Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

To view the Report card on Java Middleware.
Java Application Server
JDBC Drivers
JMS Products
JTS Products
Push Products
Lopsided availability of Java products doesn't make migrating to a Java environment any easier. Because even simple Java applications need to store and retrieve data, and because producing JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) drivers is easier than developing other types of middleware, JDBC drivers abound in the Java middleware market. However, middleware products for messaging services, such as JMS (Java Messaging Specification); transaction services and monitoring like JTS (Java Transaction Service); push services; JRMI (Java Remote Method Interface); and naming and directory services like JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) remain scarce. General-purpose Java Beans and Enterprise Java Beans don't exist yet, though several developer tools support their creation.

While some vendors have grafted a Java interface onto their non-Java middleware products, the Java interface can drastically limit your choice of Java compilers and run-time platforms. Microsoft's Transaction Server is a prime example: Choosing it to manage transactions in your Java environment restricts you to using Microsoft's J++ compiler to render Java applications as ActiveX components.

We stress-tested 17 Java middleware products:

· Nine JDBC drivers--BulletProof Corp.'s JAGGServer, WebLogic's Pure Java JDBC Drivers For Informix and SQL Servers (formerly FastForward), IBM Corp.'s DB2 JDBC Driver, INTERSOLV's SequeLink Java Edition 4.0, OpenLink Software's High Performance Data Access Drivers 3.0, Oracle Corp.'s JDBC Drivers for Oracle7 and Oracle8, Sybase's jConnect for JDBC 3.0, Inprise Corp.'s VisiChannel for JDBC and WebLogic's jdbcKona;

· One push product--Marimba's Castanet 2.1;

· Four JTS products--BEA Systems' Jolt 1.1, IBM's limited availability release of TXSeries 4.2, Microsoft Corp.'s Transaction Server 2.0 and Sybase's Jaguar CTS 1.1.1;

· Two JMS products--a beta version of IBM's MQSeries Client for Java and MQSeries 5.0 and Microsoft's MSMQ 1.0; and

· One Java application server--WebLogic's Tengah 3.0 that supplies JNDI, JRMI, JDBC and other Java services. Another application server, Oracle's Application Server 4.0, was in early beta and not ready in time for our evaluation.