Check out this link:
http://www.devx.com/webdev/reviews/F...ib030402-2.asp

Server Integration
One feature missing from this version of Flash MX is true server application integration, but that's coming. ColdFusion MX, which is expected this summer, is the first market evidence of the merger between Macromedia and Allaire. Consisting of a Flash Application Server Gateway and a Communications server, Flash authors will be able to integrate applications on J2EE and .NET servers, as well as the ColdFusion MX server via a protocol built into the Flash 6 player itself.

The application server gateway provides an interface between app servers and the Flash client that goes beyond the useful but inflexible HTTP Get/Post methodology Flash currently provides. Right now, Flash authors must build an intermediary interface to server applications that can accept requests via HTTP. Typically this entails an ASP, PHP, or JSP page that brokers requests to and from a server application. The application server promises to eliminate this middleman.

The communication server promises to broker direct inter-client connectivity for applications such as synchronous messaging. In addition, Macromedia will also release Dreamweaver MX, which will add support for additional server and connectivity technologies for Flash and application architects. If you've been creating middle-tier pages to connect Flash clients to servers dynamically, you will be glad to know that you won't have to do that much longer. Until then, Flash MX offers an abundance of new features.

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So, here you see, using the promised future release of the MX server, that there will be communication that will end the need for the HTTP tier. Flash MX will indeed be able to communication directly to the MX application server - not directly to the database per say, but basically it will be directly to the server tier. Flash MX will no longer require developers (so it seems to me) to create the JSP, ASP, PHP, Perl tier but will be able to have direct communication to the server tired using this application server. This also means, as the article describes, full ability for Flash MX to integrate with .NET and J2EE environments. This is ground breaking and opens the door for great Flash application development!!