Chapter 1: Interoperability in the Enterprise

Overview

The main objective of this book is to serve as a guide for achieving integration between the two platform-independent technologies, Sun Microsystems’ Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE 1.4) and Microsoft’s .NET. Cross- platform communications between business partners and transmission of mission- critical data in the enterprise are the central themes. The material covers why interoperability is essential for success in today’s digital economy, but also how to achieve integration between diverse technologies. Web services and remote procedure calls in a distributed environment require tight security measures in order to maintain integrity of data across multiple servers. The discussion focuses on services provided for developers by J2EE and .NET.

This chapter introduces the concept of technology integration between J2EE and .NET, with their mutual support for web services, and summarizes the main points covered in subsequent chapters. Many of the headings match the chapter titles and are meant to direct you to a specific chapter for an examination of that particular topic. For example, Chapter 2, “J2EE Servlets, Java Server Pages, and Web Services,” begins an examination of J2EE with an introduction to servlets, Java Server Pages, and web services. Chapter 5, “.NET Language Integration Components,” begins the section on .NET, with a look at its key components.

This chapter also describes the case study that will be used throughout the book to demonstrate the various technologies supporting interoperability between J2EE and .NET in a real-world example.