Java technologies prove crucial to Enterprise solutions

While it’s no secret that the Java platform has revolutionized computing, until you see the show floor at the Java Business Expo conference and can physically gauge the depth and breadth of how Java technology has taken root in the enterprise space, it’s difficult to grasp just how far it’s come in three short years.

In this industry of megahype, action speaks far louder than words, and the industry response to Java technology for real-world applications has been astounding. Businesses of all stripes are using Java technology in custom-built enterprise systems, commercial products, and other applications.

More than 250 exhibitors made their way to the Java Business Expo conference this year, and the focus is definitely on the enterprise and enterprise-grade products and solutions. The products and solutions on display address almost every conceivable need: extensions for legacy systems, software engineering and frameworks, enterprise connectivity, application servers, middleware, databases, and systems integration.

The word from the show floor is that Java technology, especially the newly announced (and triumphantly received) Java 2 platform, provides the basis for serious mission-critical development.

ResQ!Net

Advanced Transition Technologies Inc.’s booth features a demo of a product called ResQ!Net, which provides graphical terminal emulation for host systems. Company spokesman Vydas Marijosius says the ResQ!NET “GUI out of the box” cuts deployment time for corporations trying to provide client connectivity over the Web to host systems.

ResQ!Net provides a graphical “Customization Studio” that allows for screen creation without scripting or programming, a feature very popular with customers. Not surprisingly, the fact that ResQ!Net is a thin client, implemented using the Java platform, provides substantial value to customers.

Metex Systems Inc.

In large-scale enterprise development, it’s important to use proven methodologies and tools in the development process. Rational Software and IBM both provide crucial pieces of the puzzle. Rational provides the methodologies and visual modeling tools to do object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD), and IBM provides the Java technology object-oriented frameworks that enable sophisticated apps to be built without all the heavy lifting associated with “from scratch” development.

Metex Systems’s SF Bridge sits between Rational’s visual modeling tool, Rose, and IBM’s San Francisco framework. Russ Bunting, product manager for SF Bridge, says Metex specializes in “pioneering the visual modeling space in Java technologies — bridging the gap between pre-built Java software components and visual modeling.” In doing so, Metex provides value to project managers and developers who want to take full advantage of object-oriented reuse, modern software engineering methodologies, and modeling languages such as the UML.

Object Management Group

The role of the Object Management Group (OMG) is a key contributor to the maturity of Java technology for the enterprise. OMG is the preeminent standards body in the enterprise distributed-object space. OMG’s Common Object Request Broker Architecture is the reference standard used in industry today. This fact was not lost on Sun’s Java Software Division, which integrated OMG’s CORBA standard into the core Java APIs of the new Java 2 platform.

The significance of this integration cannot be overstated. Richard Soley, chairman and CEO of OMG, puts it this way: “CORBA is the fundamental technology for distributed, enterprise-wide, Java platform-based applications. Hundreds of successful, deployed, Java platform-based CORBA solutions are in use today. A transactional, persistent, secure CORBA infrastructure is a perfect match for the Java platform’s portability and universality.”

The list of CORBA success stories is impressive. It includes American Airlines, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, BankBoston, Nike, Nomura International Securities, and many more. The bottom line, says Dr. Soley, is that “CORBA is the cornerstone enterprise-wide Java system — and Java technology is the best way to build CORBA systems.”

BEA Systems

Enterprise application servers are all the rage this year, with many vendors offering tools and solutions that support the new Java 2 platform. Of course, support for Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), with its unequalled support for rapid development of reusable, scalable, transaction-aware middleware, is de rigeur.

BEA is a market-leading middleware and tools vendor that provides transactional, messaging, and distributed object-based software in addition to offering its WebLogic Java application server (which will provide support for the Java 2 platform in January 1999).

“BEA understands the increased functionality and productivity benefits that Java technology-based development brings to our customers,” says Alfred Chuang, BEA’s CTO. EJB integrates into BEA’s other products through the use of Java IDL, and Chuang says “the resulting combination of the Java 2 platform, BEA WebLogic, and BEA M3 is designed to help enhance our superior business-critical Java platform for the enterprise.”

Cloudscape

Cloudscape was founded in 1996 by engineers who played key roles in the development of database management systems provided by Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Illustra.

The Cloudscape Object-Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) is an SQL-92 compliant database implemented entirely with Java technology. Cloudscape’s memory footprint is only 1.5 MB and it is embeddable into custom applications for use as a database engine. Cloudscape also provides application synchronization and a host of other leading-edge features.

Early adoption of first the Java platform and later the Java 2 platform has given Cloudscape a technological edge that differentiates it from competitors and allows it to compete head-to-head with larger, more established vendors. Cloudscape estimates it has gained at least a two-year technical lead on its competitors — facilitated using the Java platform.

Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is a household name to most businesses. Clients know they can turn to Ernst & Young to solve most any business problem, and IT consulting and solutions are no exception. Ernst & Young’s Java Service Line provides such solutions to the industry based on the Java platform.

Colette Coad, global leader of Java Service Line at Ernst & Young, explains that the Java platform and platform-based solutions are a natural fit for customers. “A lot of our clients don’t come to us asking for Java technology; they come to us with a business problem, and as we step them though what they’re doing, the natural solution is [Java technology].”

For example, Standard & Poor’s RatingsDirect wanted to deliver its ratings information products using the Internet, and called on Ernst & Young to do the job. Standard & Poor required an aggressive timetable for the project, and Ernst & Young’s Java Service Line delivered, based on its core strengths and expertise in applying the Java platform to corporate solutions. “We have a lot of expertise, and we really understand the issues,” said Coad. “We have accelerators so that we can deliver the value to our clients much faster, because people need it done fast — and done surely.”

Ely Lilly and Company Global Supply Chain is another success story for Ernst & Young’s Java Service Line. Using its proprietary rapid-development methodology and Java platform-based accelerators, the Java Service Line solved Ely Lilly’s Y2K compliance problem, linked its disparate planning systems, and enabled rapid deployment of Ely Lilly’s global solution — all in just six weeks.

For the Ernst & Young Java Service Line, the Java platform is key to delivering robust systems fast. Both for browser-deployed intranet clients that use applets, and back-end enterprise systems that use JDBC and other enterprise APIs, the Java platform delivers for Ernst & Young’s Java Service Line customers.

Conclusion

Sun’s new mantra for the Java 2 platform is “Java technology — the way things work.”

The proof (all 250 pieces of evidence on the show floor) is hard to miss. If your goal is to enable your enterprise using Java technology, you won’t have to search far to find exactly what you need — high-quality, enterprise-grade solutions and services are now available en masse. The Java platform has truly arrived.