As the millenium approaches, it brings with it the promise of an information technology revolution,  one that will fundamentally transform the way companies do business.
Whether they engage in dynamic business re-engineering, leverage partnerships and mergers to create extended value networks, or work to better manage their supply chains through the development of sophisticated databases, companies in the next century will be transformed from "traditional" businesses to online businesses.
These businesses will increasingly rely on the worldwide, standards-based network – the Internet – to maximize their potential. At IBM, we call this "e-business".
The foundation for e-business in the next century has, in fact, already been built. And Java is its cornerstone. In fact, IBM is committed to leveraging the power of Java in the enterprise and has created a unified programming model that allows developers to create mission-critical Java applications in a number of server environments.  WebSphere, Lotus Domino, DB2, CICS Transaction Systems and other specialized application servers deployed across a variety of environments including Windows NT, OS/2, AIX, Solaris, OS/400 and OS/390 are all key components of IBM's ongoing, successful effort to put Java to work for e-businesses worldwide.
 

e-business is now...

The projected growth of e-business is enormous. IDC predicts that business-to-business Internet commerce growth will top US$176 billion by 2001, while overall Internet commerce, including business-to-consumer, will reach nearly US$300 billion early in the next century.
 

...but with the promise of e-business come the challenges.

For example, with more mergers, acquisitions and partnerships, enterprises will need to consolidate heterogeneous environments of platforms, application servers, middleware, application development tools and skills.  IT managers will be tasked with integrating these disparate business processes and applications into a standard set of enterprise-wide applications and processes.
There are several key value propositions that businesses are looking for in the IT environment of the future. These include a scalable runtime environment, with a common application infrastructure that enables applications to be deployed across the appropriate platforms dependent on their required, and ever-changing, "qualities of service" (in terms of security, performance, availability and manageability). At the same time, this environment must be able to blend applications into an integrated set of business processes.
From an application development solutions perspective, IBM has three key areas of focus:

• Modernization:  helping customers leverage and extend their existing assets, skills, and application development environments as they evolve toward this new e-business computing model.
• Application Integration: providing solutions for application integration and, therefore, business process integration, that spans the full lifecycle from re-engineering design, to application development, through asset and runtime management.
• Leveraging the Internet: helping a customer deliver on the promise of e-business; exploiting the Internet as a fundamentally new and explosive business channel for themselves.

A framework for success

As a leading provider of middleware, operating systems, software tools, business solutions and services, IBM is investing heavily in Java and working with key partners such as the Java Division of Sun Microsystems and Netscape. 
IBM is delivering Java support in servers, databases, groupware, and transaction systems, which will promote efficient delivery of business content over the Web to both browser and non-browser-based client/server systems. IBM's e-business application framework, which provides a model for building and deploying e-business applications on the Web, leverages Java as its unifying programming model and Enterprise JavaBeans as its component standard. Put simply, this framework helps developers build their e-business tools; run them in a stable, scalable environment; and manage them without worry.
IBM's e-business application framework makes five basic assumptions about e-business solutions:

• Universal access: the solution must be client-neutral, must support thin clients, and is Web browser/Java enabled. 
• Multi-Platform: the solution must support n-tiers, and the processing power can be anywhere.
• Vendor-Neutral: the solution cannot require any specific vendor’s product.
• Standards-Based: the solution must be based on standards that support a multi-vendor, open process.
• Java-Savvy: the solution must support Java, JavaBean, and Enterprise JavaBeans models in that it is a write once, run anywhere solution, and it must support standard interfaces.

