Just as Microsoft's .NET Web services initiative has begun to take shape, the competition between IBM and BEA Systems in the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) market has heated up. J2EE has emerged as a significant platform for both Web-based applications and enterprise-application integration. According to a META Group survey of 200 IT decision makers, BEA's WebLogic application server held 37 percent of the market for deployed J2EE application servers. In contrast, IBM's WebSphere held 22 percent of the market. However, the Giga Information Group told a different story at about the same time, as Graph 2 shows. According to Giga, BEA held 36 percent of the market versus IBM's 34 percent.