WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 Overview

I saw this on YouTube earlier: -

WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 Overview

A nice little ( ~3 minute ) video that summarises what's new in WAS 8.5.5.

Then add in this from the announcement letter: -

IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 delivers enhanced Liberty profile capabilities and introduces a new lightweight Liberty only offering for Web Profile applications

WebSphere® Application Server V8.5.5 extends the capabilities provided in version 8.5, including significant enhancements to the Liberty profile, a highly composable, fast to start, and ultra lightweight profile of the application server that is optimized for developer productivity and web application deployment.

Enhancements to the Liberty profile are as follows:

• Certification to the Java™ EE 6 Web Profile, providing the assurance that applications leverage standards-compliant programming models

• Additional programming models such as web services that enable the expansion of Liberty profile applications beyond web applications

• New messaging capabilities, including support for Java Message Service (JMS) and message-driven beans, and a new single server message provider

• Ability to add Liberty features through a new system programming interface, enabling the customization of Liberty profile capabilities to meet your business needs through insertion of custom Liberty features

• Liberty support for the NoSQL database MongoDB, a scalable, well- performing, and easy-to-use document-style NoSQL database

• Enhancement to security support, such as federated repositories, custom user registry, trust association interceptor, password hashing, and encryption of passwords in server configurations, which improves security for Liberty application deployments

• High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) for Liberty servers, which enables better administration and serviceability

• New Liberty administration features

• Clustering of server instances

• Distributed caching with WebSphere eXtreme Scale

• Ability to install the entitled WebSphere Application Server edition on developer machines for development and unit testing purposes

• Support for WebSphere Web Cache (DynaCache)

• WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 tooling bundles updated with Rational® Application Developer (RAD) V9 and the WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools (WDT) V8.5.5

WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 also introduces a new Liberty profile-only solution. The WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core edition is built to leverage the lightweight and dynamic aspects of the Liberty profile. Scoped to the capabilities of Web Profile applications, the new edition is ideal for lightweight production servers.

IBM® WebSphere Application Server is the leading open standards-based application foundation, offering accelerated delivery of innovative applications and unmatched operational efficiency, reliability, administration, security, and control.