Tools and Technologies

To implement the application integration solution described in this chapter, a number of Microsoft technologies are required including the following:

• Microsoft Internet Information Server
• Active Server Pages
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Message Queuing
• Microsoft Transaction Server
• Microsoft Visual Studio or Visual Studio .NET

With the exception of Microsoft Visual Studio and Visual Studio .NET, all of these technologies are included with Windows 2000 Server.

The scenario also assumes that SQL Server 2000 is used for the human resources database, although this is not essential. The database could be any relational database management system (RDBMS) that offers an OLE DB provider or ODBC driver accessible using ADO, ODBC, or OLE DB.

If the human resources data is maintained on AS/400 minicomputers or IBM-compatible mainframes, Host Integration Server 2000 can be used to provide the core networking connectivity over SNA as well as the Microsoft ODBC Driver for DB2 and the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2.

Windows 2000 Server (Server, Advanced Server, or DataCenter Server) is a required prerequisite for installing SQL Server 2000 and Host Integration Server 2000. SQL Server 2000 and Host Integration Server 2000 can also be installed on Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6a. However, Windows 2000 supports a number of new features that make it preferred.

Either Microsoft Visual Studio or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is required for this scenario. Visual Studio .NET is needed for development if new features such as the .NET Framework and managed code will be used. The .NET Framework is not required, so Visual Studio 6.0 can also be used in implementing the proposed scenario. Compared with the data integration scenario in the previous chapter, the application integration solution discussed in this chapter requires a substantial programming effort for implementation.

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