Briefing Book: Java passes endurance tests

• By Michael W. Bucken
• March 26, 2003

For whatever reasons, the image of Java has suffered somewhat over the past year or so. Why? It could be that the never-ending Microsoft .NET campaign compelled development managers to evaluate that alternative to Java. It could be that Java technology isn't progressing as fast as some had hoped. It could be simply that Java is no longer new or ''cool'' to developers -- its early hype was too much for any technology to live up to. Whatever it is, some Java champions feared for a bit that the technology was losing steam.

The subdued hype surrounding Java prompted us to take a close look at a couple of key Java-based technologies -- Java Message Service (JMS) and J2EE application servers. Our authors found that Java is alive and well, and remains the most -- and perhaps the only -- viable alternative to Microsoft technologies.

The evolution of JMS since its unveiling with great fanfare during the 1998 JavaOne conference is traced by correspondent John Waters from those early days in JMS taking a place in the enterprise.

Early on, analysts told Waters, the Java messaging technology was seen by many observers to be inferior even to Microsoft's then-immature messaging systems. Over the ensuing years, however, JMS has quietly overcome early technical problems to become a key technology in products from firms ranging from giants like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle to smaller suppliers like SpiritSoft and Fiorano Software. And, analysts say, JMS is positioned to become a key element in enabling Web services within corporate IT groups.

Another recent foray into Java is Editor-at-Large Jack Vaughan's look a J2EE application server business that has seen considerable consolidation over the past couple of years. Vaughan takes a look at the state of several application server players today, and where one can reasonably expect the technology to extend in the coming months and years, in Improvements mark evolving Java servers.

One of the intersting aspects of Java is the way in which it has found at times coexistence with open source software - especially with the advent of the JUnit test package. Our resident Java expert Dwight Duego, a professor of computer science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and a track chair for the XML Web Services One Conference, recently discussed JUnit as well as other Java test issues in Why won't it work? In fact, Java is proving time tested, and worthy of continued investigation.

Links
JMS taking a place in the enterprise 2/1/2003
Improvements mark evolving Java servers 2/1/2003
Why won't it work? 2/1/2003

Portions of this story appeared in the Feb 2003 issues of ADT.