Why not earn your knowledge and read the thread? Read every post and write down the names of who you think is supplying substance. Also write down the numbers of significant posts. To get you you started I've excerpted some comments from a recent interview of co-founder and CTO Nimrod Gil-Ad.
Recently, we wrote about companies that provide Graphical User Interface (GUI) technologies in extending legacy systems. With ecommerce transforming our economy, many companies are being challenged to make their legacy systems Web-ready. Here, Jacada co-founder and CTO Nimrod Gil-Ad talks about the uses of JavaTM technology in making the transition.
Since its inception in 1990, Jacada Ltd. has provided solutions that enable corporations and software providers to more effectively compete in the global market. Jacada's products allow businesses to leverage their extensive investments in existing applications to provide ecommerce technologies. Jacada delivers JavaTM technology-based graphical interfaces, re-engineered HTML web access, and integrated business systems with electronic storefronts.
Did you port your own code to the Java platform?
Yes, we've moved large parts of our code from our own internally developed platform to the Java platform. We still provide both, but Java technology is more advanced -- our future product features are, first and foremost, based on Java technology.
We now have Java technology on the mainframe and on the AS/400(the AS/400 is a "mini" mainframe which is less expensive than "big iron" and has become widely installed over the last 15 years). The porting out (making proprietary code conversant with the outside world) of the AS/400 was a breeze. And I'm talking about the first implementation of Java technology on the AS/400. The AS/400 is a unique box. To a programmer it doesn't look anything like a UNIX box, or a PC, or anything else. It has its own idiosyncrasies.
What other platforms does it port to?
Java technology ports not only to the SolarisTM or Windows NT operating environments, but it's a natural port to all the UNIX-based machines, and the modern, UNIX-like operating systems, all the way from Linux to QNX, and even to a Macintosh or to a mainframe.
Tell us more about porting Java technology to the AS/400.
Porting Java technology to the AS/400 at first sight might seem a little bit surprising. There's UNIX on the mainframe, but not on the AS/400. OS/390, the leading OS on mainframes, includes a full UNIX implementation, running everything from NFS, through the Java platform, and all the way to Emacs.
But if you actually know the AS/400, you understand that it is already a virtual machine that is object-based. So it was also a natural environment to run Java technology on. Java technology on the AS/400 was not as natural as Java technology on Linux. Yet the actual code that we were developing on Windows NT executed flawlessly on the AS/400 at first shot. Naturally, we later had to fine-tune memory requirements, etc. There was no porting to do when we were moved to the AS/400. So, that was a very, very pleasant
surprise for us.
How would you describe your customers?
Our customer base is fairly specific. We're dealing with either software vendors or large companies who deal with IBM mainframes and IBM AS/400-based mid-range computers. Software vendors need Java technology in order to sell their software server. Our more direct customers need business solutions in which Java technology plays a large role. We try to identify their exact business needs so that we can understand where they need Java technology. If it's on the mainframe, for example, then how do they interface
with the users?
And if they need Java technology on the desktop?
If they require it on the desktop, because they need to Web- enable their applications, then we need to take care of the user interfaces and the middleware of the infrastructure to communicate with the legacy applications on the mainframe. If they're a more advanced customer who's already talking about deploying an Enterprise JavaBeans-based application server, then we actually tie all the loose ends together, because an EJB- based application server in that scenario will have to have back- end links to the legacy applications based on the middleware we provide. We'll have to have front-end links to the desktop, and we also provide the user-interface technology based also on Java technology. The challenge is to identify how competent, technology-wise, the customer is, and whether they're actually looking for Java technology per se, or for Java technology as a viable solution to their business problem.
What do you see as big markets for Java technology in unshackling, or elsewhere, that have not been tapped?
On the mainframes and the AS/400s, the trend is toward Java technology-based computing on the server, on the actual back-end system. There's huge potential in that space. Mobile computing also has great potential. People may reach a point where they don't really care about which mobile platform they're on, because if it can run Java technology, it can run whatever they need.
Java technology is the glue and the ubiquitous enabling technology. First, it was on the server, and now it's on the back-end, the mainframe, the AS/400s, and the database servers.
Tell us more about the mobile computing space.
The area of mobile computers is big -- there are palmtops, Webtops, set-top boxes, etc. The next step forward is Java technology in your toaster, in your microwave, and in other appliances. But that is looking out into the future.
Where does the network computer fit in to the scheme of things?
In Java technology's early days, when the network computer (NC) was being promoted, people looked to it as a solution to lower operating costs. The NC was supposed to compete with the high-priced PC, but then look what happened. Today, for $500 you can get a PC that you couldn't get two years ago for ten times that price. But looking closer, you see that the basic price of the PC system was only a very small part of the equation. You have to figure in the cost of support, and the cost of installing every piece of software
on every desktop, as opposed to the great savings and ease of use a central source NC offers.
Yet the NC backers have had a difficult time convincing the marketplace to invest in NCs instead of PCs. But once again, things have been stood on their head because now, instead of pushing from the desktop, we're pushing from the servers. The movement toward application service providers and everything surrounding Sun's recent acquisition of StarOfficeTM suite is exactly about this shift. It's about getting back to the NC model, not from the desktop, but from the back-end, from the servers, from the actual application hosting.
What will the acceptance of network-based computing bring?
Network-based computing will provide significant savings in terms of the total cost of operation. And most of that is enabled by Java technology, because Java technology is particularly suitable for this kind of enterprise computing based on back-end servers where you don't really care about the desktops, and the desktops are really just NCs. Officially they're PCs, but they're used as NCs. And the new intranets, which are based on low-cost PCs, use them as NCs in front of Java-based applications hosted on application hosts. The enterprise computing model is the one that will bring the most savings in terms of operation costs, so its future looks bright. |
