Dueling Application
Server Platforms
Sun JavaTM J2EE vs. Microsoft
.NETTM
Adapted from William Zachmann
Canopus Research Inc.
Part 1: The Bigger Picture
• The Relentless Advance of the Mammals of Intel Against
the Dinosaurs of IT
• The Rise of Middleware and the Ongoing Evolution of
Object-Oriented Component-Based Development
• The Leaner, Meaner World of IT in the ’00s
• XML-Based Web Services and the Emerging Third
Generation of the Internet
• A Fantastically Fertile Field of Opportunity
The Relentless Advance of the Intel
Mammals Over the IT Dinosaurs
• 1970s: Birth of the Microprocessor and the First Micro
Computers
• 1980s: The Decade of the Personal Computer and the Rise
of the LAN
• Recession of the ’90-91: The Epicenter of the First Wave
of Dinosaur Kill. (Wang, Dec, Data General, Tandem)
• 1990s: Wintel Servers in the Enterprise
• Dot.bust began the Second Wave of Dinosaur Kill
• 2010s: The Era of Final Extinction
Middleware and the Evolution
Component-Based Development
• The Long Pursued, Elusive, Dream of Object-Oriented,
Component-Based, Platform Independent, Development
(DCE, OpenDoc, CORBA, and so forth)
• Java (J2EE) and .NET Are Today’s Choices
The DotCom TulipMania
Phenomenon of the 1990s
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The DotCom Boom and the “New Economics” of the Nutty Nineties
Champaign and Caviar Technology Purchases by the DotCom
Companies (e.g.):
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Sun SOLARIS
Oracle
Cisco
EMC
Vitria, Broadvision, Vignette, Plumtree, Commerce One and all the
other “value priced” software vendors
Out of money? No problem! We’ll just go to the NASDAQ and get
some more!
Fear and Greed Factor Among the Brick’n’Mortars
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Fear: We’ll be wiped out by a dot.com!
Greed: We can get rich in the stock market, too!
The Leaner, Meaner World of IT in
the ’00s
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Welcome back to the real World!
Return to ROI
Meat and Potatoes replaces Champaign and Caviar
Real Costs Count
TCO Jive Does Not
Buying Smarter
The Three Generations of the
Internet
• G1 Internet
– Before 1992 (pre-browser)
– ASCII text information exchange
• G2 Internet
– 1992-2001
– HTML information access and display, web applications
• G3 Internet
– 2002-2010(+)
– XML-based system-to-system interaction and integration
– The age of Web Services. WS-I.ORG
A Fantastically Fertile Field of
Opportunity
• Tough Times Lay Down Compost
• Fundamental Innovation Typically Entails:
– New People
– New Firms
– New Money
Part 2: Java and .Net
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A quick Java history and Vendor overview
Java and Web Services
Benchmark Disasters
Future of Java
What the heck is .Net
Myths and Realities
Decisions
A Little Bit of Java Platform History
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May 23, 1995: Java Technology Launched by Sun
October 16, 1996: Java Bean Spec Completed
February 18, 1997 JDK 1.1 Ships
April 2, 1997: Sun Announced EBJs
June 15, 1999: J2EE Announced
December 8, 1999: J2EE Platform Ships
January 31. 2002: Java 2 SDK Enterprise Edition, Version
1.3.1 is released
• Currently J2EE 1.4 moving along, due out next year
Assessing J2EE App Server
Vendors
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BEA WebLogic is #1
IBM WebSphere is #2
Oracle 9iAS and iPlanet are the (distant) second tier
And then there is everyone else (the even more distant
third tier)
Authorized Java TM
Licensees of J2EETM (as of MidFebruary 2002)
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ATG
BEA Systems
Borland Corp.
BroadVision
Brokat
Cape Clear Software
Compaq
Computer Associates
Fujitsu
Fujitsu Siemens Computers
Hitachi
HP Bluestone
IBM
In-Q-My
Interworld
IONA Technologies
iPlanetTM E-Commerce Solutions
Lutris Technologies, Inc.
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Macromedia
MERANT
NEC
Nokia
Oracle Corporation
Persistence Software, Inc.
Pramati
SAS Institute, Inc.
Secant
SilverStream
Sonic Software Corporation
Sybase, Inc.
Talarian
TIBCO Software, Inc.
Tmax Soft
Together Soft
Trifork Technologies
WebGain
J2EE and Web Services
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Scott McNealy’s View: We’ve been doing it all along
Sorry, Scott but you are wrong
The sad, sorry, saga of ebXML
Where the real action is:
– SOAP, WSDL, UDDI
– IBM and Microsoft Drive the Stack
– WS-I.ORG
• Built in vs. Bolted On. Pet Shop Disaster
• Web Service in J2EE 1.4
Benchmarks
• Middleware Company. Leading J2EE
consulting firm.
• www.middleware-company.com
• Hosts of www.TheServerSide.com
• Leading Java Community Web Site.
