InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
December 14, 1998
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 Enterprise Application Integration SoftwareTeamwareEnterprise JavaBeansSQL Server 7.0Network-Attached StorageApplication ServersNetware 5Customer-Management ApplicationsMidmarket ERPTransaction Management |
 he only thing certain about the IT industry is change. De facto standards rise and fall. Applications that appear to be the backbone of IT infrastructures one day become mere components the next. Technologies are hyped, then dismissed, then reborn in ways that were never imagined at their inception.Identifying the most important products of the year under such circumstances wasn't easy. The products and technologies listed in the following pages were chosen by InformationWeek editors because we felt they had the most impact on IT customers this year. In 1998, we witnessed the Internet Gold Rush. Previous years saw the expansion of the Internet as essentially a communications medium, but its potential as a medium for commercial transactions began to be truly explored only this year. That evolution was partly due to some of the technologies represented by this year's Most Important Products winners. Enterprise resource management applications, Web application servers and tools, and transaction-management software provided the building blocks for this Internet-commerce infrastructure; new enterprise application integration software, new databases, and other technologies provided access to the applications and data needed to make the infrastructure work. Internet technology also left its mark elsewhere. Teamware packages got expanded functionality, making it possible to create virtual collaborative teams that transcend corporate boundaries. Java, first built for the Internet, became an enterprise architecture contender with the birth of Enterprise JavaBeans. And Novell embraced Java and Internet standards to revitalize its NetWare operating system. All of the products on the following pages seem to share one common thread with those we've identified in previous years--they strive toward openness, rely or expand on standards, and hinge on simplicity. And because of that, they may even outlive the hype that surrounds them. --Sean Gallagher |
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