Superpatterns

You might have seen the news today that Sun just released Java Enterprise System 5. While it's not called out in the press release, Sun Java System Access Manager 7.1 is part of Java ES 5. Although it's been widely previewed in beta in the Netbeans Enterprise Pack and Java EE SDK, it's still worth calling out the new features:

• Java ES Monitoring Framework Integration - capture and monitor statistics and service-related data - "How many failed authentications have there been in the last 24 hours?"
• Web Service Security - well covered here, here and here.
• Single Access Manager WAR file deployment - this was introduced in Sun Java System Federation Manager 7.0 - install Access Manager by just deploying a WAR file into a suitable web container and filling out a few fields in the configurator page.
• Enhancements to Core Services - Loads of goodies, including new container support, new load balancing features and much more.

So, go to the download page, grab Access Manager 7.1 and give it a whirl. It's in all of the system/suite downloads except the availability suite.