Application servers: virtualizing location, resources, memory, users and threads for business applications and web applications

Application servers provide an environment for running business and web applications. By virtualizing threads, data and processing resources, memory and users, they provide the simplifying illusion for the programmer that the application is interacting with a single user, is running alone on the server, and is the sole user of resources, while allowing an efficient realization that scales with the number of users, and available hardware. They also provide a virtual environment where security enforcement and demarcation of transaction boundaries are automatic. This talk will describe some of the major features of modern application servers and show how concepts of virtualization are fundamental to their design and realization.