SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 28 Macromedia, Inc. today announced that leading companies are turning to Macromedia® JRun(TM) Server 3.1, the industry's most approachable Java application server, to provide them with a fast, cost-effective solution to build and deploy J2EE compatible applications. Leading customers such as Bank of America, Bass Hotels, FAO Schwartz, FedEx, General Motors, Home Depot, Land's End, Motorola, Siemens, Smart Money, and U.S. Surgical use Macromedia JRun to deliver dynamic Web applications that can scale from supporting JavaServer Pages to Enterprise JavaBeans and other Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.2 compliant technologies. Gartner recently reported that companies are spending too much money to purchase and implement application server technology. They found that companies have overspent about $1 billion on application server technology solutions since 1998. High-end application server vendors are essentially dictating that customers, regardless of size, purchase costly, overhead-intensive technology that is simply not needed. The report can be found at http://www4.gartner.com/5_about/press_releases/2001/pr20010820b.html. "There is definitely a great opportunity for a product like Macromedia JRun, which delivers a lot of bang for the buck in the J2EE application server space,'' said David Smith, vice president and research director, Gartner. "JRun is affordably priced to deliver world-class JSP applications, but also scales to meet the needs of the most demanding J2EE implementations.'' "In today's challenging economic environment, companies are looking for server solutions that can deliver cost-effective, timely solutions without the overhead and complexity,'' said Dan Murphy, senior product marketing manager, Macromedia. "Macromedia JRun is an approachable, affordable solution that delivers amazing, cost-effective results, which is why the product has been gaining incredible traction lately.'' Macromedia JRun Server 3.1, added to the Macromedia product family after its recent merger with Allaire, strives to provide developers with the most approachable Java application server on the market. It is the first release of JRun that is officially Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.2 compliant, making the advanced capabilities of the J2EE platform more broadly accessible to the entire Java development community. JRun 3.1 also includes new features specifically designed to streamline the Java application development process and improve the overall productivity of its users, including JRun Server Tags for simplified code reuse, dynamic deployment of Web applications to increase server uptime, and an enhanced out-of-box experience to get people up and running as fast as possible.