| Typically, to develop an application you need a Web server, an application server, and a relational database. Then you can develop the application based on the various requirements analysis that you have done. However, over the years a number of out-of-the-box or off-the-shelf (sometimes also known as COTS ”common off the shelf) products have emerged that have implemented commonly used functionality typically required in application developments. In the area of e-business application development, a number of such products have appeared. These packaged applications tend to be classified in one or more of the following categorizations: -
Content Management ” These products provide template-based content management for Web sites and other information management requirements. Typically included capabilities are templating, approval workflow, presentation, and so on. -
Enterprise Portal ” Portal frameworks provide a consistent look and feel and a personalized user interface to a variety of applications. -
Electronic Commerce ” Commerce products provide Amazon-like functionality, shopping carts, catalog management, payment processing, and so on. -
Integration Middleware ” Middleware solutions provide a set of adapters for integrating with back-end systems and third parties. -
Email/Collaboration Software ” These products provide the capability for users to communicate with each other, both internally as well as with external users, using Internet standards. -
Mobile/Speech ” These products provide access to enterprise application and data to wireless and telephony devices. -
Directory Services, Identity Management, Entitlement Management ” Typically these products work together and in- turn provide a set of technologies for managing user profiles, access control rules and provisioning information. -
Reporting ” Reporting solutions provide business intelligence based on transactional and historical data. -
Knowledge/Document Management ” These products provide a set of capabilities for creating, managing, and searching information assets. -
Firewalls, Proxy Servers ” A set of cooperating technologies for securing internal assets from public networks. -
Systems Management ” These products provide centralized management of servers and desktops, including patch/update delivery. A typical enterprise architecture blueprint is illustrated in Figure 13.1. Figure 13.1. An enterprise architecture blueprint.  At this point, you must be wondering where.NET fits. Well, .NET is really the framework behind the creation of custom and/or packaged applications. Microsoft, on the other hand, has a set of server products that provide most of the functionalities that we have discussed earlier. This includes BizTalk Server for integration middleware, SharePoint Portal Server for enterprise portal framework, Content Management Server, Commerce Server, Systems Management Server, Exchange Server for collaboration, Active Directory for directory services, SQL Server for relational database and data warehouse. A representation of how Microsoft servers could be used as the basis for an enterprise technology blueprint is shown in Figure 13.2. However, in most practical scenarios not all Microsoft technologies will be used, and some other best-of-breed technologies will typically be used to deliver some components of the functionality. Figure 13.2. An enterprise architecture using Windows Server System.  SHOP TALK : USING WINDOWS SERVER SYSTEM WITH OTHER TECHNOLOGIES With Microsoft practically providing key technologies in almost all e-business categories, you might wonder whether you have to use everything from Microsoft or whether you can still apply a best-of-breed approach. The short answer to that is yes, you can definitely integrate Microsoft technologies with other third-party technologies; for instance, use a Content Management System such as Vignette or Documentum. In fact, since a number of these technologies also utilize XML and Web Services technologies for integration, the integration may be much easier now. From real world experience, if your e-business infrastructure is based on Microsoft .NET technologies, SQL Server, SharePoint Portal Server, Microsoft Content Management Server, BizTalk Server, and Commerce Server work fairly well together and it may be a good idea to explore the joint platform and save yourself the integration costs. Even analysts have pointed out that the future lies in this integrated yet open platform strategy, and Microsoft seems to be headed in the right path . |
Because .NET is still a relatively new technology, most of these products are built using the traditional DNA technologies (COM, ASP, and so on). This is probably one of the reasons why the term .NET Enterprise Servers, which was coined by Microsoft to represent the server technologies, was changed to Windows Server System. It is also important to point out that two main server technologies, SharePoint Portal Server and BizTalk Server, have already been transitioned (mostly, at least from a development/customization perspective) into the .NET Framework architecture. A discussion of these products and how .NET is used to develop and/or customize them is the focus of the rest of this chapter. SHOP TALK : APPLYING VIRTUALIZATION In a number of scenarios you will end up with requirements where you probably will not be able to run everything on one server even in development environments. For instance, certain versions of Microsoft server technologies don't yet run on Windows 2003 Server, whereas certain technologies such as SharePoint Portal Server 2003 run only on Windows 2003 Server. In these scenarios, I have found the virtualization concept used by virtual machine “based products such as VMWare (http://www.vmware.com) very useful. Essentially, VMWare allows you to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on one machine. So, for instance, VMWare will allow you to run a machine running Windows XP (typically known as the Host) and run Windows 2003 Server as a guest operating system. These operating systems can be networked together through built-in networking capabilities as well. In fact it appears that server virtualization will be a key technology going forward, not just from a development perspective but also when deploying applications. Microsoft itself has entered this market by acquiring virtual machine technology from a vendor called Connectix. |
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