slide: Netscape Enterprise Server
For programming server facilities,
Netscape offered the Internet Foundation Classes
as part of the Open Network Environment (ONE),
which is based on standards such as SMPT, HTTP and SQL.
However, the Internet Foundation Classes for Java
have become part of the Java Foundation Classes
that are delivered with Java 1.2.
Server facilities include messaging, content store,
database access and state management.
Additional components may be provided either as
server extensions through the NSAPI,
or through CORBA IIOP.
For the actual creation of content and the deployment
of all that technology, there is a large variety of tools
from Netscape and other vendors,
and plenty of documentation that may be obtained
from Netscape's Web site.
The Microsoft way -- DNA
It is interesting to note that Microsoft's commitment
to the Web came relatively late.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Microsoft recognizes
the importance of the Internet and the Web
as the infrastructure of what it calls
the Digital Nervous System
of corporations.
slide: Business logic
In February 1999, I had the pleasure of hearing Bill Gates
speak about the Digital Nervous System,
as a unifying concept for corporations
to execute and record transactions electronically,
and as a means to create corporate awareness
of the actual state of business and current business goals.
I found this view quite appealing,
although the complexity involved
in the actual archiving, search, retrieval and
presentation of such material is quite immense.
Ideally, as depicted in slide [DNS],
central to any corporate information structure
must be the business logic that governs
the policies and information needs of the organization.
At the backend of the system we may have a database,
legacy systems, or external applications delivering information.
For end-users, depending on the particular architecture
chosen, there may be thin or fat clients
giving access to the information and communication facilities.
slide: Microsoft DNA
To turn to actual technology, Microsoft's proposal to realize
their vision is the Microsoft Dynamic Networking Architecture (DNA),
of which the basic components are given in slide [DNA].
In the column on the left, we have the
presentation facilities, ranging from (dynamic) HTML
to Win32 applications, going from thin to fat, indeed.
In the business logic column,
we have COM+ (which is the followup on (D)COM),
the Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ),
and the Internet Information Server, which is a powerful
server that allows for server-side scripting,
Active Server Pages (ASP), and COM-based objects.
For handling data, Microsoft offers the
ActiveX Data Objects format (ADO), OLE-DB to connect to databases,
and XML.
It must be noted here that Microsoft is actively engaged
in promoting XML as a data interchange standard,
in cooperation with the W3C.
In summary,
Microsoft DNA offers Presentation Services,
Application Services, Data Services and System Services.
In addition, Microsoft offers an appealing suite
of tools collected in the Visual Studio,
including Visual C++, Visual Basic and Visual Interdev,
for creating dynamic data-driven Web applications.
Although I do not intend to make this sound like an ad,
it cannot be denied that Microsoft is a serious player!