, natively
• Can start to move CFML apps to .NET, if desired
• Or simply leverage the best of both worlds
• BlueDragon also offers many other benefits
• Hundreds of customers for both Java and .NET
  editions

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Solving Problems for .NET and J2EE Shops

• Only BlueDragon supports both J2EE and .NET
• CFML apps on BlueDragon get benefits of CFMX, and
  lots more
• New Atlanta has earned a reputation for strong
  support
• What if youre not sure which platform to choose?
  
• Why might you want to consider .NET?
• Most CFML developers hold ASP in ill regard
• .NET is a framework (Microsofts answer to J2EE)
• And ASP.NET is very different from ASP
• Just as Macromedia explained that CFMX hid Java
• So does BlueDragon hide the details of .NET (or
  J2EE)
• The industry is split on which platform to choose

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From .NET Versus J2EE .NET Has Clearly Arrived,
August 2004
.NET Is The Primary Development Platform At More
Firms Than J2EE
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(No Transcript)
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• Other comments from Forrester Report
• .NET is the primary development platform at more
  firms than J2EE. J2EE is stronger than .NET in
  the utilities and telecom and finance and
  insurance industries. .NET is stronger than J2EE
  in manufacturing retail and wholesale media,
  entertainment, and leisure business services
  and the public sector
• From a strategic perspective, notwithstanding
  these variations in adoption rates, both J2EE and
  .NET are long-term winners in the market
• 56 of respondents use .NET for most of their
  development, while 44 use J2EE
• Forrester clients often cite Microsoft's great
  development tools as a reason they use .NET
• .NET Versus J2EE .NET Has Clearly Arrived,
  September 1, 2004, Forrester Research

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BlueDragon is Uniquely Prepared

• to support your future direction on J2EE and
  .NET
• ColdFusion limits you to J2EE only
• And not even in a standard fashion, nor
  supporting all servers
• Only BlueDragon runs CFML on both J2EE and .NET
• Offers several advantages on all platforms
• Offers still more advantages on .NET
• .NET itself offers several advantages

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Agenda

• Challenges for CFML Developers
• Who is New Atlanta?
• What is BlueDragon? Advantages?
• Why .NET? Why BlueDragon on .NET?
• Summary

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Who is New Atlanta?

• A 9-year old Technology Product Company
• Based in Alpharetta, Georgia (30 miles north of
  Atlanta)
• Web Application Server Technology Experts
• BlueDragon is our 3rd generation web-scripting
  technology
• New Atlanta has over 12,000 customers in 70
  countries!
• New Atlanta has 3 products
• BlueDragon now comes in 5 editions

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Our 3rd Generation WebApp

• FileMaker Web Companion (Lasso)
• Web Publisher for FileMaker Pro Databases
• Built in 1995, Sold to Apple in 1997
• Over 10 Million Licenses since Initial Release
• ServletExec - Servlet/JSP Container
• First Servlet Engine on Market for Microsoft IIS
  and Netscape Enterprise Server with Servlet 1.0
  Specification Support
• Charter Members of Servlet and JSP Expert Groups
  (Suns JCP)
• Tens of Thousands of Licenses since 1997
• BlueDragon
• CFML Runtime with Native Deployment and
  Integration on J2EE and .NET Platforms

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New Atlanta Product Line

• New Atlantas flagship product is a light weight
  web application server that implements the Java
  Servlet API and JavaServer Pages (JSP) standards
  for Microsoft, Netscape, iPlanet/Sun ONE and
  Apache web servers
• First released in December 1997, developed
  entirely by New Atlanta the current version,
  ServletExec 5.0, was released in October 2003
• Supports Java Servlet 2.4, JSP 2.0, Java WSDP
  1.3, and JSTL 1.1
• J2EE-Certified Type 4 (pure Java) JDBC driver for
  Microsoft SQL Server
• First released in December 1998, acquired by New
  Atlanta in August 2001, supports JDBC 1.2, 2.1
  3.0 specifications
• CFML on .NET and J2EE
• Redeploy, natively integrate extend CFML on
  .NET or J2EE
• Technology first used in production in 1998
  acquired by New Atlanta in November 2001

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Who Uses Our Products?

• New Atlanta has over 12,000 customers in 70
  countries!
• Lands End
• Over 1 Billion in E-Sales
• Budget Rent-A-Car
• budget.com
• ESRI ArcIMS Web-based GIS
• ServletExec Ships on ArcIMS CD
• American Airlines
• Worldwide Reporting of Safety Incidents
• BlueDragon on BEA WebLogic
• Yahoo! Resumix
• hotjobs.yahoo.com
• JTurbo Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver

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The BlueDragon Product Family
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Agenda

• Challenges for CFML Developers
• Who is New Atlanta?
• What is BlueDragon? Advantages?
• Why .NET? Why BlueDragon on .NET?
• Summary

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What is BlueDragon?

