As Java has gained acceptance in the enterprise, the need has grown for middle-tier servers that can provide Java-based systems with the system-level services and management tools necessary for true enterprise-class reliability and performance. Increasingly, Web application servers are becoming synonymous with Java application servers, as organizations adopt Java servlets and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) components on the server side. Secant Technologies' Extreme Enterprise Server and TSI Software's Novera 4.6 (now Mercator Web Broker) were neck and neck in our review of Java application servers this past year (see "Spilling the Beans on Java Application Servers", and they remained virtually in a dead heat in the judging.

But Secant's forward-looking, ongoing commitment to interoperability and Java standards tipped the scale in Extreme Enterprise Server's favor. The code generated by Extreme Enterprise Server's bean-building tools is pure, portable Java, without proprietary calls or methods. This plays to Java's strengths, while helping to avoid getting locked into any one vendor's product. Extreme Enterprise Server's available integration with Rational Rose 98i adds the ability to go from high-level design to low-level code seamlessly--a much-needed attribute for large, complex projects. Secant's product also has complete interoperability with CORBA. Besides being critical for shops with existing CORBA-based, distributed systems, this interoperability makes sense as CORBA and Java become increasingly interrelated. Finally, Extreme Enterprise Server has a depth of system-configuration options and management features that make it easy to use, yet impressively powerful.

-- Richard Hoffman

Middleware Technology

Winner

Sun Enterprise JavaBeans 1.1 and Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE), Sun Microsystems www.sun.com www.java.sun.com/products/ejb

Finalists

CORBA 3.0 specification, Object Management Group, (781) 444-0404 www.omg.org XML, W3C www.w3.org

Award: Middleware Technology

Enterprise-level interoperability with Java has taken great leaps forward within the past year. Sun Microsystems' challenge was to turn Java from the "hot new thing" into a reliable, robust, enterprise-level tool for developing and deploying mission-critical IT applications across multiple platforms and environments. With the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE), Sun has met that goal.

The combination of technologies in J2EE, including Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java Message Service (JMS), the Servlet API, and the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), extends the Java specification to where it has, for the first time, the key components needed for enterprise deployments. Some of the components are more mature than others, but all the major pieces are there. In particular, EJB 1.1, along with its reference implementation, has come into its own as a much-needed extension of the original 1.0 spec, including more standardized and complete support for object persistence (see "Sneaking Up On CORBA: The Race for the Ideal Distributed Object Model" at www.networkcomputing.com/1009/1009f2.html). Nearly every major vendor with a middleware product already supports the 1.1 specification, or soon will. If Sun can avoid fragmentation of Java and quell dissention in the ranks, J2EE and many of its pieces will take their place as the standard for many, if not most, enterprise development efforts.

-- Richard Hoffman