Articles By Rohit Kaushik

In a preceding post, I touched briefly on the speed, multilingual awareness, security and project management potential of porting over to the NET framework. Let’s get down to cases today and critically examine what happens when a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner gets on the job.

NET 3.5 has passed the six-month mark since being officially released so this seems a good time to strip the hype away and focus on just why the Microsoft offering of Web-ready building-block applications is here to stay.

As the Java web servers of old housed servlets or JSPs, so J2EE application servers are the containers for Enterprise JavaBean (EJBs) framework components. That is, every J2EE application server provides a range of services to EJBs and manages their lifecycle. Understanding this architectural framework is core to working with the distributed-processing, multi-tier and Web-ready potential of the platform.

J2EE may be free open-source and, in the hands of the right developer, a powerful platform for multi-tier, Web-based applications. But easy it is not. Given technology that sees some new development practically every month, how do you find and screen highly effective J2EE developers?

Last time, I pointed out that the continuing lack of J2EE Enterprise Architects and Business Component Developers puts a crimp on plans by Global 2000 enterprises to migrate their applications to the Web. The other huge hindrance, revealed by a Precision Marketing Group survey a couple of months back, is the complexity of transitioning from legacy client/server frameworks to Web-ready J2EE servers.

Even as J2EE remains at the forefront of robust, highly capable platforms for Web-based applications, there is a pressing need to fill the ranks of developer teams worldwide. Just how does one gain a foothold in the field or, if already hands-on in a team, get the J2EE training to architect Java projects?

By the very nature of their operations, large and medium-sized businesses have complex requirements. And when the time comes to port legacy systems to today’s business demands or to build entirely new functionality, IT planners in the know tend to think in terms of .NET, Oracle, SAP or Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).