Middleware: Achieving Open Systems for the Enterprise

This CTR report examines how current business requirements are compelling companies to streamline their diverse computer infrastructures. The report addresses the different features available in middleware systems and the benefits they offer to developers and end users. The report also discusses how heightened interest in Internet and intranet applications may diminish the appeal of client/server (C/S) and present a challenge to middleware vendors. What Exactly Is Middleware? As the report explains, the term middleware describes a handful of products that use radically different architectures to offer broadly similar sets of services. These products mediate high-level communications between client and server or server and server and can be divided into five primary categories: message passing systems, remote procedure calls (RPCs) , object request brokers (ORBs) , online transaction processing (OLTP) monitors, and database management systems (DBMS) . The report offers a detailed description of each middleware product and provides answers to these vital questions: How does the product work? What are the products' capabilities and limitations? What are the criteria for product selection? Who are the key suppliers? Your Guide to Successful Middleware Implementation The advent of client/server (C/S) applications has dramatically changed corporate application development requirements. Today's organizations are operating using a broad range of computers, network protocols, and databases, and something is needed to link the system together and mask the differences between the components. Middleware, which acts as a buffer between operating systems, networks, and disparate applications, is becoming a popular tool to help organizations overcome interconnectivity problems. CTR's report, Middleware: Achieving Open Systems for the Enterprise, provides an in-depth analysis of middleware technology, a comprehensive examination of the primary middleware products, advantages and disadvantages of each middleware product, information on building, maintaining, and evaluating a middleware framework, and an analysis of the Internet's effect on middleware implementation.