Enterprise IT Java developers have a variety of platforms available to ease the development, deployment, and management of their applications. J2EE network application platforms range from free and open-source to the high-end "superplatforms" that comprise portals, integration brokers, identity management systems, mobile access, integrated development environments (IDEs), and more.

Burton Group Senior Analyst Richard Monson-Haefel compares Java superplatforms from IBM, Oracle, and BEA on criteria including high availability, security, integration with existing systems, deployment, management, and IDEs. He gives advice on choosing among superplatforms and discusses their market impact, as mid-tier platforms are squeezed between superplatforms and open-source.

The Q&A focuses on portability of code and skills as more development is done far above the J2EE APIs and whether ISVs will use superplatforms. Burton's Anne Thomas Manes, fresh from her Catalyst keynote, The Advent of Superplatforms, chimes in with comments on integration with SAP and Microsoft applications.

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Richard Monson-Haefel is senior analyst with Burton Group, a research and consulting firm. He is the architect of OpenEJB, the open source EJB container system used in Apache Geronimo J2EE platform, which he co-founded. He has over eight years of Java/J2EE consulting on application development. He was named one of the 50 most influential people in J2EE by The Middleware Company and is one of the world's leading authorities on Enterprise JavaBeans. He is a frequent speaker at symposiums and conferences and the author of numerous articles in trade publications. He helped develop the specifications for EJB 2.1, EJB 3.0, and J2EE 1.4 and served on the JCP Executive Committee, which oversees all specifications for the J2SE and J2EE platforms. Monson-Haefel is the author J2EE Web Services and four best-selling editions of Enterprise JavaBeans and the coauthor of Java Message Service. His books have won the Java Developer Journal Editors' Choice Award and Readers' Choice Award, the JavaPRO Readers' Choice Award, and Amazon.com's "Best of 2000" and "Best of 2001" awards, as well as First Runner Up in the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Awards.

Resources:

• Burton Group
• Burton Group Catalyst Conference
• Richard Monson-Haefel's Web Site
• Enterprise JavaBeans, Fourth Edition (O'Reilly Media, 2004)
• J2EE Web Services (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2003)
• Java Message Service (O'Reilly Media, 2000)

This program is from the Burton Group Catalyst 2005 series.

For Team ITC:

• Description editor: Steve Williams
• Post-production audio engineer: Paul Figgiani