Nelson King

Java Server Pages were something of a late comer to Java and had a rocky start, but that was a couple of years ago. Today, JSP is a well-accepted component of Java, and many tools use and support it. As a framework for scripting database connections, JSP usually works through JDBC (the Java equivalent of […]

As you go up the complexity scale in Web data — multiple database servers, distributed applications, Web services, and fat clients — it becomes increasingly difficult for simple coding with a markup language to manage the data. That’s where a relatively new breed of software comes in: the application server. (See our tutorial “Web Servers […]

Centralization is an obvious principle of server consolidation. If you have servers in 40 offices, consolidate them at 10 locations. You might have the same number of servers, but the reduction in overhead by cutting sites can be prodigious. However, centralization is not just a numbers game. There may be good reasons why servers are […]

What are Web services? If you ask 10 experts you’ll get 11 answers and many qualifiers. Let’s start with an example instead: You want a stock ticker in your application or your browser? You can get that piece of programming as a Web service. For the end user Web services run the gamut from simple […]

Often, for simplicity’s sake, developers and IT staff like to put one application on one server. This enables people to say things like, “That’s the database server.” Sometimes there are good reasons for the one application, one server rule. Often, there is no real reason, and several applications could live quite efficiently together. Consequently, consolidating […]

Just as the best advice for buying hardware is usually, “choose the software you need and then pick the hardware to run it,” applications and data should usually drive server consolidation. By evaluating what impact consolidation will have on the software, you’ll get a better picture of costs and be forced to think about the […]

Because Web services will probably have varied effect on different industries, it is helpful to read or hear case stories from peers. This will enable you to develop a sense for how Web services are applied and perhaps learn some of the caveats and gotchas. In the end though, you must acquire an intuitive feel […]

If you have the resources (i.e., time, money, and patience) during a testing phase, try to push the limits of Web services in the context of your own organization. This means, for example, that you set up a pilot or trial program where users must connect with the Internet, fire up a Web-services-based application, have […]

So far we’ve talked mostly about building your own Web services. To a certain extent this is fine with many of the vendors, they’ll sell the tools. However, most, if not all, of them also want to sell Web services in whole or in part. As mentioned, they see Web services as a cash cow […]

Everything we’ve previously stated falls into two threads: Web services are real, and they will (eventually) find an important place in the options for software distribution. However, whether they become the be-all, end-all of software is a very open question, so a degree of caution is warranted. More than most “hot trends” in computing, Web […]

The Big Four As mentioned, there are scores of Web servers available today. Some are free. Some are commercial. Some are heavy-duty; some are light-duty (even personal). Some are highly visible products; others are nearly invisibly embedded within another product. The most heavily used products, as indicated in the graph below, are Apache Web Server, […]

After IM Use Has Been Acknowledged IM solutions fall into two models: Enterprise IM networks are available for an enterprise’s private intranet (e.g., IBM SameTime or Microsoft Live Communication Server), and hosted IM networks (e.g., Reuters Messaging), where a third party manages the servers offsite but the enterprise has access to the data. With both […]