WebSphere India

• Installation Manager and Centralized Installation Manager A complete new experience to install products that results in faster time to value and lower operational costs. It brings a single user experience across WebSphere, WebSphere Components and various other IBM Products. So effectively, a single IBM Installation Manager can manage the product life cycle for any IM based products from WebSphere, Rational, etc,. The newer install and maintenance technology allows you to install the desired level of service in one pass without needing to install GA product first and then apply fix pack and/or interim service fixes as a separate step. The Centralized Installation Manager from V7 is also re-based on the new Installation Manager which would help large enterprises by leaps and bounds on lowering their operational costs.
  

• Recovering and Moving Nodes It has never been easier to recover from a damaged nodes with the new WebSphere V8 addNode -asExistingNode option that allows you to recover a damaged node without having to stop using the dmgr. This feature is also faster as it does not require taking a backup and restoring the dmgr's configuration which is quite important if you are managing a larger cell deployments.
  

• Monitored Directory Deployment The feature that I love!. The application deployment is now just a matter of a file copy operation. To install an application all you need to do is to copy the application to a directory, and to uninstall just remove the application from the directory. This holds good for applications such as EAR, WAR, EJB JAR and SAR. Also there is Enhanced Properties File Based Configuration format for easier editing of application deployment options.

• Apart from this there are also new SDK commands (managesdk and wsadmin) introduced in WAS v8 with the goal of having a common API for all supported platforms.

IBM announced the release of WebSphere Application Server V8 in the 2011 IMPACT conference. A peek into what is in the offing:
 
Built upon the IBM Java Virtual Machine (JVM), the Application Server provides the foundation for the WebSphere portfolio, including IBM Workload Deployer, WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, WebSphere Compute Grid, and the WebSphere eXtreme Scale and DataPower XC10 appliance.  The WebSphere Application Server family for Version 8.0 continues to provide offerings to fit your needs ranging from lightweight developer desktop environments to highly complex and highly available enterprise environments.

The editions:

WebSphere Application Server for Developers - A no charge edition for the developer deskop
WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition - Optimized to run instantly on server virtualization environments
WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment - Offers advanced performance and management capabilities
WebSphere Application Server for z/OS - Takes full advantage of the z/OS Sysplex
WebSphere Application Server Express - Lower cost, ready to go solution for Web applications
WebSphere Application Server Community Edition - Open source based, small foot print offering with no upfront acquisition costs
 
WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0 focuses on three primary goals:

• Speeding your delivery of applications and services
• Enhancing operational efficiency and reliability
• Expanding the security and administrative control of the server
  

Some of key features in V8:

• Speeds the development and test lifecycle by providing “self-service” access to consistent topologies and patterns  through the WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition and the IBM Workload Deployer.
• Faster to edit, compile and debug is through a new feature that permits you to use a monitored directory.  Application contents, including complete applications and/or modules, can be moved into or out of the monitored directory.
• Rich set of feature packs for programming model support
• Java EE6 expands greatly the developer value that was first introduced in Java EE5, which was a core programming model in Version 7
• Rapidly assemble & deploy applications to WebSphere Application Server environments using  IBM Assembly and Deploy Tools for WebSphere Administration.
• Faster time to value & lower operational costs through new install & maintenance technology using IBM Installation Manager
• Administrative enhancement in Version 8.0 permits the movement of a node from one machine to another, even if the two machines are different platforms
• A new “in-place” bundle update capability for OSGi applicationsto rapidly extend applications to meet new business requirements with reduced down time
• Migrate WebSphere environments faster with minimized risk with enhanced configuration migration tooling

•     IBM Sterling B2B Integration - Solving challenges between a business and its trading partners, including customers, suppliers, banks and transportation providers

•     IBM Sterling Managed File Transfer - Solving the challenges of large file transfers that need to be fast, secure and reliable, whether within companies such as retailers  or banks, or between companies such as manufacturers and dealers.

• IBM Sterling Multi-Channel Selling—transforms how you sell products and services across all of your sales channels, and optimizes your order sourcing and delivery processes.

• IBM Sterling Multi-Channel Fulfillment - enables you to collaborate with your customers, suppliers and carriers through your inbound supply and outbound fulfillment processes.