Tools of the trade

Development tools to help speed creation of 100% Pure Java applications are another IBM focus. IBM's powerful VisualAge product family has been enhanced to allow the development of Java applications. IBM’s Websphere Stuido provides an easy-to-use visual authoring tool that allows web page authors who know little about programming in an object-oriented language to add Java-based interactive web components and create powerful, content-rich web sites.  More information on these powerful tools can be found at http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/. 
Other uses of Java technology being piloted in IBM are showcased on the IBM alphaWorks web site (at http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/Home/).
IBM has also improved the ability of VisualAge server languages to both interoperate with Java environments and to extend existing applications to the Web. This new functionality helps enterprises create mission-critical e-business applications. The VisualAge Generator, VisualAge Smalltalk and VisualAge Pacbase environments all provide interoperability of server code with Java clients. 
Earlier this year, IBM also announced the third release of its SanFrancisco Application Business Components for Java. IBM SanFrancisco is a Java-based collection of components that allows developers to assemble applications from existing parts, rather than build from scratch. With this new release, developers can now rapidly build Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable applications, as well as simultaneously track transactions in multiple currencies, which is essential for applications that support the new euro currency.
 

Servers and tools evolve and integrate

To help companies move from Web publishing to e-commerce, IBM has integrated its transactional application server technologies. With IBM's strategic application servers -- including Lotus Domino, CICS/390, IMS, OS/390, OS/400 and the entire WebSphere Application Server family -- businesses can span existing platforms and applications from Windows NT through S/390.
IBM WebSphere Studio is a comprehensive tools environment for building Web applications that tap into existing enterprise systems and extend them to the Web, while running on multiple platforms. WebSphere Studio also provides an open environment with support for the Enterprise JavaBeans common programming model, which simplifies and reduces the cost of developing e-business server applications. Further, WebSphere supports industry standards that include XML, CORBA and JDBC. 
IBM is continuing to evolve its application tools strategy to ensure tight affinity of development tools with the Web application server. In line with that strategy, the capabilities of IBM VisualAge for Java, e-business Edition, will be offered both in the new WebSphere Studio, as well as in VisualAge for Java, Enterprise Edition. Developers can use WebSphere Studio to quickly develop new Web applications for the WebSphere Application Server, and can then build enterprise Java applications that extend existing IT assets to the Web, with the help of the VisualAge for Java development environment.
IBM WebSphere Studio provides a complete set of tools covering Web project organization, Java Servlet code generation Wizards, HTML authoring, script development, and Java code development for applications deployed on WebSphere Application Servers. By enabling easy creation of servlets and JavaBeans, WebSphere Studio provides all of the advantages of Java servlet server-side  applications — easy data sharing, powerful Java APIs, session tracking, and resource access.
Further demonstrating IBM's commitment to Java is the recent release of Lotus eSuite WorkPlace for Sun Microsystems' JavaStation network computer, which  provides JavaStation users an easy-to-navigate desktop environment, including an integrated Web browser, terminal emulator, file manager, e-mail and a set of compact business productivity applets: word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, address book and presentation graphics.
 

A bright future

The tools, servers and applications described in this article are just a few examples of the broad support that IBM is putting behind Java. IBM's Java Web site (www.software.ibm.com/java/) contains a wealth of information (in several languages) about the scope of IBM's efforts to maximize Java's usefulness in the enterprise.
As e-business continues its tremendous growth well into the next century, Java developers charged with creating the future can count on IBM to be there to help.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

BIOGRAPHY Scott currently has responsibility for leading the development of IBM's solution and market strategy for its portfolio of application development (AD) offerings and managing the design and execution of the corresponding marketing campaigns and sales support programs.   IBM's AD solution portfolio includes the VisualAge family of AD environments,  IBM's distributed object solutions and its Java e-business AD  technologies.  Also, as the organization's lead spokesperson, Scott is an extensively referenced expert in the media and among customers on IBM’s AD and e-business software solutions.  Prior to this assignment, Scott managed IBM's object technology market development group charged with establishing early market commitment to IBM's CORBA based object technologies and products.  Pervious assignments included software strategy development with IBM's industry application solutions technical staff, communications lead for the Austin OT development laboratory and as an ISV account manager in IBM's software vendor operations organization.  Scott joined IBM in March of 1989 after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering (w/ an economics minor).