• BlueDragon is a CFML interpreter and runtime
• BlueDragon Server JX
• ServletExec bundled with the BlueDragon CFML
  servlet
• Also includes JTurbo for Microsoft SQL Server
  support
• BlueDragon for J2EE
• BlueDragon CFML servlet bundled into a standard
  WAR/EAR file
• BlueDragon for Microsoft .NET
• BlueDragon CFML servlet modified to be an ASP.NET
  HttpHandler and recompiled using Visual J
• Case study published by Microsoft on MSDN
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/vjsharp
• Current Release is BlueDragon 6.2.1
• Supports CFML as of CFMX 6.1, including CFCs,
  XML, web svcs, etc

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BlueDragon Key Differentiators

• Native Deployment and Integration with J2EE/.NET
• Native Platform Session Management, Clustering,
  Load Balancing, Scalability, and Availability
• Side-by-side execution of CFML and JSP or ASP.NET
  with Session and Application scope variable
  sharing
• Full two-way integration of CFML and JSP or
  ASP.NET by sharing reusable components
• More about .NET Integration later
• Many other advantages of all BlueDragon editions
• Sourceless deployment
• Precompiled, encrypted templates
• In 6.2.1, can set expiration date, after which
  code no longer runs
• Better error reporting
• Each entire error page is written to a log file
• Stronger whitespace suppression
• Reduce bandwidth by compressing whitespace in
  generated HTML output

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Other BlueDragon Advantages

• Extensions to some tags
• Better CFQUERY caching, CFINCLUDE JSPs/ASP.NET,
  and more
• New tags
• CFIMAGE, CFIMAP, CFPAUSE, CFFORWARD, CFASSERT,
  CFDEBUGGER, and more
• 6.2.1 adds still more CFZIP, CFTHROTTLE,
  CFXMLRPC, and more
• Enhanced Database Drivers
• ADO.NET connectivity underlies .NET edition
• Enterprise-class JDBC drivers offered in Server
  JX and J2EE
• Supporting features not enabled in CFMXs
  DataDirect drivers
• Other
• Serializable CFCs and sessions
• Application.cfm processed even when file not
  found
• Standard WAR file/Web app deployment on J2EE
• And more

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Agenda

• Challenges for CFML Developers
• Who is New Atlanta?
• What is BlueDragon? Advantages?
• Why .NET, Why BlueDragon on .NET?
• Summary

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Why .NET?

• .NET is one of the two dominant technologies
• Its embedded in Windows 2003 (your existing
  environment)
• Can be added to Windows 2000, XP
• No additional costs, as with J2EE server
• Backed by Microsoft
• Key part of Microsoft Technology roadmap
• OS, DB, Browser, PDA, Web services,
  orchestration, etc.
• Server Mgt and clustering, SQL Server
  enhancements, SharePoint Portals, etc.
• Built-in reporting solutions, performance
  monitoring
• Easier access to resources
• training, available developers, books, articles,
  websites
• Ecosystem of 3rd party components
• Charting, imaging, pdf, etc
• Get more from the existing hardware
  infrastructure
• Some testing shows that BD performs better than
  CF
• .NET multiple instance support increases
  throughput of each box
• As well as reliability and security
• Enhancements over CFMX
• Easier transition than J2EE

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Why Developers Like .NET

• What does .NET mean to your developers?
• Excitement of learning new things
• Future proofing their technical abilities
• Enhancing their marketability
• Very good tool support
• SQL Server 2005, Web Matrix, and others are free
• Can develop more than just web applications
• Same languages, tools, and skills can be used to
  build
• Web applications
• Web services
• Mobile applications
• Desktop applications
• BlueDragon .NET eases the transition to .NET
• May be exploring .NET on the side already
• Even if against transition, no change to their
  CFML
• Same cfml, same editors, same everything

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Why BlueDragon on .NET?

• Benefits of CFML running unchanged on .NET
• Windows-based clustering and deployment
• Native .NET session management (enhanced over CF)
• Cluster sessions across machines
• Persist sessions across restarts (to state server
  or database)
• Native .NET security and authentication
  enhancements
• Enhanced .NET page caching
• Enhanced error handling ability
• Multiple segregated web applications per website
• Support more applications/users on the same
  hardware in place
• Multiple BlueDragon Admin consoles, one per web
  site and one per web app
• Or leverage a single global admin configuration
  mechanism

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Why BlueDragon on .NET?

• Benefits of CFML integration with .NET
• Sharing of variables between CFML and ASP.NET
• Could have single sign-on using the same session
  variable
• Reuse of code (includes) between CFML and ASP.NET
• Ability to invoke CFCs and custom tags from
  ASP.NET
• Ability to drop CFML inline within ASP.NET pages
• Ability to access .NET objects from CFML
• .NET Framework, user-written, COM, and
  distributed objects
• Integration with .NET user interface controls
• Data grid, data list, drop downs, list box, ad
  rotator, and more
• And still more to come in ASP.NET 2.0
• Built in support for mobile devices
• Integration with Active Directory, Exchange
• Enhanced XML support
• DOM and SAX-Style, and validation

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Business Benefits of BlueDragon for .NET

• You or your customers may already have .NET
• Pricing of BlueDragon vs. CFMX
• New Atlanta has proven support
• New Atlanta has strong partnership with Microsoft

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Agenda

• Challenges for CFML Developers
• Who is New Atlanta?
• What is BlueDragon? Advantages?
• Why .NET? Why BlueDragon on .NET?
• Summary

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In Summary
CFML Youve chosen wisely

• Redeploy your CFML on any Standard Platform (.NET
  or J2EE)
• Retain your Existing Investment in CFML
• Retain your Existing CFML Skill Sets
• Continue developing in CFML as needed
• Integrate your CFML with native technologies
• Extend your CFML with the native technologies
• Fully Leverage Industry Standards and Features
• SAVE Time and Money

New Atlanta can help you plan for the future