Java Laces Up Running Sneakers To Make
Enterprise Play
(03/18/98; 1:15 p.m. EST)
By Jeff Bliss, Computer Reseller News
Java -- ready or not -- will come next week to the
enterprise.
Vendors at the JavaOne show next week in San
Francisco are expected to unveil products to show
Java's capabilities of creating mission-critical
applications. The product introductions will be made
against a backdrop of questions from analysts and
developers about whether Java is ready for prime-time
enterprise use.
"What they're doing [at JavaOne] is showing how easy
it is to use Java in the enterprise," said Allan Davies,
international marketing manager of JBA International,
a Birmingham, England-based software developer.
As a major proponent of Java, IBM, in Armonk,
N.Y., will release the second version of its software
development framework, ironically code-named San
Francisco, at JavaOne. New features of San
Francisco will let value-added resellers (VARs) create
comprehensive applications for financial management
and warehouse inventory, according to sources
familiar with the company's plans.
The new components will form the top layers --
known as domain towers -- of the framework, the
sources said. Two new financial components --
accounts receivable and accounts payable -- will be
added to the current domain tower, General Ledger.
The three components together will provide a base of
code for developers to design end-to-end software
packages, sources said.
"You now will have a stable, three-legged stool on
which to design a financial management system," said
one developer of financial applications.
A domain tower will emerge at JavaOne that
expedites the design of applications that manage
inventory and other supply-chain concerns, sources
said. Like the financial components, the warehousing
domain tower will allow VARs to focus all their
attention on creating unique products, developers said.
"If you have that structure already done, then all you
have to do is put into the system designs that as an
ISV [independent software vendor] will differentiate
your [product]," said Jay Kuhlman, vice president of
sales and marketing for NotesEtc, a San Rafael, Calif.,
developer.
IBM also will detail its Enterprise JavaBeans strategy
at the show. Although Big Blue would not comment on
its plans beforehand, developers have made three
requests: integrate EJBs into San Francisco by the end
of the year; let developers create their own EJBs; and
figure out a way to use EJBs not originally designed
for San Francisco in the framework.
Other vendors touting Java will weigh in on EJBs.
Officials of Sun Microsystems' JavaSoft said the
Mountain View, Calif.-based company will release the
Enterprise JavaBeans Specification 1.0 next week.
Database manufacturers, including Oracle and Sybase,
will introduce products to support the standard.
JavaSoft will take the wraps off of the third beta
version of the JDK 1.2, which will offer 2-D
capabilities, printing, and bidirectional font
management features, company officials said.
Developers at JavaOne will also show off products
that take advantage of major vendors' code building
blocks. Visient, a Parsippany, N.J., systems
integrator, will unveil Golden Gate, a product that links
San Francisco to the Rational Rose visualization tool
from Rational Software, in Cupertino, Calif.
"It will generate code for developers so they don't
have to understand all the plumbing of the network,"
said Glenn Vanderlaan, director of marketing at
Visient. Code will be automatically created based on
rules governing San Francisco, he said.
Other developers are interested in creating extensions
to San Francisco for specific markets. At JavaOne,
ActionWare, an Emeryville, Calif., developer, will
exhibit the prototype of an application that takes
advantage of an in-house Java code base for
knowledge management products.
ActionWare is negotiating with IBM to add this code
base to San Francisco so applications can be
developed to manage data -- such as phone calls and
meeting records -- beyond the reach of most
databases. "All systems -- faxes, e-mails, etc. -- are
not shareable. What we need to do is centralize
management," said Robin Retallick, president and
CEO of ActionWare.
Developers and IBM at the show will talk about the
future of San Francisco. Discussions will focus on
slicing the Java building blocks even thinner so code
bases can be created for even more specific business
segments, developers said. "You will end up with
sub-modules that are producing a heck of a lot more
variation" in applications, JBA's Davies said. "There
are a million levels of application requirements out
there that people want and they can't get." |
