By Chris Nerney
Network World, 9/28/98

Three years after its debut, Sun's Java programming language remains one of the great buzz generators of the networking world.

Rhetoric ranges from Sun's promise that Java will create a true cross-platform network nirvana to critics' charges that Java is slow, buggy and insufficiently scalable to handle heavy-duty use in a large organization.

While Java may never become the operating system that breaks the Windows stranglehold on the computing world, the programming language has a bright future in the enterprise, a number of analysts and users say. For some large enterprises, that future is beginning now. A recent survey by Zona Research of 178 organizations shows that nearly half are serious about running server-side Java applications.

Still, early commitments and rosy projections aside, few corporate networks today are deploying Java in a big way. The vast majority are running pilot programs, tire-kicking and otherwise hedging their bets.

"I keep hearing of instances of large-scale Java deployments," says Thomas Keffer, founder and CEO of Rogue Software. "But almost always when you chase them down, it's a group of very talented individuals doing experimental projects that are going to be depended on by 100 or 200 users. They're not hanging the business off it."

Keffer's company, based in Boulder, Colo., in June announced it had postponed work on its Java server, code-named Pathfinder, because too few enterprise customers were developing or deploying Java applications. "I'm not claiming it's not going to happen. I just think the hype has run way ahead of the reality," he says. The hype is being generated by Sun, its licensees and thousands of steadfast Java programmers rooting for a nonproprietary computing utopia.

Sun has tried to walk a fine line regarding Java - with mixed results - by urging large corporations and applications developers to embrace the programming language while at the same time cautioning that Java is far from mature.

The combination of that mixed message, some well-documented performance problems and a campaign by Microsoft to split the Java platform has led to caution in the enterprise marketplace.

Nonetheless, companies launching ambitious Java projects do exist, including Home Depot, the Atlanta-based home center retailing giant.

Home Depot is building a Java infrastructure to power a touch-screen-based system for handling tool and truck rentals in its nearly 700 North American stores, all tied to a central database.

IT Director Mike Anderson marvels at the cross-platform performance of the retailer's 100% Pure Java application.

"We've had this application running on HP-UX, AIX and Sun Solaris. We even had it on the back end running on OS/390," Anderson says. "On the client side, we've had it running on Windows with the Sun Java Virtual Machine in the stores. And in the lab, we've got about 12 network computers (NC) we're piloting that we've got it running on."

Anderson says he expects about 500 stores to be using the Java system by year-end.

Another company developing a Java-based network is Kaiser Permanente, an HMO in Oakland, Calif. Kaiser has developed a Java application called WebChart, which gives medical personnel easy access to patient histories, lab results, schedules, billing information and hospital regulations. A Java applet links users to the company's mainframe system, which required no modification to work with the Java interface.

Unveiled in 1996, WebChart is designed for use with NCs. Kaiser hopes to replace thousands of dumb terminals in offices across the country.

But to date, the application is restricted to PCs and a JavaStation testing lab because of the software's propensity for crashing on NCs.

Other problems delaying widespread acceptance of Java in the enterprise include a lack of good Java programmers, problems integrating Java interfaces with legacy systems and a lack of Java standards.

"If you're talking about gigantic enterprisewide solutions, I don't think there is a whole lot of expectation of Java moving into that space for quite awhile," says Evan Quinn, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. "That takes years of development, and only the most mature platforms make it into those types of applications."

Sun has declared 1998 the year of Java on the server. In terms of actual, up-and-running Java network applications, that proclamation is premature.

Next year could be different. A number of Web development tool vendors plan to release implementations of Sun's Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) specification in coming months.

Based on the JavaBeans component model, EJB is the most powerful tool yet for developers to build portable server-side applications. JavaBeans are chunks of precoded software that can be joined to build a larger application able to perform on computers running a Java Virtual Machine.

IBM has made a major commitment to EJB, which could embolden many networks still relying on mainframes to accelerate in-house development of enterprise-ready Java applications. If so, we may look back on 1999 as the first year of Java on the enterprise.

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Contact Chris Nerney,
Senior Editor, Intranet Applications

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