Are products like Actuate and Crystal Enterprise truly compatible with J2EE (Java2 Enterprise Edition) application servers like BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, and others?

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FAQ# 26-09180201

In our opinion, they are not truly compatible in architecture, although they may be stretched to make a workable Java interface.

Both Actuate and Crystal Enterprise (formerly Crystal Info) pre-date J2EE. Out of necessity, their vendors built security and scheduling into them. Yet today, they still market security and scheduling as key features. However, from the perspective of a customer today, doesn’t it make more sense to invest in the neutral security and scheduling of J2EE that are the same for all applications, rather than in proprietary security and scheduling that differ across each and every application?

For example, Crystal Enterprise contains components called the Automated Process Scheduler (APS) and the Web Component Server (WCS). Taken together, they are effectively a proprietary web applications server that competes with J2EE. Customers who standardize on products like BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere and who later buy Crystal Enterprise are effectively paying twice for security and scheduling.

Perhaps for some customers there are positive specialty features for end-user computing or administration that make this tradeoff worthwhile?

At least in the case of developers building highly custom web applications with Crystal Reports, Dynalivery’s Parallel Crystal offers a well-supported, and economical alternative that leaves security and scheduling in the capable hands of the J2EE experts at BEA, IBM, and others.