It's now possible to operate Oracle's flagship WebLogic Application Server in a grid environment and take advantage of advanced memory management, the company said Monday.

Oracle's WebLogic Application Grid is a new product intended to manage workloads, track shared data, and start or stop new instances of the Application Server as needed across a large, x86 server cluster. It includes Coherence 3.4, an in-memory manager of data across multiple server memories.

Oracle WebLogic Application Grid is the latest addition to Oracle's Fusion line of middleware. Where applications in the past have tended to run on a single server or set of servers with their dedicated storage, Application Grid aims for a more efficient deployment of resources, putting several different applications on the grid and managing them through a single WebLogic Application Grid management console, said Thomas Kurian, executive VP of Fusion Middleware.

Oracle will try to make it easier to develop applications for such grids by adding new capabilities to its JDeveloper toolset. It can target different client environments, such as Apple iPhone or RIM BlackBerry devices as well as standard desktop PCs. It is also equipped with 150 user interface components usable with Java ServerFaces 1.2, an end-user addition to Java Enterprise Edition. The components are Ajax-enabled, allowing users to react to information presented to them and able to get a response from an Internet server without leaving the page they're visiting. The final release candidate of JDeveloper 11g is now available on the Oracle Technology Network. Feedback from users will determine when it becomes generally available.

Application Development Framework 11g is another form of assistance for developers building database applications, including visual, drag-and-drop options for assembling needed components and connections of an application.

JDeveloper and ADF 11g work together in building Java Enterprise Edition applications; ADF 11g is meant to ease the complexity of building Enterprise Java Beans, as components of applications, and assemble the parts of end-user interfaces, Kurian said.

"The basic, underlying direction for our development tools is to unify all aspects of building these applications," said Kurian.

Both tools may be downloaded for free and used in developing applications by Oracle Technology Network members. A license for use of ADF by itself in production is available; it is also included with the purchase of Oracle WebLogic Server or Oracle Application Server. JDeveloper is free but technical support is available for those who want to use it in a production environment.