The state of Java application middleware, Part 1 [Video]

Client/server is dead. That’s the buzz now that newer Internet-based technologies are flourishing. But those new technologies are merely the natural evolution of earlier approaches, implemented with newer, more open protocols and designed to provide greater scalability, manageability, and diversity.

The magnitude of this evolution is astounding. Most of the major client/server vendors have modernized their products and now direct their marketing dollars into three-tiered technologies. In most cases, the newer products are Java-centric and Internet-protocol centric. For example, I identified at least 46 Java middleware products at last count. Two years ago it would have been hard to come up with half that number.

This is the first of a two-part series of articles dedicated to explaining general-purpose Java middleware in its current forms. In this first article, I’ll examine the features of current products and explain why these features are important. In the second part, Anil Hemrajani will …