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December 14, 1998

Most Important Products Of 98

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Most Important Products Of 98:
  • Enterprise Application Integration Software
  • Teamware
  • Enterprise JavaBeans
  • SQL Server 7.0
  • Network-Attached Storage
  • Application Servers
  • NetWare 5
  • Customer-Management Applications
  • Midmarket ERP
  • Transaction Management
  • Runners-Up
    • Enterprise JavaBeans
    Ever since Java took the application development world by storm in 1996 with its cross-platform promise, its biggest shortcoming has been the lack of APIs for server-side, enterprisewide business applications. But Java got a huge boost on that front in March of this year when Sun's former JavaSoft unit released Enterprise JavaBeans 1.0. Enterprise JavaBeans is a component model that uses Java distributed objects to build enterprisewide, transaction-processing applications. Beans are developed independently from communication protocols, so developers are generally shielded from writing code to define and initialize transactions.

    Enterprise JavaBeans has become a standard architecture for building distributed Java business applications. Database and application leaders such as Baan, IBM, Oracle, Netscape, and Sybase supported the Enterprise JavaBeans spec immediately. Many vendors that had been working with beta versions of the API had products ready the day of the API's formal release, and several others said support for the Enterprise JavaBeans spec would be included in the next release of their products. No company's support has boosted Enterprise JavaBeans more than IBM's. With even more Java programmers than Sun, IBM has made Enterprise JavaBeans a key part of its networked computing strategy for electronic-business applications.

    IBM supports Enterprise JavaBeans in its San Francisco initiative, which has already produced Java component frameworks for warehouse-management and order-management applications, with manufacturing and human resources app frameworks coming soon. If there were any more doubts about Java's established position in the mainstream of enterprise IT, IBM is also working on adding Enterprise JavaBeans support to DB2, CICS/390, IMS host-based transaction software, MQSeries messaging software, Lotus Domino, and its VisualAge for Java development tool.

    --Clinton Wilder

    next product: SQL Server 7.0



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