InformationWeek

July 26, 1999

Developers Move To Middle Ground

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Since Microsoft powers almost all business desktops, Windows NT is the Web and application server of choice for many companies moving to a midtier strategy. Yet the move to NT servers in the middle is a move away from client machines for many applications.

"Companies have learned that Web applications can be revised more frequently than desktop applications, plus they are cheaper and easier to maintain over time," says Susan Warren, product manager for Microsoft's Visual InterDev 6.0. Rolling out Windows client applications takes time at each desktop, but putting a new app on a Web server eliminates the need to change client software.

True enough, but the immaturity of products and services is complicating the process. Often, a single company provides both the tools and services, since they are the most experienced help available. At the same time, the migration tools market is so new, vendors can't stop running long enough to gauge the market.

"Many customers do projects internally and have enough expertise to make it work with just a little help," says Scott Dietzen, chief technology officer for the WebXpress division of BEA Systems Inc. Yet "traditional, nontechnology companies need more help," he says. "One-third of our revenue is from services, and we can't cover the demand."

Evergreen's Clare sees the same situation with his customers. In 1996, Evergreen was strictly a service company. Two years later, it started selling 15 modular E-commerce products. All are in Java and Enterprise JavaBeans for use in the middle tier.

One of the big challenges companies face when integrating Web apps into existing client-server systems is connecting legacy stovepipe apps. In the past, these connections typically had proprietary interfaces to both systems, making them inflexible. Many vendors now offer tools that deliver better cross-platform communication.

IBM's upgraded MQSeries messaging software, announced in mid-June, supports XML and Java Messaging Service, the developing standard for enterprise messaging services. "We provide base messaging services between 35 different operating systems and server platforms," says Rob Lamb, business unit executive for IBM's MQSeries. MQSeries also provides a rules and formatting engine for transferring data, he says.

Of course, the ultimate goal of building a three-tier architecture is to move the business logic away from clients. In a client-server system, that logic sits behind the user interface; but in a three-tier system, the business logic resides on a Web server on which it can be shared.

Microsoft's Warren emphasizes the importance of keeping business logic and data separate from the user interface. "Programmers are learning how to reuse middle-tier objects, especially COM," she says, referring to the Component Object Model software architecture from Microsoft.

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