Scott Dietzen

Standards can redefine a marketplace ­ consider the impact that SQL had on the relational database market. Standards can also create new markets ­ without HTML and HTTP, there would be no World Wide Web. My thesis here is that Web services and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) will have a similarly dramatic impact on application integration ­ advancing the industry from point-to-point integration solutions developed after the fact (which I call integration "in the small") toward standard application containers that are integration-enabled a priori (integration "in the large"). By application integration (or simply integration), I don't just mean Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), which happens on intranets (that is, behind the firewall). I also include business-to-business integration (B2B), wherein the applications from one company directly interconnect with ... (more)

.NET & J2EE

Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) has achieved critical mass as a platform for developing Web applications. Microsoft's .NET is also a strong contender in the Web world. Today both J2EE and .NET are evolving (via XML, Web services, etc.) from development-only platforms into development and integration platforms - a change that will transform enterprise application integration (EAI) and business-to-business integration (B2B) as we know them today. Despite the competitive uproar, coexistence of J2EE and .NET will be the norm - most sophisticated IT organizations will deploy on both d... (more)

What will determine whether one prevails...or ensure that they can co-exist?

Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) has not yet achieved critical mass as a Web application platform. Today, for example, over 10,000 customers are using BEA WebLogic, the J2EE application server market leader. However, it's a safe bet that J2EE will eventually reach critical mass. Microsoft's .NET is also a safe bet to get to critical mass. No other Web application infrastructure software platform has the traction of these two leaders, and while some developers may be drawing battle lines between J2EE and .NET, it seems to me that their peaceful coexistence will be the norm. Most so... (more)

Web 2.0: XML & Java - Standard Integration

Standards can drive revolutionary changes in technology: consider the impact that SQL has had on the database market, or consider that the World Wide Web was launched by the combination of HTML, HTTP, URL, and SSL. Our belief is that protocol standards (XML, Web services) and programming standards (Java and the .NET alternatives, XML Query, etc.) will have a similarly profound impact on integration. Integration encompasses a broad range of information technology (IT) needs (see Figure 1): --> Enterprise application integration (EAI): Directly interconnecting two or more business... (more)

Open Source, Java, and WebLogic

BEA believes that both open-source projects and commercial Java platform products like WebLogic are crucial to the health of the Java ecosystem. That's why WebLogic runs on top of, incorporates, contributes to, and creates open-source technologies. Even open-source projects that provide functionality similar to WebLogic tend to be best used in a different part of the Java ecosystem than the one WebLogic occupies. The Roles of Open Source To understand open source's contribution to the Java ecosystem, let's look at the many roles it plays. Open source allows the Java community to ... (more)