Charles Sesma

The Internet plays a major role during the architecture, development, and deployment of software applications today; it will only continue to become more of a permanent core within all software initiatives in the future. As I see it, the “Internet” in RIA is a given, especially within the Java platform; from Java’s inception to today, the internet has been its focus. Unable to proliferate on the desktop, which I will speak about in a second, it cornered the enterprise as the de-facto standard for big business internet infrastructure needs.

Java succeded in fulfilling the role as the industry proven, secure, reliable, robust, enterprise platform; powering the back-ends of Internet Applications today. On the enterprise, the GUI of applications, the visual layer that represents the application is not as critical as it is on the client; on desktops, mobile devices, within browsers, Richness is what defines the internet experience. The enterprise requires robust logic processing, security, reliability; Java’s known strengths. Yet, Java’s strongest ability, the reason for its massive adoption on the enterprise, is its ability to Integrate and Interoperate with other technologies while maintaining its core value propositions: security, reliability, complex robust logic processing.

Why has Java been unable to proliferate on the desktop? It has been around since 1991, and within the last decade we can remember the billion dollar disagreements between Sun and Microsoft regarding Java’s use on operating systems. Java’s weakness is also its strength, Integration. By stifling its ability to integrate, Java’s entrance into the desktop was hindered...

Tags: Industry News

Charles Sesma

Internet Applications are well known to everyone today. Since the invention of the Internet the browser has been the carrier for all Internet apps; the browser being a lightweight container that would represent snapshots of an application that was executing on a Server. The Internet provided a framework for building applications that were accessible from any operating system or device that could execute a browser; Internet applications were Platform Independent due to the fact that they resided on a Server and were remotely accessed from clients (browsers) around the world. Internet applications lacked many abilities that forced many early application providers to build Operating System (OS) Applications. Please read the “Personal Enterprise” to understand the reasons that prompted the building of the current structure of the Internet as well as understand the downsides to building Internet applications.

In 1995, the first user-friendly Operating System hit the market, Windows 95, providing a robust, highly adopted platform for building reliable applications that resided on your computer. OS applications were different than Internet applications; they were bulky, durable and capable of providing lots of complexity due to the fact that the entire application resided on your computer, making it responsive and directly capable of leveraging all the resources available on the machine. OS applications were a great solution for companies seeking to not include the vulnerabilities of the internet within their technology, and at the same time, take advantage of all the resources of the machine: rich graphics, local storage, access to all the hardware and software installed on the machine, and independence from internet connectivity limitations (slowness). The downsides to OS applications is that the entire application needs to reside on your computer (Platform Dependent), the application only functions on the operating system it was designed for (development lock), and the costs of managing and deploying OS applications is very high...

Tags: Industry News