InformationWeek

July 26, 1999

Developers Move To Middle Ground

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"Customers are turning the corner on the philosophy of security and Web exposure," Warren says. "They are now much more sophisticated about security options, such as logging in to various server pages. Many are looking to expose Web applications to partners through extranets."

Links To Partners
The location of the business logic--the rules that process data to fit the company's needs--becomes even more critical when extranets link trading partners. "It's too expensive to have multiple portals and multiple external system connections into a company," says Bob Gleason, CEO of Riverton Software Corp., which provides application framework and software code for midtier apps. "Companies need a sense of order and control and a flexible architecture to support E-commerce."

But roadblocks remain on the road between the two-tier present and three-tier future. Jennifer Kotzen, manager of Sybase Inc.'s Internet Application Division, works with companies handling migration themselves, as well as those using Sybase's Enterprise Services.

Kotzen sees four potential roadblocks for companies: First, companies can't replace their old client-server systems, so they must share the business logic with the new apps. Both systems will coexist for a time. Second, integrating back-end systems, such as legacy mainframe data and enterprise resource planning apps, is a challenge because the data formats are incompatible and must be translated. Third, companies must learn to deal with the new application systems they are building. Finally, there are limited people resources to handle all the new projects confronting IT.

Legacy system migration is nothing new to Rachel Helm, director of technology strategy for integration software vendor CrossWorlds Software Inc.

"Every customer and prospect has some kind of legacy application to deal with," Helm says. And even with migration tools, other problems crop up for customers. "Distributed systems are more difficult to manage. There's a lot of competing systems, but no centralized standard for system administration."

Helm echoed the sentiments of many vendors helping companies implement new solutions. "Legacy systems weren't built to communicate with external applications," she says. But good news is coming.

She sees three-tier technology at "a critical juncture now," with cheaper, faster networks and lots of integration technology as the catalysts. Says Helm, "the growth of E-business, and the speed with which people have to change now, is compelling companies to get business and technology moving forward."