Ajit Sagar

If we consider JavaOne as the event when Java was born, then June 27-30, 2005, will mark its tenth birthweek. A lot has happened since the language that was trademarked with dancing dukes made its appearance into the world of computing. In its current incarnation, the Java platform is undoubtedly the backbone of distributed enterprise applications in today's IT.

At Infosys, I've come across several projects in which the Java platform was being adopted, upgraded, integrated with existing technologies, or replaced with an alternate technology. The choices are influenced by business drivers that push enterprise applications toward the next generation platform, which can service more customers with a host of new features that were not available earlier due to technical limitations or poor design. Here are the main trends that I've seen at our client bases.

1.  Distribute My Apps
This is obviously the main reason for enterprises to adopt the Java platform. Enterprises want to move toward an n-tier model, decoupling their UI and data source from the business logic and enabling scalable deployment. The trends we have seen here are the migration of applications from mainframes or two-tier applications such as PowerBuilder to an open platform - Java/J2EE.

2.  Orient My Services
SOA is one of the hottest buzzwords in the industry. The promise of bridging the gap between technology and business is what makes service-oriented architecture such an attractive proposition. Java is a natural fit for enabling service orientation of existing applications. Several enterprises are considering the move toward a service-oriented architecture and looking at the features of the Java platform as the enabler.

3.  Service-Enable My Web
SOA is often confused with Web services, which are basically the most feasible (but not the only) choice for implementing an SOA. However, as the obvious technology of choice for service-enabling applications, many clients are looking at adopting/enhancing their Java applications to expose business functionality via Web services. Java WSDP, Apache's WSIF, and feature sets provided by several vendors make these initiatives feasible.

4.  Orchestrate My Processes
We've had discussions with several clients on the merits of adopting BPM and workflow. The market for BPM, discounting Microsoft's BizTalk, is made up of players from different origins, who have wrapped their offerings under the BPM umbrella. The base for all these vendors is the J2EE platform. In this case, clients usually have a messaging and Java base that they want to enhance with process orchestration. There are many initiatives that are driven by the new compliance rules such as those under Sarbanes-Oxley.

5.  Migrate My App Server
Enterprises already deployed on a J2EE application server are looking at upgrading/migrating/replacing their application servers. The drivers include obsolescence, acquisitions, and cost. If you are at JavaOne and are interested in this particular trend, please attend my presentation on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. - BOF 9042: Who Moved My J2EE Platform, which discusses app server migrations. The details are at my blog: www.ajitsagar.javadevelopersjournal.com/read/1063063.htm.

6.  Open My Source
Cost and TCO have driven enterprises to seriously consider the adoption of the Java platform through the open source community. While large enterprises are still wary of betting their entire business on open source Java products, component and framework development within these enterprises is definitely adopting the open source route. In addition, the majority of Java vendors are leveraging open source as the base for their own products.

7.  Integrate My Messages
A large fraction of clients that we service have their applications built on some messaging base. This is not typically JMS, but a pre-JMS MOM product. Several organizations are dealing with the design issues of leveraging their existing messaging infrastructure with a Java front end. At the same time, they want to explore the benefits of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) offerings from Java vendors.

8.  Integrate My Enterprise
EAI and portals - the back-end and front-end integration of enterprise applications is a prevalent issue within large enterprises with a variety of technologies. The Java platform offers several features such as the Portlet API (JSR 000168) and JCA for EAI integration to enable application integration.

9.  Scale Back My EJBs
A trend that is evident in several large organizations is to scale back on the usage of EJBs. I don't know of many clients who are recommending entity beans for application design. In fact, the directive is usually to replace entity beans with in-house persistence techniques, hibernate, or JDO. Message-driven beans (MDBs), however, are being leveraged where appropriate.

10.  And Take Me Back to the Mainframe
This is one of the counter-intuitive moves in some organizations. For number crunching and batch functionality, many clients have realized that embracing Java for everything was overkill. In many cases, the functionality is being moved back to where it was, with the distribution of the application being mainly in the UI. Leveraging Web services directly to integrate with legacy apps is another trend.

All in all, Java has come a long way in the past 10 years. Enterprises have come the full circle from wariness, to faith, to trust, to an optimal utilization of what the platform has to offer.