A platform for development - Not all CTOs are ready to adopt a Web services computing model, but many are finding that Webservices platforms are key for integrating applications throughout their enterprises.

RAVI APTE, CTO OF the American Stock Exchange, has a team of more than 30 people working to develop applications for the country's second- largest options exchange. But this month, that work will be made easier when New York-based Amex consolidates its three Web sites into one with the help of BEA Systems' WebLogic EBusiness Platform.

AmexTrader.com, Amex's market data services site, and AmericanStocks.com, its catalogue of companies listed on the exchange, will merge into Amex.com, its main page for market and historical data. Apte says his developers are working to integrate the sites through the BEA platform. "For our custom applications, we have small groups working. It's a collaborative application development process," Apte says.

While the Web services model for enterprise computing gathers steam, the platforms designed to accommodate the rollout of Web services are being used internally. Those chief technologists that are not at the stage of opening up applications beyond the firewall are instead making use of these new platforms to leverage and to integrate their applications internally.

Apte is one of many CTOs using development environments such as those …