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web application servers

 which are software processes running on the server which 

accept and action requests via the principal web server software (e.g. Apache or Microsoft 

Information Server). The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) was a forerunner of this con-

cept since it enabled standard functions to be accessed on a server, for example to perform 

form validation.

A technical discussion of the issues involved with selection of application frameworks and 

servers is outside the scope of this text. Essentially all of the solutions above have been suc-

cessfully used to develop enterprise web services and what is most important to successful 

project delivery is finding the right level of skills for implementation and a project method-

ology or development process which is effective. The  open-  source alternatives have lower 

costs associated, but there may be difficulty in obtaining the right in-house or  third-  party 

resources to create applications of some of the less widely used frameworks and servers. This 

is indicated by Figure 12.2, which shows a survey of the application frameworks used by 

Fortune 1000 companies in 2007.