The Present and Future State of
the Java Platform
• J2EE 1.3 (and EJB 2.0)
– Rounds things out (e.g. JCA, Message Beans)
– Partially addresses performance issues with Enterprise Java
Beans in general, entity beans in particular
– A (very) thin smear of web services
• J2EE 1.4
– Various incremental improvements
• I/O, JFC updates, long-term persistence, printing, etc.
– More web services stuff
• J2EE Beyond 1.4
– Where does the platform go from here?
– Vendors going their own ways?
– Tools?
Problems for Sun/Java
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Death by Committee
Holding the Community Together
Relationship with IBM
Hardware Company
They don’t own the leading App Server
Who make the tools?
Daring move to Linux
Just What the Heck is .NET
Anyway?
• Understanding .NET can be be a bit tricky, because Microsoft uses the
name in several different ways.
– As the brand name for the latest version on the Microsoft serverside approach generally
– As the brand name for Microsoft’s server software products in
particular
– In the context of Microsoft’s own approach to web services
– . NET binary technologies
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Visual Studio .NET
Windows .NET
CLR
C# Language
Microsoft’s .NET Enterprise
Servers
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Application Center
BizTalk Server
Commerce Server
Content Management Server
Exchange Server
Host Integration Server
Internet Security and Acceleration Server
Mobile Information Server
SharePoint Portal Server
SQL Server
Windows 2000 Server
Windows .NET Server (on the way)
A Bit of .NET History
• Builds on, but also goes beyond the COM/COM+/DNA
legacy foundation
• More than four years in development
• Not a reaction to Java
• XML and web services were designed in early in the
process
.NET Myths and .NET Realities
“Proof by Repeated Assertion”
• Myth: Unlike Java .NET is Proprietary
– Reality:.NETTM is no more proprietary than J2EE TM
• Myth: Unlike Java, .NET is not a standard
– Reality: Key parts of .NET are standards – Java, however, is not
• .Net is not scalable, reliable, secure
– Reality: .Net implementations, properly done, are at least as
scalable, reliable, and secure as anything J2EE, correctly done
• .Net is not a reliable platform for industrial strength
systems in the enterprise
– Reality: .NET is at least as well suited for the job as is J2EE
• .Net is Windows Specific
– Reality: Myth of Lock-in and Portability
The Truth About Vendor Lock-in
• No technology, regardless of the promises made for it, truly delivers
complete platform independence. This is a fantasy. The truth is that
any non-trivial application systems will end up locked into one vendor
or more vendors’ products. The issue is not that of zero lock-in, but of
which vendors you prefer to lock-in with.
• With J2EE, you will in fact end up with substantial lock-in, not only to
some particular vendor’s J2EE application server suite, but to some
particular operating system as well.
• With .NET, you will certainly lock-in with Microsoft Windows – but
you become free to choose your server hardware from any vendor that
sells servers, with only two exceptions: Apple and Sun.
The Tools Dimension, Languages, and
Roles of C#, VB, and so forth
• Practically speaking, tools matter – and a lot, too!
• Anders Hejlberg has long been associated with the best
tools in the business outside Microsoft. And for the past
four years, he’s been working on .NET and C# at
Microsoft.
• Reusability of code is nice – but reusability of the IT skills
people actually have can often deliver even more
immediate substantial business value.
• C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, Cobal.Net, etc.
.NET and Web Services
• .NET and Microsoft’s initiatives are very closely linked
• There is, however, no necessary connection between .NET and the
IBM/MicroSoft web services protocol stack (WS-1.ORG).
• .NET will, for most organizations, provide the most effective platform
from which to build and to consume web services simply by virtue of
offering the most immediately accessible, practical, understandable
way to do so.
• XML and web services are not bolted on to .NET. They are built in at a
very deep level. This is a key practical advantage that .NET has over
J2EE.
Some Basic Facts Beneath the
Choices
• Costs do matter
• There is no reason to choose a more complex, costlier
option over a simpler, less expensive one
• Good enough is good enough
Conditions Favoring .NET
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Business requirements can be adequately met using Wintel servers
Cost minimization is a top priority
Existing Windows-based server infrastructure is in place
Windows deployment and administration skills are readily available
Business experienced Basic, C, C++, COBAL, etc. programmers
readily available
• Integration with MS Office applications is advantageous
• Rapid responses to changing business requirements is critical
A Simple Decision Model for
Choosing Between J2EE and .Net
• If circumstances absolutely require or strongly favor using
J2EE, then use J2EE
• Otherwise use .NET
• It really is that simple!
• Absent compelling business reasons favoring J2EE, .NET
will generally be the lower cost, more agile option offering
the best overall return for IT dollars invested
Content Management Seminar
“A New Idea in CMS”
This Friday 8am - 9:30am
4200 W Brown Deer Road
Pat@northwoodsoft.com
Questions and Clarifications