What is an Application Server?
An application server is a server that is designed for or dedicated to running specific applications. At its most basic, it might be used to run one application. If that application is the one that keeps a company network going and is, therefore, a massive application, it might take up the entire RAM and ROM requirement of one server.
Another possibility is that a server is used to run certain kinds of applications. For example, a company might have several word processing, spreadsheet, or desktop publishing programs, and all of those applications might reside on one type of server. Everyone who needs to access those programs would then log on to the Desktop Publishing Server, for example, to use whatever design program that the company might recommend and have on hand.
Another kind of application server is one that runs an operating system. This is more old-fashioned, but it is still used. Certain computers, more commonly called terminals, connect to a server in order to access basic functions.
Like ants and bees that have specific roles in life, application servers have specific parts to play in the overall anthill or beehive of a company. As with many things computer-related, there is a more complicated example. Oracle, one of the main server developers, has come out with a J2EE (Java Platform Enterprise Edition) server. A huge number of companies worldwide use the J2EE server, which is able to run very powerful applications that can be accessed by multiple computers connected to that server on a network.
What it all boils down to, though, is the computer world's propensity to designate certain resources to perform certain actions. In the same way that someone might use a word processing program to write a paper but a photo manipulation program to touch up vacation photos, tech departments use application servers to compartmentalize the way that a company's multiple computers do certain things. If they're doing their job well, most people will hardly be aware that such activity is going on.
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![A server that is designed for or dedicated to running specific applications is known as an application server.]()
By: Eimantas BuzasA server that is designed for or dedicated to running specific applications is known as an application server. -
![People often associate applications with tablets or smartphones.]()
By: katie_martynovaPeople often associate applications with tablets or smartphones.
Discussion Comments
Tomcat can run servlet based applications, and is a lightweight open source application server alternative. If you desire to augment your Tomcat environment with integrated user management, monitoring and clustering, take a look at the WSO2 Application Server, which is Tomcat++. The application server has a Tomcat core, with additional security, scalability, and availability features. Also, the WSO2 Application Server has server-side JavaScript, API and services support.
One thing that is not clear in this explanation: the purpose of the application server is to separate business logic from presentation logic.
A server that generates HTML via PHP, and in which also the PHP performs the necessary business logic, is not an application server.
In the Application Client/Server model, the client running the presentation layer (i.e., GUI) makes requests and formats responses according to specified presentation rules.
The request is sent to an application server which understands the business model and business logic and executes the request against those rules. It then returns the response data in a structured format for the presentation layer (such as a JSON object or xml).
I know what an application server is, but how do I deploy it? I want to install office on the server. How do I access it from client systems?
thanks for the short and neat explanation.
finally i understood what an application server is. Thanks for keeping it short and simple. worth reading!
Wow, what an explanation. Thumbs up, guys. your explanations are worth reading.
great explanation. Can you give more information about how do we decide the number of application server instances that may be required. for example say a company has 25 app server instances running. does that say anything about the number of applications running?
Thanks a lot. very useful to me. dananjayadod
This is the best for any learner and also me.
thanks.
This article helped me a lot to understand what an application server is. Could you let us know a few examples of software for an application server? - Vinay.
This was excellent. I easily understood it. now I know process of application servers. -Sarvam
thanks for being clear and comprehensible. --saurabh
I compliment you for making it this easy. I have been through a lot of other material but none of them clarify the concept so well.
Very good explanation given about an application server. The application server became a synonym for j2ee servers.
thank you. it is very useful to me.
Apparao
Application sever has been defined in simple language that is really good. I would like to know some examples of application sever or webserver like 'Apache' with some more elaboration. --Sharmila Juvekar
It didn't help us at all.
Thank you. That so helped.
Thanks. That is a good reference for me.
thank you. I got to know exactly what i wanted to know.
I appreciate your effort to explain Application Server. now I know what an application server is. --Soujanya.
Thanks. Now i can have a decent conversation with the vp of it at my job!
This is a really good illustration of application server, explaining exactly what the application servers do.
Bhagat Singh
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